So October (and Halloween) is still quite a distance away, but I want to get on top of putting a proper costume together now. But here's the thing: I want my costume to be as authentic as possible: I want to put together an early medieval man-at-arms/Saxon outfit a lot like this: https://deadliestblogpage.file..._rom_rm_54-093_1.jpg

My problem is, while I have some idea of where to get the weapons an armor, I'm not sure about everything else! Like, if I get the chainmail, what do I get to go underneath it? Where can go to get the full set, made out of appropriate materials, in time for the fall? What are the shirts, pants, and boots/shin-guards even called?

Ultimately, I need a shopping list that I can take to Google so that I can start compiling the outfit. Any help you guys can offer would be awesome!

This message was deleted by a moderator, as it was against the ToU, at 14:41, Sat 30 May 2015.

Check out SCA.org or the Adrian Empire. Find your local group and make it.

Unless you're planning to use the same costume year after year, you're going to have a horrendously expensive halloween. That little lot will probably run well into four figures if it's anything like authentic.

Your best bet might be to locate a costumier (or a LARP group) and hire the kit for a few days. That way, you might get away with three figures.

Even your SCA costumer would likely start you out with Carpet armor, which is what is often used when starting out.
That said Who are you when you are this Sax on a prince, noble, or simply a freeman.  You have to realize chain mail takes a lot of hand work it may be expencive now but was even more so back then.  You could have padded armor which could be anything from make it with quilt batting to sew old rope into the armor shell. Another thing you could do.. though I don't know when this would be current make the quilted armor but between the outer fabric shell and the batting "rivet" rectangles of plastic milk carton panels to create a form of brigantine.
To round out my own thoughts on the subject I once thought to create an elven white dragon scale armor of exposed plastic milk carton.
I have long wondered as well about a possible precurser to chainmail, which might explain some of the old pictures that are currently believed to be artistic licence. An actual length of chain sewn to the outside of a padded tunic.  If you dug this up after a battle unless it was being worn when buried it would appear to be little more then a chain wrapped in cloth. Picture a wife or mother determined that her "*" is not leaving tomorrow with nothing more than cloth between their skin and swords and axes.
The first step in knowing what armor you wear is knowing who you are.

There's actually a quick run-down on Wikipedia of "standard garb" for a Saxon man that will help you with the basic costume (then you add appropriate armor and weapons atop all that).  It lists:

• Primary garment: knee-length woolen tunic. ("For the poorer [slaves] this would be the only clothing worn, although some may have been given woolen trousers and shoes to wear.")
  
  
• For a poor peasant: Add woolen trousers and leather shoes plus a seax (knife).
  
  
• For a better off peasant: Add a linen undertunic and linen braies, plus  woolen hose held up by garters or decorative embroidery around the top.
  
  
• For very well off peasants and retainers: Add cross-gartering on the hose and leather turnshoes.
  
  
• Overall: A cloak held together by a brooch or ring.  On the head, a Phrygian cap or hood.

In reply to cruinne (msg # 6):

You know, for some reason it didn't occur to me to look at Wikipedia. Thanks for the tip, and for the list you provided!

Carpet Armor for the SCA? 40-45 years ago maybe. Not even for new fighters now.

This message was deleted by a moderator, as it was against the ToU, at 05:44, Sun 31 May 2015.

This message was deleted by a moderator, as it was against the ToU, at 05:42, Sun 31 May 2015.

Reenactors borrow, beg and spend years putting a kit together. Doing it overnight will cost you $1000 +/- as has been stated.

If you want to do this for one Halloween and aren't trying to win a big prize checkout good costume rental places.

You can look into local groups, make friends and start putting together a good kit. As I've stated SCA groups I know don't start you with "Carpet Armor" (literally a gambeson made of heavy shag carpet covering much of your torso and arms used by poor fighters in the 60's-early 80's along with freon can helmets) they start you with loaner armor up to current standards, usually not mail but if someone has a spare set or is willing to loan it maybe.

You can do some amazing things with plastic and make it look nice. Locally here LARP groups don't even put that effort in. As a leather worker I suggest leather over plastic but it will cost more in tools and raw supplies. Without help your milk jug scale mail is likely to look............bad. Even then I would suggest paint buckets not milk jugs. You could, with access to a sewing machine, also make a suit of "Jack" Armor this way. Don't scoff at the "Youth Combat" title, it still works. https://sites.google.com/site/...me/making-jack-armor

People anywhere are going to have different opinions, you have time to shop around or build for next year.

Speaking as a costumer, what you really need to decide is do you want it "real" or merely to "look real."

The former is going to cost you big bucks and/or a lot of long hours of work and learning new skills, and much more intensive research. And how "real" is real enough? Are you going all the way, down to weaving the appropriate kind of cloth, from authentically sheared, carded, and spun wool, for the clothing and hand sewing it to an authentic period pattern (as derived from extant items)? Or is it okay to simply mimic the garments using modern fabrics and sewing methods that look similar enough to pass basic visual inspection by anyone who hasn't personally done extensive research on the subject?

There are people who make real, period-authentic chain mail. And you pay appropriately for such a labor-intensive project. There are people who make less authentic chain mail that will, nonetheless, look "real" to anyone who doesn't know the difference (i.e., the vast majority of the population). It's still labor-intensive and costly. And there are numerous quick and dirty ways of faking it, with a wide range of visual/textural/material degrees of real/unrealness.

Chain mail made for theatrical productions, for example, can look quite good at stage distance, but much less so face to face in good light.

So, decide on the degree of realism -- and if it only has to look realistic, then decide on how much realism is needed to achieve that look. And then decide what you need to flex on to make it affordable, and achievable, within your given time frame of assembling it, and the intended usage.

Then, remember Google is your friend. Someone out there has already made what you want, in all degrees, and information on how they did it is likely online. :)