Fashion for those who could afford it
The idea of fashion, meaning styles that change within a lifetime and are followed because they are new, is generally associated in medieval Europe with the wealthy: courts, great households and the richer townspeople. Most people had neither the money nor the surplus cloth to follow trends. Historians debate when fashion in this sense began, but many point to the fourteenth century, when records and images show quite rapid changes in the shape of clothing, especially in the cities and courts of France, Burgundy, England and Italy.
This article is about display. The practical layers and fabrics of everyday dress are covered separately.
Cloth as the main expense
Today the labor of making clothes is cheap compared with the cost of materials. In the Middle Ages it was nearly the opposite for fine goods. Silk, high-grade wool, fur and good dye were costly, so display often meant using more of them. Sleeves that hung almost to the ground, long trains, and full gowns with many folds all demonstrated that the wearer could afford material that did not need to be used economically.
Embroidery, pearls, gold thread and metal ornaments added further expense. Clothes were also given as gifts and as part of payment. Lords commonly issued livery, meaning clothing in set colors, to their households and retainers, which advertised the lord’s wealth as well as the wearer’s loyalty.
Colors and dyes
Color carried cost and sometimes meaning. Reds could come from madder, which was relatively common, or from the dye known as kermes, made from insects, which was far more expensive. The word “scarlet” in the period often referred to a high-quality wool cloth rather than strictly to a color, and scarlet cloth could come in several shades. Deep blues were made from woad, and bright, clear shades required skilled dyers, as shown by the work of dyers with natural dyes.
Purple had long been associated with emperors and high rank, in part from Roman and Byzantine practice. Black, perhaps surprisingly, could be luxurious, because a deep, lasting black was hard to achieve and cost more. It became fashionable at some courts in the later period, and in some places became associated with seriousness and status. Specific color symbolism, such as what a color meant in heraldry or in courtly love poetry, varied by place and source, so it is best treated cautiously.
Sumptuary laws
Rulers and town councils across Europe issued sumptuary laws, which limited who could wear certain fabrics, furs, jewelry or styles. They are known from many places, and some of the best-documented examples date from the thirteenth through fifteenth centuries. An English statute of the 1360s, for example, linked the permitted cloth and fur to a person’s rank or income. Italian cities issued numerous rules about women’s dress, such as limits on jewelry and trains.
The reasons were mixed. The laws expressed an ideal of social order in which rank should be visible, which echoed the medieval idea of the three estates. They also reflected moral concern about pride and luxury, a worry that wealthy townspeople and merchants were dressing like nobles, and sometimes economic concerns about spending on imports. Some laws also protected local cloth producers.
How well they worked is uncertain. Many were repeated, which suggests they were not strictly obeyed, and enforcement often depended on local officials and fines. They also targeted women’s dress and the clothes of the new urban rich more often than the fashions of the high nobility, who were frequently exempt.
Changing silhouettes
Through much of the early and high Middle Ages, the dominant look for both sexes was a long, relatively loose tunic, with changes in sleeve shape and the use of a mantle. The big visual change came in the fourteenth century. Men’s clothing grew shorter and tighter, with a fitted upper body, buttons or lacing, and hose on show. Critics in that period complained about short garments and tight hose. Women’s gowns were also fitted at the bodice, with low or wide necklines and long sleeves.
In the fifteenth century, new extremes appeared:
- Houppelandes: voluminous gowns with high collars and wide sleeves, worn by both men and women around the turn of the century.
- Long-toed shoes: sometimes called poulaines or crakows, with points that could be quite long and were occasionally stuffed or supported.
- Tall headdresses: for women at some courts, including the steeple-shaped hennin with a veil, as well as padded rolls and horned forms.
- Parti-colored clothing: garments divided in contrasting colors, often used in livery and court dress.
The extremes need caution. Satirists, preachers and chroniclers loved to describe them, which can exaggerate how common they were. Artists, too, sometimes showed fashionable figures in manuscripts to flatter patrons. What is clear is that those with access to court life changed their appearance in noticeable ways.
Reading the evidence
Source material for elite fashion is better than for ordinary dress, partly because patrons commissioned portraits, tomb figures and manuscripts that showed them well dressed. Wardrobe accounts and inventories also survive for some rulers and households. Even so, they show intentions and ideals as much as everyday practice, and they can differ in detail across regions. Claims about exact dates for a particular style should be treated as approximate.