Anglo-Saxon Clothing

[svensson]

For all our carl-class clansmen out there...

 

[foolcat]

Thank you for this.

To anyone who's thinking that looks way too colorful for the time period, I would suggest a look at Tod's Workshop's video about Dover Castle (it's the third video of a series): 

 

[svensson]

Building on @foolcat's comment, it should be noted that medieval dyes faded quite quickly due to weather and sun exposure, not to mention washing. Brilliant dyes like like yellow or red would fade to a bilious jaundiced color and pink-purple fairly quickly. This is why clothing was mentioned so often in period poetry and tales. The implication was that everyone else was in their duller workaday wear but the poem's protagonist was wearing his 'Saturday-go-to-the-Thing' best.

What's really amazing is how brilliant some of the discarded clothing found in midden pits remained. Trews worn down to threadbare on the knees and rump still have fairly bright dyes on the areas exposed to weather, like the thighs.

Edited June 18, 2024 by svensson

[EricW]

13 hours ago, svensson said:

Building on @foolcat's comment, it should be noted that medieval dyes faded quite quickly due to weather and sun exposure, not to mention washing. Brilliant dyes like like yellow or red would fade to a bilious jaundiced color and pink-purple fairly quickly. This is why clothing was mentioned so often in period poetry and tales. The implication was that everyone else was in their duller workaday wear but the poem's protagonist was wearing his 'Saturday-go-to-the-Thing' best.

What's really amazing is how brilliant some of the discarded clothing found it midden pits remained. Trews worn down to threadbare on the knees and rump still have fairly bright dyes on the areas exposed to weather, like the thighs.

I'm not sure, I suspect some dyes at least would have been comparable to today's durability. According to this source medieval dyers used Alum as a fixative, in medieval times there was a significant industry in modern day Northern Iran which mined and processed natural sources of Alum, which may have been shipped all the way to Britain. More or less the same Alum process was being used in the British textile industry in the mid 1800s, so it was pretty effective.

They possibly also used other chemicals like copper sulphate and iron compounds both for their dying properties and their fixing properties. If you stain your clothes using Ferric Chloride while making printed circuit boards, good luck getting that stain out - ruined plenty of clothes spilling chemicals which would have been available in medieval times. . 

[svensson]

@EricW Certainly there are gonna be some trade in mordants and dye-fixers. But at the clan steading level such novelties will be rare.

While it's true that the dyer isn't paying the premiums of someone getting such items via the Silk Road or via Genoa and Venice's chokehold of Middle East trade, the political issues involving the Lunar Empire will jack up costs and the city mothers of Nochet and Esrolia have never let a Heortling or Sartarite silver Guilder pass by without trying to grab it. Such trade will likely be conducted at the clan level rather than steading. This means that such goods will first be bought for cash... the nobles and priests and then the thanes... before they arrive down at the steading barter level.

Edited June 18, 2024 by svensson