Wool is the whole wealth of my people!
Just as wool formed the cornerstone of the early English economy, so was it the foundation of everyone’s wardrobe, high-born or low. The vast majority of clothing was fashioned of this extraordinarily useful renewable resource shorn from sheep. Of secondary importance was the relative luxuriousness of linen, used for under clothing. Silk, exceedingly rare and costly, was limited to the very rich, and to the burials of the sainted.
Manuscript painting offers the greatest number of illustrations of Anglo-Saxon garments, with the kings, queens, saints and clerics depicted in raiment appropriate to their respective classes. Be mindful that our surmises are thus weighted towards the luxurious tastes of the wealthy. Ivory, wood, and bone carvings, stone crosses and wall paintings provide another glimpse into prevailing fashion. Lords and ladies, thegns and merchants describe and name particular articles of clothing in their wills, and leave them to favoured heirs. Grave finds and occasional cess-pit remnants of clothing provide additional, more egalitarian sources for study.
Unmentionables
Throughout the Anglo-Saxon period (450-1100) women wore a fairly slender undergarment, or shift, with long, narrow sleeves. In coloured illustrations this is generally white, indicating linen, although poorer woman may have had little choice but to wear wool next to the skin. It is not known how long the shift was, and it most probably varied in length. Linen shifts were valuable enough to be mentioned by several testatrix in their wills. No underpants were worn. (Of all the garments considered essential today, these were the most recently adopted, coming into general use only in the late eighteenth century. The sanitary napkins used by our Anglo-Saxon fore-mothers were most likely sewn linen pads stuffed with wool fleece, or perhaps layer upon layer of linen sewn together. These would have been set inside a close-fitting pair of drawers worn expressly for this purpose. Recall that commercially made disposable napkins only date to the third decade of the twentieth century, although commercially made reusable napkins were available decades earlier.)
Stockings, either woven and then cut and sewn to fit, or fashioned by the technique known today as nålbinding, were held up by knee garters fashioned of wool strips.
Mentionables
Over the shift came the long woolen gown. This dress would of course vary with the wealth of the wearer. The pronounced predilection of the Anglo-Saxons for vivid colour suggests that the dyer’s art was amply employed in producing tints of blue (from leaves of the herb woad), yellow (from the weld plant), green (from club moss and greenweed), and violet (from lichen). In the 5th and 6th centuries, Anglo-Saxon women wore gowns that were simple tubes of fabric, fastened together at the shoulders by paired brooches - a style that was to persist into the 11th century with Danish women. A fabric sash or girdle was often wrapped around the waist, and was used to suspend household keys, small toilet implements such as nail scissors, ear scoops, and tweezers, and beautiful and mysterious objects such as small crystal balls and decorative spoon-like sieves, like those found in the female grave at Chessell Down, Isle of Wight. Anglian women’s graves have contained clasps of various metals at the wrist bones, apparently used to secure the sleeves. Paris has ever dictated fashion to the rest of the West, and it was no different for our fore-mothers. Beginning in the late 7th century Frankish fashion had a strong influence on Anglo-Saxon women's clothing. The new gown style was ankle-length, with wide sleeves to the elbow, and was slipped on over the head. The girdle became less prominent with fewer, and more decorative, accessories hanging from it. Wide bands of contrasting colour adorn these gowns, edging the sleeves and hem and collar line, and sometimes running down the front. These may have been woven bands of wool sewn on, or broad areas of dense embroidery.
In the 10th and 11th centuries the body of the gown became more tailored, and the sleeves fuller and more voluminous as the period progresses. Contrasting colour cuffs, collars and hems remained popular. Girdles are infrequent, with no loose ends trailing, and with no objects suspended from them.
Cloaks changed from squares or triangles of wool, clasped with chained pins or brooches at one shoulder, to knee-length over-the-head enveloping garments. Amongst other luxurious accents, cloaks were embellished with embroidery; gold, silver, or copper wire trim sewn on; narrow coloured step weaving; and fur edging. If actual fur was out of the question, the skilled Anglo-Saxon housewife could actually create a looping weave on her loom in apparent imitation of fur or fleece. Hoods, when seen, were both individual items or integral to the cloak.
Early in the Anglo-Saxon period, women wore their hair loose, plaited, or caught in snood-like nets. Simple caps are also found. By the 7th century veil-like head coverings become more popular, and Kentish grave finds suggest brooches and pins may have held these in place. Curling tongs exist, so some hair must have been meant to be seen. As the period progresses women show less and less of their crowning glory - possibly as a result of the growing grip of Christianity and St. Paul’s injunction that women keep their heads covered - so that by the 11th century a headdress nearly envelopes the head and neck in a nun-like wimple.
Woman’s footwear changed least. Flat-soled ankle height leather boots, fastened with a side over-flap with toggles or laces, were standard. As leather tanning was well advanced, perhaps these boots were dyed various colours, or worked with carved or die-struck ornamentation for the wealthy.
What the Well-Dressed Thegn was Wearing
As always, less change is evident in men’s clothing over the period than in women’s. A linen loincloth or short brief-style breeches may have been worn under closely fitting legging-like trousers of wool. A leather or woven belt held the trousers at the waist, and leather strips were sometimes wrapped around the calves to protect them. Well-to-do men wore a linen under tunic with fitted sleeves under their outer tunic of wool. A superb example of a thegn's or nobleman's dress has been created by the extravagantly talented E.V. Svetova of New York City, who generously provides a wealth of detailed information in her re-creation.
In the 5th and 6th centuries the tunic was short, thigh length, and usually sleeveless, and cinched with a leather belt. Though the 7th to 11th centuries tunics generally sported sleeves, and a wide variety of sleeve lengths are depicted, including those with long full sleeves, long tight sleeves, and contrasting coloured cuffs along with contrasting collar bands. Tunics are still above the knee but beginning to lengthen, and illustrations from the 10th and 11th centuries show some very long, calf-length tunics, most especially for kings.
Men generally enjoyed the freedom of going bare-headed except in cold weather when furred caps were worn. By the end of the period a tall pointed cap, with the point often shown as bent over, became fashionable. Short ankle boots with toggle or laced fastenings were the norm, and appear to be nearly identical in both men and women, though the men’s sometimes have more pointed toes. Monastic records note "wool night shoes"; these may have been warm slippers of felted wool worn to protect monk's feet from the cold. Certainly there may have been a secular corollary. Costly gloves, richly embroidered, are mentioned by several men in their wills.
Men typically wore their hair rather long, past the ear or shoulder- length; a close-cropped head was the sign of a slave (or a Norman). Anglo-Saxon men must have greatly valued their long hair, for the following law occurs in the Law Code of King Ælfred (b. 849-d. 899 CE): If someone restrains a free man...(and) as a humiliation...he shaves (his head) like a priest's, without binding him, let him pay compensation of thirty shillings. If he shaves off his beard, let him pay compensation of twenty shillings. If he ties him up and then shaves his head like a priest's, let him pay compensation of sixty shillings. (extracted from Law 35, translated by Bill Griffiths)
If you consider that the penalty for cutting off a man's leg (Law 72) or arm (Law 66) was eighty shillings, you will understand that the steep sixty shilling fine for a forced haircut (hair being a resource which after all will grow back) was exacted as it struck at the notion of a man's dignity.
