'Costume during the thirteenth century' in Europe was very simple for both men and women, and quite uniform across the continent. Male and female clothing were relatively similar, and changed very slowly, if at all. Most clothing, especially outside the wealthier classes, remained little changed from three or four centuries earlier.
[1] The century saw great progress in the dyeing and working of wool, which was by far the most important material for outer wear. For the rich, colour was very important. Blue was introduced for the first time, and became very fashionable, being adopted by the Kings of France as their heraldic colour.
[2]
Men's clothing
Men wore a
tunic, ''cote'' or ''cotte'' with a
surcoat over a linen
shirt. One of these surcoats was the cyclas, which began as a rectangular piece of cloth with a hole in it for the head. Over time the sides were sewn together to make a long, sleeveless tunic. When sleeves and sometimes hood were added, the cyclas became a ganache (a cap-sleeved surcoat, usually shown with hood of matching color) or a gardcorps (a long, generous-sleeved traveling robe, somewhat resembling a modern academic robe). A
mantle was worn as a formal wrap. Men also wore hose, shoes, and headdress. The clothing of royalty was set apart by its rich fabric and luxurious furs. Hair and beard were moderate in length, and men generally wore their hair in a "
pageboy" style, curling under at necklength. Shoes were slightly pointed, and embroidered for royalty and higher
clergy.
[3]
Working men's clothing
Working men wore a short cotte, or
tunic, with a belt. It was slit up the center of the front so that they could tuck the corners into their belt to create more freedom of movement. They wore long
braies or leggings with legs of varying length, often visible as they worked with their cotte tucked into their belt. Hose could be worn over this, attached to the drawstring or belt at the waist. Hats included a round cap with a slight brim, the
beret (just like modern French ones, complete with a little tab at the top), the
coif (a little tight white hood with strings that tied under the chin), the straw hat (in widespread use among farmworkers), and the
chaperon, then still a hood that came round the neck and over the shoulders. Apart from aprons for trades like smithing, and crude clothes tied round the neck to hold seed for sewing, special clothes were not worn for working.
[4]
Style gallery
# in linen braies, tunics, and coifs, from the
Maciejowski Bible, c. 1250. The man on the left wears green hose over his braies.
# in a
coif and shirt (camisa) with
gussets at the hem, from the
Cantigas de Santa Maria,
Spain, mid-13th century.
# wears a short tunic with a rectangular cloak or mantle and hose. King Vortigern wears a mantle draped over both shoulders over a long gown or tunic and shoes with straps at the instep. From a manuscript of
Geoffrey of Monmouth's ''Prophetia Merlini'', c. 1250-70.
# in the short, hooded cape called a ''cappa'', c. 1250-70.
Women's clothing
Woman in a barbette and coif, sleeveless surcoat, gown and mantle. Sketch by
Villard de Honnecourt, c.1230
Overview
Dress for women was restrained. A floor length, loosely-fitted gown, with long, tight sleeves and a narrow belt, was uniform. Over this was worn the ''cyclas'' or sleeveless surcoat (also worn by men). Richer women wore more embroidery, and the
mantle, held in place by a cord across the chest, might be lined with fur. Women also wore hose and leather shoes, like men.
3
Headdresses and hairstyles
Individuality in women's costume was expressed through their hair and headdress. One distinctive part of thirteenth-century women's headwear was the barbette, a chin band to which a hat or various other headdress might be attached. This hats might be a "woman's coif", which more nearly resembled a
pillbox hat, severely plain or fluted. The hair was often confined by a net called a crespine or crespinette, visible only at the back. Later in the century the barbette and coif were reduced to narrow strips of cloth, and the entire hairdress might be covered with the crespine, the hair fashionable bulky over the ears. Coif and barbette were white, while the crespine might be colored or gold. The
wimple and
veil of the
twelfth century (still seen on
nuns today) was still worn, mainly by older women and widows.
3
Style gallery
#: Tomb of
Eleanor of Aquitaine (d. 1204)
# (probably
personifications of Mercy and Truth) wear sleeveless surcoats over full gowns with sleeves narrow at the wrist. Overall they wear mantles draped over one shoulder. English psalter, c. 1220-25
# in loosely belted gowns with their hair down. Jephthah's daughter, from the
Morgan Bible (Maciejowski Bible), c. 1250
# wears a veil and wimple. Note striped hose, c. 1250.
Footwear
Shoes with an ankle strap and open instep, c. 1250
References
★ Payne, Blanche: ''History of Costume from the Ancient Egyptians to the Twentieth Century'', Harper & Row, 1965. No ISBN for this edition; ASIN B0006BMNFS
1. Françoise Piponnier and Perrine Mane; Dress in the Middle Ages; p. 39; Yale UP, 1997; ISBN 0300069065
2. Piponnier & Mane, op cit, p. 60
3. Payne, Blanche: ''History of Costume from the Ancient Egyptians to the Twentieth Century'', Harper & Row, 1965
4. Piponnier and Mane, op cit pp. 49-52
Further reading
★ Black, J. Anderson, and Madge Garland: ''A History of Fashion'', 1975, ISBN 0-6880-2893-4
★ Boucher, François: ''20,000 Years of Fashion'', Harry Abrams, 1966.
★ Crowfoot, Elizabeth, Frances Prichard and Kay Staniland, ''Textiles and Clothing c. 1150 - c. 1450'', Museum of London, 1992, ISBN 0-1129-0445-9
★ Kohler, Carl: ''A History of Costume'', Dover Publications reprint, 1963, ISBN 0-4862-1030-8
★ Koslin, Désirée and Janet E. Snyder, eds.: ''Encountering Medieval Textiles and Dress: Objects, texts, and Images'', Macmillan, 2002, ISBN 0-3122-9377-1
★ Kybalová, Ludmila, Olga Herbenová, and Milena Lamarová: ''Pictorial Encyclopedia of Fashion'', translated by Claudia Rosoux, Paul Hamlyn/Crown, 1968, ISBN 1-1995-7117-2
★ Laver, James: ''The Concise History of Costume and Fashion'', Abrams, 1979
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