

It was only in the 11th century that a professional tailor class began to develop techniques to make fitted fashions. History 11th century vestments of Pope Clement IIįor many centuries people had worn simply sewn T-shaped tunics that they made themselves.

Clothes were expensive for all except the richest in this period. Fully dressed burial may have been regarded as a pagan custom, and an impoverished family was probably glad to keep a serviceable set of clothing in use. This is partly because only the wealthy were buried with clothing it was rather the custom that most people were buried in burial shrouds, also called winding sheets. Many aspects of clothing in the period remain unknown. By the end of the period, these distinctions had finally disappeared, and Roman dress forms remained mainly as special styles of clothing for the clergy – the vestments that have changed relatively little up to the present day. The Romanised populations, and the Church, remained faithful to the longer tunics of Roman formal costume, coming below the knee, and often to the ankles. The most easily recognisable difference between the two groups was in male costume, where the invading peoples generally wore short tunics, with belts, and visible trousers, hose or leggings. For a period of several centuries, people in many countries dressed differently depending on whether they identified with the old Romanised population, or the new populations such as Franks, Anglo-Saxons, Visigoths. The main feature of the period was the meeting of late Roman costume with that of the invading peoples who moved into Europe over this period. 1000Įarly medieval European dress, from about 400 AD to 1100 AD, changed very gradually. Overview Anglo-Saxon Adam and Eve from the Caedmon manuscript, c.
