BSTRACT

This is a set of 13th century men’s clothes. It consists of a set of undergarments (a shirt and braies), and a tunic. A pair of hosen (socks) will be added at a later date. The shirt has beenmodified so that the combination of shirt and tunic is suitable for use as rapier armor. Allgarments are made from 100% linen and were machine-sewn and hand-finished.

ACKGROUND

This set of 13th century men’s clothing can go from the rapier field to the Baron’s court. Atypical men’s suit of clothes during the early-to-mid-13th century consists of braies and a shirt,one or more gowns or tunics, and thigh-length hosen. This set of clothes currently lacks thehosen but is otherwise complete. The silhouette of the period was one of a very full body andvoluminous skirt. Many, but not all, men’s tunics were slit up the middle, presumably to allowthe wearer to sit astride a horse. These garments are not constructed to allow equestrianactivities.

Illustration 1:13th c. Men’s TunicsMaciejowski Bible f. 2r and 6 Illustration 2:13th C. Men’sTunicsMurthly Hours f.18v

APIER

RMOR

TANDARDS

The goal with this outfit is for His Excellency to be able to move from the rapier field to hismore ceremonial duties without needing to change his clothes. This means, of course, that thegarments must be able to function as adequate rapier armor, conforming to Kingdom armor standards. The relevant portions of the Aethelmearc Rapier Rules are excerpted below:

No skin shall show anywhere on the fencer's body, regardless of the position or stance of thefencer. There shall be sufficient overlap between separate pieces of armor that the required protection for that body area is preserved.…Torso and Arm Armor - Puncture resistant armor shall cover the body from the top of the shoulder to the base of the groin and the underarm area. Minimum underarm protection is provided by a

Rapier Armor in the Style of the 13th Century

Alianor de Ravenglas

triangle extending from the armhole seam, and covering the lower half of the sleeve, extendingdown the under side of the arm one-third the distance to the elbow. The edges of any closure mustoverlap by at least 3". The rest of the arm must be covered with abrasion resistant material.…Lower Extremity Armor - All portions of the lower extremities must be covered with at leastabrasion resistant material. Spandex, cotton gauze, and nylon tights are unacceptable. If skin can be seen through the material, the material is too thin. Footwear must completely enclose the footwith a minimum of abrasion resistant material.

These garments fit all of these specifications; the shirt and tunic together provide puncture-resistant protection (tested using a drop tester); the braies, when worn with hosen, serve to cover the lower extremities with abrasion-resistant material. The garments presented here are wornwith puncture-resistant hoods and leather gloves to complete compliance with Kingdom armor standards.

HIRT AND

UNIC

The shirt and tunic are made based on extant garments; I classify them as a hybrid between Nockert Types 2, 4, and 5.

They also bear a resemblance to the Italian garment that has beenattributed to St. Francis.

They consist of body panels, sleeves, triangular gussets, and tall sidegores, as are shown in Illustrations 3 and 4. I chose this layout because I wanted the garments to be very full from the shoulders down, while still maintaining the predominant thirteenth-centurystructure of rectangular body panels.Both garments were machine-sewn; despite the historical inaccuracy of this, I prefer to machine-sew clothing that will be worn in combat situations. In period, the layer of clothing closest to theskin would have been linen; in this set of clothes, the shirt is made from 100% linen. The outer

Illustration 3:Shirt & Tunic Layout Illustration 4:Sleeve/Gusset/Gore Detail

Rapier Armor in the Style of the 13th CenturyAlianor de Ravenglas 2

Aethelmearc Policies of the Marshal of Fence.

Carlson

LABEC.

layer would most likely have been wool; in this case, His Excellency chose to have the fashionlayer made from linen as well because that was the material that he had already purchased.In order to make the combination of these two garments to conform to the rapier armor standards, I double-layered most of the shirt; only the bottom half of the sleeves is single-layered. In order to do work with the doubled fabric, I first machine-based the pieces together and then used the zig-zag stitch on my sewing machine to hold the edges of the pieces together. Itreated each double-layered piece as one. The stitching that holds the pieces together is invisibleon the outside of the garment except on the sleeves. The garment will never be worn by itself,however, so this “visible” stitching is never actually seen.Because His Excellency actually portrays a time period a bit earlier than the 13th century, wedecided to add some wide strips of contrasting fabric as trim at the neckline, sleeves, and hem of the outer tunic. These were cut on the bias so thatthey could accommodate the curve of the necklineand the hem. The neckline band was machine-sewnand then finished by hand; the hem and sleeve bands were pieced by machine and applied by hand.

RAIES

These braies are made of 100% linen, machine-sewn and hand-finished. They are of the style that Icall “capital H” braies, which reproduce the look of 13th century undergarments quite well, especiallywhen worn with hosen, as pictured here. What theydo not reproduce as faithfully is the look of braieswhen they were worn by themselves, as we can seein Illustration 5. They are a less good reproductionof what the braies looked like when worn withouthosen, as we can see in Illustration 6. This is atradeoff, however; braies that look correct whenworn by themselves are significantly more labor-intensive to construct and to wear.The structure of these braies is simply the lower half of acapital letter “H”. This consists of a wide center panelwith leg panels attached. This extremely voluminousgarment is then gathered at the waist with a waistband; inthis case the waistband is made of the same linen as the braies.When I construct braies in this manner, I leave openings ineach of the front seams. These serve two purposes: first,they give access to the drawstring for purposes of tyingand un-tying. Second, they let the wearer attach the points

Rapier Armor in the Style of the 13th CenturyAlianor de Ravenglas 3

Illustration 5: Braies worn withhosen.Maciejowski Bible, f. 18 Illustration 6: Braies wornwithout hosen.Maciejowski Bible, f. 18 Illustration 7:Capital H Braies