All except the highest and lowest ranking male servants must wear livery. This generally consists of a blue upper garment and white hose. Armorial colours are also acceptable, frequently emblazoned with the family badge. While female servants have to be well dressed, they do not wear livery.
Tradesmen wear short sleeved or sleeveless jerkins or short gowns with tight hose and sandles. The usual hat is a flat cap with a narrow brim. Apprentices wear white caps to indicate their rank.
The poor normally wear a knee or thigh length tunic, which is belted and left loose. Sleeveless, leather tunics fastened at the side are also common. Tights, sometimes with a thick sole and worn without shoes, or sloppes (baggy breeches) and stockings are worn on the legs.
The usual dress for non-noble women is a kirtle with a front fastened bodice, short sleeves amd and an ankle (younger women) or foot (older) length skirt. The hem is turned up and fastened to the waist girdle, revealing the petticoat beneath. A long apron is generally worn from the waist. The shoulders are covered by a rail or neckerchief, and a veil or kercheif is worn on the head.
From the age of five years onwards, boys should be dressed either in the adult style or in loose sloppes. Young girls should wear ground length skirts, and no head-dress, although simple coifs may be permitted on formal occaisions. Teenage girls dress like adults.
All under fives, regardless of gender, wear long skirts in the feminine style. A bibbed apron and waist girdle are generally added. Babies wear a shirt, swaddling bands and a cap.
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This page was last updated 15th February 1998 by Jamie 'Trotsky' Revell. Comments welcome.