Dress in the Middle Ages - Softcover

Piponnier, Françoise; Mane, Perrine

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0300086911 ISBN 13: 9780300086911

Publisher: Yale University Press, 2000

Synopsis

This absorbing survey of medieval clothing makes an important and unique contribution to our understanding of the cultural and social conditions of western Europe in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Drawing on paintings and sculpture, documents and literature, surviving clothing, textiles, jewelry, and armor, Françoise Piponnier and Perrine Mane show that garments and accessories of the middle ages reveal much about life and society of the time.

The authors examine the sources for clothing: what clothes were made of, why, and from where the materials came. They provide a chronology of changes in western European dress during the period, investigating the development and spread of "fashion." They explore the differences between the clothing of men and women, explaining that changes in fashion for women were less spectacular than those for men because of the secondary position of women in medieval society. The authors also discuss the changing significance of clothing to people as they progressed through life, how clothing related to status, the varied work attire of such professionals as lawyers, academics, and members of religious orders, and the clothing of carnival and disguise.

Elegantly written and attractively presented, the book will be of interest not only to students of medieval history but also to anyone fascinated by clothes and fashion.

About this title

About the Author:

Françoise Piponnier is director of studies at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales in Paris. Perrine Mane is head of research at the Centre Nationale des Recherches Scientifiques in Paris.

Language Notes:

Text: English (translation)
Original Language: French

About this edition

• Publisher: Yale University Press
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0300086911
• ISBN 13: 9780300086911
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 167