Women's clothing in the early middle ages (500 AD-1000 AD)

I know women’s clothing is a very common topic, but I still want to talk about it. I always see people that know a lot about it, but I don’t. And I think a lot of other people also don’t. That’s why I thought I should write a simple but informative piece about it. So we can both learn something new! Here we go:

Common women  

The common people of the middle ages were serfs, peasants and low skilled workers. The “style” of those women didn’t really change throughout the period. They wore the same kind of gowns in the early middle ages. Although, maybe I say that too fast. The thing that stayed the same was the fact that women wore a long tunic with sleeves that looked like a gown, usually made from wool. How the tunic exactly looked did change. In the 5th and 6th century, it leaned more on how a roman tunic looked. Later, the tunic changed more to a European tunic. The tunic could also differ between regions. And we should also remember that we actually don’t know much about the dark ages,

because there survived only a few paintings and drawings and you don’t find a perfectly complete medieval dress everyday. 

   The undergarment was a loose fitting dress with sleeves referred to as a chemise or a smock. 

   When it was cold, women wore an extra layer, a garment, cape, shawl or a long coat.

   Most women, especially after the christianisation, wore something on their head. For common women, this was a veil. 

    In the 5th and 6th century, a lot of people would go barefoot. Later people started wearing simple leather shoes or boots. 

   There is a little mystery about underpants, nobody knows if women actually wore something under their tunics. 

Wealthy women

The big difference between wealthy and common clothes is material and extra’s. The basics were the same between the wealthy and common, but the material was always different. The material for the tunics of wealthy women was mostly linen. That was way more expensive than wool because it was harder to weave and the production was more difficult. Therefore only for wealthy women. 

    Wealthy women had a lot of extras on their tunics. Tunics with different colors, edges decorated with borders, beautiful clasps and embellishments. Those decorations really made the difference between common and wealthy women. 

   

Sources: 

https://www.medievalists.net/2018/06/underwear-in-the-middle-ages/

https://bellatory.com/fashion-industry/Fashion-History-Clothinig-of-the-Early-Middle-Ages-Dark-Ages-400-900-CE

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_medieval_European_dress