Living in the past is hard work. Just ask Adam Hodges-LeClaire, a Madaket summer resident who has dedicated his life to what’s known as living history. Dressed in authentic eighteenth-century garments that he painstakingly hand-sewed himself, Adam reenacts historical events, teaches the use of Colonial-era tools and guides tours of historical locations all while staying completely in character. While many who participate in living history stow their outfits until the next big event, Adam has made it a full-time career, sailing nearly nine thousand nautical miles aboard a tall ship replica, receiving period-accurate tattoos and now launching his own clothing line specializing in Colonial fashion. This July, Adam will be working in partnership with the Nantucket Historical Association to present the lives of Nantucketers during the Revolutionary War.

Growing up in Lincoln, Massachusetts, Adam first became hooked on Colonial history at the age of five after he witnessed a battle reenactment at a nearby national park. Firing pretend muskets made of whiffle ball bats in his backyard, Adam eventually convinced his entire family to participate in weekend reenactments. Local events turned to bigger regional gatherings while Adam learned more skills for bringing the past to life. Soon he was playing in a fife and drum corps ensemble, performing Colonial-era military field music at everything from the first Krispy Kreme franchise in Massachusetts to President George W. Bush’s second inauguration.

For college, Adam shipped off to Scotland, studying history at the University of St Andrews where he says his preconceived notions of history were “blown out of the water” by the European perspective. During the summers, he worked at Fort Ticonderoga, a living history museum in the Adirondacks where he trained in how to make period garments by hand. Today, Adam works for various museums and historical sites around the country as a freelance public historian while also operating his own boutique clothing line—AHL Tailor and Naval Clothier—that specializes in creating handmade period garments for living history museums as well as private clients.

“When you want to depict history to an audience, or whether you want to do it completely alone in the woods without an audience, ideally the clothing needs to be authentic because it needs to function,” Adam explains. “You have to make clothes that function rather than a costume that just depicts the vibe, because if you’re going to put someone next to a cannon who is firing it with black powder, you don’t want to put them in polyester because they are going to light on fire. Or they would pass out from the heat in a garment that doesn’t breathe.”

Adam’s handmade garments often take weeks to create and fetch anywhere between $400 for a shirt to $800 for a jacket. In true eighteenth-century fashion, Adam is open to trading for his wares. Most recently, he created a shirt and a pair of trousers for a farmer in western New York who paid for the garments with half of a slaughtered pig. “You can’t really shop off the rack because nobody is making this commercially today as it would have during the period,” Adam explains. “Everything from the fibers we use to make our clothes, to where they’re made, to the fashion that they’re cut in are completely and remarkably different.”

Wearing these garments in public prompts a range of reactions. Depending on whom he’s depicting, Adam has been confused for everything from a pirate to an “altright” Trump supporter. On rare occasions, the outfits provoke ridicule and sometimes violence. While attending university in Scotland, Adam went out for drinks with a friend after finishing finals dressed as a revolutionary from France, circa 1789. “I was nearly beaten up by a gang of Belgian teenagers because they thought I was playing a fascist icon of the far right of France,” Adam recounts with a laugh. “It’s funny in retrospect, but again, it shows the power of symbols, the power of toxic political nostalgia as it relates to history. That’s the biggest thing that I need to watch out for professionally.”

Adam’s passion for the past doesn’t end when he hangs up his cocked hat for the day; instead, it bleeds into how he lives his everyday life. Instead of a gym membership, for instance, Adam works up a sweat by chopping firewood to heat his home. He might have used Tinder to find his wife, Esther, but he made it clear from his profile that his ideal partner would have to be comfortable with weekends spent in 18th century settings. His passion is more about substance than style. He is committed to educating others about our history, in a way that has more texture than the pages of a textbook. “Living history is very valuable because it makes the past real for an audience,” Adam says. “You’re expected to touch, to smell, to hear as opposed to just look, as you would in a conventional museum. And it’s not just for kids; it’s for all humans. Living history allows for a degree of empathy for the topic in a way that’s still critical.”

This summer, Adam will be working with the Nantucket Historical Association in a living history program exploring how Nantucketers navigated the radicalism and paradoxes presented by the American Revolution. To learn more about Adam and his clothing company, find him on Facebook at AHL Tailor and Naval Clothier.