Medieval Fashion Syllabus

Week 1: Introduction / The Medieval World

In this introductory session we will talk about the course and any questions you may have. This is an opportunity to get to know each other, find out where our interests lie, and to familiarise ourselves with the course schedule, content, assessment (if you wish to take the course for credit), the Moodle site, and the online reading list. In the second part of the session we will look at the Medieval view of the world, and how people understood their own part in it. This will set the scene for our investigation of clothing.

Week 2: Visual sources part I

We will be looking at visual depictions of dress, focusing on manuscript illuminations: where to find them and how to use them. Our investigation delves into aspects of iconography as an important part to successfully deciphering images, and into questions of status and rhetoric. We will undertake an activity that encourages you to begin naming key parts of dress in the period. Note: Iconography is "the science of identification, description, classification, and interpretation of symbols, themes, and subject matter in the visual arts" (Encyclopædia Britannica)

Week 3: Visual sources part II

Continuing on from part I, we investigate paintings, sculptures and objects for visual clues for dress. We will be acting as 'dress detectives' in class, which is an approach based on the methodology developed by Mida and Kim (2015), and adapted for use with visual sources rather than actual dress artefacts.

Week 4: Textual sources

Textual depictions of dress and fashion are common in literature of the period, especially in poems. We also have wardrobe accounts, sumptuary laws, and even some canonisation documents to help us paint a picture through text. We will work with the various texts in class, aiming to visualise what is described.

Week 5: Extant textiles part I

Part I introduces the diverse circumstances of survival of medieval textiles: where to find them and why they have survived. We will focus on the different categories of finds (e.g. burial dress, archaeological excavations, reliquaries) and discuss what categorisation approach is most useful for our purposes. We will look at various extant textiles and dress items that have survived from the Medieval period, and take note of their developing design and construction.

Week 6: Extant textiles part II

In Part II we take a close and detailed look at some of the surviving textiles. We will study famous artefacts from the period, identifying and explaining how they were made, what materials, colours, and techniques were used. We will focus on the Holy Roman Empire coronation regalia to study embroidery (underside & surface couching, stem & split stitch, pearls & precious stones), tablet weaving and brocaded tablet weaving; the Pourpoint of Charles de Blois to study its construction. We will also take a look at how velvet was made.

Week 7: Development of fashion

Taking a step back from the details of textile objects, we will look at the timeline of developments in the period. How did dress and fashion develop over time? How did the socio-economic historical context influence dress? What affected changes in fashion? We will seek to answer the question: was there actually 'Fashion' in the Middle Ages as we understand it now? We will undertake a timeline activity to prepare for the class test the following week.

Week 8: 'Class test' / Medieval Dress Treasure Hunt

In the first hour of the session you will undertake the visual test (if you choose to). It is compulsory if you take the course for credits, but if you don't take it for credits, you are still welcome to take part and get feedback on it. In the second hour of the session you get to go on a 'medieval treasure hunt'. (no further information just now, as not to spoil the fun)

Week 9: Reconstructing medieval garments

In the last session before the project presentation we will pull together everything we have learned, and explore the re-construction of medieval dress in the intersection of visual sources, textual sources, and extant textiles. Using two case studies of my own research and re-constructions, we will explore practicalities of making medieval garments. For those who are interested, I am offering an extra workshop hour to undertake the most common sewing stitches. You will need scraps of wool cloth, needle, and sturdy thread (preferably linen) if you wish to take part.

Week 10: Project presentations / Legacy of medieval dress (if time permits)

If you take the course for credits you have to present a project, but you may also present a project just for the fun of sharing. Present your project assignment to the class (10 minutes each, including Q&A) Alternative outputs may be considered, such as a pre-produced video, please discuss this with the course tutor. Taking the course for credits is not required for presenting, and neither do you have to present anything if you don't wish to be assessed. Depending on how many of you are presenting, we might have time to look at the legacy of medieval dress with a particular focus on film and TV - dissecting contemporary adaptations of medieval costumes to see what 'they' got wrong.