Page 18 - British Museum: SYTYGIB Medieval Castle
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Please don´t meet anyone we know, please don´t meet anyone we know.
By the later Middle Ages, boys wore stockings or tights with a hip length jacket called a doublet.
Stockings were dyed different colours and were worn with ‘braies’, which were sort of like underpants connected to the stockings to keep them from falling down. And as we all know, there’s NoThInG more embarrassing than your stockings falling down in public, eh boys?
Girls wore very similar clothes to those their mums would have worn, which you might think is a good thing or a bad thing depending on how your mother dresses. If she’s into cool, fashionable gear then that’s fine. If she favours leopard-print top hats with neon pink wellies and gold leotards, then maybe not so much.
In the early 14th century, silk neck scarves called gorgets were the in thing among wealthy women. But then they began wearing undergowns called kirtles, with a silk or velvet ‘houppelande’ gown over the top, which had a high waist and a long train (a bit at the back which stretched out on the floor) lined with fur. These dresses had long sleeves and high necks, and fancy decoration if you could afford it.
The poor were far too busy working hard and surviving to worry about how fashionable they appeared. But for the rich people, such as the lord and lady and their children, looking swanky was a real big deal.
I got this at www.houppelande.com
Well, someone´s not doing any hard work today!
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