Long Stocking Supporters: 14th Century


Figure 1.--Medieval art work is an important source on period fashion. Here is a 14th century Italian minature by G.de Pavie, It was painted around 1350-1400. We thought ar first it was awife helping her husnand to dress, but both men and women wore long robes in the middle ages and it was still commin in the 14th century, although boys and young men had begun to wear short tunics. The title of the minture is "A physician palpating a sickman."

The 14th century saw the beginning of rge Renaisance in Italy. Among many changes were important fashion changes. one of those changes was the appearance of short tunics worn by boys and young men, although middle-age and older men still wore the long gowns common in the 12yj century. The short tunics provide us more insight into the hosiery worn during this century. We still know relatively little about stocking supporters which are covered up in period art work. We have found a rare exception to this. It is an illustration of the entire-stocking clad leg (figure 1). The image shows stockings or "leggings" being attached by ribbons to a belt. We thought at first it was a woman, presumably the man's wife, helping her husband dress. But that did not seem quite right. We have since identified this 14th century Italian minature by G.de Pavie, It was painted around 1350-1400. Both men and women wore long robes in the middle ages and it was still commin in the 14th century, although boys and young men had begun to wear short tunics. The title of the minture is "A physician palpating a sickman." 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. A reader writes, "Very clear, detailed image. The sickman is wearing a knee dress as it was in the Middle-ages. Something shorter than the one of the physician who, like kings, priests or wealthy people wore long robes. About ribbons, I would be cautious. The term "aiguillette" indicates a ribbon with two clasps attaching the "haut-de-chausses" (long stockings) to the "pourpoint" ( high vest)."








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Created: 12:43 AM 3/22/2007
Last updated: 6:51 AM 5/5/2007