Townshends

[basultooutdoors]

Are their clothes accurate and well made?

Thanks

 

[cullen1780]

Well made, machine sewn.

 

[Coot]

Are their clothes accurate and well made?

Thanks

They are better than they used to be. I tend to think of them as reasonable entry level. Coats & waist coats will benefit from some tailoring to be more fitted to individual body types.

 

[Loyalist Dave]

Are their clothes accurate and well made?

"Accuracy" depends on you, not on them.

They are correct, historic clothes, but you can easily, very easily, pick the wrong stuff for your time period, ethnicity and or your geography. Townsend's has greatly improved their product description, to their credit. The worst "culprit" was once the woman's bodice . Here's what Jas Townsend's has currently on their website.

"There has been a long-standing debate about the authenticity of sleeveless bodices. Similar looking garments are depicted in period artwork, but it is unclear if these garments are bodices or jumps – a waistcoat-like item worn more as an undergarment than an outergarment. Because the debate continues and the prevailing opinion seems to be moving away from sleeveless bodices, we are re-positioning our French and English bodices to our costume line of clothing. Customers who are more concerned about historical accuracy should consider our Fitted Bodice or our Shortgown."

But you still need to check your specifics vs. the time period and location. Don't take a seller's word for stuff. Germans and Dutch had some different customs from the British. A lot more waistcoat use by British culture than Germanic when laboring, for example. IF you're doing pre F&I you might want to be careful about not being a sailor and wearing trousers, but post AWI it seems among British workmen, trousers caught on. Depending on how "tight" you want your accuracy, fly front or "French fly" on the front of your knee breeches by the AWI is probably not a good idea, and a broad fall is likely what you want.

I, on the other hand, sometimes just need something that fits (as I'm built like Santa Claus) and I confess I have a pair of French Fly knee breeches, which I probably wouldn't have had, and I got them only last year.

LD

 

[Grenadier1758]

During the mid 18th century, the fly front breeches were quite prevalent. My unit doing a F&I interpretation use the fly front breeches. As waistcoats got shorter, the loose fitting fly front breeches were replaced by the flatter and more stylish fit of the fall front breeches. These went from an early narrow fall to a broad fall.

 

[Loyalist Dave]

These went from an early narrow fall to a broad fall.

Which is funny as I have a pattern for post 1800 trousers and they went back to narrow fall.

LD

 

[Gooba Jones]

Allot of my clothing and gear came from them, good people. They were all well made items.
Gooba Jones

 

[ChiefBrown]

I got my Naval uniform from them. I'm happy with it.

 

[Grenadier1758]

During the mid 18th century, the fly front breeches were quite prevalent. My unit doing a F&I interpretation use the fly front breeches. As waistcoats got shorter, the loose fitting fly front breeches were replaced by the flatter and more stylish fit of the fall front breeches. These went from an early narrow fall to a broad fall.

Which is funny as I have a pattern for post 1800 trousers and they went back to narrow fall.

LD

F;y front from about 1720 to narrow fall from 1770's through early 1800's. The narrow fall for the first decade of the 19th century would be quite appropriate. By 1820, the waist coat got quite short exposing quite a bit of the breeches. The broad fall gave a much flatter and stylish line to the breeches as the over coat also became more open to show the waistcoat and the breeches or as the leg length became longer, trousers.