As will be seen from the drawings, the man wore his hair long,
smoothly parted in the centre, with a lock drawn down the parting
from the back of his head. As a rule, the hair curled back naturally,
and hung on the shoulders, but sometimes the older fashion of the past
reign remained, and the hair was carefully curled in locks and tied
with coloured ribbon.
Besides the hood as covering for the head, men wore one or other of
the simple caps shown, made of cloth or of fur, or of cloth fur-lined.
[Illustration: {A man of the time of Stephen; two types of shoe; a
boot}]
[Illustration: {Two types of tunic; two types of cloak; four types
of sleeve showing cuff variations}]
Next to his skin the man of every class wore a shirt of the pattern
shown--the selfsame shirt that we wear to day, excepting that the
sleeves were made very long and tight-fitting, and were pushed back
over the wrist, giving those wrinkles which we notice on all the
Bayeux tapestry sleeves, and which we see for many centuries in
drawings of the undergarment. The shape has always remained the same;
the modes of fastening the shirt differ very slightly--so little, in
fact, that a shirt of the fourth century which still remains in
existence shows the same button and loop that we notice of the shirts
of the twelfth century. The richer man had his shirt embroidered round
the neck and sometimes at the cuffs. Over this garment the man wore
his tunic--of wool, or cloth, or (rarely) of silk; the drawing
explains the exact making of it. The tunic, as will be seen, was
embroidered at the neck, the cuffs, and round the border. One drawing
shows the most usual of these tunics, while the other drawings will
explain the variations from it--either a tight sleeve made long and
rolled back, a sleeve made very wide at the cuff and allowed to hang,
or a sleeve made so that it fell some way over the hand. It was
embroidered inside and out at the cuff, and was turned back to allow
free use of the hand.
Over the tunic was worn the cloak, a very simple garment, being a
piece of cloth cut in the shape of a semicircle, embroidered on the
border or not, according to the purse and position of the owner.
Sometimes a piece was cut out to fit the neck.
Another form of cloak was worn with a hood. This was generally used
for travelling, or worn by such people as shepherds. It was made for
the richer folk of fine cloth, fur-lined, or entirely of fur, and for
the poorer people of skin or wool.
The cloak was fastened by a brooch, and was pinned in the centre or on
either shoulder, most generally on the right; or it was pushed through
a ring sewn on to the right side of the neck of the cloak.
The brooches were practically the same as those worn in the earlier
reigns, or were occasionally of a pure Roman design.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account