After Gasparilla, I like to reward my hard working krewe with a field trip to somewhere full of treasure, arrrrgh!  So we decided on Universal Studios in Orlando.  We dressed up in arrrr pirate garb with a bit of the Wizarding magic of Harry Potter.  It seem that all the theme parks are now outlawing costume fer adults.    After a lengthy discussion with the constable we persuaded him to let us in.

Here we be with Swabby Squarepants, who be wearing my pirate tricorn hat.  We have a bit of history together, as we provided Antonio Banderas, who plays a pirate in Sponge Bob 2 the Movie, with his sword n'baldric.

 

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Most of the wooden tallships we currently see today are US make from around the war of 1812.  Rarely do we see one of an earlier time era of a non-British country.  So it be a delight to see a Spanish Galleons Andalusia or treasure ship that us pirates would love to plunder.  It be used in one of the episodes in the first season of Black Sails.

So when ever a new tall ship be visiting arrrr home port of Tampa Bay, I like to bring some of my newest krewe members to visit.  Some of the black powder weapons seen on Black Sails come from arrrrr shop.

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Ali n' Chris be in search of killer pirate outfit, when they discovered Pirate Fashions.  This here video be a log of their visit n' their transformation from lubber to pirate.

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Phil Johnson host a podcast about pirate culture.  He interviewed Tiger Lee about how Pirate Fashions come to be.  He has interviewed my other interesting characters of the modern pirate world. Continue reading

Secrets of How to Dress Like a Pirate

Article 1

I’d be a cursed by Davy Jones, but out of the thousands of books about pyrates, but not a single book be penned about pyratical fashions. Thar be no articles written over two pages about the subject. The only thing that can be found on YouTube be a number of video that show how with a handy pair of scissor n’ stuff found around the house, ye too can become a true pirate (Not). How can this be?

Three major reasons fer this calamity:
1. There arrrrr no survivin’ examples of pirate clothin’.
2. Pyrates didn’t write many books about the subject. Most of what be written arrrr court trials, which focus on what they did, not how they be dressed.
3. Pyrates didn’t have skilled artists paint thar portraits. Aye, there be many old illustrations of pyrates but most be created by artists fer newspapers, where the artist did not actually see the pirates, they just created an image that would help sell more books n’ papers.

So how does one write a series of articles without these conventional sources of information? We make these assumptions: 

1. Generally, pyrates wore what everyone else wore at that time period n’ location.
2. Pyrates wore what sailors wore (not an easy task of finding out either), which allows them to climb the rigging n’ keep warm.
3. Pirates wore some of what they stole, means they wore a wider range of clothing, to include clothing of many nations n’ of richer as well as average or poor styles, cuts n’ textiles.
4. What we think of as real pirate clothing be heavily influenced by movies, books n’ pop culture.

 

Different Types of Pirate Costuming

So take this journey with me to transform yarself from a lubber to a real pyrate. Cause I know everyone want’s to be a PYRATE! But thar not be only one pyrate look. Let’s start by dividin’ how pirate dress into 6 distinct types. This helps clarify what I be focusin’ this article series on.

 

The focus be not on the first two, the Halloween Costume Pirate n’ the Thrift Store Pirate as they be the best-covered portion of the market. I NOT be coverin’ the Historic Accurate Pirate, as the Stich Nazi’s want proof of everything (the reason why my book be never finished). What’s the fun of dress up, if no one recognizes you as a pirate. Some historic facts will find there way in these articles.

I wish to share the secrets of my knowledge about the middle three types (with the Real Pirate Look being my true love) fer those adventure soul who wish to be part of the brotherhood, arrrrgh!

 

 

Mark my words, fer the next article be about the most hotly debated pyrate accessories, the Bandana n’ Sash.

XXX

 

About the Writer: Tiger Lee of the South China Sea started shootin’ pyrates with a Canon camera in 2007. He produced the Hot Pirate Babe Calendar series fer 6 years. Tiger also wrote a regular column in Pirates Magazine. He moved to St Augustine to start up Pirate Portraits N Treasures. The store dropped the old time photo studio, changed the name to Pirate Fashions n’ moved to Tampa, FL. The focus now be on creatin’ pyrate garb, accouterments n’ weapons.

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International Talk Like a Pirate Day be a parodic holiday created in 1995 by John Baur (Ol' Chumbucket) n' Mark Summers (Cap'n Slappy), of Albany, Oregon.  They proclaimed September 19 each year as the day when everyone in the world should talk like a pyrate.   The holiday, n' its observance, springs from a romanticized view of the Golden Age of Piracy.

According to Summers, the day is the only holiday to come into being as a result of a sports injury. He has stated that during a racquetball game between Summers n' Baur, one of them reacted to the pain with an outburst of "Aaarrr!", n' the idea was born. 

At first an inside joke between two friends, the holiday gained exposure when John Baur n' Mark Summers sent a letter about their invented holiday to the American writer Dave Barry in 2002.  As the entire universe knows, Dave Barry is a syndicated columnist n' the author of 4,000 books n' the 2nd funniest man in the universe.  Dave would be able to bring attention to Talk Like A Pirate Day in a way that Mark n' John couldn't. 

The first e-mail introduced us, told him about our great idea, Talk Like a Pirate Day. We knew he wouldn't be able to resist. Then we offered him the only thing we had, the chance to be official national spokesman fer the event. 

It's a great idea, Dave Berry said, but then he asked the fatal question. "Have you guys actually DONE anything about this? Or are you counting on me to carry the ball here?" Very perceptive of him. The way we answered would be crucial in bringing Barry aboard. We decided on the truth, with a lot of ass kissing thrown in. 

"Well, we've talked like pirates every Sept. 19, and we've encouraged our several friends to," John wrote in reply. And Mark put it in perspective when he wrote, "We are dinghy-sized-talk-like-a-pirate kinda guys, but you, Dave ... you are like a frigate-huge-sized-talk-like-a-pirate kinda guy."

Growing media coverage of the holiday after Barry's column has ensured that this event is now celebrated internationally. Part of the success for the international spread of the holiday has been attributed to non-restriction of the idea or trademarking, in effect opening the holiday for creativity n' "viral" growth.

Baur n' Summers found new fame in the 2006 season premiere episode of ABC's Wife Swap, first aired September 18, 2006. They starred in the role of "a family of pirates" along with Baur's wife, Tori. Baur also appeared on the June 26, 2008 episode of Jeopardy, where he was introduced as a "writer and pirate from Albany, Oregon.

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People have been in search of 17th century Scottish pirate William Kidd's hidden treasure fer hundreds of years with no success until now. In May 2015, a 50kg (110 pound) silver bar be brought a shore of the island of Sainte Marie, from what be though to be the wreck of the Adventure Galley. The U.S. explorer Barry Clifford believes there be many more bars still in the wreck. which he has been working on since 1999. Mr Clifford be best know fer discovering Pirate Captain Black Sam Bellamy's Whydah Gally off Cape Cod. 

William Kidd was a privateer executed fer piracy in 1701 after a voyage to the Indian Ocean. He was tried for plundering a Armenian ship, the Quedagh Merchant, flying French colors. 

Later a technical team from the UN's cultural division investigated the find, to discover that the silver bar was in fact 95% lead. Many parts identified as the Adventure Galley were also found to be broken part of the old Sainte-Marie port constructions. So much fer the myth that pirates buried treasure, when we all know that real pirate spend n' drank their treasure as fast as they got it, just like regular folks do with their paychecks now a days.

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You probably heard about Disney doing another Pirate of the Caribbean movie, the fifth one in the series be called Dead Men Tell No Tales. There will be a new team of directors, Joachim Ronning and Espen Sandberg, who last did Kon-Tiki Johnny Depp, Geoffrey Rush and Orlando Bloom are all signed up as well. 

The East Indian Mouse Company be shootin' the movie in Australia because they got a $20 million tax incentive. This meant that all the America extras already casted to play in the film had their visa's denied. Filming in Gold Coast begin on Feb 17, 2015. Johnny Depp hurt his hand which delayed shooting fer 4 week in March, which be costing the film to go over budget by $70 million. There arrrr rumor that his injury had when in a alcohol induced anger. He also got in trouble fer smuggling his two dogs into the country illegally as well. Olde Johnny spend $320K to fly his dogs out of Australia on a private jet. 

The official description of the story be as follows: Thrust into an all-new adventure, a down-on-his-luck Captain Jack Sparrow finds the winds of ill-fortune blowing even more strongly when deadly ghost pirates led by his old nemesis, the terrifying Captain Salazar, escape from the Devil's Triangle, determined to kill every pirate at sea... including him. Captain Jack's only hope of survival lies in seeking out the legendary Trident of Poseidon, a powerful artifact that bestows upon its possessor total control over the seas.

A 15 year old replica of the 1897 Scottish Barley named the The Rainbow Gypsy is being reconfigured to become the Black Pearl. As you can see that it will get a new bowsprit, reconfigured decks, cabins and 31 more cannons. The owner Kit Woodward spend 10 years building the 74 foot tall ship. The budget for this film is around $250 million.

The move is set to release in 3D on July 7, 2017, so we be having' a 2 year wait.

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Why in the heavens would Tiger Lee travel to the far side of the world to India? Since the begin of Pirate Fashions, we have tried to make n' buy as much pirate clothing, accessories and weapons from the New World, with 30% of it come right from inside the store itself. So more than half of arrrr products come from overseas either directly from manufactures or from USA distributors that import from overseas. I have always paid my workers only a bid more than min. wages, but if I wish to keep them in the long term, I will need to paid a better wage. 

For the past 2 year, I have been trying to find sewing factories in the USA to produce some of the clothing we currently make, but found none that would work. I decided to explore the possible dealing directly with Indian clothing factories, to have them make items that I am already getting from overseas, but with a high quality and in my own designs. Higher quality but at a lower price, how can that be done? By eliminating the middle man distributors. The main issue is high quantity are required, which means big initial orders and carry inventory for a longer period of time. This is how the larger companies such as Museum Replica does it. 

It will take 4 or 5 year to move half of our production to India. Half of our productions will still be from the USA. I like to be up front with my customers. I had to travel over to India n'personally visit n' talk to the owners of many different factory to feel comfortable with this option. I found that like anywhere else there are both good and bad business, which is very hard to tell by visiting a website. I have found that Indian company can do a great job copying something. So when they have been giving poorly designed garment, they will do a excellent job of reproducing it, which results in a cheap garment, because the distributor wanted a cheaper price. Since I am going to eliminate the middle man, I can ask for the highest quality garment and it will still be cheaper that what I normally have to paid for a poorly designed garment. It will take about 6 months before we will have any new pirate garb in stock from this trip. 

You can follow a day to day travelog of this long and interesting trip on this Tiger Lee's Facebook page starting on April 21. We do all this to get you the best pirate garb in the world, new or old. 

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After much thought about how to help new landlubber join the brotherhood, we have developed two guilds to help out.  One be for the men to become pirates.  The other one be fer the ladies be become a lady pirate or wench.  The include photos of different categories of pirates, as well as a 12 step process about the best order to develop a complete outfit from head to toe.

 

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