Clothing
Clothing was a lot more expensive, particularly for the nobility, in medieval times. Everything was basically hand-tailored and custom made. Describing clothing and appearance goes a surprisingly long way toward describing a character. Here is a brief, general overview of what these clothes were like.
Materials
- Black-work - embroidery done with black silk
- Brocade - tightly woven fabric with raised pattern
- Cambric - fine white linen
- Calico - white imported cotton
- Damask - silk fabric woven with patterns and designs
- Fustian - lightweight silky scarlet
- Gold/Silver Tissue - fabric with gold or silver woven into it
- Kersey - woolen cloth, often ribbed
- Samite - silken cloth woven with gold
- Satin - silk fabric with one shiny side
- Scarlet - soft cloth, usually red
- Silk - very soft, fine, imported
- Taffeta - plain-woven glossy silk
The following materials are generally more common; nobles might wear them, peasants might too.
- Canvas - coarse cloth from flax or hemp
- Flannel - lightweight woolen fabric used in undergarments, bandages, rags
- Freize - thick woolen cloth used for outer garments
- Linen - cloth made from flax
- Russet - coarse woolen cloth, usually reddish-brown or gray
- Serge - woolen fabric used in bed-covers, shrouds, etc
Clothing Types (Male)
- Breeches - pants, secured at the waist with a drawstring
- Cap - brimless hat
- Cloak - worn to keep the weather, or prying eyes, out
- Coif - white linen covering head and ears, wrapped around the head
- Cote-hardie - a coat, fastened with buttons in the front, draping down to knee
- Cowl - hood
- Gorget - cape part of a cowl that covers shoulders
- Doublet - tailored tunic worn over the undertunic, with the front often stuffed to make shoulders look broader
- Garnache - supertunic allowed to drape over shoulder to below the elbow
- Gloves - made of leather
- Jerkin - loose, long gown hanging from shoulders, belted to waist, with a high and tight collar, slit at either side or center
- Lirapipe - a hood where the point is greatly extended and dangles down the back or coiled around head or neck
- Pallium - like a toga
- Supertunic - strip of material with a hole cut for the head, slit in the center to allow horseriding, hangs down to midcalf
- Tunic - a shirt
- Untertunic - undershirt
- Shoes - boots for the most part, possibly lined with fur, shin or thigh-length; actual shoes as we know them required a specialist to make (a cordwainer) and repair (a cobbler).
Basically...
It's unlikely someone would be wearing an example of every one of the above. The basics, for a male, are linen undergarments (called drawers), a long-sleeved tunic fastened at the neck with some sort of broch, a second tunic (called a surcoat) without sleeves, a mantle (a.k.a cloak), a belt, and long breeches (a.k.a hose).
External References
Medieval Clothing from octavia.net
