Huh?

[Lady Toadflinger]

Well, the other day I was perusing the latest issue of Renaissance Magazine, and I came across some new(to me) ads for garb.  I looked at a few web pages and found various types of goodies. I then chanced upon www.tudordressing.com.  Oh my! What a bizarre web page!! You have to check it out to appreciate just how bizarre. The garb (or grab, in some cases) is mostly cheesy, but the text is really weird. I hope some of you check it out and give me your take on it! (be sure to look closely at the Pirate hat worn in many of the photos--can you say "dollar store special"?)

[bookwench]

Besides typos galore, they're also stealing photos from other sites.  Quite a few of their photos are straight from Museum Replicas, and they're charging more for the same stuff. Oh, and the "medieval bonnet"?  Looks pretty Victorian to me.

There's so much duplication between the two sites, I'm wondering if Tudor Dressing is just a spin-off of Museum Replicas.  If not, they've got a lot of balls duplicating another company's site, damn near whole cloth. 

[Merlin the Elder]

Besides the totally awesome pirate hat        something tells me that the site text was written by someone not very proficient with English, and is very likely someone attempting to translate from possibly Japanese or Chinese. I say this not to belittle either, but the word and phrase patterns fit with translations of technical and equipment manuals I have read.

I could be all wrong, but my personal inclination would be to not give them my credit card information. I'm seeing too many red flags. Their "WhoIs" information is blocked, by the way.

[Bonny Pearl]

MtE do you mean something like this?  

[Merlin the Elder]

heheh...yeah!

[Bonny Pearl]

haven't looked at that website in a while.  some funny translations on there. 

[Jade Sapphire Emerald]

Museum Replicas wholesales their garb - so its entirely possible that they are a MR dealer, or they have some other business relationship with them. 

They may be an MR dealer, but they are legally not allowed to use other company photos and artwork without express permission. They could, if it is brought to MR's attention, find themselves in an international law suit. (My mom has her own business selling other vendor's merch. so she's taught me a few things about that kind of stuff.)

However, I have to agree with Merlin. Do not give any info to these guys. Way too many flags flying for comfort!

[Lady Kathleen of Olmsted]

All I can say is...BUYER BEWARE! 

[Lady Rebecca]

On the Maid Marion Riding Ensemble w/ Corset page, the description actually does site Museum Replicas.
Though of course at the same time, on their "Wholesalers" page, they say they are their own manufacturers. So maybe they're just really terrible plagiarists? You know, the type that copy someone else's paper, and leave the other person's name at the top? 

[gem]

Considering that ALL sites that resell MR garb use the original MR/Windlass catalogue photos, I'm guessing that the images are part of the license. Most small business like this wouldn't have the budget for models and photoshoots, not when there are perfectly good images available already. Take the Mary Read Pirate Coat, for instance. In a Google image search, you go through THIRTEEN different merchants using the same images *before* you get to MR.

[Lady Kathleen of Olmsted]

I have ordered items from Museum Replicas over the years. I can attest to their quality and good customer service. Which reminds me! There ae some Steampunk items I want to add to some garb for CONVegence ina  few weeks. I best not delay.

So if you see repeat images, order from Museum Replicas.

Anyone notice items made and sold by Sofie's Stitches as well?

[Scotty Hunter]

In a Google image search, you go through THIRTEEN different merchants using the same images *before* you get to MR.

Some of those images are also found on Corbis.com / CorbisImages.com for sale from their original photographers as Rights Managed images... though to go on a slightly different tangent, Corbis allows anyone with a free-account to view their images with no watermark, and there's no block on the "Save Image to Computer" option when you right click. 
I've seen a few cases of, dare I say, blatant thievery with Corbis images yet have never seen news reports of Corbis standing up for the copyrights of the photographers in their database.... I research this as I have some of my own images displayed on Corbis.com in the hopes of striking it rich as some amazing new photographic artist, lol, and I also use their historical section for research.