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clothing in the middle ages essay
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The Fashion of the Middle Ages
Mia Bonfiglio
Have you ever asked yourself, “How did people from the middle ages dress?” Well, I’m going to tell you. Peasants were poor so their clothing was torn and was not decorative. Knights wore clothes a bit nicer but not as ornate as nobility. Kings, queens, and nobility dressed in exquisite clothing that was decorated and layered. Fashion is significant to the Middle Ages because it identified the social classes.
Peasants were poor so their clothing was torn and was not decorative. The peasant men dressed in split hose made of wool. Split hose is two separate pant legs that can be rolled up or down when needed. The shirt worn is a linen shirt under a woolen jacket usually lined with linen. When working in the fields, peasants may wear hats to protect their heads from the sun. Straw hats and felt hats are worn along with leather working boots (Langley 8-11). Women wove fabrics that were used to make clothes. A typical outfit that a peasant woman would wear would consist on a long dress and wool stockings (Peasants Western Reserve...
Clothing for both men and women initially was deerskin for shirts and skirts. The men later wore cotton or velvet shirts with no collars, breeches below the knee, and moccasins. Women gradually wore the "squaw dress", made of plain dark blankets.
In Shakespeare’s play the attire that Hamlet wears are likely from the 16th century. The clothes can be described as Elizabethan. Hamlet would most likely be seen in hosen. Hosen is a 16th century term for tights or hose. Men would also wear round hose. Round hose are pants cut above the knee. The hose is puffy or round, making the hip and thighs look full. Nobles would also be seen sporting doublets. This fashionable piece of garment is a tight fitting vest that laces up. On top of doublets noblemen, princes in Hamlet's ’case would wear a gown. The gown for a man is like a doublet; it just adds an extra layer. For an added piece Hamlet could wear a ruff. Ruffs are pleated white collars worn under their tops. Hamlet’s clothing in Shakespeare's version sets up his character. The moment hamlet enters the audience knows who he is. His apparel speaks for him. Unlike in Almereyda’s Hamlet where Hamlet could be anyone of the characters.
Medieval Food Food is something that all people have always and will always need to consume in order to survive and thrive. Not only this, but it is also has an important societal function. Food is an important part of celebrations and sometimes dictates roles in societies. In Medieval society food was important for banquets, what was eaten by a person could denote what class a person was from, and was often mentioned in the literature. For my project I presented desserts, bread, and a couple of drinks.
A Nobleman would wear a tunic that had a wide neck for decoration and for easy use. The tunic would also have three-quarter length sleeves with embroidered borders. The tunic would be loose with a belt at the waist. Underneath his tunic he would wear a linen shirt and braies,a kind of underpants connected to the stockings
The ladies dresses of the early Middle Ages were influenced by the classical styles of the Greek and Roman women. Their dresses were tight to display the elegance of their figure. Dresses were embroidered and luxuriously decorated. Some dresses consisted of two tunics and of a veil or drapery. The veil was thrown...
To start the dressing process, Victorian women had so many layers of clothing it all had to be placed upon them one at a time. The first layers consisted of undergarments such as items women of today would call underwear and socks. However, the Victorian women wore drawers as modern women wear underwear. Stockings; usually knit, cotton or silk, covered the lower leg with a garter to keep them from falling down the leg or revealing any flesh of the lower leg (Mitchell 17). Upon the upper part of the body a Chemise was worn to cover the skin below the corset...
WAS THE TIME PERIOD BETWEEN 400 AD AND 1400 AD A “DARK AGE” FOR EUROPE?
in the warm climate the men wore long shirts and legging to protect their legs. They also wore breech clothes is a long rectangular piece. The women wore long dresses. In the winter both men and women wore long robes to keep them worm. they also wore a shoe called moccasin which made of animals
The Renaissance time period could be considered one of the most artistic eras of all time. Both men and women were encouraged to make a transition from the medieval time period to the Renaissance time period. This was done largely in part by their style of clothing and the way they expressed themselves. Some fashionable trends for the women of the Renaissance time period include corsets, layers, ruffled collars, and closely fitted gowns called cotes. “Corsets like the merry widow were necessary for parties, dances, and other formal occasions” (Hoobler 98). Unmarried girls, brides, and queens of the time were allowed to wear their hair down, while most other women were to wear tall cone-shaped hats called hennin. The men of the renaissance era typically wore their ...
Clothing affected the lives of women greatly. Women wore many layers of clothing that could be hot and tight, making them uncomfortable. Different types of clothing were also used to make women seem more petite than they actually were (History of Fashion - Elizabethan). Many outfits included most of the following under layers: a smock, stockings, a corset, a farthingale, a rowel, a stomacher, a petticoat, a kirtle, a fore part, and a partlet. Then, most of the following over layers: a gown, separate sleeves, a ruff, a cloak, and shoes. Shoes were often a flat, Mary Jane style, or had a platform to keep one's feet dry. The biggest influence on woman's clothing during the Elizabethan Era was actually Queen Elizabeth I herself.
In the art world, the medieval periods were traditionally though to be the unproductive phase of Europe between the decline of Rome and the Renaissance. Our modern feelings toward medieval art are far more appreciative. The main intent of Medieval art was to express Christianity which was also a common bond between a wide spread and diverse Europe. For this reason most of the art found from medieval times originated in monasteries and churches. European art during the Middle Ages can be divided into four periods. These four periods include Celto-Germanic art which ranged from 400 to 800 A.D. and was important in metal work. Carolingian art ranged from 750 to 987 A.D. overlapping 50 years of the Celto-Germanic period. The period of Romanesque art spanned mainly the eleventh and twelfth centuries, and was an important period for medieval architecture. Gothic art, the final period of the Middle Age art began in the Romanesque period around the twelfth century and went on until the sixteenth century. Artwork form these four periods all consist of distinct styles setting them apart from one another.
The clothing was definitely not based on today’s modern fashion, but more of the era of vests, shiny armor, bonnets, long layered skirts for women, and trousers for men. This type of clothing was more for man. The beginning of the film focused on a fishing village and because the village is surrounded by water, there must be an increase of humidity, and mist. The clothing looked slightly wet and the colors were earth tones and dark. The people were poor and fish looked like their main source of food. They traveled by water. The costume designers of this film had to produce this effect. In order for the film to be realistic then the clothes would be tattered, well-worn, perhaps even smelly like fish. The purpose of these clothes is to help the actors to tell the story, the story of a poor villager in a home built above water, with little to no pay, hungry, and tired of life. This type of clothing was meant for this particular village and type of people. As for the woodland elves. Throughout all of the “Lord of the Rings” and “The Hobbit” series, it looks like the elves were prideful people. Refinement, organized, not wasteful, trying to have the best of the best, and yet govern other people in the world. Their clothes were rarely ever presented dirty or torn, unless on the bloody battle field. They had clothing that would be neatly woven, clean, designed, and easy to move in. Their costumes were delicate looking but forged to be the strongest
...ict Women In horizontally pleated dresses. It is also evident that Egyptian Royalty commonly wore garments that were heavily ornamented, embellished, extravagantly beaded or pleated. Overall the quality of the cloth, color and decoration created more expensive varieties that were distinguishing amongst Royalty and Commoners.
Everyone in the age would always wear extremely modest clothing. The common garment for a man was the robe gathered at the waist, completed by hose and soft sandals. The same was for the woman, except their dress extended to the feet. The most common materials used to make clothing were linen and woolens, though...
From a historic point of view, Western travelers had remarked on the slow pace of lifestyle and fashion change in Turkey and Persia. On the other hand, many people were of the opinion that the western culture is getting out of hand in terms of dressing fashion (Cumming 234). In most cases, change of fashion and dressing style took place hand in hand with economic and social changes. In the developing world, changes in fashion began with the coming of the whites in Middle East. Changes began in the 11th century when the Turks came to central Asia and Far East. In Europe, continuous change in clothing fashion is believed to have started in middle 14th century. It started by a sudden introduction of shortening and tightening of male garments, it further brought the introduction of trousers and leggings that were worn by men (Cumming 235). After the advent of change in men fashion, it was followed by changes in female c...