FOURTEENTH CENTURY FASHION
Livre du roi Modus et de la reine Ratio. French, 14th century.
GENERAL FASHION TRENDS
AN OVERVIEW
1315 predates by about fifteen years the great changes that occurred in English
fashion during the fourteenth century. In fashion terms this century has been called a
'less modest' century when clothes became tighter, tailored, more experimental and
with a marked difference developing between male and female dress. It has also
been called by some historians the century that truly marked, from the 1330's
onwards, the emergence of recognisable fashion as we would understand the term
today.
In the early fourteenth century the clothes our villagers
wore would have been relatively plain and practical
garments, suitable to their rank and occupation, and
distinguished as 'a cut above' less in fact by the cut
than by the superior quality of the fabric used.
It was later in the century that the fashionable man
replaced his loose fitting tunic with a padded and
tailored doublet buttoned and tied according to rank
and with a hemline rising, by 1400, to reach the upper
thigh. This in turn required men to wear tights rather
than the hose which would have been tied to the
underside of the longer doublet or held up by garters
beneath a long tunic. Over the doublet might be worn
the ever more elaborate cotehardie, trimmed and
embroidered for the rich and wealthy man about town.
The Morgan (Maciejowski) Bible.
French, 13th century.
It was men's fashion that changed most radically during the fourteenth century
although the trend for both men and women, from about 1330 onwards was for
tighter, for more figure hugging clothes. This was a trend facilitated to a great extent
by the widespread introduction and increasing use of the button and button hole
fastening.
FASHIONS FOR DEDICATION 1315
BEWARE THE PITFALLS.
This is sad for us at Dedication 1315, for to be true to the times we shall have to rein
in our wildest medieval haute couture fancies and take a more sober and undazzled
approach while dressing ourselves.
Not for our purposes should the ladies be wearing corsets and laced, off-theshoulder, hourglass-shaped kirtles, trailing tippets at their elbows and surcoats so
cut away at the sides that they were called 'the gates of hell' by the moral arbiters of
the day. Ladies must also resist the temptation for elaborate headgear. Not for our
purposes should the men be tempted into revealing tights and parti-coloured short
doublets or paltocks, with extravagant liripipes streaming down their backs,
cascades of buttons, serrated and scalloped 'dagges' edging their hoods and
ridiculously pointed shoes.
These exorbitances would not have been seen along the Severn shore or the
Cotswold Edge until nearer 1400. However, this will undoubtedly make life easier for
the dressmakers charged with the task of clothing our 1315 processors and reenactors.
KEEP IT SIMPLE
In 1315 both men and women wore the loose tunics of the previous century, straight
seamed and hanging from the shoulders. The tunics were put on over the head and
if tighter sleeves were desired they would have been sewn into the tunic armholes
each time the tunic was worn. Both men and women wore hose held up under these
long tunics by garters. If shoes were worn they were fairly simple leather or calf skin,
not really seen beneath the tunics so unostentatious articles with left and right foot
cut to the same shape. So, for the purposes of the 1315 enactments firstly we should
decide who we want to be and where we would have fallen in the social hierarchy
and then choose our dress accordingly.
SOMETHING ABOUT THE FABRICS
Romance of Alexander. French, mid-14th century.
Right through the medieval period the most common textile would have been
woollen cloth, rough or fine, plain or dyed, sometimes plaid or checked, and spun
and woven by the local women and men for their own domestic use. Only the very
wealthy would have bought in the services of merchants, tailors, furriers and
embroiderers. Linen and hemp were also woven into cloth, mostly for undergarments
and accessories. The rich might wear silk from Asia and, as trade routes opened up,
finer damasks, velvets, satins and brocades were increasingly imported for and by
the wealthy.
BEWARE THE FASHION POLICE
Only gradually during the first two decades of the fourteenth century did these new
trends begin to filter down through the social orders. From the middle of the century
Sumptuary Laws (Acts of Apparel and Clothing Laws) were passed and amended
several times in response to the increasingly elaborate and revealing fashions being
introduced at court and amongst wealthy trendsetters. Contemporary chroniclers
and observers refer to these new styles
as the 'clothing of devils' and the
sumptuary laws were intended to
prescribe which class and rank could
wear which fashion and fabric. An
attempt, in effect, to control the worst
extravagances of dress creeping down
into the wardrobes of the lower classes.
How successfully these regulations were
or could be enforced is debatable. They
were amended, reissued and repealed so
many times during the fourteenth and
fifteenth centuries that one suspects they
were generally unenforceable. An
additional motive of the laws was to
protect special interests, most
significantly the local woollen industry.
They were more successful in that regard.
Luttrell Psalter. English, early 14th century.
THE SUMPTUARY LAWS
KNOW YOUR PLACE
'you are what you wear'
In the 1363 Sumptuary Laws, for example, it was ruled that yeomen and their
families must only wear:
Fabric worth no more than forty shillings (approx £2) for the whole cloth; no jewels,
gold, silver, embroidery, enamelware or silk; no fur except lamb, rabbit, cat or fox;
women must not wear a silk veil.
On the other hand, esquires (two ranks up in the social pecking order) and worth
£200 per year or merchants with goods to the value of £1,000 and their families
could wear:
Fabric worth no more than five marks (£3 6s 8d) for the whole cloth; cloth of silk and
silver or anything decorated with silver; women may wear miniver but not ermine or
weasel-fur, or jewels except those worn in their hair.
At the polar ends of the social scale the king, and lords with lands worth £1,000
annually, and their families had no restrictions put on what they wore while carters,
ploughmen, drivers of ploughs, oxherds, swineherds, dairymaids and everyone else
working on the land who didn't own forty shillings worth of goods were ordered by
law to only wear 'blanket and russet (coarse woollen cloth) at 12d per ell and belts of
linen rope'.
In this way fashion was seen as a means by which moral and social order could be
maintained and displayed. Clothing would have immediately revealed the occupation
and status of the wearer.
Ormesby Psalter, English, early 14th century.
COUNTRYWOMEN'S FASHION 1315
What should the ladies be wearing?
Countrywomen in our villages in 1315
would have made their own clothes.
Most would have also spun their own
wool and woven and dyed their own
cloth.
This coarse woollen cloth (or russett)
would have been mainly dark brown,
grey, grey-green or a brownish red.
Sometimes it was worn undyed. Our
country woman would have worn a
linen undergarment if she could afford
one covered by a full length tunic of this
russet cloth.
Smithfield Decretals, c1340.
She would only periodically have worn 'clouts' - linen pants. Whilst working she wore
a long apron, rolled up her sleeves (no higher class woman would have shown bare
arms) and in cold weather outdoors she might well have covered herself in a woollen
mantle, with or without a hood, or a hat similar to that worn by her male
contemporaries.
Married and older women of all ranks would have always
worn a wimple - a linen headdress that covered the head
and encircled the face. Younger women and girls would
have tied their hair in plaits which might have fallen loose or
been coiled up in some fashion off their shoulders, fastened
with pins or held in place with nets. Poorer girls and women
might have decorated these arrangements with flowers.
Luttrell Psalter.
English, early 14th century.
For the purposes of processing
for high days, holidays or church attendance we must assume the sleeves were
rolled back down, hose put on (working women are often represented at work bare
footed), aprons taken off and maybe a clean russett tunic with a woven linen girdle
worn as a mark of respectability. Or maybe a mantle was simply thrown over the
threadbare working clothes.
Romance of Alexander. French, mid-14th century. (Also previous image.)
The yeoman's wife or the wealthier townswoman, a merchant's wife perhaps, coming
out to our villages to join or watch the procession, would have worn a slightly more
sophisticated outfit thereby demonstrating her superior social standing and no doubt
hoping to turn a few heads. Still relatively plain and simple by later fourteenth century
standards, she would have worn the universal linen undergarment next to her skin,
hose held up by garters at the knees, leather shoes, a long sleeved tunic (kirtle)
beneath a sleeveless gown, each of different colour, and with the outer gown
perhaps a little shorter and slashed in places round the hem to expose the colour
contrast. Perhaps there would be some fur trim or embellishment. The side splits in
the overmantle got bigger and bigger as the years went by but at this date were fairly
restrained and sometimes laced with threads and tassels.
We must remember that the 1315 processions were enacted in the summer months
so heavy outdoor clothes might not have made an appearance but on a stormy day
the well-dressed lady might have protected her ensemble with a long and lined,
trailing mantle of fine, perhaps patterned cloth. If the under tunic had a tight sleeve
then, in 1315, this would have been sewn in for the day. And for all married and older
women the linen wimple was de rigueur in public.
Any woman of even more elevated and aristocratic status attending the procession
would have worn the same basic outfit although the fabrics would have been of
superior quality and the embellishments, including hair decorations, more expensive.
Luttrell Psalter. English, early 14th century.
Hair styles and headdresses in the early fourteenth century would have been
relatively simple. The elaborate constructions of the later fourteenth century had yet
to materialise and the long veils of the previous century largely abandoned. In 1315
the most fashion
conscious women
amongst the upper
classes would have
sported the 'ramshorn'
where the long hair every
woman would have worn
was parted in the centre
and two side plaits
twisted up into coils at
the ears and fastened
with pins.
Corbels, Badgeworth church, Gloucestershire.
According to the requirement for married women always to have their heads covered
hoods, hats or veils secured by circlets would have been worn and the wimple tied in
place under the chin. As Ian Mortimer writes:
'In the previous century and in the next one it is common for women to wear their
hair loose but fourteenth century noblewomen tend to do this only in the privacy of
their solar chambers. Long, loose hair is generally considered seductive and so, like
naked arms and legs, concealed to avoid impropriety. Only wild and wanton women
dare to leave their hair undressed and loose in public.'
COUNTRYMEN'S FASHIONS 1315
What should the men be wearing?
Luttrell Psalter. English, early 14th century.
Generally in 1315 men, according to rank and occupation, would have worn tunics
full length or to the knee. They also wore linen against the skin - a shirt and braise
(underpants) which were loosely-tied cloths tucked or pinned into a waistband.
Braise are also called breeches at this time and as the century progressed working
men began to wear breeches as trousers for outdoor wear usually beneath a shorter,
belted tunic.
The very poorest servants and farm workers wore
buttonless knee-length tunics of undyed or russett cloth,
tied with a plaited woollen or rope cord belt from which
hung a square bag to carry tools, a knife and other small
items. A poor man may not even have managed the
linen undershirt. They wore woollen hose and shoes
although sometimes they are represented, like their
female counterparts, working barefooted.
The Love Breviary. Catalonian, early 14th century.
Luttrell Psalter. English, early 14th century. (Also next two images.)
On their heads they wore the ubiquitous cowled hoods,
sometimes with extended liripipes or maybe hats with
square crowns and turned up brims. Different trades might
have required accessories such as gloves, aprons,
pouches and boots.
So what of the wealthier yeoman,
townsman or merchant who might
have pitched up to join our
processions? Some might also
have worn the knee length tunic
over hose and the hooded cape
but these would have been in
superior coloured cloth, maybe
decorated and trimmed, maybe with a more extravagant,
colourful liripipe, shoes of finer calf skin and a decorated
leather belt with hanging purses. Some young men, like
their female counterparts, may just have succumbed by
1315 to the long elbow tippets that were becoming fashionable at court.
The lords and noblemen in our
1315 group would almost
certainly have been in full
length robes. Over shirt and
braise they wore a full length,
long sleeved, loose fitting tunic
constructed of simple front and
back pieces stitched up the
sides and put on over the
head. If more fitted long
sleeves were desired the tunic
was cut sleeveless and the
sleeves sewn into the tunic for
the duration of the day.
Romance of Alexander. French, mid-14th century. (Both images.)
Sometimes a belt was worn on this tunic. Over this was worn a shorter, short
sleeved supertunic of contrasting colour.
Over that a cowled hood and, if the weather was
inclement, a square or circular mantle. The liripipe of
the hood could be worn dangling although it became
fashionable to tie it up onto the crown of the head
where it sat rather rakishly framing the brow like a
cockscomb. Alternatively men, of all ranks, wore the
coif, a close fitting linen bonnet tied under the chin.
This might be worn with or without a hat.
Codex Manesse. German, early 14th century.
As to hair styles. Men's hair styles changed little
over the century. In 1315 men's hair would have
been worn parted down the middle and falling to
the shoulder. The king and most secular lords wore
beards. By contrast clergy never do. Why is Bishop
Maidstone sporting a beard? Maybe this is an
indication of a defiant nature or too much time
spent at court. Or maybe, as he journeyed around
his diocese in 1315 he abandoned the daily and
time consuming chore of a shaving preferring to
wait until he returned to the bishop's palace at
Worcester.
Corbel, Hardwicke church, Gloucestershire.
LITTLE EXTRAS
Children seem to have worn
miniature and simplified
versions of adult clothes.
Wealthy men and women both
displayed their wealth and
maybe even their political
allegiances in their choice of
jewellery. Pockets were
uncommon in tunics before the
mid fourteenth century so most
people carried small items in
cloth or leather purses and
pouches strung to their belts.
Romance of Alexander. French, mid-14th century.
Most people would have carried a knife too for work and food although this is not
recommended for our purposes because of our current health and safety laws! The
musicians, tumblers, jugglers, fools, dancers, puppeteers and performers joining the
procession will all have had their own costumes and trademark apparels and
accoutrements to add colour and excitement to the scene.
Luttrell Psalter. English, early 14th century.
SOME THINGS NEVER CHANGE
As has been illustrated the fourteenth century was one of radical change in fashions
so that the population at royal court, manor house or town market place in 1400
would have looked very different from that of a hundred years earlier. That's not to
say there weren't areas of conservatism too.
Generally women's fashion remained more conservative throughout the century and
it's worth reminding ourselves also that only the wealthy could have afforded to
change their outfits regularly. We must expect the poorer villagers and working
classes to have to wear their clothes until they were beyond repair so very likely
some of our 1315 forbears would be wearing heavily patched and repaired fashions
of a decade earlier.
And as the clothes got tighter and more fitted, pity those who weren't the right size or
shape for these tighter fitting, more alluring garments. It may well be that the old, the
plump and those of more modest and chaste dispositions might well have chosen to
stick with the long, loose hanging gowns and tunics of 1300.
The clothes of labourers and servants hardly changed at all during these hundred
years. Throughout the century merchants, academics and lawyers would choose to
preserve the shorter tunic as a signifier of their office. Likewise the clergy continued
to wear the traditional robes and cassocks up until the end of the fourteenth century
and beyond. Franciscan friars wore grey cassocks. Dominicans wore black. Nuns
continued to wear habits and wimples. As Ian Mortimer points out in his excellent
summary of medieval fashion, it wasn't that any of these groups were unaware of the
latest fashion trends but that:
'the retention of the traditional, unsexy shape of the clothes is every bit as important
to them as the latest fashion is to a wealthy merchant. Friars never wear socks. Not
wearing something is also a way of making a fashion statement.'
Romance of Alexander. French, mid-14th century.
Romance of the Rose. French, 14th century.
RESOURCES AND INSPIRATIONS
For ideas and inspirations before you begin cutting and stitching look at some
original manuscript illustrations. There are some pattern makers who advertise
online and plenty of good reading material about medieval clothing and fashion.
Ian Mortimer, The Time Traveller's Guide to Medieval England
Sarah Thursfield, The Medieval Tailor's Assistant
See the links below to see some of the best contemporary documents to use as
resources:
The Luttrell Psalter
http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/sacredtexts/luttrellpsalter.html
The Ormesby Psalter
http://bestiary.ca/chimaera/303
The Romance of Alexander
http://manuscriptminiatures.com/4373/7073/
Alison Merry, Bisley 2015