[Ansteorra] Garb Question

C. Weed cweed at austin.rr.com
Wed Feb 26 16:50:46 PST 2003


I think you may want to narrow the boundaries of your question as we cover
everything from Elizabethans to the earliest civilizations.

Speaking for the Dutch in the mid-16th century, I would have to say 'no'.
No respectable Hollander- not even a beggar would wear a patchwork garment.
A *patched* garment, surely, but not one made entirely of patches.

Regarding my master, Ritter Dieterichs, people- Germans from the late 15th
century- the answer is also 'no'.  Nobody of consequence would wear anything
less than the finest they could get their hands on.

By and large, I think you'll find that clothing to a person in medieval or
renaissance Europe is *the* singularly most telling item about that persons
status.  If anyone ever did wear an entirely patchwork garment, odds are
they were so poor that they wouldn't be significant enough to warrant being
the subject of period art (funded largely by the rich and for the rich).

As an aside, there is even a profession (late period, in England) called a
"fripperer" that is dedicated to repairing and reselling used garments.
This typifies the mindset I'm talking about.

Is it possible? Yes.  By the abjectly poor.

Is it probable? Again, I'd say yes... but do you really want to be that
poor?  Be something more glamorous... like a tailor... or an actor...

Yours,

Hanse




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