When Black Adder looks more historically accurate, you've got a problem.

it may not be historicly acurate but it looks frickin' awesome

I keep looking at the man in the middle and wondering what WWI plane he flew.

Everyone loves historical heavy metal/biker gang costumes.

Perhaps the pistol in question fired a leather-seeking projectile. They had those in the 17th century, right? Guys??

They have to stop this phony "gritty realism" look. It's fucking up the watchability of shows and films. Game of Thrones is guilty of it too.

What's with the costumes is: 1) They use the leather costumes in order to make the heroes LOOK cool or badassed. 2) Most viewers aren't even remotely interested in historical accuracy. 3) Most TV characters have a "signature" look in order to make them quickly and easily identifiable. (The Skipper and Gilligan from Gilligan's Island are prime examples.) 4) TV shows have fairly strict budgets which means that if they spend more on wardrobe they have to spend less somewhere else. 5) The dingy, grimy, dark appearance comes from the tendency toward Film Noir that seems to be popular at the moment. "Who's that then?" "I dunno, must be a King." "Why?" "He hasn't got shit all over him." - Monty Python and the Holy Grail

The explanation is actually quite simple; they're not Musketeers, they're superheroes. These are their costumes.

I do like how they FINALLY made firearms an integral part of the show, even making Aramis the marksman. Real musketeers relied on their firearms more than their swords, hence the name Musketeers, they were superb shots with the musket. If they could dispatch enemies with the quicker shot, they would do it.

In the book by Alexander Dumas they brag about their clothes and how fancy and expensive they were

Have you ever seen a version of the 3 musketeers where they actually had a musket at some point?

they look like someone seen old leather books and thought.... wouldn't it be great if people dressed like that?

These guys should use *uniforms* when on service. A tabard, with a christian cross (simbolizing God deference and favor) and the "fleur de lis" (simbolizing his services to the King). The Richilieux "red guard" of musketeers (yes, musketeers, too) uses, obviously, red tabards. Is not so clear what real color of King guards, but Alexandre Dumas talk about black tabards to King´s musketeers on "The Man in The Iron Mask". So far i know, musketeers used no armor, with exception of "gorjal" (gusset, neckpiece) a decorative reminder of past breastplates. Later, this gusset would give rise to a simple scarf around neck, wich, some say, inspired the modern ties.

It looks like the costume designer went to some online steampunk fantasy costume maker and told them to create leather steampunk versions of Musketeer outfits. Hell, the guy on the far left looks like he's some evil overlord in a sci-fi movie. The brown-toned leather outfit looks like a steampunk version of Sir Francis Drake.

The most important question of all: If they belong to the King's Musketeers, why aren't they in uniform?

Well said! Obviously it's the costume designer's idea of something "edgy", modern, and contemporary to try and enhance the appeal to a modern audience, because they have a very low opinion of the tastes of that audience. These guys would've had outfits made out of some of the best fabrics, colourful and richly embroidered with metal thread. They'd have had servants to make sure their clothes were mended and clean. People dressed like this would've been sniggered at and thought of as bumpkins.

I tried to sit through one of the more recent Musketeer films, when the bloke looks at his sword and declares, in a strong American accent- "The weapon of a Musketeer!" I turned it off. Later it had Orldando Bloom, a woman in a dress defeating armoured Soldiers with a dagger and Airships... That sound you can hear throughout the entire film is Dumas spinning in his grave.

"They must stink to high heaven!" Well, they are french.

As someone with a very big interest in history, I can understand your points. And yet as a watcher and lover of fantasy/psuedo-historical/historical drama, I feel the need to state that as a viewer of the show I have always loved their outfits. Of course, I haven't thought about whether using leather is realistic or accurate for the time, but it didn't occur to me because I'm too busy enjoying all the details and attachements these guys are rocking and how they swagger about with their swords hanging low haha. Also sometimes don't they wear the blue outfits of the guard? They seem to use black for missions away from the king and guarding etc.

scholagladiatoria Matt, you forgot to mention the worst piece of historical inaccuracy of costumes in that show: These dudes are supposed to musketeers, king's royal guard, soldiers; but they never ever wear their uniforms!!!! They don't wear them in their garrisons, on duty, in presence of their superiors, even in presence of their king. They don't even wear their uniforms in battlefield! Instead they wear those stupid leather civilian clothes which clearly is NOT 17th century French musketeer uniform. I repeat: SOLİDERS ON DUTY NOT WEARİNG THEİR UNİFORMS!!!! Now I only did 6 months of army duty(obligatory in my country) but even I know you can't just do that.

I'm glad someone brought this up. I would had loved to see some authentic musketeer uniforms.

when a black musketeer is the most historically accurate thing in the frame, you´ve got a problem.

"... I think they should ditch those, I think they look stupid." Damn straight, Mr. Easton.

Well, there was a from of leather armour in the 17th century, called the Buff Coat. It was made from thick buffalo hide. These were not however black. They were a sort of yellowish brown colour. I would assume that as a royal guard they might be equipped wth them. But I would'nt have thought they'd have been worn when off duty.

I love these videos Matt, thanks for them

i love your clothing/costumes videos man! i find them really entertaining and educative

The videos where you goof on the props/costumes in movies and television shows are a nice departure from the usual tone of the channel sometimes. Cheers, Matt!

you know, from an entertainer point of view. they are excellently done.

I've tried to watch the show but I really can't get into it. For me nothing beats the two movies with Oliver Reed, Michael York, Richard Chamberlain, Charlton Heston, and Christopher Lee.

I still want one of those outfits.

Soviet movie dresses them in a fancy blue colour. And I think costumes were very well done in it overall.

Thank you for making this!

These Musketeers look like 17th century Hell's Angesls! Seriously i always imagined the 3 musketeers wearin the typical fancy and colorful clothes that the nobility wore at that times, and if i remember correctly in the novel the character of Portos really liked to wear stylish clothes. I suspect that people dressed like these would have never been admitted to an audience with the king.

Here is the thing that everyone seems to ignore or not mention about this series : This series is actually not a historical series it is a western in the scenery of Alexandre Dumas' Three musketeers. Everything about this series is based on anime/modern fantasy design that was predominant in the last few years in digital artists and that got promoted to mainstream series and movies. The three musketeers are a western in most of the aspects of the series : the intrigue, the plot, the guns on the horses, the hats, the fights.

The version of the book I read, Aramis wears a vibrant black and silver doublet. But he was also in mourning for his past and his decisions that he'd made. The others though wear bright vibrant colors. Porthos even wears a baldric that is gold on the front.

It always struck me funny how a lot of the time, "history" channels broadcast stuff with such inaccuracies as these, but in a pure entertainment show like Game of Thrones, they address the vast majority of these problems. If it wasn't for the dragons, magic stuff, and alternate geography, you could say that Game of Thrones is a more accurate depiction or medieval times than most of these "history" shows.

Damn right, though it may be because they're in the matrix, thats why they have the leather.

Historically accurate no but entertaining at least for me I loved the show

Don’t diss the musketeers. It is the best historical drama ever !! In my opinion

i like the shoulder pad with the fleur des lis, its a nice change from the typical musketeer tunic/tabbard

I'm inclined to be more forgiving of fantasy tropes in this than something like vikings, after all the original source material is very clearly fiction. I'd also say that the specific choices for the musketeers are reasonably well justified in terms of the characters, all of the actual musketeers are pretty dark and somber people, definitely more death metal than glam rock. In contrast a lot of the other characters do tend to wear more authentic any flamboyant period fabrics. Also, unlike vikings there is relatively little attempt to show ordinary, historic domestic life as part of the story, it's pretty much all some paragraph in an adventure story. While your points, in the sense of a historical drama are perfectly fair, I'm happy to ignore them in the context of a fictional historical fantasy which puts the main character in a more relatable modern context,

By the time you have finished watching this video "leather" doesn't even sound like a word any more.

So i was watching Gopher's skyrim vid a while back, he mention Skallagrim, and he mentioned you. I'm so glad that i found this channel :D

I personally love this show. Its refreshing to see a reimagining of the costumes. Im not looking for 100 historical accuracy when theirs swords n guns involved HAHAHA. Im a big fan of the books and im happy with the way they didnt follow what everyone else has done, it can get old after a while, but thats just me. You brought up some very good points. Everyone is gonna have their own views on this show, but i love it.

Hello Matt! I've watched the series and agree with your take on it. I have one question. In two cases, I've seen the musketeers use some sort of disarming move against another rapier-fighter. Are those just made up by the programme armourers, or are they based on the sort of works you have studied? Thanks, Chris

They did have a type of leather armor that was popular in the 17th century, called a buff coat, but they were YELLOW and usually worn by cavalry officers.

Do historical advisors ever have a say in anything when historical movies are made? I mean, is there no director or producer who is remotely interested in accuracy and asks before he makes a movie?

I think there are some scenes with the King where they have pale blue, more ceremonial looking uniforms? The shoulder things are also meant to be a badge of honour for the Musketeers (in series) as I recall - at the end of season one when D'artagnan is made a full member of the musketeers by the King they give him one of those shoulder things

Matt has some serious sideboard action going on in this video

Cheers from Finland! I've been a fan of your videos for a while, now that you have the new "series" going on with screencaps from shows that (try to) portray historical periods, I was thinking, would it be possible to alternate between the screenshot and actual periodical armor in the background to give us a proper good contrast? (Sometimes periodical stuff might of course be hard to come by, seeing cameras reaaally werent a thing back then, but I'd imagine there are some decent recreations?) Anyway, if you happen to read this, thank you for entertaining me all these years, finally gathered courage to say something.

I think the guy with the black beard and the black coat looks very cool. At least they were creative with their character designs.

I really got the idea from the book that Musketeers were often very clothes conscious. Especially Porthos. He liked to show of. I don't see him wearing clothes like these. In fact he might have even chosen style over practicality.

Now I'm going back to the memories of my reading of Dumas, so don't take too seriously, but Matt is quite right that they would have something a bit more cheerful, especially Porthos, who was a bit of a dandy. They might have the great honour of being in the King's militia, but that doesn't mean they're rich. They certainly didn't pay their servants. On one occasion, they had to SELL their doublets, and were sitting around in their singlets.

I like your comment about the 200 yard pistol shot. With 13+1 shots from a 4.8 inch barrel Glock using 230 grain FMJ, having never attempted this before, I tried to hit from standing a steel plate the size of a human head at 180 yards. I hit it on my final shot. I don't rule out a 200 yard pistol shot (especially with time to aim), even with the technology of those days (American Revolution and Civil War sharpshooter requirements!) but it's certainly VERY difficult, a remarkable feat of skill - the story better justify it.

I challenge your assertion that nobody wore black in the 17th century - though it is highly unlikely that the musketeers would be wearing it (as I understand it it was pretty much the only colour that was acceptable within the more extreme protestant groups) look at 17th century Dutch portraits for instance.

I am quite curious about where the "brown/black = past clothes" came from? The 80s sword and sorcery films seemed to be the earliest that I remember.

Now imagine a historical serie about the late 20th century in, say, the equivalent of the BBC in 2415. We would all be driving 1500 hbp cars, dual-weilding .50 caliber laser-guided machine-guns while sniffing ludicrous amounts of cocaine or metamphetamin and listening to the famous heavy metal hip-hop rap band call the Beach Boyz'n the Hood. And they will find experts to swear that it is historically accurate : )

When Matt said "Vikings", did anybody else hear Lindybeiges voice shouting "Vikings!" in the back of their heads?

A question concering the available colors for clothing: for sure in the late medieval period and the 17th century a lot of colorful and bright clothes were worn by a lot of people. However, I don´t really have a good idea about at which point in time most of the colors for clothing were affordable to the majority of people. Is there any precise documentation on that topic?

Game of Thrones and Vikings both annoyed me slightly because of this. I can still enjoy the show, but there's always a nagging in the back of my head. Great video, Matt. Keep it up.

My problem with the clothes is that we know what the Musketeer uniforms looked like! They are in museums and paintings. And look nothing like that!

They are asking if the roadies have set up the stage yet so they can do their soundcheck

I have worked with professional costumers, and I have seen their often impressive libraries of books on period clothing. Most of them know what people SHOULD be wearing in their period pieces. The problem is that the viewer does not. People have been told that real is brown and black and leather for so long now that they accept it as absolute truth. "Those old, early technicolor period pieces with men were wearing tights and bright colors all over everyone are utterly preposterous!" they say. Nowadays, even if a costumer loves the clothing of the period and wants to put it on the actors, their designs will be rejected and they will probably lose their job if they don't load up the screen with black, brown, and of course, leather. Unfortunately, the only way to stop this would be to get people to stop watching films made with this sort of costuming, which I find unlikely. The average modern viewer has been so inundated with this garbage that they would think of what people REALLY wore at any period of history before about 1850 as being corny, flamboyant, and ridiculous. Hell, 1850 is me being generous. Did you know it was perfectly acceptable for a gentleman to wear a cape in public as recently as the 1940s? That's right: a cape.

Do you have a list anywhere of Shows, and Movies ranked from more Historically Accurate, to Less Historically Accurate?

The reason they wear the same clothes all the time is probably character recognition; If they wore anything else they could be recognized as if they came from Dr Who or something. ( Ex.: Morgan Freeman in white clothing = Bruce Almighty, Morgan Freeman in hobo clothing = Shawshank Redemption ) They wear low-saturation clothing just because it's "Medieval" and "Dark age", that kind of way of thought. Kind of sad really... :/

What are some movies or tv series that you would say are historically accurate in terms of armor, clothing, weapons, etc?

My history teacher told me that people began to revert to leather because, as we see in the show, firearms will just punch through anything, so you may as well wear something light... and that makes D'Artangan even hotter.

The guy on the end with the cool dude "popped collar" really stands out... It simply looks like a modern leather coat with a row of many buttons and those add on shoulder pieces.. Lol. So much effort goes into spectacular sets and scenery, yet relatively little into proper costuming.

To most people leather and dark colors = badass, and actual traditional clothing to most people would look silly. I think that is really the problem. I would prefer it to be historical, but that is to much to ask really, because they are trying to appeal to the masses as apposed to creating something historically accurate. All you would have to do is dress the same actors in historically accurate clothing and a have a picture of them in that and one of them in what they wear in the show and walk down a busy street and ask everyone you can what they like more and you will see what the general populace relate too. I think the reason for them wearing the same clothing all the time is two fold. Firstly it makes it very easy to identify who is who because they dress the same all the time and lets be honest the attention span of many people has declined, especially with the rise of the internet. Secondly it saves money. I love this series keep it coming.

People from 200 years from now, "well, a guy like Steve Jobs surely have a wide range of clothing for him to choose from."

From watching the show, (Which I quite enjoy, by the way. ) it is obvious some person or persons in authority suffer from an intense leather fetish. In addition to the Musketeers themselves, the Cardinal sports a black leatherette cassock, and even Milady sometimes wears some pretty weird leather like jewelry. Of the featured cast, really only the King, the Queen, and Constance wear colours and fabrics. I believe that this is done for (somewhat ham-fisted ) dramatic effect. The "strong " characters wear leather, the "weak" ones get pretty fabrics. As further proof of my theory: The Cardinal's Red Guards also wear a bit of leather, Just not as much as their awesome foes, the Musketeers.

I have belatedly realised that the costume designer must have watched Ghostbusters 2 quite a lot. The dark brown "World of Leather" look is very Vigo the Carpathian.

I would be interested on your opinion about (the fencing and the costumes of) the movie "Alatriste" (2006).

Bloody hell Matt, you have the largest TV I've ever seen.

Please make more videos like this!

Quick question about other versions of the Musketeers, specifically the tabards worn to differentiate between the King's guard and the Cardinal's men. Are these historically accurate? I like the look, but I have no idea if they were real. Thanks!

Those guys look more like Zorro than musketeers. Give me another great Zorro series! :D

3:00 your never going to win on this one. Shows make characters wear the same cloths all the time to make them iconic/so people remember who they are.

The Oliver Reed,Michael York version is the most accurate.This BBC version stated they wouldn't use the historical Blue tabard

While the leather on the shoulders of the guy on the left may have helped protect him, the "wings" on the guy in brown look like they would guide a high strike right up to his neck. Kinda like the shot trap on the Porsche turreted Henschel Tigers. (Slightly different era)

It would be great if you could do a video highlighting a few movies and/or TV shows that actually have good historical costumes.

I may own one of those jackets

All your questions and complaints can be answered with: "Because in 21st century movie language: leather+dark colors = badass hero" to me they seem to be kind of... thought like that by whoever designed them: costumes for 17th century ("super")heroes.

I need your review on Knightfall series :))

You will notice if course that the Enlightenment era is XVIII th century. I would also mention that (on the colour side of things) it is common knowledge that musketeers (french royal musketeer regiments) wore a kind of blue uniform (although it wasn't really a uniform since well, Cromie)

Could you do a video on the Black Sails series or Da vinci's demons?

Wait a minute. Is Porthos... Black?

Can someone link me Matt's video about the vikings series?

While your on the subject, could you do "The Three Musketeers" from 93? In all honesty I haven't seen it in probably 15 years, I remember it being good but it could be my memory of it from when I was a child. Also could you talk about the dual from "A Princess Bride"?

You forget that those are meant to be uniforms and when in a military force, some version of the uniform is required to be worn daily. Besides, they likely have several pairs of the same clothes, therefore there would hopefully be a clean uniform to wear in the king's presence.

What is good literature for educating myself about clothing in european history?

Matt, a Queen Anne pistol might be capable of the accuracy you spoke of, of course it was only popular in England & about 50 years later. Love your channel. Dante

Those shoulder things identify them as King's Musketeers in the show. Those outfits are their uniforms.

I feel like if I wanted leather (or any material) armor for my shoulder to deflect some percentage of rapier thrusts, I would want the layering to go the other way. As it is there, you're just helping to guide the sword's tip right into your skin! As far as the costuming goes, though, the question for a TV producer is: do you want historical accuracy, or do you want something that looks cool to us today? So I don't mind it too much.

You know how it is in show business. If you are cool enough you get pretty much immortal :D

Correct dressing is visible here : fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mousquetaire#/media/File:Mousquetaires_du_roi.jpg In 17th century, each musketeer has only the musket in common (only piece of equipment provided to them), then at the end they add the blue cape/tabard, but mainly for King's reviews (or when guarding Kings quarters), not for everyday tasks.

I'm going to try to address these points, but before I begin, keep in mind that this is pseudo-historical fiction meant for entertainment, not historical accuracy. Hence, it is very stylized. My approach to this type of stuff is the same as my approach to movie fighting choreography - it's meant to be an abstraction of the real thing, not the real thing itself. Anyway: *Why all the leather?* This is probably just a common trend right now. Plus, leather is associated with adventurous, even dangerous renegade type characters. This is a modern connotation, yes, but again: The show is made for modern people, most of whom don't particularly care about historical accuracy or even whether or not the outfits are comfortable or practical. What matters is the impression it gives. *Why the dark colors?* Well, probably because people these days associate sombre colors with more serious, authoritative people. Policemen, soldiers, even politicians - they all wear dark or muted colors. Characters who wear bright and strong colors, on the other hand, it perceived as less serious and perhaps even a bit clownish. Your average viewer today simply doesn't expect a badass swordsman to dress cheerfully. *Why the grimy shirts?* I never actually noticed that when I watched the show, but I suspect it's related to the color issue - bright white shirts would stand out against all that black, grey and brown leather and that sort of eye-catching detail isn't necessarily a good thing, In general, you don't want the audience to pay too much attention to minor unimportant details, since it distracts from the over-all impression. *What's with the shoulder guards?* I don't think they are supposed to be armor, per se. From what I could tell watching the show, they appear to actually be the musketeer equivalent of a badge or coat of arms. The musketeers on the show don't really have uniforms, so the pauldron with the fleur de lis is how they identify themselves as musketeers. (Note that D'Artanian didn't get to wear one until he officially joined them.) A bit of an odd choice even by modern standards, but I got used to it pretty quickly. *Why don't they ever change their clothes?* This might be partly to save on the costume budget, but I suspect it also has to do with character silhouette - that is to say, giving the characters a consistently distinct look. In character creation, it's considered a major advantage when the audience can instantly identify a character just from a passing glance and keep a clear mental image of what the character looks like at all times. This is probably also the reason they don't have an actual uniform - the more distinct they look the better. So there you go: The show uses very stylized costuming, mostly designed to appeal to a modern audience. Personally, I think it works. My first impression was actually sorta similar to yours, but once I got into the show it didn't bother me since it was at least very consistent. I've certainly seen worse examples of ahistorical costuming.

Could you review Alatriste? Thanks!

I'm not sure if you've seen it/mentioned it but the Rome was a pretty decent show, you could probably do a video or two about it in this style :)

Yeah, in the books, Porthos was described as quite flamboyant, always on with the newest fashion. I wish there could be a historically correct adaptation, also faithful to the literature..