Clothing 1340-1350

General information

For clothing lets look at the images in several manuscripts and read Fashion in the Age of the Black Prince for details. At this time you would wear a long sleeved tunic under a short sleeved super tunic with either pennant sleeves or tippets. Both tunics could be split in the front and the hem would fall between just above the knee and the calf. Your long-sleeved tunic can have tight fitting button sleeves. Hoods are the fashionable hat of this time; coifs are way out of fashion with the rare exception and the clergy.

Here is a breakdown of the layers of clothing and what material they would likely be made of:

  • Braies - white linen
  • Shirt - white linen
  • Hose - wool
  • Tunic (long-sleeved) - wool or silk (buttons optional)
  • Super Tunic (short-sleeved) - wool or silk lined in linen and/or fur (pennant sleeves or tippets) (button front optional)
  • Hood - wool (should have a huge cowl and be a pull over; dagging optional. Pick a dagging style from the artwork)
  • Shoes or boots. There are quite a few examples of open work shoes in the manuscripts and several serving examples from this time period to pick from. Boots seem to be worn by the lower class more often in the Romance of Alexander however the book Stepping Through Time has an excellent example of open work boots from about this time period.
  • Belt - Leather or a woven belt are both common in this time frame. Any buckle should be made of brass; pewter buckles are only common in shoes finds.
  • Purse - (Men) Purses in this time frame tend to me small; Dress Accessories has a prime example that is only 4"x4". For full details on pouch construction we should turn to Purses in Pieces. The manuscripts show only a small verity in pouch shapes.

Tunics

James's Tunic Reconstructions:

This tunic is a Herjolfsnes no.41 without the gore in the back of the sleeve and with buttons in the front that the original does not have. I wanted to emulate the look of several figures in the Romance of Alexander. The figures (some pictured bellow) are shown wearing tunics ranging from just above the knee to ankle level depending on wealth. Many in the manuscript have a second tunic on with pennant sleeves; this is the first layer so my first image from the manuscript shows the buttoned front and arms with the tight fitting body and full skirt area like my tunic. I plan to add the second layer later.

The tunic is made of a green wool and the buttons are cloth self stuffed buttons.

The outfit also has a pouch based on find 1701 in Dress Accessories and open work shoes (project bellow this one) based on an extant example found in Stepping Through Time to match accessories found in the manuscript:

 

Romance of Alexander Image Gallery

Coming soon

Parti Colors

Coming soon

Plaid

Coming soon

Dags

Coming soon

Supper Tunics


James's Tunic Reconstruction:

The pattern for this tunic is a combination of Herjolfsnes finds numbers: 42, 43, and 45. The 42 was used to pattern the body, the arms are a pattern made by using the common fitted arm shape found in all the finds listed above but without any seperate gore and extended to create the pennant sleeve.

The gown is made of light weight gray wool and the sleeves are lined in white linen. The buttons are cloth self stuffed buttons.

Many figures in the manuscript have a second tunic, also called a super tunic in historical record of the time, it has pennant sleeves. The pictured super tunic is made of a fine grey wool.

The body of the super tunic with pennant sleeves is based on the extant example Herjolfsnes no. 42. The idea here was again to get the tight fit on the upper body and the loose flowing material from the hips down seen in so many manuscript images.

The pennant sleeves pattern is based off of common sleeve construction of the time but with the long streamer added, no example of this kind of sleeve is extant. For those looking for pattern for this type of sleeve look at the book “The Medieval Tailors Assistant” which has a pattern for a preenant sleeve arm. At this time the white part of the sleeve is just linen however I beleive a proper reconstruction should be made with a fur lining on the inside of the sleeve; a number of the illustrations of these sort of sleeves have indications of fur with textured painting and a look of small squares sewn together.

The front opening (only to the gore) was added to the pattern so it could button shut like the examples in the third image in the bellow gallery. The buttons are self stuffed cloth buttons of the same wool.

Image Gallery

Voeux du Paon 1350

Men

Observations:

  • Many of the men have pennent sleeves tunics over another tunic.
  • Some over tunics button to the waist, some button all the way down, and some have no buttons.
  • Many of the men wear their hood down.
  • Some wear the hood as a hat.
  • The hoods are often dagged.
  • Some of the men have open work shoes.

Women

Observations:

  • Some of the poor women are shown wearing boots. The 4th images shows this best.
  • Some women are wearing sideless surcoats.
  • Some are wearing a dress with a pennent sleeve dress over it.
  • Some have two long sleeved dresses on.
  • Some over dresses have pocket holes.
  • Neck lines vary.
  • Some women are wearing hoods and some have hoods over their shoulder.
  • The lower class women have veils on and the upper class women have braided hair.

de Proprietatibus Rerum 1350

Men

Observations:

  • Many of the men have pennent sleeves tunics over another tunic.
  • Most under tunics or stand alone tunics have many buttons on the sleeve.
  • One tunic buttons to the waist, most have no buttons.
  • Some of the men have open work shoes.
  • The pouches have metal studs.

Women

Observations:

  • The queen in the first image has a button sleeved under dress with a pennant sleeve over dress.
  • The women in the second image all have buttoning sleeves.

Nicolo da Bologna 1350

Observations:

  • Some of the mens tunics button to the waist, some button all the way down, and some have no buttons.
  • The front womans over gown is split from the hips down, has pennent sleeves, it is fur lined.
  • The man's shoes have an open work design.