CONTENTS:

Introduction
- Tunics
    -Dark Ages
    -The High Middle Ages
    -The Late Middle Ages
Cloaks
Leg coverings (under construction)
Footwear
Glossary
Resources

Material:

By 1100, guilds had become well established in most industries, and this certainly was true of the textile industry. As towns continued to grow, weavers, dyers and others involved in the textile industry were often grouped into sections of towns so that those shopping for certain goods would have an easy time finding what they wanted. As a result, competition among individual producers became fierce ~ if one weaver lowered his price, all others would have to lower their prices in order to compete. This led to the development of the guild system which regulated prices and set quality standards. Thus, a more uniform quality of fabric became more readily available.

Along with the guild system, the 12th century saw the introduction of the horizontal loom to western Europe. The horizontal loom is seen by many as the most major change to take place in fabric production until the Industrial Revolution. However, the horizontal loom didn't become the standard until the mid-12th century. The loom made it possible to product bolts of fabric of great length and of more than twice the width of the warp-weighted, vertical loom. It also sped up the weaving process by controlling the raising and lowering of warp threads with foot pedals and using a boat shaped shuttle that could be slid through the shed easily. While at first, this innovation could not duplicate the intricate weaves that were possible with the vertical loom, advances in the design allowed for horizontal looms to be employed in weaving nearly any pattern.

What this meant for clothing is that fabric could now be produced at a lower cost with greater consistency, thus driving down the price. It was now possible for a greater swath of people to afford a higher quality of material. However, the finest clothes were still only accessible to the highest ranks of society. As prices dropped, governments began to introduce sumptuary laws that laid out rules for who could wear what materials and in what colors they could be dyed. This is certainly evidence of the ability of the middle classes to purchase goods that had once only been attainable by the elite.

In addition to these factors were the Crusaders, who opened up new trade routes with the Middle East. Their activities brought an increased influx of exotic fabrics from the Orient ~ making foreign silk more readily available and bringing with it Byzantine and Middle Eastern style.

Also by the 12th century, Italy had become a major player in the silk production industry. Italian silk, while not yet as fine as foreign silk, was high quality and available at a lower price than mid-eastern or Chinese silk.

There is much debate about when velvet was first introduced to Europe. There is strong evidence that suggest that velvet was available to people in the High Middle Ages. However, the use of velvet is not recommended in the MMCG unless its use has been thoroughly researched.

Color:

Improvements in dying techniques along with new discoveries of materials that could be used for dyes meant that lower class people could afford bolder colors in their everyday clothes. However, the best colors were still cost-prohibitive to the general populace. The most expensive colors remained deep purple and scarlet red.

Style:

Under-tunics of the same fashion of earlier periods continued to be worn under almost all styles of clothing in the High Middle Ages. The voluminous over-tunics of the earlier period continued to be in fashion up until the first part of the 12th century ~ and even later for the lower classes. Shortly into the 12th, tunics began to be cut closer to the the body and were commonly laced at the sides or back to make them fit even tighter.

Tunics were still commonly worn belted at the waist and hung down most commonly from between the mid calf and the ankle ~ though knee-length tunics were still common and were worn more often for activities that required more freedom of movement such as hunting and in battle. Slits in the skirt of the tunic became more common and most often were at the front.

A female's over-tunic in the style of the 12th century. Notice the tight fitting torso, a belt is used to draw the tunic tight around the mid-section ~ tailoring clothes to fit the body had not been introduced into clothing yet so, to achieve a form fit, belts, garters and lacing were employed to keep garments tight to the body. The sleeves are of the bell type and have very long trailing ends.

The necks of these tunics were most often round and sometimes "V" neck or square, round neck openings often had slits that were offset, diagonal or on the shoulder. Sleeves in men's clothing began to take on more shapes and tubular sleeves that came to the mid-forearm were common and dolman sleeves, loose on the upper arm and tightening from the elbow to the wrist. Neck lines, cuffs and hems were decorated with contrasting colors. Long, tight fitting sleeves remained in fashion as well with decoration at the cuff, but also commonly around the upper arm. In England, women elongated the end of the sleeve at the wrist dramaticly, so long that they began to tie the ends to keep them out of the way ~ which quickly became the fashion as well. In Germany, the sleeve was elongated in the same way but also lengthened so that it covered the entire hand.

Detail of an extant medieval tunic. Notice the detailed embroidery around the neck, cuffs and under the arms and the applied heraldic eagle rondels on the body. (late 13th/early 14th cent., German)

The most distinctive change in clothing of the 12th century was the use of parti-coloring and dagged hem lines in clothing. These elements were probably first employed by jongleurs, low class entertainers, to draw attention to themselves but was eventually adopted by the fashion elite. Another bold design element that began to see common use among the nobility were heraldic designs on the trim and also the main body of the garment.

The crusaders brought back a new military style that was soon adopted in civilian clothes. In the Middle East, crusaders found that wearing a surcoat, sleeveless tunics with wide openings in the neck that were not sewn up the sides and were worn over the armor to keep the sun and rain off their armor. Surcoats were worn by both men and women, more commonly by women, over the tunic and were not belted. A variation of the surcoat was the tabard, which was essentially the same but was sewn together on the sides only at the waist.

In the 13th century, the use of dagging extended to the sleeves of the over-tunic, which often were belled and were commonly worn at the elbow, displaying the under-tunic from elbow to wrist. Another fashion that started in France at this time was leaving the arm opening open in the front at the shoulder seam so that the sleeves could either be worn covering the arm of hanging at the back.

Tunics of this century began to loosen on the torso and while some women still wore tunics and tabards laced at the sides, this was no longer the predominate fashion. These loose-fitting tunics were belted at the waist. Parti-coloring became more predominate throughout Europe. Another adaptation of the tunic to reach prominence during the 13th century was the garde-corps, an ample and long garment that had wide, hanging sleeves with slits at the elbow to allow the arm to emerge ~ it was worn over the tunic when venturing outdoors and was unbelted.