Costuming Suggestions:

In order to provide as immersive an experience as possible, costuming is highly encouraged, but not strictly required. We realize that most players won’t have access to ‘authentic’ costuming, but we do request that everyone make an attempt to avoid dressing in obvious anachronisms, such as sneakers, jeans, or t-shirts. Below are some descriptions of what various types of characters would have worn during this period, as well as some suggestions for practical approximations, for those who don’t own their own costume shop. These descriptions are typical for the period, your character may of course vary from these norms.

Colonists:

A man’s suit consisted of a doublet, jerkin, and knee-breaches, worn over a long shirt and hose. Peasants could still be found wearing tights with a codpiece, or straight, loose trousers falling to mid-calf, with a loose coat over their shirt hanging to mid-thigh, and belted with a bit of cord. The effect is very medieval-looking.

For lower class women, the most common garment is a kirtle, a one-piece, sleeveless dress, worn under a gown or overdress, which has a bodice attached to a skirt, with sleeves attached by pins. And over this perhaps an apron. An upper class woman would wear a corset under a variable number of petticoats. Over the corset and petticoats an upper class woman would wear a gown.

The following link has some good descriptions of Elizabethan dress for both sexes and a range of social classes, as well as some period illustrations:

http://www.lepg.org/clothing.htm

The Elizabethan Period was known for its elaborate and complicated dress for both sexes (particularly in the area of collars). Fortunately such costumes were mainly popular among only the upper class. Working class characters, and even characters of more substantial means who have been living in the wilderness for a year, would have worn more practical clothing. Only those of the highest standing, or in positions of authority, would have tried to maintain some semblance of formal dress under these conditions. A simple, full length, loose dress with sleeves, and a modest collar has been the staple of women living on the frontier for centuries, from before colonial times, through the wild west, and even into the early part of the 20th century. For the men, even on the frontier many would have worn breeches and stockings, with a simple jerkin. Others might have worn the longer trousers, without stockings, favored by farm laborers and sailors.

Remember that the Roanoke colonists were not Puritans, they saw no need to dress in all black. Though colored clothing would likely only be found among those with money enough to afford dyed fabric, grays, browns, tans, white and black, would all have been common.

Indians:

At the time of first contact with the European colonists, they Indians of coastal Virginia usually wore a beaded headband with a feather or two in it. They painted their faces and bodies with different colors and designs for different occasions, and both men and women often wore tattoos. Both genders generally wore their hair long. Women dressed in knee-length skirts and the men dressed in breechcloths, with leather pant legs tied on if the weather was cool. Neither women nor men had to wear shirts, but they did wear mantles and cloaks made of turkey feathers in the winter. Both genders wore earrings and moccasins on their feet.

For the game, any skirt, pants, shirt, or dress that looks like it might have been made from deer leather and/or animal fur would be appropriate. Anything that is brown or tan could also work. For the sake of modesty, don’t feel compelled to go bare-chested if you don’t want to. The Croatoan characters in particular might have donned more modest clothing to appease the English colonists.