Doing an early fur trade impression is ideal for Me for numerous reasons,
I don’t like a military impression (although I sometimes wear a military coat, which I will explain later)
Being an early trapper Explorer gives you a lot freedom regarding what you can wear and how You wear it.
A "Free Trapper" basically answered to only himself where doing a period military impression requires You follow uniform guidelines.
The early fur trade also gives you a wide variety of clothing styles and acouterments.
Styles from the late 18th and early 19th century can be combined and gives you freedom to mix and match.
Fur trappers were not known for their wealth and would wear a wide variety of clothing.
My "Basic" kit is simply a breechclout and buckskin leggings with a long mid thigh to knee length shirt)
I wear a sash or belt or sometimes both depending on My mood for holding My knife and belt axe.
I add any number of other clothing items including a weskit and regimental coat or a simple blanket capote if the weather gets real cold.
I wear moose hide brain tanned moccasins currently but am looking at purchasing a pair of Fugawee high low boots or some brown brogans.
I was shot by a drunk about 15 years ago and have a bullet in My left ankle and need the extra support of the lace up trekkers or brogans.
Both shoe styles would be authentic to My time period.
I am not British but in the photo’s I am wearing a British regimental coat.
I have documentation from early newspapers from the late 1700’s through the early 1800’s of "Military surplus auctions"
When uniform styles changed the government sold off obsolete gear in war surplus just as they do today.
I wear a red British regimental jacket or occasionally a green "Hessian" or "German" regimental jacket.
Not to portray a soldier but simply a trapper who picked up an obsolete war surplus jacket at a government auction because it was inexpensive.
(A note about the regimental Jacket above), This particular jacket is almost 70 years old and was used in the movie "Drums along the Mohawk" filmed in 1939.
It has the actor "Gene Sheldon’s" name in the collar and was produced by a Hollywood movie costume company.
Gene Sheldon was a character actor in Hollywood for many years and played supporting roles in many movies and also many Disney productions.
It is excellent quality and shows a lot of wear from being used in films and just plain 70 years of storage.
It has faded and has small repairs and small holes worn in it and looks very authentic.
It already has a worn "used" look that I try to get on all My equiptment.
I garden wearing My reenacting clothes and cut wood or ride horses to get some dirt and grime and some honest wear on My outfit.
Trappers living day in and day out in the same basic clothes would not have looked very "clean"
I don’t wear My outfit as much as a real trapper would have so I try to get the wear honestly by working in my kit as much as possible to get some honest dirt and wear on it.
In the above photo I am also wearing and olive green French and Indian war era sleeveless weskit.
I also have a shorter 1770’s era weskit I wear occasionally.
A lot of people avoid Olive green because of the current US military use of that color.
I have however read numerous accounts of Olive green clothing being used during this time period.
I once had the opportunity to examine an early 19th century US military uniform that was from about 1810.
It was a mounted cavalry uniform and was green with black (Actually faded to a dark brown) lapels.
The green color was amazingly similar to the color used in WWII surplus wool blankest.
People avoid these blankets because they are so easily recognized as WWII but this color was actually available and used during the time period I choose to reenact.
My weskit is Olive colored cotton but I plan on making a replica of an early regimental jacket using surplus US army blankets as the material.
The color is amazingly close to the original jacket I saw.
The hat I am wearing above is simply a racoon hat with a leather bill.
It is warm comfortable and documented.
There is a great demand by the folks known as "Stitch Nazi’s" for documentation and I have several references of raccoon hats being used and in fact Ben franklin himself ordered a raccoon hat and the record of that purchase survives.
In the following photo I am simply wearing a floppy old brown felt wide brimmed hat.
