15th Century Clothing

Enter the height, chest, and length, and this webpage will calcluate a pattern for a garment in the style of Herjolfsne s 63.

A fur primer for 14th and 15th century European clothing. Train your eye to recognize fur when it is depicted as part of clothing and hats in late 14th and early 15th century manuscript s.

Italian men's clothing of the mid-15th century has a distinctive style that involves many different layers. The images in this handout are from the northern part of Italy: Florence, Ferrara, Siena, Venice, and other nearby regions. The relative scarcity of images from southern Italy makes it difficult to say how far south the style extended.

Images of wide silk belts worn by ladies in the 15th century, organized by color to better understand which colors were used. (These are sometimes considered "Burgu ndian,&#34 ; but they seem to have been fashionabl e in France, Flanders, and England too.) In several of the paintings, one can even discern the pattern woven into the silk.

Written for members of a late 15th century re-enactme nt group. Primarily a costume guide, but includes informatio n on fighting apparel and crafts & games as well.

This class is a mix between a research lecture and a dress diary, in which I first provide some source analysis on a feminine style of clothing and headdress seen in figural art around 1480, followed by my use of this informatio n in the making of my own version of the outfit.

There are a variety of silhouettes in the body-hugging gowns worn by women in the fine art of the late 14th and early 15th centuries in Europe. Theories abound concerning the methods used to achieve the look of these gowns -- a look that more often than not hoisted the bust to attractive heights, or at the least, gave it the appearance of comfortable support. Most intriguing of all is that there is no provable evidence for the widespread use of a supportive undergarment. How did the gowns support the bust?

A medieval friary in the north-east of England is not, perhaps, the first place you'd look for evidence of high-fashi on civilian clothing from the 14th and 15th centuries. Hoods, gowns, girdles and some of England&#3 9;s earliest underpants were a surprise.

The fashions of the fifteenth century were notable for their extravagan ce, exaggerati on and general splendour. From the middle of the century, styles were heavily influenced by the court fashions of the Burgundian Dukes in France, themselves following Italian fashions.

Also online at users.iafrica.com/m/me/melisant/costume/garb5.htm.

Subjects covered in this issue: men's clothing of the 1450's-1470's; and illustrations of woodworking tools, glass vessels, bags, and painters' tools.

Subjects covered in this issue: women's clothing, headdresses, and hairstyles in the late 15th century; and benches, chairs, and stools.

Instructions for construction techniques observed in 15th-16th century clothing, including methods of lining and edge finishing, butted construction, and eyelets and buttonholes.

Welcome to Myra's costume site, dedicated to explorations of female costume in Germany in the early Renaissance. When I started my forays into this period a couple of years ago, I found very few online resources for the early Renaissance in comparison to what is found on for the later periods during the 16th century. One reason for these pages was therefore partly to try to fill that gap and partly to take up the challenge of experimenting with costumes I had not so seen around in the historical re-enactment world, the period between the 15th century military companies and the later Swiss and Cranach-style Landsknecht fashion.

For the medieval person, clothing and dress always had a special meaning. The symbolic aspects of a given garment, and not simply the utility functions such as protection , played a significan t role in medieval society. Costumes composed a part of courtly life as well, their special meaning having been defined and refined by members of the aristocrac y for their own use.

Dagging and dagged garments from the late Middle Ages, including dagged hoods, dagged sleeves, and dagged cloaks.

Drafting a houppelande pattern through simple alterations of an existing princess line dress pattern.

The sources most commonly used for clothing research in the SCA are not original garments, but contemporary depictions of garments in art. To better understand how the researcher may best interpret visual sources, all of the sources of clothing information for the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries must be examined; and the relative availability of the different types of sources, and the limitations of those sources that are available must be understood.

Contains a rambling (but probably still useful) introduction to a paper which examines the way fitted gown layers are combined in the art of the 14thc and 15th centuries as well as a visual sampling of fitted gowns that have long buttoned sleeves and buttons down the center-front opening.

The use of bells to trim baldrics, belts, and other garments for 14th and 15th century outfits.

A catalogue of the garment-terms in the Paston letters of the late 15th and early 16th centuries.

This article examines the use of pockets in western Europe from the late fifteenth to the early seventeent h centuries, demonstrat ing that pockets were adopted into clothing much earlier than has often been believed. It discusses the physical form of pockets in the dress of both genders and the types of garments into which they were inserted.

Patterns for Viking and medieval armor, clothing, and accessorie s.

A pattern for 15th century men's joined hose.

A discussion of the forms a houpelande might take, from the simplest method, to the most complex, using diagrams and some modern pattern making theory. Few garments have survived from this time period, and those that have were not saved with a name tag on them to help us to identify them. Much of this is conjecture from study of pictures and modern sewing training.

An article from Archaeolog cal Textiles Review on the pleating on the shirt fragments from Lengberg Castle, dating to 1485.

Articles and re-creations of clothing and accessories, mostly from 15th century Switzerland.

Once clothing became more fitted and could no longer be slipped over one's head, it became necessary to tightly close gowns and tunics. An overview of how and where to close clothing through the centuries, with practical advice of how to get it done. Includes, from extant examples and details from artwork: buttons (metal, bone, and cloth); eyelets; lacing rings; hook and eye; pins; and lacing patterns.

An essay reconstructing the clothing (shirt, jupon/doublet, hood/chaperon, and hose/chausses) of Joan of Arc, based on illustrations and artifacts from the 15th century.

Selected illustrations from a 19th century book on historic fashions.

Guild statutes provide precise indications for methods of fabrication of the objects of daily life in the Middle Ages. This webpage provides statutes from guilds for makers of aguilettes (points?), purses, armor, tallow candlesticks, hose, clothing, and writing-tables.

Links to artwork demonstrating how women's clothing was modified for pregnancy in the 14th-16th centuries.

A hennin, or atours, constructed on a reed-woven structure; how to construct and wear this headdress. See www.eleanorlebrun.com/beadedHenin.htm for an example with beadwork ornamentation.

Descriptio n of the various layers in a man's outfit of the later 15th century.

The second layer of the woman' s dress, in English referred to as the kirtle, was the developmen t of the cotte of the previous century. This cotte, first covered by the similarly styled cote-hardi e, and then by the voluminous houppeland e, was a tightly fitted gown with a round neck and long slender sleeves. It provided body support and shaping so that the fine fabrics of the over gown were not under excessive stress.

Focuses on the 15th century doublet that was worn over the shirt and under a gown, houppeland, or other outer layer of clothing.

The issue of Joan of Arc's male clothing is one of the more controversial points related to her history, and an issue continually inspiring much writing which has often been based on an incomplete understanding of the evidence. Due to the greater availability of the Condemnation transcript in English translation, the version given in this document is often accepted at face value, with little or no effort to examine the many other sources nor the 15th century theological principles governing the subject of cross-dressing. Moreover, the nature of the clothing, and hence the eyewitness descriptions of its usage for purposes of necessity, are often misunderstood.