The Village Lanterne: Blackmore's Night

Let me introduce you to one of my favorite music groups: Blackmore's Night. The legend goes that Richie Blackmore (one of the founders of Deep Purple) and Candice Night chose to start a Renaissance-styled music group in 1997, and chose the name based on a play of their own names--thus creating Blackmore's Night. The couple married in 2008 (awwww....), and their musical reputation has continued to grow.

What saddens me is, not that many people know of Blackmore's Night. They know of Deep Purple, but they haven't experienced the awesomeness of the modern-day renaissance. I was recently talking to the best DJ I know, who always teases me about my music selections, always ending his worry with "I don't know WHAT I'm going to play at your wedding!!" (He's one of the few people who is positive that I'm getting married next year and just don't know it yet. I've given up reminding them that I'm not even in a relationship). Greg (the DJ) was recently introduced to Blackmore's Night (by yours truly, of course), and asked about who the founders were. The lightbulb connecting Blackmore's Night, Richie Blackmore, and Deep Purple went off a few moments later. SCORE!!

While I could go on and on about the wonder of their music, I shall simply advise you take a listen and Search Amazon.com for Blackmore's Night. Oh yeah, and to get a taste of their style, take a quick look at this video.

Candice Night certainly has style. I chose The Way to Mandaly over my person favorite piece of theirs (Village Lanterne), because Mandaly has more outfits, and, since I'm about to start talking about medieval styled clothing, is somewhat important. I personally like Candice's style, and Blackmore's Night as a whole is just the cherry on top of a huge sub-cultures of medieval- and renaissance-ness. Providers such as ArmStreet are completely devoted to providing fuel for this trend, creating everything from full suits of armor to Lord of the Rings knock-offs (Eowyn, anyone? or are you more Galadriel minded?). ArmStreet is definitely a nice place to wander around and spend a lot of money at. I've never heard any bad feedback about them.

Candice Night's style can be a little more modern than ArmStreet, though. I would suggest looking for individual pieces (much like I'm doing with my Mad Hatter costume), and then combining it into something beautiful. I've noticed that Candice tends to mix-and-match items, and that's fun to do anyway. I would recommend searching through sites like Etsy and ArtFire. Etsy's search engine is much, much more cooperative than ArtFire's. As with all things, remember, though, that the more detail and quality you want, the higher the price is going to be. Damsel in this Dress has nice corsets and bodices, of course (I've linked to them before, I believe), and My Elegant Muse has full costumes, as well as selling all the parts separately. Seasons of the Earth is the same (to note, this seller has about three different names that the do buisness under). Zachulas Crypt mainly does costuming for pirate and vampire reasons (yeah, yeah yeah.) but still carries on the theme. The Elven Seamstress sells most of the above, but also strikes out in a new area: men's clothing! If you can get your man to dress up like Richie Blackmore, kudos for you. Anyway, take a gander through Etsy and Artfire's search engines, and be inventive with your search terms. Searching "gypsy" can come up with a whole new world of this exact same stuff.

Oh, yeah, and if you want to do it the cheater way, check out Chovihani. She makes shrugs with the huge sleeves so you don't have to actually wear the entire chemise. Also, if you happen to know what instrument Richie Blackmore is playing in that picture way up there, please let me know. I want one.

If you waded your way all the way through those links, you deserve a cookie. Keep looking. One might show up soon.