Susan Cohen provided the following quick and dirty costuming hints for Golden Aeon, which was set in 1899. Hope this will be helpful! Although some things will have changed by 1906, most is essentially the same. If you played 1897 or Titanic, chances are you have costuming that would be appropriate to the Tea.

Susan says:

Okay. Here is a basic, general costuming guide. Players are strongly encouraged to interpret these guidelines for their own characters!!!

Women:

Hair is pulled up on top the head into a bun, if at all possible. When my hair was shorter, I stuffed it into a knitted snood.

Frilly blouses, high at the neck over straight skirts (usually black or just dark). Either very dark (black, plum, midnight) or very pale colors (baby pink, sky blue, ivory - and, of course, white). Usually younger women wore lighter colors & older women darker, but not always. If the frilliness can be concentrated at the shoulders, so much the better. The silhouette was changing from the huge puffy shoulders of 1892-1896 - poorer people would most likely still be wearing these blouses. Even rich people, as the some of the aristocracy thought it was declasse to worry about fashion (this could be a personal character decision). If your blouse is, say, emerald green or fuschia, wear it anyway - style & shape is the most important thing. And if your character is a strong, independent woman, it would be even more appropriate for her to wear a mannish shirt & cute little bow tie around the neck: the New Woman. Also a straw boater like a man's, as opposed to the huge platter hats of the fashionable woman. These would be decorated with at least a swath of tulle, if not mounds or sprays of feathers, piles of flowers & the occasional dead bird.

Shoes: fairly low heeled granny-boots for day, court-heeled shoes for evening (if you can get them - if not, plain pumps are just fine!)

Men:

If you have facial hair, terrific! Mustaches were best, especially for the dashing young gents, but plenty of older, more substantial men wore beards. (If your hair is long, other gamers will ignore it - just act natural!)

Conservative suits are always okay. And, if you can afford to mess with it a little, do this: cut an unobtrusive button off your cuffs, iron up the bottom of your lapels to shorten them, & place the button at the right distance from the others (on top, of course), & use a pin fastening to close it (unless you have gotten the suit from the thrift store & don't mind actually sticking a button hole into it).

Tuxedo shirts are great - even for mid-day, as the collar style fits the time period. But if you have a plain white shirt with collar points that aren't too long & don't mind crumpling it, fold the collar up bend the points in the middle. (And, if you can get the collar to look like a plain band without any points at all, this will look like a period day-wear collar as well.

If any player is lucky enough to have either tails or a morning coat, it is better to wear these items at any time than go without. But the correct time is, of course, morning coats in the morning (before lunch) and tailcoats after 6 p.m. If you do not have anything but time-exact clothing & feel terribly wrong about wearing them out of time, sports clothing can take you through any "awkward" spots. One trick I devised was white pants, white shirt (open at the neck) & a white sweater with a v-neck that had a band or two of color there (oh yes, white shoes - cheap Keds-like white shoes if you are really strapped), and to carry around a squash racket (okay, it was a badminton racket!). But a tennis racket will also do. There's always time for sports!

Hats: derbies, bowlers, homburgs (rolled brim fedoras), straw & top hats - but not indoors! [unless, of course, your character is from the Continent]

Shoes: 70's boot-style shoes are terrific for this time period.

If you'd like information about Edwardian manners click here.
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