Buccaneers Flibustiers Coat

[Cuisto Mako]

Hi there,

I want to make my self a kit for a French flibustier of 1665-1675. I'm having difficulty picturing what would be appropriate in term of coat.

Based on my readings, flibustiers would go in campaing wearing not more than some breeches and a shirt and would put on what they find in their loot. logically that would mean Spanish fashion. The other option would be a successful flibustier coming back to Tortuga or Port Royal and buying him self a nice suit.

I have the feeling that a ECW style doublet would be more appropriate. On the other hand justacorp are becoming quite popular among soldiers uniform during the 1670s...

The shirt, breeches, hat and shoes are simpler to identify and are less problematic.

So what do you guys think this coat or jacket would look like?

[Guest]

Check out Foxe's post in the Buccaneer Project...

https://pyracy.com/index.php?showtopic=4392&st=0

[Cuisto Mako]

Thanks Patrick, I already did,

but it mostly focus on the hunters buccaneers. I'm into flibustier so more of a soldier background. Petticoat breeeches look funny, maybe too over the top, but I do like the small coat.

I'm not an expert, but I'm not sure that petticoat breeches ever got that popular among civilian. To me petticoat breeches sounds more like a super trendy thing that kings and high nobility would have wore for a brief period. A nouveau-riche flibustier migth have prefer to spend his new fortune on something more conservative, more safe? Something that fits more his definition of a wealthy man.

What about something stolen from a Spaniard, what is their fashion in the 1660-70s? Anybody with image of that?

[Tartan Jack]

From experience, observation, and reading, the "nouveau-riche" are almost ALWAYS over the top and tend to be the most gaudy, as they spend money on odd things they wanted but could never afford.

Ex. Who (in modern times) buys the pink mansion, gold plated furniture, and showy yard crap? Not the vanderbilts, Rothchilds, Kennedys, or Ted Turner. It is the rap star, sports star, computer millionaire, and the others new to high cash-flow. It is the staid rich that tend to be more conservative and "think nothing" of showy crap, as they could have always gotten it, so it doesn't have the desirability or "cache" that makes it attractive to those newly-rich.

If one is playing the "nouveau-riche" go as over-the-top as possible, as someone striving to disassociate themselves with their humbler beginnings and enjoying the "good life" that are now able to afford.

-Just my observation and opinion.

[hurricane]

A buccaneer of the time didn't really slave to fashion. Their clothing was purely practical. Perhaps in Port Royal, they would try to fit in with the gentry when they returned from a campaign with riches. But a Frenchie would have most likely returned from a trip to Port Royal in a pine box. :)

You really have to decide if you're going with a buccaneer representation that is a true buccaneer (the hunter type) or the later buccaneer, which would have most likely been a former soldier who may have also cut logwood or dabbled in other trades after the war.

If the former, then you just have to wear a dirty shirt, dirty breeches that are almost black from dried blood, a leather apron and you're good to go.

In ordinary daily wear, he would have been hard pressed to wear anything but breeches and a shirt - as it is danged hot down in the tropics - even Port Royal in the dead of winter is tepid, moist and pretty unbearable, even today.

-- Hurricane

[Guest]

If you have read through all of the Buccaneer Project thread, you would have seen my two attempts at making a Buccaneer jacket.... I think the second one worked out better, and that is kinda sorta what I will be working on for PiP this year (Hey... 10 days until Burning Man then I will get back to working on Buccaneer stuff...)

But looking at the pictures that Foxe posted a long time ago.... It doesn't look very fashionable, but it does look like it would work......

Awh heck.... in about three weeks, I will be posting a buncha Buccaneer stuff, as I figure it out......