How to create your own medieval costume
Here are some tips to create your own thrifty costume! With these suggestions you’ll have your own “medieval” wardrobe!
Working in the Middle Ages: The Medieval Clothier
Clothiers were the entrepreneurs at the heart of the cloth trade which became England’s leading industry in the late Middle Ages. No other industry created more employment or generated more wealth.
Sumptuary Legislation and Conduct Literature in Late Medieval England
This study is an examination of attempts to control dress in late medieval England.
Overlooked and Undervalued: Underwear in the Middle Ages
Despite being one of the most important garments, underwear is the part of medieval clothing that is often ignored and unexplored in historical fiction and costuming. What can we say about this element of fashion, which has been overlooked for far too long?
Dress pins from Anglo-Saxon England
This thesis examines the development, production and function of dress pins in Anglo- Saxon England.
Medieval Clothing in Uvdal, Norway
A special feature of three of the bodies was that their skulls were wrapped in linen cloth. Not only the forehead and neck, but also mouth, nose and eyes were covered with linen. These linen wrappings must have been applied especially for burial purposes.
Nalbinding for Beginners
Nalbinding is the Viking-Age term for single-needle knitting. A traditional wool craft that would be used to make woollen hats, socks, gloves and mittens.
From the Closet to the Wallet: Pawning Clothes in Renaissance Italy
In this article, we will examine some sources in which pawns were registered in order to gain a better idea of those whom the monti di pietà helped.
The Meaning of the Habit: Religious Orders, Dress and Identity, 1215-1650
What lies at the core of this analysis of the conceptions about religious clothing – used as a heuristic tool – is precisely its capacity to show not only how the identities of the religious orders of the period evolved, but also how they were perceived and conceived, and how they shaped these changes.
Cloth as Currency: Clothing and the Naked in Old Frisian Law
The present article will discuss an economic meaning given to clothing and nakedness that similarly relates clothing to economic means and nakedness to poverty, but is informed differently still.
Clothes Make the (Wo)Man: Interpreting Evidence of the Secondhand Clothing Trade in Late Medieval England
There is very little work done on the topic of secondhand clothing in the Middle Ages, but what has been done has revealed a new phenomenon that reshaped the social structure of medieval England.
Failed Censures: Ecclesiastical Regulation of Women’s Clothing in Late Medieval Italy
Churchmen in the late thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries tried to regulate the costume of Italian women. These efforts failed, and regulation was largely left thereafter to civic authorities.
The Needle is Mightier than the Sword: The Effect of Embroidery in Medieval War Material Culture
Beginning in the early Middle Ages, military garments evolved from simple identifying clothing with little ornamentation, to richly decorated garments that reflected the increasingly complex – and somewhat artificial – heraldic composites.
Material Culture in the Geniza Society
Miriam Frenkel examines the Cairo Geniza records as a source of Jewish life in the Middle Ages.
Undercutting the Fabric of Courtly Love with ‘Tokens of Love’ in Wolfram Von Eschenbach’s Parzival
In this article I will focus on two areas in which clothes provide us insights into Wolfram’s complex commentary on constructions of masculinity and femininity, and the discourse of courtly love
Norse North Atlantic Textiles and Textile Production: A Reflection of Adaptive Strategies in Unique Island Environments
Textile production was a key industry for the Norse colonies of the North Atlantic during the late Viking and Medieval period.
Medieval English Embroidery on Display for the Last Time at the V&A’s Opus Anglicanum Exhibit
The V&A Museum opened its latest medieval exhibit exhibit on Saturday: Opus Anglicanum: Masterpieces of English Medieval Embroidery. I had the opportunity to see it opening day and it was spectacular.
Women’s Work and Family in the Viking Age
A look at women’s work and family life in the Viking Age.
Textile Consumption in Late Medieval Castile: The Social, Economic, and Cultural Meaning of Clothing, 1200-1350
Focusing on the types of clothing imported into the realm, and using information from the royal accounts and tithes of a number of ports in the Bay of Biscay, I focus on issues of production and consumption in late medieval Castile and what this information tells us about the economic structures of the realm and on the exaggerated consumption of foreign cloth by certain groups within Castilian society.
Surviving Winter in the Middle Ages
Surviving Winter in the Middle Ages: How did people stay warm? What did they eat? What did they do?
Bras in the 15th Century? A Preliminary Report
Four linen textiles resemble modern time bras. The criterion for this classification is the presence of distinctly cut cups. The two more fragmented specimens appear to be a combination of a bra and a modern dirndl blouse.
The Vikings and clothing accessories they brought home
New study on the use of imported objects in Viking Age Scandinavia
10 Fun Fashion Facts from the Middle Ages
Here are ten fascinating fashion facts for your enjoyment (I’ve saved my favourites for last).
A Five-Minute Guide to Medieval Fabrics
I don’t know about you, but I often read descriptions of medieval clothing and want to know more about the fabric: what did it look like and what was its texture?
Fashion Old and New: Weaving and Tailoring in the Early Medieval and Early Modern Period
Fashion fan? Interested in medieval and early modern textiles? Then this was your session. 2 papers from opposite ends of the spectrum: Early Medieval weaving and Early Modern Tailoring.