What would a medieval lady have worn?

Answer 1

Since the term lady implies wealth and status, I guess you are asking about the nobility.

Fashions changed considerably throughout the very long medieval period, so a lady in 1150 did not look anything like a lady in 1450; furthermore, there were different fashions in different European countries - a Welsh lady looked very different to a Flemish lady or a Spanish lady, or an Italian lady or a German lady.

Explaining all of these different fashions would take an entire book, so there is only space here to describe a particular time period in one country - let's take Anglo-Norman England in about 1180:

The wife of an Anglo-Norman knight wore an expensive undergarment called a chemise, made of fine linen or silk. It might be dyed a solid colour such as blue, green or red, or it might be bleached very white; it had long, tight sleeves and was ankle-length, with a round neckline. It was effectively the same as a man's undershirt, but much longer and was the onlyunderwear worn by women.

Over this the lady might wear various styles of dress, made of fine wool cloth or silk; these different types of dress had different names, such as bliaut, robete, purprine, guliun, gune, habit or cheinse. One fashion that had just appeared in 1180 was a dress with a V-neck and sleeves that were tight to the wrist but had very long, boat-shaped pendants (tippets) hanging down from the wrist, often lined in a contrasting colour of material.

Over this the lady would wear a cloak outdoors (a mantle, flaure, espauler or muscelet), which was lined with fur (ermine, vair or grey squirrel fur) for wear in the winter.

The dress might be tied at the waist with a leather belt with a D-shaped bronze buckle and an enamelled bronze bucklplate and strap-end; there were sometimes silvered bronze plates along the length of the belt, and white silk stitches along both edges. The belt was deliberately made too long so that the end would hang down the front of the dress.

The cloak would be fastened with an enamelled bronze brooch and the lady might wear gilded bronze rings set with natural-shaped gemstones (uncut) called cabochons.

On her head the lady might have a hairnet or snood of fine gold threads, or her head might be covered with a long linen veil. Her hair would normally be grown extremely long, parted in the middle and braided in two plaits. These plaits might include coloured ribbons.

On her feet a lady wore typical flat leather turnshoes, made of black or tan coloured calfskin. Along the top of the foot might be lines of silk stitches, or the shoes might be embroidered with groups of white dots.

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