Last summer, I ran across a video about how the aesthetic of “medieval” fantasy is actually more early modern, from the 1600s up through the Victorian era (with pre-Raphaelites and the Gothic revival). The usual adventurer outfit with the high, cuffed boots and long coat is mid 1600s, as is the typical Renaissance festival wench outfit. The fantasy tavern is a 1600s-1700s coaching inn, etc. I posted about it then. Ever since then I’ve been looking at fantasy movies in a different way, and I don’t think it’s quite as bad as the video made it sound. The medieval fantasy movies I’ve been watching lately are pretty medieval. I’m no expert. I’ve just done some research on the topic and I read a lot of expert commentaries about historical things in movies, but I have a general sense for what fits into each period.

The Princess Bride is mostly pretty true to a medieval period, with some exceptions. Westley does have a bit of Leading Character Costume Syndrome, in which the main character wears less historic, more “normal”-looking clothes. He’s a bit closer to 1700s, with the slimmer breeches and loose shirt. He’s just missing the long waistcoat and frock coat. Inigo is similar, though he has the waistcoat but is missing the coat. Vizzini’s outfit is kind of Renaissance, as are some of Buttercup’s princess dresses, and Buttercup’s red dress is hard to place (per Frock Flicks, it’s a decent 15th century dress). Otherwise, the look is actually pretty medieval for most of the characters and the settlement outside the castle. There’s even an open hearth in the castle’s hall, and the female extras have their hair covered and are wearing wimples.

Ladyhawke also has some Leading Character Costume Syndrome, with Navarre and Isabeau wearing more fantasy-type clothes rather than anything true to any period (her dress at the end looks rather 1980s), but everything else in that movie is at least aiming at medieval rather than early modern (though they’re apparently not accurately medieval).

Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves is pure fantasy. I can’t identify any particular period they’re trying to hit. There are bits and pieces of things thrown into a blender. And that’s okay. This is a fantasy world, so they may as well make up their own thing. The costumes for The Huntsman: Winter’s War are also more fantasy than historical, but the dwarf women do seem to be in the Renaissance festival type outfits, so 1600s. The rest are a lot of leather “adventurer” looks that don’t belong to any particular period. I think the original thesis of that video that started this line of thought was more about people thinking they were doing medieval but missing it by several hundred years.

The Lord of the Rings movies do something interesting, with each culture being from a different time period. The hobbits are pretty much 1700s with the style of clothing. They’ve got the long waistcoats and frock coats. They also have cast-iron stoves and fireplaces. Then we get to the elves, which are basically pre-Raphaelite meets Gothic Revival, so they’re medieval through the lens of the Victorians. Then we get to Rohan, which is essentially Land Vikings. Their clothes and general style are a mix of Viking and various eras of medieval, except for the pants the men wear (men’s pants in fantasy movies are almost never anything close to period, since they aren’t wearing hose, they don’t do the short balloon-type pants of the late 1500s-early 1600s or the big, baggy pants of the 1600s, and they don’t have the tight front/saggy butts of the 1700s-early 1800s. Men’s pants throughout history are pretty weird to modern eyes. I’ll admit that even in my mental costuming for my books, I go with more modern pants because it’s my fantasy world and they can look the way I want them to). We get the open hearth in the hall, too.

I guess that makes the elves most advanced, since they’re Victorian (cosplaying as medieval), and then the hobbits are more advanced than the men if the hobbits have iron stoves and the men still have open hearths.

I’m sure for film, one reason you get period attire rather than going pure fantasy is that they may rent costumes for the background characters instead of making up their own thing. I didn’t pay too much attention to what the people in crowd scenes were wearing in Honor Among Thieves to see if they were likely in rented costumes and, if so, if they were from a particular period. But I would guess that some of the costumes for The Princess Bride and Ladyhawke were rented or possibly from the BBC costume stores. It would be cheaper to rent a lot of costumes designed for costume dramas for the extras than to design fantasy costumes, and that’s going to give you something reasonably authentic for a period. The main actors get costumes made for them, so they’re more likely to go “fantasy” rather than being period, for various reasons, including the actors wanting to have a certain image. A macho movie star may refuse to wear hose or those balloon shorts with hose. Female movie stars are likely to want to either look sexy (and thus flowing hair rather than pinned up under a cap or veil) or be a Strong Female Character in leather pants, regardless of historical accuracy.