History Sunday: a brief overview of 11th-14thC fashion

I was stumped on what to do for the first History Sunday of 2015.  I'll admit that sewing 19 hand sewn eyelets onto the closure of my kirtle was inspiration (and also why I wanted to write a quick post with minimal research).  It's only in recent years that I've become interested in historic fashion, and there are outfits I've seen that survive or that I like that I add a note in my mind that one day I'd like to make one.  The only historic clothing I have under my belt is one very non-period accurate sideless surcote in cheap purple satin (yes, that's right, satin), my semi-accurate 15th Century Italian gown, and now my 12-14th Century gown based on Waterhouse's The Tempest which is perhaps a week or two from being completed depending on how much time I get this week to sew it.

I'll begin in the obscure-ish 11th century.

Pre-Norman conquest fashion is a bit of a grey area for me as there isn't much artwork or sources that survive from the period.  This was made apparent to me when I was researching for one of my series of short stories set in post-conquest England.  From what I could pick up it seems as though fashion is a very liberal word because there wasn't really any.  Things like buttons, hooks, clips, etc, hadn't come into use then and so the only thing to fit clothes to the form was belts usually placed at the waist.
There was a shift, sark, chemise, there have been a lot of names for them over the centuries and I don't know the 11th century word for it, and that was usually made of linen, homespun for the lower rungs of society.  Over this would be a kirtle, what I'm currently busting my ba**s to make.  Colours were also different during this time, they would be drawn from natural sources, some would be imported and only available to the rich, so none of your cobalt blue or cerise pink.  I have seen a few pictures an sources of a sort of tunic over this, a little shorter than the kirtle, with loose sleeves (but not the ridiculous ones of decades later that the Normans brought over).  As well as materials and fabrics being a sign of status, colours were also, as well as layers.  Personally (maybe even factually) I think this draws from previous centuries where layers meant status because fabric was expensive and the more you clad yourself in, the richer you were.

Now come the Normans and the age of the famous bliaut which has been the inspiration for many a medieval fantasy movie costume (I'm looking at you Lord of the Rings, and Game of Thrones). I'm afraid the bliaut actually edges more into the 12th Century than the 11th, but the Normans wore tight fitting clothes which the Anglo-Saxons didn't (reportedly).

Apparently Norman women just liked excessively long everything because this was also the time when the really long plaited/wrapped hair came into fashion.  As with women all throughout the centuries to keep up with the trend those who couldn't grow their hair the desired length would add ornaments to the ends of the braids to lengthen them, or wear what we would call extensions today.  I really like the series of drawings pictured on the right, I can't remember who drew them but on behalf of all history clothing buffs I would like to thank you.
These bliauts were not as tight fitting as some other dresses would become through the centuries and so women belted it, usually twice wrapped around, like the lovely lady pictured right.

Moving on nearly a century we come to the rather obscure 13th century.  I don't know why it's obscure but people don't seem to make many clothes from this time period, at least not what I could find when I was researching.  What I could conclude was the drawing pictured on the left.
Gone are the wrapped belts.  Sleeves are tight fitting, and over it is what I assume to be the very early ancestor of what would later become the sideless surcote.  Long, bared hair came into fashion (I wonder what the church felt about that) worn with a barbette and fillet (different spellings of those).  I've sometimes seen this referred to as a pie crust which I love.  This will be the early 13th century because by the end of the 1200s the sideless surcote was popular in Europe.

Finally coming to the 14th Century, and the one I hope I know the most about.  The sideless surcote, or fondly nicknamed by the church as "Gates to Hell", was a staple fashion of this century.  It was called by this loving name because it showed off the figure of the wearer, which of course the sexually oppressed church members thought was a "temptation into sin".  They should count small blessings, hair was once more covered during this period by the templars.

Phillipa on the right

In my opinion the church should have been more against buttons which came into use during this period.  After making 24 fabric buttons, 24 handstitched button holes, and soon-to-be 38 eyelets I wonder at the trouble women went through to make tight fitting clothes.
Now that women could be laced, or buttoned, into their garments a whole new medieval version of "on show" came into being.  Buttons were common as the closure of garments but also on the sleeves (and don't I know it) to make them as tight fitting as possible as well.  Over which could be the sideless surcote.
Another fashion in this period was tippets, pictured again on the right.  These are usually pictured as white so probably made of linen and were attached to the sleeves and just kind of..hung there.  I personally don't know the point of these so if anyone could inform me that would be great.

14th century territory would be the Burgundian gowns and the emergence of high/empire waisted garments, but that's beyond this post.  I feel as if I've butchered this whole topic by being so brief but I never have been a very detailed person.  Hope for a better organised History Sunday next week, and to end this post a pretty peacock from an illuminated manuscript that I've been waiting to use, so yay!