Hose,
Socks & Garters for Medieval Women
HOSE - FOOTED HOSE - SOCKS - GARTERS
 Hose,
as well as socks, were worn by medieval women.
Our model woman Margherita Datini's wardrobe account of 1339 lists
both white linen undersocks and long hose of silk or wool. The
wife of a wealthy Italian merchant, Margherita had access to commercially
produced items in the town, and would have worn what regular women
of her class wore.
The illumination detail from the Morgan Bible, at right, shows
a woman with her kirtle raised to reveal a pair of striped hose
or socks.
Hose
Hose were worn by all classes of women as a precursor to the modern
sock although socks were worn also. Hose in medieval England were
cut on the bias to allow for a certain about of elasticity in
the cloth, particularly linen and wool. At right is a detail from
Ruth Threshes Grain For Naomi from the Maciejowski Bible,
showing green, striped socks or hose.
 Rosemary
Hawthorne's book Stockings and Suspenders states that in
Spain, knitted silk hose were known as early as the 11th century
and gradually made their way to Europe and eventually France but
seemingly no further until 1562 when the English Queen was gifted
silk stockings from The Yeoman of The Wardrobe, Robert Rowbotham.
Knitting was a craft which
was exclusively a male dominated art, and in the early stages,
an occupation only permitted by the clergy.
Fine stockings and ecclesiastical gloves were knitted from fine
silk using two or more needles on round frames similar to the
modern French knitting bees, only substantially larger.
 Only
in the late 15th century were widows admitted to the guild to
carry on the skills of their husbands. Regular two-needle knitting
does not appear to have been used to make hose, only short socks.
Many hose were cut from cloth and sewn together.
Pictured at left is a beautiful
brocaded silk hose belonging to the Archbishop of Bayonne in the
late 14th century. The cut and pattern is still very uncomplicated,
but the fabric denotes it as an item of clothing of great worth.
Leggings worn from the knee to ankle have also been known as streapeles.
While a man's hose extended over his upper thigh and joined to
his waistband or upper clothing, it is believed that a women's
hose, as best we are able to define, reaches no further than just
above her knee and was kept up with a garter buckled or tied under
the knee.
Footed
Hose
Footed hose were popular with men during the 13th and 14th centuries
and can be seen in many manuscript illuminations and artworks.
The footwear is essentially hose which covers the entire leg and
foot with a sturdy leather sole sewn to the underneath.
A late 13th century altar front painting from France The Three
Magi, from the Episcopal Museum shows two of the Magi with
gowns drawn back to the hip showing long, thigh high hose with
two side straps very much like suspenders but it is completely
unknown whether this is a fashion which was adopted by women.
 The
image of the artifact at left, shows hose dated to 1247 which
are the burial hose of Rodrigo Ximenez de Rada from Madrid. Although
these are men's hose, they do give us an idea how the hose were
worn for men: that is, tied to a band around the waist. There
is no proof that this method was adopted by women, but there is
also no real proof that it was absolutely not. Most evidence points
to hose with garters for women.
Owing to the nature of hose
itself, it is difficult to ascertain whether women wore footed
hose or hose with shoes only.
Generally a wealthy woman's leg is not depicted under her voluminous
robes other than the point of her shoes and written references
to this item seem to be either not worth writing about, unseemly
to write about or not written about because they were not worn.
The Museum of London has a few woollen finds from London excavation
sites from which reconstructed hose have been made, showing the
various styles of foot and seam placement. It is impossible to
tell whether these were worn by men or women.
 Socks
Socks can be documented back to the 8th century. Early socks were
knitted with a technique called nahlbinding, which uses
a single needle, instead of the two usually associated with later
knitting.
The sock at right shows a
different construction to earlier types of sock or hose- that
is, it appears to have a triangular gore in the side as well as
the seam which joins the foot to the top.
They are made of knitted silk and are dated around 1540-1560 and
are part of the Museum of London collection. It is unknown
whether the sock belonged to a man or a woman.
Garters
In order to keep the hose from slipping down the leg, a garter
or hoggers was utilised. Some tied above the rounded part of the
calf and just under the knee itself, but the more affluent ladies
had those which buckled.
 Since
garters were not intended to be seen by any man other than her
own husband or wishful lover, a woman's garters may have fine
needlework embroidered onto them, French mottoes of courtly love
or amorous words of love.
Shown at left, a garter from a late 14th century deposit in London,
although once again, it is not possible to know whether it was
worn by a woman or man. The daggued edges are actually woven scallops
which appear to have been constructed by hand when the band was
originally woven and not cut in afterwards.
It is probable that it belonged to a man as the decorative daggueing
seems designed to be displayed rather than concealed. The straight
edge would have been worn of the upper of the leg with the daggues
dangling downwards.  It
is interesting that the wearer could afford time-consuming, and
thereby expensive, daggued garters and yet they garters are tied
rather than buckled which is what one expects of a person who
can afford specially-woven narrow ware.
Not all garters were made
this way.
It was quite usual for the selvages or other strips of material
to be cut and sewn into garters as a way of reusing scraps of
fabric. Other garters were made the same way as woven belts- with
tablet weaving.
Also from a late 14th century
deposit in London, at right, woven twill used for a garter. It
is an unpatterned compound twill. Image from the Museum of London.
Since the fabric is a plain
weave and the garter is tied, we can deduce that the wearer was
perhaps a regular person and not from the upper classes. A working
person would see no need for expensive metal buckles when they
would not be seen at any rate.
Copyright
© Rosalie Gilbert
All text & photographs within this site are the property of
Rosalie Gilbert unless stated.
Art & artifact images remain the property of the owner.
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