Figure 1.--Medieval art work is an important source on period fashion. Here is a 12th century drawing. We are not sure who the artist was and where he was from. The long cloaks and gowns worn at the time cover most of the leg thus limiting what we know about the hosiery and virtally all images covering the hosiery support arrangement. The image here is a rare exception. The image shows stockings or "leggings" being attached by ribbons to a belt. It is interesting that a woman, presumably the man's wife, is taking an interest in her husband's leg wear and perhaps attaching the ribbons herself. Our effort on HBC has been to focus on children's clothes and we thus use images of children's clothing. Images of children in early periods like this are quite rare and thus we sometimes use images illustrating adult clothing. And of course, in the Middle Ages, children (after they were breeched) wore essentially the same style clothes as adults, so the system of attachment shown here would presumably apply to boys over the age of 6 or 7 as well as men.

The earlies infotmation we have on stocking sypporters dates from the 12th century. Early leggings were attached with ribbons or cloth strips to the belt holding thigh-high breeches. This was an early type of minimal trousers worn as underwear in the medieval era. Leggings were very common in the early medieval era and gradually there was a transition to actual hosiery, stocking-like garments that were form fitted to the legs. This transition was not only a chronolgical trend, but also a social-class matter. Peasants were more likely to wear less expensive leggings or no leg-covering garments at all. By the 12th century affluent individuals were wearing stockings. These were not knit garments. Stockings in the 12th century were cut from variously colored cloth, often bright colors. The cut cloth was then sewn together to give as tight a fit as possible. A popular cloth used for stockings was"Scharlach". This was a wool fabric with some elasticity that was normally died red. It was produced in the increasingly important southern Netherlands (Flanders and other areas of Belgium). This area was becoming important in the European economy. The demand for raw wool would eventually lead to the English wool trade becauses local production proved inadequate to supply the expanding textile production. (Remember cotton was still not widely available in Europe.) The stockings worn in the 12th century were sewn separately, but were often linked together. They might be called tights, depending on how they were linked. Obtaining information on 12th century hosiery and even more so stocking supporters is very difficult. Two important sources of information are vintage clothing and artistic works, but there are important limitations to both. There are very few surviving 12th century vintage garments. Hosiery and underwear is especially rare. Some surviving 12th century garments do suggest hosiery similar to tights. A good example is the hosiery found with King Henry VI (1190-97) when his grave was opened in modern times. (Henry was an English Plantagenent prince who became a German ruler and Holy Roman Emperor through marriage. He had a knotted silk belt which was used to support a yellow skirt. There were green and red silk strings tied to the belt in a rather complicated arrangement to hold up both the skirt and hose. The strings were looped through the skirt and then into holes made in the tights-like hose. All of this was then tied together. Art work from the 12th century is more available, but the long cloaks and gowns worn at the time cover most of the leg thus limiting what we know about the hosiery and virtally all images covering the hosiery support arrangement. The image here is a rare example of a illustration of the entire-stocking clad leg (figure 1). The image shows stockings or "leggings" being attached by ribbons to a belt. It is interesting that a woman, presumably the man's wife, is taking an interest in her husband's leg wear and perhaps attaching the ribbons herself. Our effort on HBC has been to focus on children's clothes and images of children's clothing. Images of children in early periods like this are quite rare and thus we sometimes use images illustrating adult clothing. And of course, in the Middle Ages, children (after they were breeched) wore essentially the same style clothes as adults, so the system of attachment shown here would presumably apply to boys over the age of 6 or 7 as well as men.

Created: 4:54 PM 3/21/2007
Last updated: 4:54 PM 3/21/2007