ABOUT CLOTHES

CLOTHES FROM HISTORICAL ART

SUMPTUARY LAWS

GLOSSARY OF CLOTHING NAMES

CLOTHING CARE

Clothing Care
Traditional remedies and recipes
for care and management of clothing
CLEANSING - STAIN REMOVAL - RESTORING COLOUR - CARE OF FURS - STORAGE OF CLOTHING

How did women wash their clothes? Did they wash them? And with what? It's hard to imagine washing some of those grand silk velvet court clothing down at the stream. And if one lived in the city, what then?

We know that in medieval London, townswomen washed at a common wash-house. It was a woman's domain, where news and gossip was exchanged. In medieval Spain, any bridge leaving town was required to be wide enough for two women and their water jugs. Since men were not expected to be at places where woman washed, women were only permitted to act at witnesses in disputes if they happened at the river or stream.

Fortunately, there is some information of clothing care which has been preserved for posterity. The best known examples of domestic instruction come from a treatise known as "the Goodman of Paris" which was written in 1393 by an elderly Parisian for his 15 year old bride on the running of a household. Here and there in other manuscripts, a snippet of information appears.

Cleansing of clothes
It is generally accepted that outer clothes were not washed after every wear, in the same manner that you would not wash an overcoat or wool jacket after every wear. Heavy outer clothing was shaken after wear to remove dust, sometimes a light beating with a brush or whisk of dry twigs.

Woolen clothes with a long nap could be reshorn when they were dirty or worn to expose a fresh new surface. The cost of shearing was averaging 1s a cloth at the time of Bogo de Clare. It was a skilled procedure which was deemed to be fairly expensive.

According to a British historian, washing at the wash-house was "rinsed, twisted and beaten where the tongues are quite as active as washer-woman's beetles". Clothing at home could be rinsed carefully by hand in a tub of heater water. Underclothes were rinsed more frequently and hung to dry over a pole. The use of the herb Marjoram origanum vulgare (also known as organum or oregany) lent its scent in washing waters.

We also know from warderobe records of the 14th century, that wax was bought specifically for the purpose of waxing for weatherproofing. Exactly which garments were treated this way is not mentioned.

Stain removal
There are many interesting recipes for the use of stain removal on clothing. Fuller's Earth is recommended if soaked in lye for other kinds of stain removal. It must be applied to the stain, allowed to let dry and then rubbed. Ashes soaked in lye and put onto the stain is also believed to be good. For dresses of silk, silk damask, satin, camlet "or other material", soak and wash the stain in verjuice (from Middle French vertjus "green juice" - an acidic juice made by pressing unripe grapes) and it will be cleaned.

Recipes for the removal of grease and oil are somewhat more complex. To remove grease or oil stains, take urine and heat until warm. Soak the stain for two days. Without twisting the fabric, squeeze the afflicted area, then rinse. As an alternative for stubborn greasy or oily stains, soak in urine with ox gall beaten into it, for two days and squeeze without twisting before rinsing. Chicken feathers are also recommended as a cleaning aid. Firstly they must be soaked in very hot water then wet again in cold water. The stain may then be rubbed with the feathers and it will be clean.

Restoring colour to faded garments
Remedies to restore the fading on a pale blue garment, a damp sponge dipped in clear, clean lye should be squeezed out and then wiped over the offending area or to restore fading on clothes of other colours, use very clean lye with ashes on the spot. It must be left to dry, then rubbed. The colours shall then be restored. If a dress is of silk, silk damask, satin, camlet "or other material" soak and wash the stain in verjuice and it's colour will be restored.

Care of furs
A remedy to revive furs or fur skins which have become hard through wetness, the fur must be removed from the garment and sprinkled with wine. It should then be "sprayed by mouth as a tailor sprays water on the part of a dress he wishes to hem". Flour must be put on the wetted parts. It must then dry for a day or so, before rubbing well.

Storage of clothing
Wardrobes as we know them today do not seem to be depicted with great regularity in medieval art and it is thought that general storage of linen and clothes was in large wooden chests. Pictured right is the 1470 painting, "The Birth Of Mary" showing a large, wooden chest for the storage of linen.

Airing of dresses was encouraged to avoid moths and their larvae. This must be done on a sunny day in the summer and dry months for if the dresses are put away in a chest after airing on a cloudy day, the cold air will be folded into the dress and encourage vermin.

Many household washing and storing of cloth and clothing involved the use of herbs either to make it sweet-smelling or to discourage insects. In the late 15th century, a mixture of powdered Anise and Orris iris florentina was used to perfume household linen in storage. Medieval linens were also scented with lavender lavendula vera, lavendula spica by being stored with it, or rinsed in lavender water. Rue ruta graveolens also known as the herb o' grace o' Sundays was used in linens to keep away bugs and 'noxious odors'.

Wormwood artemesia absynthum is the most common element cited in recipes to protect medieval clothing from damage whilst in storage. It was often placed among woolen cloths to prevent and destroy moths. A mixture of wormwood, southernwood, the leaves of a cedar tree and valerian mixed together and put wherever clothes might be was thought to help repel moths and other vermin.

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