Clothing of Norman Women in the Late 11th and Early 12th Centuries

Executive summary about renaissance women clothing by Sarah Doyle

First though, we have to consider the problems of looking at manuscripts for evidence of female clothing. During this period the majority of manuscripts were still illustrated by monks. Since the women of the time were not biblical characters, the assumption will have to be made that they are wearing the clothing of the highest ranking members of society. We can also ask whether monastics would have seen women wearing the latest fashions? We, therefore, have to be very careful when using manuscript evidence for ascertaining women's fashions.

Dresses were relatively fitted and had long droopy sleeves. Aelfgyva wearing a relatively close fitting dress with quite long sleeves and a standard wimple. Unfortunately, though the tapestry doesn't show us much in the way of detail. However, from other manuscripts we can tell that the sleeves were often lined in material of a contrasting colour and turned back to display this. There was, however, a wide variety in the length of sleeve. Whilst talking of sleeves I must point out that there is no evidence at all from this period for sleeves with knotted ends.

For some reason, possibly the change in ruling class, there are very few manuscripts dated to the period between AD1066 and 1100. For example, I have found illustrations of mantles right through until the late 12th century. Equally, the hood wimple, which appears in most pre-Conquest manuscripts, seems to continue until about the same date.

During the 12th century it became quite fashionable to have an open wimple leaving the neckline visible. This style, like the hooded wimples, doesn't seem to have a wimple band to hold them in place, so, presumably, they would have been pinned to a cap which is not visible. However, on closer observation the decoration on the "girdle" seems identical to the decoration around the hem and sleeves of the dress. Luckily, one manuscript has survived which shows us one method of drawing in the fabric. This very clearly shows us the long droopy sleeves, the underdress with tight sleeves, and the side fastening. There are other ways of making a fitted dress however. I've made a reasonably fitted dress from woollen cloth which is quite stretchy. Alternatively small loops could be used which would be laced together. Here the loops were probably used to pin a cloak to the dress underneath. The loops were reinforced at the back of the fabric to ensure the dress could take the extra strain. To utilise this method I believe that you would have to make the dress so that it fitted snugly over the bust and then use the loops to pull in the waist of the dress. There is a later pattern from Greenland showing a dress made in at least 10 panels of material, but this dates from the late 13th so we can pretty much discount it for our period of interest. However, a lot of the manuscripts show a lot of material in the skirt so you would at least need extra panels in the side of the dress and probably at the front and back as well. Patterned linen would have been popular as would finely woven fulled woollen cloth. In conclusion then what can we say about the clothing of Norman women? We can say that for special occasions, e.g. visiting court, she would have worn a semi-fitted dress with long droopy sleeves and a head covering. However, for everyday use and when working she would have worn a slightly less fitted dress with less droopy sleeves. We also have very scant evidence for belts, and this type of dress actually looks fine without one.