14th Century Clothing

Bibliographic entries compiled to serve my research purposes on the subject of costume rhetoric in the works of Geoffrey Chaucer. Sections include: sumptuary laws; history of costume; accessories/accoutrements; miscellaneous (fur, embroidery, buttonholes, narrow wares, etc.); fabric, clothmaking, and prices; costumes depicted in two- and three-dimensional visual arts; costumes depicted on funeral brasses; costumes depicted in literature; and dictionaries for costume terms.

Patterns for the layers and accessorie s for a man's 14th century outfit, including braies, hose, a coif, a hood, and a pouch.

A survey of clothing for various classes and occupations in the 14th century.

Guidance & advice for clothing; mostly line-drawing patterns for medieval garments, including shirts & tunics, a hood, hose, doublets, and a few Middle Eastern garments.

A class handout covering the evolution of the sideless surcoat from the 12th century Spanish pellote to the 15th century.

Pattern and photos of a project to construct a sideless surcoat.

Line drawings from extant medieval garments.

A cursory examination, for people interested in historical recreation and replication, of the extant archaeological and museum materials relating to clothing in the Middle Ages.

A summary of the different aspects of cut and style that were seen in women's cotehardies, with suggestions for construction and wearing of re-creative garments. With this information, any number of cotehardies can be created, that while not exact copies of any one historical example, are authentic and in the style of the period.

Notes on medieval clothing, and a few passages from English sumptuary laws of 1336, 1337 and 1363.

One particularly noteworthy tailoring technique employed on the so-called "pourpoint of Charles de Blois" is a two-section sleeve pattern that I like to call the "elbow hinge", as it gives the wearer a skin-tight fit through the arm while maintaining built-in bend-ability at the elbow.

The silk fabric of the pourpoint of Charles de Blois was cut into an intimidati ng 26 pieces before assembly. Upon considerat ion, its tailoring is not 26 pieces-wor th of complicate d, however, because many of those original pieces could have been combined — with no change to the shaping of the garment — had the fabric been wider. To be exact, the pieces of the garment could have been reduced to 18 with no change to its shape at all. I believe the overly-pie ced cut is proof that the fabric was both narrow and scant in length. To this date, a detailed analysis explaining why the extra piecing was placed where it was has not been published. This article shows how the original pieces fit neatly into a layout on narrow, folded fabric while also revealing the original fabric's width, which I extrapolat ed using the armhole measuremen t and a basic understand ing of tailoring.

A collection of posts by Robin Netherton.

Constructi on of a 14th century French man's outfit and a Heian-peri od woman' s outfit for a baronial investitur e.

Making supportive kirtles using the geometric constructi on method.

The cut of this dress is based on practical experiment ation rather than on a known period cutting method- but it does leave very little waste and can be pieced together out of narrower cloth very easily.

A searchable catalog of surviving garments from Europe and the Mediterranean from the dawn of time up through approximately 1500.

La grande assiette is a term for a tailoring method used in the mid/late 14th century and throughout the fifteenth century in which a sleeve was inserted into a deeply-set arm hole with the assistance of triangular gores or trapezoidal gussets. A freely moving sleeve piece set deeply into the body of the garment allowed full and unconstricted movement of the arms, chest, and shoulders while maintaining a relatively fitted appearance. When moving one's arms in a windmill fashion, the bottom portion of one's garment would remain stationary, adding a degree of comfort and convenience for laborers and the martially-inclined. The historical use of gores/gussets instead of large, mushroom-shaped sleeve caps probably assisted fabric conservation as well as the ability to fine-tune the tailoring with bias-vs.-straight-grain combinations, different angles and points of 'flare', and varied sizing of the inserted gores.

How to make a cotehardie based on extant garments from Greenland.

Examples of a streamer modernly called a tippet and its appearance on sleeves in the 14th and 15th centuries.

The linen Bocksten-s tyle tunic is immensely popular in LARP, SCA, and Dagorhir. It's as comfy as pajamas, but it has perfect range of motion. It looks good on everyone, but it's easy to fit. It's simple to cut, but it uses fabric efficientl y. It's the ideal garment, and everyone should have one.

Se e also Measure and Draft a Better Bocksten Tunic.

Women's belts from 14th century artwork, and an extant belt.

Plus size women's cotehardie pattern in four panel style. Other sizes available in princess seam style on same site.

Research and discussion of women' s kirtles and cotehardie s. Includes bibliograp hy, and details of art from period.