“I’ve just uploaded some of my favorite 12th century clothing illustrations to the site. All from period sources.
[Editor: Need to check if there are still there. – EMK]
Christ’s Ministry.
See the hose on the guy standing behind Christ in the first panel and the baggy braies on the wild man in the middle panel.
Comedies of Terence.
Look at the interesting round neck treatments, and the particularly short tunic on the guy in the middle. Note the odd crumple of the fabric on his hip. See that same thing on several of the other figures. Keep looking for these in all of the illustrations. I think that is the bottom end of the side lacing, and I’m pretty sure it’s one of the keys to the construction of the bliaut.
Jerusalem plan.
No mistaking the side laced surcoat here! The line across the neck is not a finishing of the surcoat but a shield strap. Some of the other figures on the page showed that more clearly. Note the lacing of the leg covering down the back of the calf. In all the other examples this leg covering is shown as mail.
Mary.
Fabulous sleeves! See the key hole neck on the reclined figure, the turned back sleeve on the man, those little hip crumples again, but more subtle. See the man’s cloak done up at the side.
Nubuchadnezzar.
Side fastened cloak again. See the fellow behind the King. Side lacing, stretched across the belly, deep folds in the side and the front of the skirt. Knights pictured elsewhere on this page seem to be wearing similar garments under their mail shirts.
Pleated chemise.
Note the crump at the hip, seems to show a bow.
The Shepherds.
Great lower class garb. Note the various hoods, one with a rough fur cape. Some of the capes appear very long and do up at the front! The tunics are shorter, and have more “sencible” sleeves, but they still have those little crumples at the hip.
Judith from the Winchester Bible.
Side fixed cloaks and hip crumples galore!
Winchester Bible. Note the cross garters.
Winchester Psalter.
Note the cross gaiters again, the hooded cape/cloak, the embroidered shoes. See the “vair” (heraldically drawn fur) lining on the Kings cloak. See the lantern next to Christ’s head, top middle.
Also note just how this liner style portrays the naked body. This gives us a good idea of just how much of the folds in the fabric is stylistic interpretation.
I’m also just putting up Cautery scenes. 12th century undies!
~ Rowena / Brenda Sibly
Message #393, November 26, 2002
Our file page is getting full, and in anticipation of wanting to post more images for discussion, I believe I will need to start removing some of the fabric scans (I want to post new ones) and the recent Italian bliaut images which should free up about 4 megs of space. I’ve already removed the scans of the extant garments until I can get the whole project complete.
I am keeping all the images and could repost if anyone needs this in the future and do remember that I am planning a CD to share with all the different 12th century fabrics I can find later next year (work in progress). In the meantime, if you’d like, you might want to copy the images you wish to keep for your own study.
~ Katrine / Katherine Barich
Message #395, November 27, 2002