Clothing

To help you choose a medieval outfit, we would like to present a small guide to the Burgschneider collection.

In addition to many variations, there are also some constants across all eras and classes. For example, women typically wore ankle-length dresses. A complete garment also usually consisted of an undergarment, overgarment, and coat.

Medieval garments across the eras

The Middle Ages are generally divided into three major eras. When deciding which medieval clothing to choose, it is important to know which era it belongs to.

In the early Middle Ages of Europe, which stretched from the 4th to the 10th century, class differences were not yet reflected in clothing to the same extent as in later eras. Clothing was strongly oriented towards pragmatic aspects.

From the 11th to the 12th century, during the High Middle Ages, class differences were expressed more clearly through clothing. Fashion became more important, but was not usually expressed in non-usable forms, but rather in more elaborate decorations, fabrics, and colors.

The late Middle Ages began in the 13th century. Fashion was increasingly characterized by unpragmatic, exclusively representative forms. For example, trains, batwing sleeves, female headdresses with chin bands that enclosed the chin so tightly that women could only lisp in them, and similar textile variations were introduced.