Looking Good

For as long as I can remember, we fencers have tried to separate ourselves from armored fighters, tried to show we are just as good, just as important as they are, just different. Whether we are or not is a discussion for another time, for now, let's just look at the differences in out outward appearances.

That difference can be summed up by what defines each fighter. The armored fighter is defined by his armor. If you see someone on the field in a breast plate, you know he's a heavy. Whereas the fencer is defined by what they fight with. If you see someone on the field carrying a steel sword, you know he's a rapier fighter.

But is the rapier the most important part of a fencer? No. It's not even the most important part of how a fencer looks. Heavy fighters have all sorts of limitations put on how the look: helmet, gorget, elbows, knees, even gauntlets if they don't want to use a basket hilt. Fencers, on the other hand, only have three limits to their appearance: they have to wear a mask or helmet, they have to wear a gorget, and they cannot show any skin. That's it.

So, with almost our entire body to play with, why do we all look alike? Aside from a very few individuals, we're all wearing one of a half-dozen styles. There's the completely modern fencing jacket, that same jacket covered with a tunic, a tunic and jerkin, or a doublet. Of course, some fencers do add their own personal touch with a tabard a-la The Three Musketeers, and then there's all the Jack Sparrow wannabes in their pirate coats and polyester do-rags.

I suppose, all things considered, six styles spread between the hundred and eighty or so fencers in Artemisia isn't too bad. After all, that means that there's only thirty people dressed the same as you, so if you change up your colors a bit, you won't blend in. Here's the thing, though. If you look around, I bet you dollars to doughnuts that everybody's tunic is white and their jerkins are black (except for the bad boys dressed all in black). The pleasant exception to this trend seems to be the doublet wearers. They, at least, have embraced the rainbow. Of course, an awful lot of them do seem to all have the same first name - Don - so it might just be a household thing or something.

I guess what it comes down to is whether you want to disappear into the crowd or stand out among your peers.