12th Century clothing photo links and comments

[kareina]

A couple of years ago I visited the museums in Vienna with Racaire and got to see for myself the gorgeous blue tunic. Seeing the details of the sewing up close convinced me that it is missing a decorated over bit.

Today I was catching up on reading the 12th Century garb email list and saw a link there to one of her photos of a belt which is displayed in the same collection, and was reminded of the tunic. I don't remember if I mentioned my thoughts on the missing bit here before, or if it has only come up in conversation, but even if I did it might bear repeating, since I have links to specific photos ready to hand just now, and I know that some of my friends are interested in such things.

Why do I think it is missing something? Well, you can see in this photo that the neck slit isn't meant to be seen--the stitching along the neck slit is a coarse covering of the edge and no where near as pretty as even the other seams, and doesn't come close to comparing with the fancy establishments on the cuffs and hem (see neighbouring photos).

The other clue is the tunic in the next display case. As you can see, there is a rectangular beaded and embroidered section sitting over the neckline of the white tunic. If the blue one had such a thing that matched the cuffs and hem it would explain why the tunic itself is so plain on the neck, and why the quality/style of stitching is so different for the neck slit compared to the other seams.

Comments

[kareina.livejournal.com]

yes, there is a hint of differential fading, and the narrow gold band does look like it could have gone lower down. However, I don't think that the gold band itself is really meant to be seen, for the most part, either, I think it it just there to be a hint of gold under the prettier layer, to keep the blue from showing at the neck hole. I think that the prettier layer never would have been attached, but worn loose over it (they look loose on the other tunics on display), in which case it might not have caused any differential fading--I don't think this tunic could have been worn or even exposed to sun all that often to still have such a nice rich blue colour all these years later.

The neck line you line to is lovely, thanks! I hadn't seen that one before.