The medieval period was a time of artfully made clothes, bright and colorful garments, fancy styles of attire, and gorgeous adornments. That’s when a lot of rules that regulated fashion were created. For instance, the concept that every social class had its own peculiarities in attire and a person couldn’t just ignore these rules. If you wore garments that were too fancy or too expensive for your class, for your status, you were punished. But there was a bright side to medieval fashion – the period outfits were really elegant and beautifully embellished, even garments of the poor looked good due to their nice cut and design.
Read also: 10 traditional garments of Medieval Europe
Medieval houppelande – opulent and regal outerwear
Medieval knight’s armor. Top-4 types of warrior protective coverings
In medieval times, fashion played an important role in the life of European society. A lot of concepts came into fashion during this particular era. The trendsetters in fashion in Europe were mainly kings and queens. Their courts imitated their appearance and clothing, which led to the emergence of fashion trends as we know them.
At the beginning of the medieval period, fashion was a simple idea – it meant that you dressed just like everyone else around you. Later, this idea changed dramatically.
This is the time when colorful dyes started to come in use, so people began to wear bright clothing. It was still a new concept, so both men and women tried to choose vibrant colors for their garments to look up to date.
Painting on parchment “Young Men and Women Outdoors”, about 1460-1470. It is preserved in The J. Paul Getty Museum. You can see typical medieval garments here
Another factor that influenced medieval European fashion were crusaders. They traveled large distances and contacted with other cultures, like the Middle East and Asia. They brought a lot of trends and ideas from these – faraway at the time – parts of the world. Also, they brought fabrics, jewelry, garments, and accessories, which quickly gained popularity in their homeland.
There were many garments used throughout the Middle Ages by different genders and classes. Among them are cloak, kirtle, tunic, houppelande, surcoat, cottehardie, hose, and many, many others. We see that cloaks, diverse headdresses, and pointed shoes were extremely widespread among both men and women during this time. Each of the clothing articles (and more importantly, the fabric, design, and embellishments) showed off the social class of the wearer. There was a strict division of Europeans according to their status. People weren’t even allowed to wear outfits that were too expensive or too ornate for their class.
The people of lower classes wore, of course, cheaper and coarser materials and decorations, they used less fabric to make clothing and a lot fewer adornments. The most popular fabrics for them were wool, linen, sheepskin, hemp, etc. As such materials as silk and cotton came from the Middle East, they were available only for the wealthier citizens of medieval Europe, along with velvet, lace, brocade, and so on.
The Middle Ages is a period when men needed servants to help them get dressed because they wore very tight-fitting clothes.
“Reconstruction of the temple of Jerusalem”. From 15th-century Old French translation of William of Tyre's Histoire d'Outremer. It is stored in Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France
During the 15th century, accessories became very popular. People (males and females alike) often wore necklaces and other jewels, decorated their clothing with jewelry. Also, women wore false hair to create more beautiful and elaborate hairstyles.
The medieval period was a time of artfully made clothes, bright and colorful garments, fancy styles of attire, and gorgeous adornments. A lot of people consider that the Middle Ages is exactly the era when fashion as we know it arose. These several centuries gave us many sophisticated designs, exquisite accessories, and regal clothing styles.
