The Morning Blend
Welcome
Complete Media Kit
Herald/Review
TOMBSTONE — Tombstone’s historic gunfights and fashions, including bathing suits, are kept alive by the Tombstone Vigilantes and Vigilettes.
“I think it’s great. It covers up wrinkles,” said Jan Cadwell, who wore an 1881-style bathing suit that included pants, sleeves and a cap.
She was one of the men and women volunteering in old-fashioned western wear for Vigilante Days on Saturday. A chili cook-off and performances helped the Tombstone Vigilantes celebrate the nonprofit organizations 60th anniversary and raise funds for various community organizations and programs Saturday on Allen Street.
  
|
Some members of the Vigilante’s sister organization, the Tombstone Vigilettes, took some time between gunfights to model some late 1800s and early 1900s fashions. And they do all they can to make sure it’s authentic.
“No zippers, velcro or polyester,” said Jayne McClure, assistant high Vigilette and the fashion show emcee.
Sue Sinsley wore a black 1910 “walking suit.” The Vigilette fashion shows are a fun way to help the community and play dress-up, she said.
Sinsley’s skirt hemline was a bit higher than earlier fashions, falling a couple of inches above the ankle, and they allowed women to show off their chic stripped stockings, McClure said.
Regina Amell was dressed for a summer picnic in her lavender gown, ostrich feather-lined hat, crocheted gloves and parasol.
Amell hand-beaded her small handbag, also known as a reticule. Inside the bag, women might have carried a handkerchief, smelling salts and their house key.
“Certainly not a cell phone,” said Bonnie Darlington, secretary of the Vigilettes.
But she also had a larger carpet bag “for any essentials she might have missed,” McClure said.
Darlington had a few items a lady of the 1890s might keep in her carpet bag, including a non electric curling iron.
“You just stick that in the fire and commence to curling your hair,” McClure said.
Her “leg-of-mutton” sleeves, which are large at the shoulder and tapered toward the wrists, were a distinct 1890s fashion.
Cadwell’s bathing suit was also “quite different from the bikinis of today,” McClure said, but also accurate for the 1880s.
The Vigilettes search online for their outfits, shop locally or make their own, and they research their looks in books and old photographs.
They also had an added layer of authenticity as they showed the bottoms of their petticoats, or underskirts, and the pantaloons beneath their skirts and dresses.
“Ladies would wear up to five petticoats to support their garments,” McClure said.
The loud pops of stage guns also were heard throughout the day as the Vigilantes performed in the street “to recreate and keep alive the history of the Old West,” said Kent Cooksley, assistant chief of the Tombstone Vigilantes and the Vigilante Days director.
The group’s re-enactments, such as “Tom Waters New Shirt,” are recreated from actual events, Cooksley said.
The Vigilantes and Vigilettes take donations throughout the year at their shows and created Vigilante Days to boost the slow summer tourist season.
The funds raised by the Vigilantes and Vigilette volunteers benefit the Tombstone food bank, small animal shelter and help provide scholarships to local students.
REPORTER Laura Ory can be reached at 515-4683 or by e-mail at laura.ory@svherald.com.
IF YOU GO
Vigilante Days festivities will continue today with the annual 10k run, which will begin at 6:30 a.m. Arrive early to register. Entertainment also will continue on Allen Street between 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
The Shadow wrote on Aug 10, 2008 10:15 AM: