First real post, you guys ready?!

“Rus’ seems so hard. There’s just so much… stuff” I’ve heard this so many times.

Actually, doing accurate Rus’ is typically very easy and you probably already have most of the stuff lying around your house especially if you’ve been in the SCA for any amount of time at all.

The first thing I want people to realize is that going Rus’, even going Rus’ accurately, is not by default hard, nor does it have to break the bank.  One of the most beautiful reconstructions I’ve seen done, was a very simple pattern, with mostly reasonably priced fabrics and a little elbow grease.  This outfit is a bit of silk, linen and a bit of metal. Those temple rings? Some wire and a dowel(or pencil, lets not over complicate this) will get you there. The only thing expensive to procure is the wool for the skirt.  Its hand woven, hand dyed fabric and while totally worth it, it isn’t cheap.  However, suitable fabric can be found at not much expense if your just going for the look.  Anyway, this is an example of simple near perfection.  You don’t have to be that accurate, especially when your first starting out in the wide wonderful world of Rus’.

So, for starters, the underdress/tunic.  For now, I just want to get the concept right, and there are so many variations the options are endless so this is going to be the simplest and easiest way to put together a Rus’ look.  I have this blog for at least three years, we’ll hit on the rest of it eventually I promise.

For a womans dress or a mans shirt, its called a rubhakah. Because it is a Cyrillic word transliterated into English, you’ll see it spelled many different ways by different scholars. It makes research a joy, I promise ;). The simplest under rubhakah is just a tunic or dress with a keyhole neckline made out of linen. Linen can be expensive so don’t worry about using cotton or linen blend on your first try. Honestly, you’ll probably thank yourself for using a cheaper fabric while you were still figuring it out (I made SO many mistakes chief of which was my pattern).  Again, for simplicity were looking for open sleeves that end at the wrist or just past it.  We don’t want bell sleeves for this underdress but we don’t want them tight either. Women and men both worked, you wanted to be able to roll up your sleeves to keep the muck off them.  Now, these uner-rubhakah were often some branch of white, but I’ve seen them every color under the rainbow and that includes from the hardcore Russian Rus’ recreationists as well, so I’d keep the colors kind of muted, but hey, go wild. Chances are, you already have an under dress or tunic fitting this description yes?  If not You can make an easy t-tunic version and most people won’t know the difference.  Then, boom, first layer achieved.

Now for dudes. You can just run around in just a tunic without pants, but in the event you want to be a little more appropriate, brooki, or pants, are easy if you just want the look (don’t worry, they can get VERY complicated). Any SCA pants will do. If you don’t have those get a pair of pattern-less pj pants. So comfy.

Now, as far as clothing, you can actually be done. I would encourage any woman, that if you are done at this step, your rubhakah be any color other than white.  I have a mint green one that I wear all by itself on hot days, but I’d never wear one of my white ones, even the lined ones, by themselves. You’re asking for stains you’ll never get out and if you’re like me, they will drive you crazy.

Now, if it’s a little chilly or you just want a more layered look, throw a short sleeved tunic over it. This is called a Navershnik and again, it is the same for both men and woman with the only difference being that the womens is often a little longer.  Bonus points if it has a contrasting yolk and cuffs, but it isn’t required. This can be a

round neckline, another keyhole, square neckline, v-neck, whatever you have.

For women, if you want the layers without the heat, you can also do a panova, which is a three panel skirt typically made out of a two tone woven plaid strung on a simple woven belt, or you can make a zapona, which is literally just a long, rectangular piece of cloth that is shoulder wide with a hole cut in the middle for your head also usually made out of a two tone woven plaid.  I made my first panova and zapona out of a fabric shower curtain I found at a thrift store and most people couldn’t tell the difference so don’t worry too much about the fabrics.  Both of these garments are in a hot debate right now as to if they are actually in or out of period but personally, I believe that there is enough evidence that they were period to go ahead and wear them.  I’ll cover them more in another post and you can decide for yourself.

Next lets talk about our feet.  Personally, I feel like this is where I can tell how serious someone is about ac

hieving the right aesthetic.  A lot of people wear combat boots or sneakers, some folks have to and that’s fine, but if you don’t have to there are cheap and easy ways to achieve the right look.  Sadly, this is going to be cheaper for the women than the men, sorry guys.  The good news is to achieve the right look, mens stuff will be more on point earlier on, so I guess there is a trade.  The easiest way for men is to purchase a viking style shoe, or pirate type boots from a vendor.  I always recommend spending your money with SCA vendors if you can because I like to support giving back to the community. Simple versions of both can usually be found for about $45-$75 dollars and they have the added bonus of being able to slip insoles in if you get the right size. Now, ladies, get a pair of plain black flats. Usually you can hit up Walmart for a pair at $10 a pop.  Now, get black ribbon, yarn, extra long shoe laces or even better leather lacing. Cut lengths long enough that you can criss-cross from your ankle all the way up to just below the knee and tie it, now sew the middle of it to the top heel of the flat, then boom, easy shoes.

Now, you don’t have to wear socks and if its hot that might be preferable, but I always wear something between my foot and the shoe, partially for support but mostly because events where I’m at are dusty and I hate dirty feet, especially in my tent. Both men and woman can utilize knee high solid or mottled colored socks.  Ive found good ones again, at Walmart but my favourite are a lovely cashmere pair I got from an SCA vendor for $25. Either will look right from far away and no one should be looking that closely at your socks anyway.  You can also wear leg wraps if you have them, this is especially preferable for men to get the right look and you can also just use trim to blouse up your pants below the knee and tie them at the top if you don’t have leg wraps. Women can use the laces to hold the leg wraps in place and men can use brooches or the tie method (If you don’t know these, don’t worry, I’ll teach them later, stick with socks for now).

Now for the fun part, and what will make you look distinctly Rus’; the Accessories!The options are pretty

endless, especially since they did a lot of trading but this post is a whole lotta K.I.S.S. so, were going to do a piece or two and revel in our Rus’ awesomeness.

First, the belt.  Sorry gentlemen, almost no one in period, of any culture, used a ring belt. Cut that ring off and find a buckle.  You want a nice thin belt, so if you do happen to have a ring belt, chances are you can make two Rus’ belts out of the one ring belt as ring belts tend to be pretty wide.  You want anything from the width of your pinky to the width of your middle finger.  The buckle is necessary, but a lot of belts had metal tips and plaques.  If you don’t have that don’t worry about it, thin with a buckle is enough.  Now, ladies, a leather belt was found at roughly the waist in one womans grave recently in Russia, but largely, they wore woven belts wrapped a couple times around the waist.  These belts were tablet woven but don’t worry if you only have inkle woven or even just something that looks inkle woven, some of the patterns that have been found are very similar. Try to avoid anything obviously machine made.  You want a piece long enough that you can wrap it around your waist at least twice, square knot it and it fall between mid thigh and knee.  It can be longer, but shorter is a pain in the butt, trust me. Plus it just gives the wrong lines.

There are lots of bags/pouches that you can use but the easiest and most readily available that is spot on accurate is just a leather drawstring pouch. Try to make sure the draw strings are long enough that you can loop the bag onto your belt.  Knives are hard to do cheap with the right look, but they tend to be pretty useful around site for different stuff so if you can tie it to your belt with string or chain instead of actually looping the sheath on your belt that would be the best option unless you happen to already have a suitable knife/sheath.

Next, bracelets and rings. Men and women both wore them. Silver or bronze in color. Bronze was a lot more prevalent in jewelry but because they don’t use much metal there are a fair amount of silver ring finds.  Very simple ‘wedding band’ style rings are perfect and easy. Bands with just a stamp or two are also good. I’d keep it simple until you get a better feel for what is right.  Women would often wear two plain bracelets, but this isn’t necessary, They are usefull though for helping keep your sleeves out of the way or keeping that chilly draft from running up your sleeves without rolling them up.  Guys can wear a bracelet or two.

Necklaces. Guys could wear them, but they usually only had maybe one pendant and a couple beads. Ladies, one, well  chosen necklace is plenty. Contrary to popular believe, they did not wear every piece of jewelry they owned at one.

The most important piece of jewelry that really can not be done without though is the penannular brooch.  It can be plain, it should be relatively small. They are everywhere in the SCA, chances are, you have one somewhere. A cursory search on(Etsy brings perfect ones up for $4 a pop).  Bust that bad boy out and put it center stage. Use it to close your neckline.  It’s one of the most common grave finds, trust me on this one.

Finally, both men and women could wear a type of head band.  Don’t go crazy, it can be just a sewn tube of cloth or it can just be a piece of trim tied or pinned to itself in the back.  Now, temple rings were recently found in a mans grave but typically these were something women would wear. And they could be worn braided into the hair, in your ears or sewn to hats or the headbands.  For sake of simplicity just stitch a pair to a head band.  Don’t have any? Don’t worry, they are super easy.  Temple rings exist that are just metal rings. If your in a rush just get cheap continuous hoop earrings from a dollar store and stitch them on.  Any kind of continuous ring will work and y

ou don’t have to have a bunch, just two.  Now, you don’t need the temple rings or even the headband but it is the easiest way to declare ‘look at me! I’m Rus’!’

Now, this is just for the ladies, you can opt into a head scarf or ‘ubrus’.  I always wear one because my hair is shortand I like to keep as accurate as possible but that is up to you.   They can be linen or silk or gauze. I like gauze especially when I’m going for a simpler look because its cooler, typically comes in more colors, doesn’t fray much and is easy to tie up. There are lots of ways to tie them (and I have an awesome cheat to show you later using an infinity scarf) but for now you can just plop a scarf on your head and hold it in place with the headband. If it gets in your way and you want to tie it up you can literally just tie it, that’s fine.

And now, look at yourself in a mirror, you look Rus’! Congratulations! It wasn’t that hard afterall and you look great 🙂

Keep in mind this is a very generic, simplified way to start, there is a lot of nuance-y stuff I didn’t want to bog you down with in this post.  We’ll get there.