Best fabric sites

I get queries all the time about where to purchase fabrics appropriate to the period. So this blog is about giving a regularly updated listing of the best, based on quality & customer service rather than price alone. They are all also availble for purchase via the internet, which means they are accessible no matter where you live.

Linen
Without a doubt, Fabric-store.com should be your first stop. They offer a discount for repeat custom. They are quick, reliable, and carry linens in a good range of colours and weights, including linen canvas, which is not exactly easy to find. I highly recommend getting a fabric sample first, as the colours on the website are not necessarily exactly true.

Wool
Friends have had luck with B. Black & sons for fine quality wools woven in period styles in a range of colours. For a truly authentic fabric, Time Warp textiles will weave reproduction wool fabrics to order. To be honest, my stash is large enough that I haven't bought wool in some time, so your mileage may vary.


Silk
For silk brocades try Sartor - all about silk. While they supply a number of silks, of particular interest is the brocades section. You need to have researched some of your fabric patterns first, but you will find replica fabrics of period textiles. For liturgical or geometric silks, try Istok. Be aware that some of their silk fabrics are rayons - the price is usually a good indicator. Order a sample and test the fabric first before you purchase.

If you have a particular pattern in mind for a fabric and can't get it at either of the above silk merchants, then getting a fabric custom printed might be the right alternative. Try Spoonflower. They even offer it in a range of silks. You could also try M. Perkins & Son, who offer a range of partial silks or silk substitutes in beautiful patterns.

Unusual Fabrics
For both hemp and buckram, which are appropriate, but oh-so-difficult-to-find, try Wm. Booth, Draper, a reenactment specialty supply store. Again, I have not used them, but I plan to in the future.

I hope this helps - any other suggestions are more than welcome.

Berengaria: Beyond a Bliaut

When you think of 12th century women's clothing, by far and away the romantic images revolve around a bliaut. It is the "princess" dress associated with the Pre-Raphaelite art movement, and perhaps best known from Leighton's painting The Accolade. However while this is the most common option speculated on and reproduced by re-enactors in the SCA, this was not the only clothing style in the twelfth century for women, or necessarily even representative.

A classic illustration of an alternate fashion style is found in the representations of Berengaria of Navarre, Queen of the English following her marriage to Richard I in 1191.  Her style (as you can see) has relatively close sleeves, but a high neckline, and flowing robes, with a veil, belt and pouch:

1. Effigy in Abbaye de l'Epau, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

2. 19th century plaster cast reproduction of above effigy, © Victoria and Albert Museum, London

3. Richard Coeur de Lion navigaunt, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

4. Berenguela Navarra, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

If you look at the paire effigies of Richard & Berengaria at Fontevraud Abbey (courtesy of Wikimedia Commons), you can see layers of clothing, particularly on Richard below:

I'm particularly interested in the level of decoration on the reproduction effigy. I'm hoping it is true to the original, which has little or no surviving original paintwork.

For some more detail and good photos of the excavation of her tomb, see la Tumba de Berenguela

Hospitaller Clothing Statutes

The following are listed as required in the Statutes circa 1206

White linen braies x3
White linen shirt x3
White linen cotta/tunic x3
Linen coif x1
White hose - one pair in linen and one in wool
White cap (likely felt) x1
Black woolen garnache and hood x1 (tunic with hood)
Black woolen mantel lined in fur for winter x1 (cape with hood)
Black woolen mantel unlined for summer x1 (cape with hood)
White linen bedding sheets x4
Linen bag for bedding x1

From: Nicolle, David, Knight Hospitaller (1): 1100-1306, Osprey Publishing, Botley (Oxon), 2001, p. 59.

Templar Clothing Statutes

From the Templar Heirarchical Statues circa 1165.

131. When a man is made a brother, the Draper should take from him all his clothes except those of squirrel-fur or scarlet...

138. Each knight brother of the convent should have three horses and one squre; and a fourth horse and a second squire, if he has them, are at the discretion of the Master; and they should have a communal ration of barley for their horses; a hauberk, iron hose, a helmet or chapeau de fer (wide-brimmed helmet), a sword, a shield, a lance, a Turkish mace, a surcoat, arming jacket, mail shoes, and three knives: a dagger, a bread-knife and a pocket knife. They may have caparisons, two shirts, two pairs of breeches and two pairs of hose; and a small belt which they should tie over the shirt. And all the brothers of the Temple should sleep thus, except when they are ill in the hospital, and then they should do so with permission. They should have a jerkin with tails back and front, and a covering fur jacket, two white mantles, one with fur and one without; but in summer they should give back the one with fur, and the Draper may put it aside for their use.

139. And each should have a cope (heavy, hooded, enveloping whole body, fastened with a string or hook), a tunic (short sleeves worn over the shirt, sleeves lengthening in late twelfth/thirteenth c.) and a leather belt to put round his waist; and three pieces of bed linen: that is to say a bag in which to put straw, a sheet and a light blanket or whatever the Draper wishes to give him; also a rug, if he is given one, to cover his bed or his coat of mail when he rides out; moreover the rug should be white or black or striped; and two small bags: one in which to put his nightshirt and one for his surcoat and arming jacket; and a leather or wire mesh bag in which to put his hauberk; but if he has one he may not have the other.

140. And each may have a cloth for eating and another with which to was his head; and a rug on to which he can sift his barley; and a blanket to cover his horses; and if the rug for sifting he should not have the blanket. And he should have a cauldron for cooking and a bowl for measuring barley; and if he goes from one land to another he may not always carry them, except with the Master’s permission. And he may have three saddle bags: one for the brother and two for the squires; and two cups for drinking, and two flasks; a strap and one girdle with a buckle and one without; a bowl made of horn and a spoon. And he may have one cloth cap and one felt hat; a tent and a tent peg; the surcoat should be completely white.

141. The surcoats for the sergeant brothers should be completely black, with a red cross on the front and back. And they may have either black or brown mantles; and they may have everything that the knight brothers have except the horses’ equipment, the tent and the cauldron, which they will not have. And they may have a sleeveless coat of mail, hose without feet, and a chapeau de fer; and all these aforementioned things they may have according to the means of the house.

142. One brother of the convent may give to another a garnache that he has worn for a year, an old coat of mail, an old tunic, shirt, breeches and boots; and a lantern if he knows how to make it, a deerskin and a goatskin. And if any squire leaves his lord, and has served his term in the house, his lord should not take from him any clothing that he has given him, except the year-old garnache, and he may give him a two-year old one if he wishes.

280. And no brother should be without his habit when the hours are sung. And if any brother is drinking or eating, he should not be without his habit; and he should wear his habit in such a way as to have  the laces of his cloak round his neck. And if he has his cope when he hears the hours, he should be dressed in his tunic, if he does not have a mantle; and a brother may eat in the same way if he does not have a mantle.

281. When the bell rings for matins, each brother should get up immediately, put on his hose, and fasten his cloak, and go to the chapel and hear the office... And each brother should come to matins in breeches and shirt, without any belt except the small one, and with his hood up. Moreover he should be dressed in hose and shoes and have his habit as it is said above. And all the other hours the brothers should hear completely dressed and in hose, according to the requirements of the weather and the season.

314. When a brother goes to prime, he should be fully dressed in his hose; for he should not go in his shirt, nor in his garnache if he does not have a coat of mail or tunic, nor with his hood up. No brother should comb his hair after compline; no brother should wear a mantle over his head except when he is in the infirmary and when he goes to matins, for then he may wear it; but he should not keep it on when the office is being sung.