i'm lindsay, agender, (they/them pronouns). i draw, i like fashion, make-up, photoshop, crows, social justice, etc. i have severe social anxiety and panic disorder so beware of venting.
We often call clothes silk when they are satin, velvet where they are velveteen or we have no clue what we’re on about. So today let’s look at fabrics.
Wool: This was the staple of much of the clothes owned by peasants. It was in supply and it wasn’t as costly as most fabrics when undyed. It was also warm.
Linen: Forget about softness. Peasant linen was made of coarser weaves and flax. It was heavier than noble linen.
Cotton: A lightweight fabric used in hotter climates. It was softer than the linen and airier.
Fustian: heavy cloth woven from cotton, for menswear.
Leather: Leather was used for boots and shoes rather than killer jackets.
Mink: Soft and lightweight, silkly and glossy furs
Fox: Long, lustrous, colourful and easy to dye.
Ermine: White fur streaked with black (ONLY FOR ROYALTY)
Sable: long, luxurious, dense but light.
Wolf: thick, tough, warm but has a bad smell
Vair: fur from a red squirrel really only used for trimming.
You are-very wrong about some of this.
First. All linen is made of flax. That’s what it IS. Processed fibers from the stalks of flax. Linen is also incredibly soft, even at really heavy weights, because processing it into the fibers removes most of the stiffness, and spinning it takes care of the rest.
Second. Brocade is made by weaving a base weft for securing the cloth, then a supplemental warp to actually make the pattern. It’s usually not embroidered, because it’s already got an expensive pattern to it.
Third. Damask is a type of brocade, yes, but it’s double-sided brocade, whereas traditional brocade only has the pattern on one side. Still no real textural differences because, see above, the patterns are woven in.
Fourth. White fabric is SUPER GODDAMN COMMON when you have a lot of white wool. Peasants wear a lot of undyed wool, and are not nearly as unwashed as you think. Undyed linen is a nice pale tan though, I’ll give you that.
Fifth. Ermine is, actually, a specific animal. It’s the winter coat of a stoat, a little weasel. Very cute critters.
Sixth. As someone with several wolf pelts, mine actually have less of a smell than any of the sheepskins I’ve been around.
ALSO.
Seventh. Cotton referred to a weave or surface of cloth, and not its
fiber in early accounts.
The cotton plant, itself, does not grow well in cooler climates and so wasn’t commonly use or available in Northern Europe until about the 17th century, at which time it was normally blended with linen when used in garment fabrics.
Eighth. The idea that peasants were restricted to browns, reds, and grays as dye is incorrect. Muted colors were deemed more appropriate for peasants (to reflect the humbleness God had chosen for them and to avoid the mortal sin of pride), and included faded, pale shades of a number of colors if you could source it. Blue was actually a perfectly acceptable color for several classes because of its religious associations.
The search term for regulations like this
is “Sumptuary Law” - a law or laws governing consumption of food, drink and
goods.
It wasn’t just to keep people in their
social place, but frequently to help local industry - wearing woollen clothes made here,
not cotton clothes imported from there, drinking Scotch whisky not French
brandy, and so on.
Hemp produced a fabric which was made in
the same way as linen (retting etc. - look it up). I have a couple of hemp
shirts by Patagonia; they’re coarser than the fine Irish damask linenware I
inherited from my Mum, but are by no means crude peasant garments.
This is hemp.
So is this.
Linen can be made with a weave so tight
that, once the fibres expand from their initial soaking, it will hold water (as
proved with the fine Irish damask linenware mentioned above) while other weaves
are so light they’re translucent.
Check out the way it’s represented in
Ancient Egyptian art..
…or indeed a good-quality Irish linen
handkerchief.
This is linen.
So is this.
That’s linen damask, like the tablecloths and pillowcases left me by Mum. Its 1950s laundry instructions are “boil wash, then hot iron while damp”. This was when “boil wash” meant just that, not merely the hottest setting on the machine. Linen is sturdy stuff, and so is hemp.
Once woven it was bleached in the sun and with enough good weather would end up white; this bleaching-green was near where I grew up, AFAIK still in use in the 1950s. There’s even more linen laid out off in the distance. @dduane says the strips could be mistaken for poly-tunnels.
Because the linen was laid out in the open for several days at a time, it needed a watchman to keep animals away and prevent theft, and a place for him to stay, rather like this:
“Linens” (plural) meant under-garments. Besides next-the-skin underwear as we know it now - drawers, braies, shifts,
chemises - shirts and blouses also qualified as “linens”. Washing simply made and hard-wearing “linens” was easier than doing it to heavier, more
elaborate outerwear which needed disassembled - sleeves, braid, lace, buttons
and all - before washing could begin.
Blue was a common colour - it came from
woad and had been used for thousands of years.
“The Complete Book of Herbs” by Lesley
Bremness is a useful book from our reference shelves, and has a chart of 50
dye-herbs, their basic colours, and how those colours could vary, depending on
what mordant was used to fix the colour in the fabric and even on what fabric
was being dyed.
Just two examples show these changes:
woollen cloth dyed with heather tips and alum came out yellow, but young
heather branches, alum and a pinch of iron filings produced green. Onion skins
and alum gave orange wool, onion skins and copper filings in white vinegar gave
brassy yellow wool and tan silk.
Here’s an example of three dye-plants each
used with three different mordants.
Alum is the most common mordant in the
chart, and explains why the Medici control of newly-discovered alum deposits in
Italy made them so rich. Before then Europe’s alum had to be bought,
reluctantly and with much grinding of teeth, from the Ottoman Turks.
Here are a couple of samplers showing
colours from natural dyes:
All these colours were more muted than
modern chemical dyes, but not that much more, though they faded faster. Wealthy
people who could afford stronger dyes and frequent re-dying would have been
more intensely colourful than pastel-hued lower orders, not forgetting the
sumptuary laws - remember them? - meant to keep them from looking like their
betters. A peasant or yeoman who could get away with bright colours might have
other bright ideas too…
However, while History might not have been
as vivid as marginalia and full-page Book of Hours illuminations suggests (inks
and paints aren’t out in the daylight)…
…it certainly wasn’t as monochromatically
muddy as Hollywood would have you believe.
That trend started AFAIK with
“Monty Python and the Holy Grail”, and was happily embraced because “everyone
knows” historical people were dirty - also stupid, superstitious, deceitful and cruel.
(Which was IRL a bit more subtle than just banging them together. I saw a brief filler documentary long ago showing how the coconut-shells were in fact thumped against trays filled with - or actual slabs of - appropriate surface: gravel, cobbles, grass, sand and so on. But that’s another post.)
a tip for writing female characters: don’t be afraid to make her feral. just absolutely batshit. her actual intelligence? that can vary. but bring out the chaotic stupid tendencies. embrace her as a one brain cell enemy of the state
Realizing it’s not romance that I hate but overdone straight relationships with zero chemistry built on a slew of misogynistic tropes was like a huge revelation for me
god how do people just function?!? its like i can either take care of my schoolwork OR keep my apartment clean OR look after my mental health OR have a social life… but never two or more at a time. no matter which aspect of my life is going well at a given moment, theres always 3 dumpster fires blazing away in the background. i feel like im playing adult whack-a-mole
SEGA Sammy Holdings is making a big effort to be more inclusive and protective of the LGBT community. This includes seminars, much wider acceptance for hiring new employees, and more. For Japan, this is still not as widely practiced as it should be. This is wonderful to see and I’m glad that SEGA is taking steps to make a better workplace for everyone.
Sonic actually said “trans rights” and I am gonna go cry of happiness now. 😭🏳🌈💜
