Reddit reviews The Tudor Tailor: Reconstructing Sixteenth-Century Dress

http://www.amazon.com/books/dp/0896762556 the Tudor Tailor, one of my favorite, have made so many of these outfits

1. The SCA is fairly welcoming, however, it's a large group of people and can have all the same problems as any group of people. A lot of people are here to hang out and party as much as anything else.
   
   
2. The SCA has nowhere near the standards you're probably used to for CW/WWII reenacting. It sounds like you'll manage the garb side of things pretty easily. There are some oddities about the tailoring/fit of some of the medieval stuff, but probably nothing you can't handle. There are a few books I recommend (links at the bottom of the post). Plastic armor is fine, but it is generally best to cover it with clothing or similar. Helmets must be steel for safety purposes. Most of the well put-together kits are the result of years of work. There's far less of an expectation that you'll have everything 100% ready to go on day 1 than is typical of reenacting groups.
   
   
3. You need your armor ready to go, but after that, you just need to pass a safety test called an "authorization" to fight. It's pretty much about knowing what targets count, making sure you're safe, etc. You won't become a "knight" in our game for a long time (It's one of the highest awards).
   
   
4. Women are welcome to fight and to wear men's clothing if they like. There are no rules about that.
   
   
5. Armor-wise, the Indian made stuff is generally poorly fitting (as in not made to fit a human body) and too thin to use. There are some decent Czech and Ukrainian armories though. That being said, most people are getting their reproduction shoes from a company in Pakistan (usually indirectly) and a lot of the decent chain mail is coming from India IIRC. It's a mixed bag. It is best to go to practices, find some people who you trust to provide guidance, etc. Unfortunately the result of our far less strict standards on gear/equipment and far wider historical scope also means that we don't have a good set of unit standards or the like to help provide guidance.
   
   Costuming books:
   http://www.amazon.com/Medieval-Tailors-Assistant-2nd-1100-1480/dp/0896762955
   http://www.amazon.com/Tudor-Tailor-Reconstructing-Sixteenth-Century-Dress/dp/0896762556
   http://www.amazon.com/Patterns-Fashion-Construction-Clothes-1560-1620/dp/0896760839
   http://www.amazon.com/Modern-Maker-Mens-Century-Doublets/dp/0692264841
   
   Shoes:
   http://www.vikingleathercrafts.com/
   http://boots-by-bohemond.myshopify.com/
   
   Armour:
   http://armourarchive.org/

This.

I am currently working on building somewhere between 50-60 full (skin out) outfits, male and female, from this era, for an A Song of Ice and Fire themed feast-viewing party for the first episode of next season. It's quite awhile off, true, but putting these together is a lot of work and fairly time consuming. On top of that, I'm also teaching my younger sister how to sew... she's cutting her teeth on this project. I refer to this as "being tossed into the deep end to learn to swim".

My build references right now are limited to a couple of books (only one of which is any good, and it's a recent acquisition), and what I can find on the internet (and wrestling my laptop while wrestling with fabric is never fun), as my previous person I went to for advice and help for Tudor/Elizabethan garb is no longer around. This book I've heard nothing by good things about. :) It is on my most wanted list, and is something I will likely be picking up myself within a couple months.

Oh, and Hi!

This is an incredibly broad question since fashion is changing notable every decade during that time period. If you are looking for a general costume history overview of the pre-modern era I'd start by looking for some books in your local library. They're generally vague and sometimes use outdated ideas, but it's always a good base to start with. Sometimes even Barnes & Noble carries "Fashion", a book covering some of the Kyoto Costume Institutes collection from 18th-20th c. From there, researching original garments on museum collection websites or portraiture and fashion plates can give you a more detailed idea of the styles once you know the garment names and basic shapes. The Met Museum and the V&A have two of the largest online collections. Pinterest is also very helpful for this kind of search, though things are not always well documented and modern reproductions slip in occasionally. There are also many in-depth books on these eras, though none that covers the whole of it in great detail.

The Tudor Tailor, Seventeenth-century Women's Dress Patterns Book One and Book Two, and What Clothes Reveal are some of my often referenced books. There are many more depending on whether you are more interested in the clothing construction side, the high fashion, textiles, or trade and everyday wear.