Tailors within the guild could recommend new members for consideration. If accepted these young men would become guild novices in a ceremony described elsewhere in this research. What has now come to light in our research is that, during the pledge-and-trial period, hopeful candidates were required to conceal their identity from the guild's membership jury. It was believed that their long-term anonymity should begin early but moreover the hiding of a candidate's identity guaranteed that his merit for membership would be assessed purely by the level of his tailorwise invention and not be influenced by other factors.
If he had family in the guild or would possibly benefit from other non skill-based advantage this was prevented if the jury did not know any of his possible connections (the practice lives on today in the music world where selection to join an orchestra sometimes requires candidates to audition from behind a screen).
In order to shield the candidate's identity each was required to cover his face. Before long would-be members realized that this requirement was, in itself, an opportunity to demonstrate tailoring innovation and manual dexterity. Candidates began to customize their pledge-and-trial shrouds leading to senior members' ultimately referring to them as the "Fresh Faces" in a good natured tease which accused them of trying to make their "face" (shroud) more "fresh" (expressive of sewing craft) in an attempt to turn the anonymity rule in their favor.
The use of the term “Fresh Faces”, we believe, has no relationship to the use of the same phrase by the Gen Art organization in its effort to provide a platform for the most significant emerging talent in garment design.
