While it is common to want to try and formulate our own versions of Medieval outfits, often with mixed results, sometimes if we attempt to copy a piece directly, we see a lot of features come to light that we wouldn't have known otherwise. This is one of the joys of reconstructive archaeology and gives us great insight into how these people moved about in the world they inhabited.
Here is an attempted recreation of a specific scene from the "Speculum Humanae" from 1360's Germany. The scene depicts two men cutting the coat and beard off another man - likely intended to be something biblical in nature - and I opted to recreate the left-hand man's fashion. He wears a fitted, striped hood, with the liripipe wrapped and tied around his head. His Cote is a fitted and buttoned model with what appears to be buttons not only down the front, but the sleeves, as well, and embroidery along the bottom hem. The features of his belt and whether he has a girdle purse are unknown, so we filled in the blanks on those and added a fancy French import belt and copied a girdle purse from another depiction within the same work. He carries an Oakeshott Type XIV sword on his belt, which though predominantly a late 13th and early 14th Century style, likely did carry over in use later in the century. The sheath to the utility knife he is using to cut the attacked's coat hem is thrust through the loops of the girdle purse. Finally, he wears yellow, highly-fitted wool separate-leg Hosen, likely with linen Braies underneath. In the art, the man appears to be wearing cutwork-style black leather shoes, however, these have been determined as likely only being worn as court fashion, and were not thought to have been durable enough for every day wear, so we opted to go with fully-enclosed shoes, made with calf-skin uppers, thicker cow leather lowers, and close via a latchet strap. Overall, the representation seems to have been a success, as it is impossible to almost identically recreate a piece of artwork in its entirety. Certain features did not translate nearly as well to real life - such as the way the tying of the liripipe around the head caused the buttoned hood to pucker and gape open around the face, or the fact that the Cote bunches and wrinkles heavily when in the same position of cutting as the subject in the art. With those critiques noted, however, it is likely that were this event really happening, these small features would have mattered not, and this would have likely been a more realistic interpretation than the pristine fashion in a stylized attempt to reflect what the author saw around him.
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AboutThis page will focus on the lifestyles of those living in Medieval Europe from approximately the 11th Century through the 14th. Archives
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