Kleidung im Mittelalter – Mode, Rang und Symbolik
“Tell me what you wear, and I shall tell you who you are.”
Even today we speak of being subject to the dictates of fashion. Yet thanks to globalisation and the constant availability of affordable clothing, we enjoy a freedom unknown to earlier times: we may select fabrics, colours and styles at will.
In contrast, when the Limbourg brothers and later Jean Colombe illuminated the magnificent Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry in the course of the 15th century, freedom of attire was reserved solely for the highest ranks of society – and even there only to a certain extent. The sumptuary laws of the Middle Ages were no mere recommendations; they were legally binding. Distinctions in dress were believed to reflect and preserve the divinely ordained order of society.
Turning the pages of the facsimile edition, one clearly perceives how both strict regulations and practical necessity shaped medieval dress. Aristocratic ladies are shown in long flowing gowns with wide slit sleeves, noblemen in sumptuous cloaks of brilliant colours adorned with gold appliqués. Fur trimmings, such as those seen on the Duke of Berry himself in the January calendar miniature, were privileges of the elite.
In stark contrast stand the short tunics of the peasants, whose clothing was dictated by comfort and economy. They lacked both the means and the leisure for extravagance, and their wives’ shorter gowns are equally telling of their social reality.
Fashion, of course, did not remain static. The most dramatic transformation occurred in the 14th century, when tailoring grew increasingly sophisticated, leading to garments more closely fitted to the body. Necklines grew lower; women’s gowns occasionally revealed the shoulders. Both sexes dressed in layers: gentlemen of high birth in fine linen undershirts, coloured hose and tunics, often in mi-parti (two-tone) design, sometimes topped with a hooded cloak. Ladies wore linen shifts beneath tunics and side-open gowns in contrasting colours, often completed by a mantle.
Around 1400 aristocratic fashion reached its height of eccentricity: houppelandes with sweeping trains, extremely short doublets worn over tight hose, and the infamous pointed shoes (poulaines or crakows). As a rule of thumb: the more impractical the attire, the higher its wearer’s rank.
Colours, too, were subject to regulation. While the lower classes employed simple vegetable dyes – walnut for brown, woad for blue – the aristocracy alone could afford the costly brilliance of indigo or Tyrian purple. Yellow, on the other hand, often bore the stigma of exclusion: prostitutes, for example, were compelled in many regions to wear yellow clothing or adornments.
Headwear played an equally important role. Married women invariably covered their hair with veils, wimples or circlets of metal, while noble ladies of the Burgundian court displayed extravagant hennins or horned headdresses, immortalised in Jan van Eyck’s Arnolfini Wedding. Men’s headgear ranged from simple caps to flamboyant hats, their size and splendour reflecting rank.
Certain forms of headwear, however, bore a darker symbolism: the pointed Jewish hat, originally adopted voluntarily, was from the 13th century imposed by law as a mark of stigmatisation. Religious dignitaries, too, possessed distinctive headgear – mitres, birettas and cardinal hats – many of which survive in ecclesiastical tradition to this day.
At the other end of the body, footwear distinguished rank just as clearly. While nobles wore finely crafted leather shoes, often elaborately decorated, peasants had to content themselves with rough leather drawstring shoes or simple wooden clogs. The extravagant poulaines of the aristocracy – the longer the tip, the higher the esteem – remain one of the most enduring symbols of medieval dress.
In sum, medieval clothing was not merely a matter of personal taste, but of law, economy, symbolism and status. Over the span of nine centuries fashions naturally evolved, yet the late Middle Ages, so vividly preserved in manuscripts such as the Très Riches Heures or the Hours of Isabella the Catholic, provide us with the richest visual testimony.
