Wendy Wright, Queen Of The Vikings

Hey! I just sat down with Wendy, our friend and Viking expert, who made the costumes for Terry's “Viking Vs. Bears” spread this month. Wendy works for one of the city's biggest theatrical costume suppliers and spends a lot of her free time researching, creating, and then donning historical garb to wear to Crusade-period reenacting festivals (imagine, if you can, a Renn Fair where the participants are several thousands times more into it than regular Renn Fair folks). She was also a roadie for the Bee Gees. Here's what we talked about.

VICE: Hi Wendy, how'd the shoot go?
Wendy Wright: Very fun. At the beginning some of the bears were kind of nervous about the nudity because they aren't classically trim. But they really had a good time once they got into it.

How historically accurate is everything they're wearing?
Parts of the costumes are really realistic--the pants, the leg wraps, most of the helmets--while some of the other bits and pieces were more fantasy. Most garments from that period are pretty simple: Basic tunics with just a hole for the head and seams down the sides. They usually didn’t have sleeves. Women of that era are really well-known for their needlework, though; they did gorgeous patterned needlework that gets copied into modern Viking costumes. In terms of full accuracy, real Vikings would have probably been wearing tunics, but you know, this is a photo shoot. I like doing both the masquerade-type stuff and more realistic work.

What about the helmet from the cover? You didn't make it, did you?
No, I bought that one, although I had to totally change the inside. The little cap underneath it is actually something they would have worn to protect themselves, like a bonnet. It’s called an arming cap--all knights wore them either underneath their chainmail or their helmet to protect their head and hair.

When I came into the store you were telling a college student shopping for a theater costume that she would have been stoned as a whore for wearing what she had picked out.
The problem is that the Romans would have killed her for wearing Roman garb because she wasn’t a Roman citizen and the Hebrews would have stoned her for wearing it because, well, she would have looked like a whore to them.

How often do people come in here with completely erroneous assumptions about what they need for accurate costumes?
Oh, about 80% of the time. For instance, most people picture Saxons and Vikings with long swords, but in reality their swords weren’t much longer than the Roman gladius, which is about two feet long from hilt to tip.

How did you get into the costuming game?
Originally, I was more into just regular history. That’s how I fell into it. First I started making dolls, then from dolls I started making costumes. I also used to hang around and work at Renaissance Fairs, and that's where I ran into the SCA and the MSR.

For the uninitiated, those are the reenactment groups that you are a part of, right?
Yes, the “Society for Creative Anachronisms”--they’re the bigger group, worldwide--and then MSR is “Medieval Scenarios and Recreations,” which is more of a tri-state local thing.

Is one group more purist than the other?
Oh, definitely. MSR formed because they felt like the other group wasn't as accurate as a people wanted it to be, so it’s a sort of splinter group. There are also a bunch of smaller groups who are purists for a specific time and place. Like, our group is more into the Crusades and the Kingdom of Vassar, so AD 1000-1500, the classic Crusade period.

Do you have a favorite costume you wear to reenact in?
I have a baggy hooded cloak that's based on a bogman's from the Viking period.

So your outfit is based on a mummy who was dug up out of a bog?
Yep. The garment was preserved by the bog and is now in a museum in Denmark. It's been sketched out and made into a pattern you can use to make your own version, which is what I did.

Someone told me you used to roadie for the Bee Gees, is that true?
In the 70s, back when I was young, I used to shove amps around for a lot of different bands and the Bee Gees were one. There was this “rent-a-roadie” company and the roadies would hire me. In those days women were not roadies--nobody would hire them. But this particular crew I hung out with them and I would do half their work anyway, so eventually they just started paying me to come for parts of different tours. I would do their laundry and give them backrubs and they all had the best time.

INTERVIEW BY KELLY PILGER