Green Eggs and Hosen
or
“I will not wear that silly
thing. I will not wear most
everything.”
By Eric Mason, writing as Gilbert the Short
Food and clothing are cornerstones in our daily life. They are part of our culture, and say a lot about us. Many stereotypes are drawn from how a person eats or dresses. There is the fast food/meat and potatoes crowd, and then all the rest of those “weirdoes”, vegetarians, the low “carb” crowd and dozens of other combinations. Then you have the jeans and a shirt group and all those other people who are suspect because of their bizarre non-standardized clothes.
Due to these social pressures, experimentation tends to be rare. Different food will be passed over for the reliable staples. “Raw fish? Gross. I’ll get a burger.” Never mind that raw fish is a staple in another culture, it isn’t ours and is disgusting. For some reason a great work of prose comes to mind when we hear someone pass over edibles without even trying them. “I do not like green eggs and ham, I do not like them Sam I am”; such certainty from the shores of ignorance.
If however clothing is rejected out of hand there is rarely even a twinge of irony. Even more than food, clothing can be a statement of conformity. That part of our culture is always visible and persons whom you meet will probably use your mode of dress when forming opinions. The last thing you want is for someone to have an erroneous impression of you.
For re-enactment one of the hardest things for many people to do is let go of their own cultural bias for clothing. There is fear of judgment, worry about comfort and concerns regarding suitability for the elements. Thus a standard response is to find a culture perceived to be as close as possible to our own. They will not try the unfamiliar, the green eggs and ham remain untasted upon the plate.
There are many stereotypes for both men and women that go along with their appearance. (One could go out on a limb and suggest that men have the more rigid code for acceptable appearance.) Most of them revolve around frivolity and intelligence. Some most painfully deal with gender identity, and sexual preferences.
The former are fairly easy to overcome. In many periods one’s clothing was where one spent money. It was a normal thing like having a nice car, computer, TV or any other modern item you could imagine investing in. It is still possible to manage frivolity by a period’s standards, but you would have to try very, very hard to manage it. Your fellow re-enactors know this too and your finery will impress them. As to judgements about one’s intelligence, everyone wore the same type of clothes at that time, much like we do now. How can one be foolish looking when everyone else was wearing the same thing?
The latter is more delicate. As with the previous issues you have to remember that all the other members of your gender were wearing the same thing. Whatever it is you are looking at is the jeans and t-shirt of that era. It is normal for that culture and your fellow re-enactors know it too. The fact that you might be clad in showy garments announces that you are affluent and nothing more.
There will always be some who haven’t yet learned these truths, but rather than living in terror of the uneducated minority, learn to spot them. Ignorance is cured by talking to them; informing them about the culture you’re representing. If you are confident, and secure in yourself, things will be fine.
We can safely say the human form hasn’t changed too much in the past few millennia. So people in any given period would have had a similar build to yours. Would you put up with something horribly uncomfortable as part of your daily wardrobe? Why do you think they would? Obviously there are always some exceptions, but they tended to be extreme fashions, much like the extreme fashion set today. They’re there, but they aren’t for everyone.
Generally speaking there are two ways to fit a garment, loosely and tightly. Both of these can be done while remaining comfortable and allowing full movement. We are most familiar with a loose fit since modern clothes tend to favour generic sizing. The tall skinny guy wears an extra large shirt, and so does the shorter rotund fellow. For the former, the length is good but the shirt is baggy. For the latter the shirt is filled out but the sleeves are too long. When a loosely fitted garment is tight somewhere, it will restrict movement and we simply move to a larger garment.
Tightly fitted garments manage to achieve comfort and mobility through a well-designed cut and custom fit for you the wearer. There is no extra fabric to bunch; yet there is enough to keep the garment from binding anywhere. So the clothing won’t actually be tight in the modern sense, but it won’t look baggy.
We will now touch on undergarments since although the above holds true, many seem to have a harder time accepting it. Women and men over the years dealt with their delicate bits in different manners. Typically they too were keenly interested in comfort for these things.
Generally speaking corsets follow the principals for tightly fitted clothing, when made properly they are comfortable and oxygen is not a huge issue. It will reduce your lung capacity a bit, but as long as you act like a lady rather than a stevedore you'll be fine. In other times women simply wore a long shirt, and they survived without a modern bra. Obviously oxygen wasn't an issue for them at all.
Men’s underpants have always had to deal with men’s bits without doing horrible things to them. Before the cotton knit however this had to be done with fabric without much stretch. Thus we have again the loose approach much like modern boxer shorts and the fitted approach where the fabric is cut in a very clever way so nothing bad will ever happen. Men also wore undershirts. We’ve mostly abandoned them today but they’re important for laundering and comfort. Modern shirts are easily washed and easy on the skin, this was not always so. Undershirts are for those times.
Many re-enactors live in places that have a different climate from the time and place they are enacting. Despite this you can still look at how they dealt with extremes and apply their methods. Your area is wet? What did the people of that period do when it rained? They did something. You don’t like getting drenched, and as usual it’s safe to say they didn’t either.
An example of dealing with various conditions during the first half of the fourteenth century in England for a man is probably as follows:
Normal: Linen braies, linen shirt, wool hosen, leather shoes, wool cote, wool hood not pulled up.
Cooler: Add a wool surcote.
Still cooler or wet: Add a wool cloak and/or draw up hood.
Warmer: Remove hood. Perhaps add a straw hat.
Still Warmer: Roll down or remove hosen.
Very hot: Remove cote, he’s now effectively naked in his shoes and underclothes.
Stifling: Down to his braies and hopefully in the shade drinking lots of water.
You will have no doubt noticed the man in our example is wearing wool and linen. For most modern people we think of wool as a hot and sometimes itchy material. First important fact about wool and other natural fabrics is that they breathe very well. It is modern materials like polyester that ruthlessly trap heat. Also wool comes in many different weights from very light for modern summer suits to very heavy for modern coats. Linen is a very comfortable fabric which washes very easily. It is cool when the weather is warm and warm when the weather is cool. It is because of these factors that under garments are made of linen.
This man has dealt with all the elements, so by varying the weights of the garments we can adjust his wardrobe to a colder or warmer climate. As you look at a given period you will begin to see how things can be adjusted to suit your needs. Look up the recommendations for hot and cold weather in your region so that you can make the best-informed decisions. For example in health guidelines for the US and Canada stripping off one's shirt is discouraged even in the hottest weather.
Clothing is a very important part of the face you show to the world. When re-enacting you’re showing a face in a different world where the cultural expectations are very different. If one can look at this without the baggage of our modern culture and with a little creativity, experiencing different clothing can be a pleasant journey into the past.
Happy re-enacting to you,
Lord Gilbert the Short
c. 1340 Englishman