Short description:

In this wide-ranging study of costume history contributors explore fashion, textiles, and the representation of clothing in the middle ages. Essays combine the perspectives of archaeology, art history, economics, religion, costume history, material culture, and literary criticism and explore materials from England, France, the Low Countries, Scandinavia, Germany, Italy, and Ireland. The collection focuses on multiple aspects of textiles and dress - their making, meaning, and representation - and explores the impact of international trade and other forms of cultural exchange.

Long description:

In this wide-ranging study of costume history contributors explore fashion, textiles, and the representation of clothing in the middle ages. Essays combine the perspectives of archaeology, art history, economics, religion, costume history, material culture, and literary criticism and explore materials from England, France, the Low Countries, Scandinavia, Germany, Italy, and Ireland. The collection focuses on multiple aspects of textiles and dress - their making, meaning, and representation - and explores the impact of international trade and other forms of cultural exchange.

"An outstanding series of essays by historians, art historians, and literary specialists on a wide variety of topics in medieval textiles, from manufacture and use, to style, fashion, iconography, and the many shades of social meaning."

- William W. Clark, Queens College and the Graduate Center, CUNY

"This volume demonstrates the wide variety of excellent new work now being done on dress and costume history. The papers are rich in content and cover a wide variety of periods and subject matter."

- Jonathan J. G. Alexander, Institute of Fine Arts, New York University

"The volume is a valuable addition to the both the library of a general reader and a costume historian. For the general reader the books provides ready access to information ranging over a six-hundred year period. For the costume historian there is a wealth of detailed information to add breadth and depth to one's knowledge, with an additional resource of information in the form of copious endnotes and bibliographic references."

- Sandra L. Rosenbau, Dress

Table of Contents:

'As proud as a dog in a doublet': The Importance of Clothing in 'The Shoemaker's Holiday' Corps Guerrier-Birth of Fashion in the Fourteenth Century Unravelling the Mystery of Jan van Eyck's Cloths of Honour: Textiles as Sacred Object and Text From Self-sufficiency to Commerce: Structural and Artifactual Evidence for Textile Manufacture in the East of England from the Fifth to the Eleventh Centuries Simulated Textiles as an Allegorical Mode in Romanesque Wall Painting Appearance and Ideology in Merovingian Gaul Seals of Approval: An Aspect of Regulation in the Textile Trade in the Late Middle Ages Marie de France's 'Bisclavret': What the Werewolf Will and Will Not Wear Gender Journey: Change in Images of Women and Femininity when Scandinavian Viking Age met the Middle Ages The Margaret Fitzgerald Tomb Effigy: A Late Medieval Dress and Headdress in St. Canice's Cathedral, Kilkenny, Ireland Fashion in French Crusade Literature: Desiring Infidel Textiles The Dress of Medieval Religious Women: Anti-fashion incorporated versus subverted doctrine Addressing the Law: Costume as Signifier in Medieval Legal Manuscripts From Content to Form: Represented Clothing in Mid-twelfth-century Northern French Sculpture The Depiction of Contemporary Costume in Irish High Crosses Christ as a Windblown Sleeve: The Ambiguity of Clothing as a Sign Gottfreid von Strassburg's 'Tristan'