Hi! I'm working on a historical fiction project and I was wondering where you were able to find resources on clothing, social norms, and other not well known items. Google isn't doing much to help, I'm afraid. Thank you in advance!
Costuming: Racinet’s Costume History and the Osprey books are good places to start, although they have inaccuracies.
Social norms: I’m not always great at that; mostly stuff comes up in research about the figure in question, or visual research, or I know it from other entries. A lot of the time I’ll be doing a comic entry and wonder, “what did street cars look like in 1920s Sydney?” and that will take me down a research hole, from which I’ll learn a lot of stuff. Having to think about how to draw each individual piece of a drawing is helpful in that regard.
Beyond that: I have a small collection of historians and costumers who’ve offered their help, and when I’m far enough ahead in my work that I can budget in time to contact them and get a response, they’ve been very helpful. :)