About the Book:

Medieval Costume and How to Recreate It is an unique reference that classifies the clothes and accessories of the 12th through the 15th centuries along social lines. Garments of every type, from the wardrobes of peasants and nobility, appear in over 200 period illustrations and patterns. Helpful advice covers: choosing fabrics, placement of seams, draping and folding garments, and more.

Clear-cut and accurate in its guidance, Medieval Costume and How to Recreate It depicts medieval clothes and accessories not as inanimate museum exhibits but as items of vital interest and well worth recreating. Unlike conventional costume histories, which tend to classify their contents by era, this volume portrays the clothing of the twelfth through 15th centuries according to the wearer's social class. Here are the garments of royalty, clerics, doctors, merchants, musicians, knights, artisans, farmers, and laborers – all magnificently illustrated with images from tapestries and illuminated manuscripts as well as in drawings and diagrams. Helpful advice covers choosing fabrics; placement of seams; draping and folding garments; how to walk, dance, and climb stairs in the cumbersome unfamiliarity of flowing attire; and even the best methods of storage.

Medieval Costume and How to Recreate It is an unabridged republication of Dorothy Hartley's classic Medieval Costume and Life, which was originally published by Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, in 1931.

About the Author:

Dorothy Hartley (1893-1985) traveled extensively around the British Isles, observing and writing down all that she saw. Through her writing she preserved rural customs and lifestyles. Author of Food in England, which was first published in 1954 and remains in print to this day, she also published a six-volume work on Life and Work of the People of England.