Medieval Clothing

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Also Middle Ages, Gothic

The medieval period ranges from the Norman Conquest (1066) up to end of the Wars of the Roses (1455-1485) and the eventual plumping for Henry Tudor.
We're thinking Robin Hood, The Crusades (1095-1291), Richard the Lionheart (1157-1199), King John 'Lackland' and the Magna Carta (1215), Robert the Bruce (1274-1329), Chaucer's Canterbury Tales (1387) and Richard III and the princes in the tower (1483)
During these years fashion generally changed slowly. Clothing was derived either from the Roman styles, floor length flowing robes for the upper classes, or from the 'barbarian' knee-length tunics, or cotte, for the working classes. Clothing was generally based on sewn-together rectangles and had to be loose enough to be slipped on over the head, held in place with girdles.
From 1350 or so clothing became more fitted, with curved seams and the use of buttons, an innovation brought back from the crusades. Men's tunics became shorter, and the doublet (also known as a cotehardie or pourpint) becoming acceptable as outerwear. The fashion for parti-coloured garments, particuarly hose, reached its height. As men's hemlines ascended the separate legs of the hose became joined and were often laced to the doublet.
At the end of the 14th century the fashionable line changed from the slender and willowy to the voluminous and exagerated. The new garment for both men and women that appeared around 1380 to satify this was the houppelande. It was a high-collared gown with dramatically large sleeves. Women wore it with a waist-deep V at the front, showing off the rich fabric of the cotehardie underneath. The bigger the sleeves, the greater the staus of the wearer. Fur was a popular trim as was dagging, the ornamental (and jolly awkward to sew) scalloped edges seen on hems throughout the later middle ages. Round this time also, in line with the fashion for all things extaravagent to the point of impracticality, the chaperon transformed from being a utilitarian caped hood to the complicated Dead Chicken Hat.

Women's Clothing

Women wore their cottes floor-length, although they were often hitched up for working in the fields. But for the leisured classes the flared bliaut with its trumpet-shaped sleeves was a dashing new fashion brought over from France with the Conqueror.
The bliaut brought an important change in women's fashion; the garment was cut with a separate corps and skirt. The latter was cut very wide and flowing, and pleated or gathered onto the corps which was very tight, with side lacing the emphasize the shape of the body. Bliaut sleeves were tight to the elbow and then dropped vertically to the floor. Consequently, it became the fashion to wear them knotted up!
From 1350 or so clothing became more fitted, with curved seams and the use of buttons, an innovation brought back from the crusades. Skirts gained gores to make them even wider at the hem and the cotehardie, a gown cut usully without a waist seam and with gored skirts, was born.
This upper-class woman is wearing a cotehardie or kirtle, a close-fitting dress laced at the back. The outer kirtle has long, flared sleeves, while underneath she has a similar gown with tight-fitting sleeves. Under this she would have a full-length chemise or smock.
Married women wore a veil for their hair, and, from around 1200, they veiled their necks, too, with a wimple. This transformed into a chinstrap, the barbette. A crown-like headband called a filet secured veils, and later decorative hair nets, cauls, were the fashion.

Men's Clothing

From the top, these men are wearing firstly, chaperon hoods - The left one is loose fitting with a front slit, the one on the right is close fitting and has decorative dagging round the hem and is worn with a felt hat.
Below this a knee-length tunic, possibly two, and a narrow belt or girdle. These tunics, or cottes, were often split up the front and tucked into the girdle for working. Cottes, particularly longer ones, had triangular godets set into the side, front or back seams to make them wider at the hem.
The legs are covered with hose, slim-fitting leggings that reached above the knees. They could be bound at the lower edge or up to the knees with garters. After around 1200 they became longer and closer-fitting and were tied to the belt that held up the braies, long underpants worn tucked into the top of the hose. The classic medieval fashion for parti-coloured clothing, i.e., made with different colours for different parts, started around this time.
Other underwear would be a plain shirt with long, tight sleeves, and a coif, a close-fitting cap.

Outerwear

Outerwear could be a sleeveless tabard, the cyclas. Later this was seamed and became the surcote.
After 1200 this gained sleeves and an attached hood and became the gardcorps, rather like present-day academic robes, and was often used for travelling. Other foul weather gear was a cloak or mantle, either rectangular or a half or full circle. These were fastened, often with elaborate brooches, usually on the right shoulder.

Sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1100-1200_in_fashion

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1200-1300_in_fashion

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1300-1400_in_fashion

http://www.usd.edu/~socrean/arts/gunnas.htm

http://www.britannica.com

http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Acres/7631/costume3.html

http://www.periodclothing.co.uk/page/Medieval_Fashion.html

http://www.e4s.org.uk/textilesonline/content/6library/fr_library.htm

No pritine habitats were torn up to permit the construction of this page, but the species Biscuitus Digestivus was pushed further towards the edge of extinction.

Additions and corrections are welcome, accompanied by referenced sources, to seamstress(at)deadchickenhat(dot)com.

All mistakes are entirely of my own invention, and I claim world-wide copyright on them.

Male – Tunics became more close fitting and there was an increased use of hats. For the poor there was very little change in clothing from the earlier pre-Norman period. Tight fitting hose made of wool or linen were worn, sometimes with cross gartering on the lower leg. Padded doublets began to appear in the late 1300’s with the introduction of a more tailored look. Over this was worn a tunic. Sleeves were generally long and full. Doublets became shorter demanding the use of cod-pieces. Towards the end of the period the tunic was replaced by a short jacket. Older men wore long gowns with full sleeves called louppelande. This was adopted as the dress of the professional classes well into the 1500’s. From the late 1300’s, shoes became more pointed. Some shoes reaching 18" long. Such was the concern, that in England there was a law to stop men wearing shoes with points greater than 2 inches long. For the head, the hood with the pointed end or liripipe was modified into a sort of turban. Female - Bodices of gowns, at least for the rich, became more and more fitted as the period progressed, with tight fitting sleeves and a full skirt. Early forms of the corset appeared. Over tunics such as the bliaut, an Oriental garment, were also worn. Veils, barbettes (linen band under the chin), wimples and crespine (hairnets) were worn on the head and shoulders, together with elaborate padded headdresses. Shoes became more pointed. Fabric production also became much easier in this era through the invention of two labor-saving devices: The spinning wheel and the horizontal loom which increased both fabric quality and production nearly tenfold. Crusaders, including women, brought back new materials and new styles. Luxurious Oriental fabrics such as silks, satins, damasks, brocades, and velvets were introduced, in bright colors and elaborate weaves. Wood-block printing of fabrics was adopted and buttons also arrived from the East. Although a fitted tunic remained the basic item of apparel for both men and women, hose took the place of trousers, and garments were embellished with jewels, embroidery, and fur trimming. Men wore breeches and hose (trousers and stockings). The hose became so long in the High Gothic period as to almost eliminate the breeches. Until the advent of knitted material hose were made of wool or linen cut to shape for a relatively tight fit. In the 12th century the hose reached mid thigh and were made to cover the short breeches or drawers. Earlier, the breeches of the wealthy were cut narrower and those of laborers fuller, both usually cross-gartered below the knee. The over tunic was replaced by an Oriental garment known as the bliaut. By 1200 AD, tight lacing drew the women's bliaut into a form fitting shape which, girdled at the hips, created a long-waisted appearance. A mantle, hung from the back of the shoulders and descending to the ground, was worn outdoors. Everything, including the sleeves, was long, full, and trailing. Until relatively recently, fashion was the prerogative of the aristocracy. The clothing of ordinary people did not change much. The history of clothing has largely been taken from portraits of important people in their finest and most impressive attire. But even among the upper classes, clothing was costly enough to be cared for, reused, and passed from one generation to the next. Radical changes in fashion occurred infrequently until the Industrial Revolution in the 18th and 19th centuries made the production of both cloth and clothing far easier and less expensive. During the medieval period from the 11th to the 13th centuries, the clothing of the people varied according to their social standing. There was a clear distinction between the fashion of the upper classes and nobility and that of the lower classes. Peasant clothing was very simple, while the clothing of the nobles concentrated on the sleeves of the garments. Knights wore sleeveless coats that were adorned with a coat of arms. Nomads of the time wore clothing made of fur, wool and leather. Most of the nobles wore trousers and fine leather shoes. At the beginning of the 11th century, men wore loose fitting clothing and flowing robes. Dramatic changes throughout the centuries show that by the end of the 13th century, the fashion had changed for men in that the clothes was more tight fitting. They wore tunics, under which they wore undershirts. Stockings were common and cloaks that fitted over the head like a cape were the main form of outerwear. Women wore kirtles under their clothing next to the skin. Over the kirtle they wore a long tunic that extended to the ankles and when in public they often wore a shorter kirtle over the tunic. Wealthy women wore more decorative tunics and kirtles, often decorating them with lace or netting. Married women covered their hair with mop caps and their hair was wound into a bun that fitted into the cap. Some women wore veils over their heads, which they left to hang loosely. Unmarried women and young girls often wore their hair in braids In England there were laws governing the types of clothing and the colors the people could wear. For example, only royalty was allowed to wear purple or gold. Lower class women were not permitted to wear veils and only the wives and daughters of nobles could wear silk or velvet.

Dead Chicken Hats Biblical Greek Roman Medieval Tudor Stuart Character Glossary Gallery Free Patterns Free Leaflets Videos and Tutorials - NEW! Why The Fish? Fun Stuff Real Chicken Hut About Us About our Costumes Garment Care Fabric & Construction Refunds and Returns Hiring We Don't Sell That, But... Shipping Privacy Policies & Terms Contact Us See-Saw Maths Just What Is A Dead Chicken Hat, Anyway? .	Also Middle Ages, Gothic The medieval period ranges from the Norman Conquest (1066) up to end of the Wars of the Roses (1455-1485) and the eventual plumping for Henry Tudor. We're thinking Robin Hood, The Crusades (1095-1291), Richard the Lionheart (1157-1199), King John 'Lackland' and the Magna Carta (1215), Robert the Bruce (1274-1329), Chaucer's Canterbury Tales (1387) and Richard III and the princes in the tower (1483) During these years fashion generally changed slowly. Clothing was derived either from the Roman styles, floor length flowing robes for the upper classes, or from the 'barbarian' knee-length tunics, or cotte, for the working classes. Clothing was generally based on sewn-together rectangles and had to be loose enough to be slipped on over the head, held in place with girdles. From 1350 or so clothing became more fitted, with curved seams and the use of buttons, an innovation brought back from the crusades. Men's tunics became shorter, and the doublet (also known as a cotehardie or pourpint) becoming acceptable as outerwear. The fashion for parti-coloured garments, particuarly hose, reached its height. As men's hemlines ascended the separate legs of the hose became joined and were often laced to the doublet. At the end of the 14th century the fashionable line changed from the slender and willowy to the voluminous and exagerated. The new garment for both men and women that appeared around 1380 to satify this was the houppelande. It was a high-collared gown with dramatically large sleeves. Women wore it with a waist-deep V at the front, showing off the rich fabric of the cotehardie underneath. The bigger the sleeves, the greater the staus of the wearer. Fur was a popular trim as was dagging, the ornamental (and jolly awkward to sew) scalloped edges seen on hems throughout the later middle ages. Round this time also, in line with the fashion for all things extaravagent to the point of impracticality, the chaperon transformed from being a utilitarian caped hood to the complicated Dead Chicken Hat.
		Women's Clothing Women wore their cottes floor-length, although they were often hitched up for working in the fields. But for the leisured classes the flared bliaut with its trumpet-shaped sleeves was a dashing new fashion brought over from France with the Conqueror. The bliaut brought an important change in women's fashion; the garment was cut with a separate corps and skirt. The latter was cut very wide and flowing, and pleated or gathered onto the corps which was very tight, with side lacing the emphasize the shape of the body. Bliaut sleeves were tight to the elbow and then dropped vertically to the floor. Consequently, it became the fashion to wear them knotted up! From 1350 or so clothing became more fitted, with curved seams and the use of buttons, an innovation brought back from the crusades. Skirts gained gores to make them even wider at the hem and the cotehardie, a gown cut usully without a waist seam and with gored skirts, was born. This upper-class woman is wearing a cotehardie or kirtle, a close-fitting dress laced at the back. The outer kirtle has long, flared sleeves, while underneath she has a similar gown with tight-fitting sleeves. Under this she would have a full-length chemise or smock. Married women wore a veil for their hair, and, from around 1200, they veiled their necks, too, with a wimple. This transformed into a chinstrap, the barbette. A crown-like headband called a filet secured veils, and later decorative hair nets, cauls, were the fashion.
	Men's Clothing From the top, these men are wearing firstly, chaperon hoods - The left one is loose fitting with a front slit, the one on the right is close fitting and has decorative dagging round the hem and is worn with a felt hat. Below this a knee-length tunic, possibly two, and a narrow belt or girdle. These tunics, or cottes, were often split up the front and tucked into the girdle for working. Cottes, particularly longer ones, had triangular godets set into the side, front or back seams to make them wider at the hem. The legs are covered with hose, slim-fitting leggings that reached above the knees. They could be bound at the lower edge or up to the knees with garters. After around 1200 they became longer and closer-fitting and were tied to the belt that held up the braies, long underpants worn tucked into the top of the hose. The classic medieval fashion for parti-coloured clothing, i.e., made with different colours for different parts, started around this time. Other underwear would be a plain shirt with long, tight sleeves, and a coif, a close-fitting cap.
		Outerwear Outerwear could be a sleeveless tabard, the cyclas. Later this was seamed and became the surcote. After 1200 this gained sleeves and an attached hood and became the gardcorps, rather like present-day academic robes, and was often used for travelling. Other foul weather gear was a cloak or mantle, either rectangular or a half or full circle. These were fastened, often with elaborate brooches, usually on the right shoulder.