FABRIC NAMES & DESCRIPTIONS

COLOUR NAMES

FUR & LEATHER NAMES

SEWING TECHNIQUES

EMBELLISHMENTS

BUTTONS

EMBROIDERY

Clothing Embellishments
Finishing touches: embroidery, jeweled bands & buttons
SPANGLES - PRESSED METAL - JEWELED BANDS - JEWELED HEMS

The finishing touches to a woman's garment defined who she was or in many cases, who she aspired to be. Sumptuary Laws fought alongside the clergy urging women to dress moderately and not above their station in life, but this was largely ignored by the rising merchant classes who were eager to mirror the fashions seen at court and worn by their social superiors.

Spangles
Looking almost identical to our sequins of today, spangles used to decorate medieval clothing among the upper classes are effectively exactly that. Small metal discs with a hole punched in the middle were stitched onto clothing with only a stitch or two to permit the spangle to move freely.
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Pressed metal
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Jeweled bands
The fabulous sideless surcotes with the furred top half which were popular in the 14th century often featured a jeweled band down the front. The statue of Jeanne De Bourbon at right from 1390 shows a very long band although I have not seen a close up of the band specifically.

I have read that the band was designed to be removed or that the metal squares or large, jeweled buttons were stitched onto a separate vertical band, which certainly makes sense for cleaning, but having made a replica of this outfit, I found the band which was metal to begin with and further set with semi-precious gemstones and freshwater pearls, to be extremely heavy to suspend from the top alone with no other support.

I would be keen to hear from anyone who has thoughts.

Jeweled hems
Many artworks from the medieval period show heavily decorated bands along the edges of cloaks and along the bottom of overgarments.

The detail at left comes from the 1410 painting from Campin of Saint Veronica and shows the typical jeweled band at the hem of her outer gown. Her brocaded cote can be seen underneath.

Some surcotes, like that shown in Campin's "the Nativity", painted in 1420, show a similar band at the sleeves and on the deep V of the neckline. Both of these appear to have a metallic band with many small gemstones attached. The Nativity painting appears to show what could possibly be pearls edging the band also. A garment such as these would be worth quite a sum. Less affluent women would have had to make do with plain embroidery, although probably still in the same places.

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