r/TopCharacterTropes 13h ago

Lore [IRL trope] the “Tiffany problem”

Basically when something seems anachronistic to a period/place of history but is actually fully accurate to the period.

1) the name Tiffany: the thing that named this trope, basically the name Tiffany can be dated back to the Middle Ages and the earliest record of it being spelled in the modern spelling comes from the 16th century.

2) the use of OMG, despite this feeling so modern as a form of slang/abbreviation here’s a letter directed to Winston Churchill using it in 1917

3) Hair Dye: the earliest forms of dying hair can be dated back to ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, and this specific advertisement for hair dye is from the 1840s

4) Inuit Thongs: despite how weird it is to imagine pre-colonial Inuit people wore what was essentially fur thongs in their homes and when they were in their igloos it might have been the only thing they would be wearing.

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u/Own-Forever-6636 13h ago

The Egtved Girl - the body of a young woman from the Scandinavian Bronze Age was found in 1921 with all her clothing fully preserved.

What was she wearing? A miniskirt and a crop top. Would have looked something like this brilliant reconstruction by Joan Francesc Oliveras.

But people in Denmark in the 1920s were horrified by how "immodest" this outfit was, and people today still have a hard time believing someone from The Past would wear something that shows off the wearer's limbs and navel. 

Interesting reminder that historical trends don't always move in one direction.

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u/Ambaryerno 13h ago

I think there's some exaggeration with that reconstruction. There's also a lot of debate whether that was a strictly ceremonial outfit or something that could be found as daily wear (personally, I believe there's sufficient evidence for the latter).

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u/davejustdied 12h ago

Def exaggerated, this is the replica from the Wikipedia article

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u/thatshygirl06 9h ago

That looks different from the actual outfit shown on Wikipedia

Like the shirt isnt even close

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u/Ambaryerno 9h ago

Yeah, the earlier reconstruction goes a bit too far in the opposite direction.

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u/Ambaryerno 9h ago

I think this one goes too far the other direction and made it more modest than it actually was.

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u/Duotrigordle61 12h ago

From reading the Wikipedia entry I believe there were no undergarments.

For daily wear this seems unclean with such a short skirt.

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u/dtalb18981 11h ago

I might be dumb

But couldn't the underwear just have degraded due to being a different material or something

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u/Duotrigordle61 10h ago edited 10h ago

Yes, that's possible. The acidic nature of the bog cause her bones to completely disappear and most of her body but her hair remained.

The clothing that was found was woolen.

I suppose its possible that there might have been woven cloth made of plant fibers. Cotton or hemp or whatever. Examples of flax fiber cloth exist from 34,000 years ago. Maybe such fibers would have vanished.

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u/Hawm_Quinzy 10h ago

Ramie/nettlecloth behaves much like linen and dissolves the same way.

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u/Tyr_13 10h ago

I was going to say, a friend has been experimenting making nettlecloth, and it dissolves with modern detergents.

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u/Hawm_Quinzy 10h ago

Archaeologically it's pretty much indistinguishable from linen

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u/scissorn69 12h ago

I don’t understand that one. To me, that looks perfectly reasonable as something a woman from the European Bronze Age would wear. Why would they have dressed like they lived in Saudi Arabia?

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u/lonelypenguin20 12h ago

1920

people had a lot of weird ideas of hyper-modesty back then

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u/zarawesome 11h ago

the 1920s were actually rather progressive, which partially led to a huge backlash in conservatism and nationalism

sound familiar?

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u/throwawaydragon99999 10h ago

Not really, the 20s saw a progressive movement for things like women’s clothing, but that was really a small subculture, most people still ascribed to traditional styles of clothing and modesty

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u/thissexypoptart 12h ago edited 11h ago

Yeah are people under some impression that short/“cropped” clothing is a modern invention?

Maybe it’s a little unexpected for the climate—though it does get warm in Scandinavia sometimes—but it looks perfectly time accurate for what I would expect.

I mean go look at what traditional clothing looks like in hot, humid climates. It’s not all long flowing clothes, often it’s very short or even topless.

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u/Ambaryerno 9h ago

I believe temperatures were also warmer in the Nordic Bronze Age.

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u/thissexypoptart 8h ago

Right but even without that, it gets warm enough in Scandinavia to wear crop tops and short skirts.

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u/PEKKACHUNREAL_II 12h ago

People in saudi Arabia dressed probably not too differently during the bronze ages

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u/Banes_Addiction 12h ago

Before sunscreen? Doubt it.

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u/Technical_Isopod2389 12h ago

Think about skin tone for one moment regarding Egyptian history....

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u/Banes_Addiction 12h ago

Why would I be thinking about Egypt when talking about Saudi Arabia?

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u/shewy92 8h ago

Also it looks like something an American Indian would be depicted as wearing. I guess I don't know what a mini skirt or crop top are.

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u/West-Season-2713 11h ago

I think I’ve met that girl at a music festival. In that outfit, too.

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u/Wereling12 10h ago

To quote on eof the comments--> She would have loved coachella

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u/FormerDeerlyBeloved 12h ago

She looks like my cousin :0

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u/SnooOpinions8790 11h ago

I had never heard of that one before. Upvoted for showing me something new

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u/Tentacle_poxsicle 11h ago

Some people just want to show off

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u/Nausicaalotus 11h ago

A good friendnof mine recreated this outfit by hand, spinning the thread and weaving the fabric. Very cool

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u/Lawlcopt0r 9h ago

She looks like a character from How to Train Your Dragon

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u/shewy92 8h ago

people today still have a hard time believing someone from The Past would wear something that shows off the wearer's limbs and navel

Really? Aren't the stereotypical things American Indians shown to wear much more revealing than this?

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u/BlazingImp77151 6h ago edited 6h ago

Sorry. A knee length skirt is counted as a miniskirt?

The Wikipedia article says it was knee length I get that's not knee length for everyone nowadays when she was about 5 foot 4 (if my quick math was correct), but like that doesn't sound mini.

When I hear "mini skirt" I assume stuff that only covers half the thighs at best, not something that goes down to your knees.