The archaeological record shows that linen was an important part of Viking Age clothing. Linen cloth developed gradually from being virtually nonexistent in Scandinavia at the start of the first millennium AD…
The literary significance of clothing in the Icelandic family sagas
September 20, 2013 By
We do not often hear about what the character is wearing – and when we do it can be difficult to discern why clothes are being mentioned at this particular point and why only in relation to a certain character.
Making and breaking order via clothing
September 17, 2013 By
Following the events which disrupted social stability in fourteenth and fifteenth-century England, individuals from a variety of social contexts demonstrated a particular necessity to see order visibly displayed in society.
The Garments of Guy in the Bayeux Tapestry
May 24, 2013 By
In her paper, Gale R. Owen-Crocker looks at how the late 11th century frieze portrays Guy, Count of Ponthieu.
The Queen of Sicily’s Paris Shopping List, 1277
May 16, 2013 By
Sarah-Grace Heller examines a letter sent by Charles I of Anjou, King of Sicily to one of his agents in Paris, where he provides a detailed order of textiles and clothing that he needed to have purchased.
Acquiring, Flaunting and Destroying Silk In Late Anglo-Saxon England
May 4, 2013 By
This paper will argue that vibrantly coloured silks and other elaborate textiles were ubiquitous in England in the late Anglo-Saxon period.
What did the Renaissance man wear? Historian recreates outfit from the 16th century
May 1, 2013 By
In the sixteenth century an accountant in the German city of Augsburg named Matthäus Schwarz was busy moving up the social circles, and he did it in part by knowing the latest fashions and dressing well. By 1541 he succeeded in becoming a member of the nobility. Now his efforts are being recreated in an experimental research project at the University of Cambridge.
Best Clothes and Everyday Attire of Late Medieval Nuns
March 25, 2013 By
The habit symbolises humility because it nulifies any difference of estate; it signifies the will to chastity because it disguises the feminine form of the body; and it displays outer obedience to divine com- mands by its timelessly simple cut and fabric of linen or wool. Given this sort of symbolism, fashion and nuns appear to be mutually exclusive themes.
Fashion of Middle England and its Image in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales
February 24, 2013 By
Fashion of Middle England and its Image in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales Petra Štěpánková Bachelor Thesis, Masaryk University – Brno, Faculty of Education, Department of English Language and Literature, Brno (2012) Abstract This thesis deals with the main features of fashion in medieval England and focuses particularly on the second half of the fourteenth century. It […]
Life, Death, Fate and Female Embodiment: Weaving in Viking Age and Medieval Iceland
January 3, 2013 By
Video of a lecture on medieval Icelandic textiles.
Beyond fragments and shards: Children in medieval Bergen
December 10, 2012 By
By analysing physical remains reflecting the games, behaviour and clothing of children (specifically toys and shoes) it has been possible to obtain new information and shed new light on the everyday life of children in medieval Bergen
Technological Development in Late Saxon Textile Production: its relationship to an emerging market economy and changes in society
December 2, 2012 By
The process of change from domestic textile production in early Anglo-Saxon England (5th – mid-7th century) to the more commercially based, organised industry of the late Saxon period (late 9th – 11th century) is a long and complex one.
New research on how the Bayeux Tapestry was made
November 15, 2012 By
A University of Manchester researcher has thrown new light on how the world famous Bayeux Tapestry was made over 900 years ago.
Female Dress in Cyprus during the Medieval Period
November 11, 2012 By
Cyprus offers ample evidence for the way people dressed in medieval times. Such testimony is preserved in a variety of media: frescoes, icons, effigial slabs and manuscripts.
Coptic Dress In Egypt: The Social Life Of Medieval Cloth
October 21, 2012 By
Coptic textiles in most collections present a very rich iconography, somewhat derived from classical traditions, which has also attracted the attention of art historians. Very little of their work, however, has made any headway in our understanding of the contemporaneous meanings of Coptic textile images and other decorations.
Chaucer’s costume rhetoric in his portrait of the Prioress
October 10, 2012 By
No critic has ever discussed costume signs in order to reveal to what extent the Prioress does or does not conform in her costume to the fourteenth century norm, with consideration given, simultaneously, to the historical records, literature and visual arts of the period that form and inform the signs from the many traditions Chaucer in corporates in his portrait of the Prioress.
Cultural Identity and Dress: The Case of Late Byzantine Court Costume
October 7, 2012 By
At the earliest stages of its development, ceremonial costume was often a more ornate and luxurious version of contemporary attire. It’s use in a ritual context, however, resulted in its becoming imbued with a symbolic significance, a significance that epitomized the political and religious ideology of the state in general and the self perception of the ruling class in particular.
Fashion and Self-Fashioning: Clothing Regulation in Renaissance Italy
October 4, 2012 By
In 1378 a ten-year-old girl named Nicolosa was fined fourteen lire for wearing a fine silk gown with tassels on the streets of Florence. In 1398 a prostitute of the same city was prosecuted for failing to wear high-heeled slippers and a bell on her head.
Maculate Conceptions
September 30, 2012 By
For the greater part of human history…disease has been understood in terms of its manifestations on the outside of the body. more than any other sign, t has been spots that have signified the onset of disease…
Sometimes a Codpiece Is Just a Codpiece: The Meanings of Medieval Clothes
September 26, 2012 By
I am going to take you on a small tour of clothing production and of the many roles that clothing played in medieval life.
Expressions of Power – Luxury textiles from early medieval northern Europe
September 17, 2012 By
This paper focuses on luxury textiles from archaeological and non-archaeological contexts in north-western Europe.
Irish Viking Age silks and their place in Hiberno-Norse society
September 17, 2012 By
The silk remains from Viking Age Ireland open a window through which we glimpse their world in many of its different and intriguing aspects.
Fashioning Change: The Trope of Clothing in High- and Late-Medieval England
September 2, 2012 By
Medieval European culture was obsessed with clothing. In Fashioning Change: The Trope of Clothing in High-and Late-Medieval England, Andrea Denny-Brown explores the central impact of clothing in medieval ideas about impermanence and the ethical stakes of human transience.
“Semiotics of the Cloth”: Reading Medieval Norse Textile Traditions
July 29, 2012 By
Reading textiles from medieval Norse society supplements written sources and also provides insight into the voice of the individual who created these textiles.
“Well Cut through the Body:” Fitted Clothing in Twelfth·Century Europe
July 22, 2012 By
Before we go any farther, we should investigate the very practical suggestion that tightly fitted clothing resulted from developments in “cutting and sewing technology.” In the case of twelfth century Europe, however, it seems there was no real change in the tools of the trade; for example, iron shears, which might seem primitive, continued to be used by tailors into the late middle ages.
How you can Follow Us!