Medieval Aprons
STYLES - DECORATION - COLOURS - JOB SPECIFIC VARIATIONS - 15th CENTURY APRONS

Aprons are an item of clothing which have remained basically unchanged in both form and function for hundreds of years.

Aprons have been worn by women to protect the clothing underneath when performing dirty work. Only at certain time periods in history has the apron become purely decorative as a fashion item or part of a national costume. Neither of these apply to medieval aprons, which were purely functional.

That didn't mean they were always plain.

At left is a detail from a copy of the Tacuinum Sanitatus showing a women at work indoors engaged in domestic duties. Her apron protects her gown and she has her sleeves unbuttoned and folded back. It is undecorated the the tie strings go from around the back to tie in the front.

As best we know, medieval aprons were made from linen.

They were usually white or unbleached, rectangular and had apron strings which were long enough to be functional but no longer than they needed to be for the individual wearer.

Length-wise, aprons varied from below the knee to almost down to the ground. They were worn by women for indoor and outdoor work at all times of the year.

Decoration on aprons

Medieval aprons were almost always undecorated. In only a very few instances can we see aprons with evidence of decorative needlework just below the waistband.

At left, we see a detail from an early 14th century English manuscript, the Holkheim Bible, now in the British Library, shows a decorative needlework band on aprons in several folio pages.

Shown at left below, is a detail from the early 14th century English manuscript from the 14th century, the Luttrel Psalter, showing a woman spinning on a Great Wheel and wearing an apron with a pattern of needlework at the top.

Another apron in the same manuscript shows an image which some re-enactors and clothing historians interpret as smocking and not decorative needlework. It has a latticework type of decoration which looks like it could be a styalised offert to represent smocking.

An article published in 2001 by Marni McLeavy for the Queensland Smocking Guild cites smocking as a traditional 14th century English technique, although the only source for this I have seen points to the possible decorative needlework of the one single Luttrel Psalter apron as the earliest visual source.

On a practical note, it is interesting to see that the aprons people usually claim to be smocking are the ones being worn on women performing outside chores. Any woman who has worked on a farm knows that this is a recipe for disaster. The smocking catches every bit of dirt and grime and doesn't wash well if it has been heavily soiled. A smocked apron is far more suited to be worn indoors, yet we see none of those in the same manuscript or others of a similar time period.

Outdoor clothes are usually more utilitarian and less decorative. This in itself makes the decorative apron images all the more fascinating to the historical researcher and re-enactor alike.

The lack of smocking on other garments at this time is to be noted.

By comparison, there are many images of women indoors who are wearing plain aprons. If the pictures which looked like smocking were indoors and the plain ones were outdoors, this would make a certain amount of practical sense.

There is no real evidence that aprons were smocked with any great regularity. Visual evidence is not particularly convincing as the manuscript image is very small and indistrict, and we have no written evidence for smocking at this time that I know of. Later clothing may have used it on undergarments.

Just how early it was used, is the big question.

Another apron seen on a woman cooking shows a plain, white apron with no decorative feature at all comes from the Smithfield Decretals, which is dated between 1340 and 1350.

 

Striped aprons

Generally speaking, aprons, like veils, were not striped. There are exceptions to both, and those that are striped are most likely woven into the fabric and not applied and stitched on.

The Holkham Bible apron, seen at left, is a rare example of an early 14th century apron with decorative stitching and weaving in red alongside a decorative band.

The apron itself appears gathered onto the waistband, and is not, in my opinion, an example of smocking. The same pattern of the decorated section below the waistband itself can be found on many other items in the same manuscript, including large woven panels on clothing and the sides of beds.

Apron colours

Aprons were overwhelmingly always white or unbleached in the Middle Ages. Again, only rare instances in the 13th and 14th centuries show coloured aprons.

In another example of non-traditional aprons, the Luttrel Psalter detail at left shows a woman wearing a decorated apron which is brown. This may be an attempt to show an unbleached apron, or it may be actually brown.

Other aprons in this manuscript are shown as white or unbleached creamy-white, so this may be a deliberate attempt to show a coloured apron.

At the top of the apron are three rows of what some re-enactors and historians insist is smocking, but I remain unconvinced for the reasons listed above.

One or two other illuminations in the early 15th century show black or green, but these are not common. Most aprons even then are shown as white.

Job-specific variations

Women's aprons during the medieval period are always of the style which does not have a bib on the top.

Only a few images that I know of, including the detail shown at right from the Holkham Bible from 1330 show a woman wearing an apron of a different style to the usual tie-around-the-waist style.

In this specific instance, the woman pictured is doing a job generally done by a man- blacksmithing.

The apron being worn seems consistent with male blacksmith aprons which were worn at the time, indicating that the apron itself is more specific to the occupation than the the gender of the wearer.

In the same manuscript, women shown wearing aprons are wearing the usual kind: rectangular with a waistband which ties at the back.

 

15th century aprons

While most manuscripts and paintings show the usual style of rectangular apron, occasionally we find images of a different style of apron; one gathered onto a drawstring leaving large armholes.

These are sewn up at the sides and would be extremely easy to make.

Again, I feel the gathered pleats are not an idication of smocking.

This type of apron does not seem to be job-specific, but turn up in several late medieval European manuscripts of women performing household tasks.

The woman shown, at left, is offering a baby nourishment from the medieval version of a baby's bottle with a teat. The apron covers her gown to protect it.

 

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