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fashion history

Medieval and renaissance use of short sleeves and loose sleeves on dresses

Medieval and renaissance use of short sleeves and loose sleeves on dresses

This week I am focusing in on the use of short sleeves and loose sleeves on dresses in the medieval/early renaissance period, particularly in the 1400’s, give or take a few years. It seems like unlike earlier periods it became common to have short sleeves on the outer dress with a shift or an underdress beneath it. I am mostly looking at this using visual source material, such as paintings and drawings. I am mostly interested in Northen Europe. I am aware that short sleeves is a thing earlier in southern Europe. Keep Reading

Medieval fabrics and the use of colour, part 2

At the marked this weekend it came to my attention that I know quite a bit about the shapes of medieval and renæssance clothing but much less about the medieval fabric colours- both how they were used and how they were made – so I decided to educate my self and share what I learned in the process. I decided to investigate both the fabrics used and the colours and dyes.

In this post I take a closer look at the medieval use of colours and dyes. I also look at who wore what colours and a bit about the symbolic use of colour.

Read part 1 here

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Woman spining wool by the fire, 1400's manuscript

Medieval fabrics and it’s uses, part 1

At the marked this weekend it came to my attention that I know quite a bit about the shapes of medieval and renæssance clothing but much less about the medieval fabric colours- both how they were used and how they were made – so I decided to educate my self and share what I learned in the process. I decided to investigate both the fabrics used and the colours and dyes.

Read part 2 here

If you are looking for a much less in depth post about the fabrics of the middle ages, I wrote a blog post a few years back.

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