Dress in Anglo-Saxon England: Revised and Enlarged Edition Book

This is an encyclopaedic study of English dress from the fifth to the eleventh centuries, drawing evidence from archaeology, text and art, and taking account of re-enactors' experience. It examines archaeological textiles, cloth production and the significance of imported cloth and foreign fashions. Dress is discussed as a marker of gender, ethnicity, status and social role, and its contemporary significance in terms of symbolism and stylistic messaging is examined - whether Anglo-Saxons were dressing a corpse for its (pagan) grave, condemning frivolous dress among persons in holy orders, bequeathing their own clothes or commissioning them for a king. The book discusses what modern observers can and cannot deduce from medieval representations of clothing, questioning stereotypes. Generously illustrated with 25 plates (12 colour) and 140 drawings, it demonstrates clothing in contemporary art (manuscripts, ivories, metalwork, stone sculpture, mosaics), and focuses! on surviving dress fasteners and accessories, explaining types and geographical/chronological distribution. There are colour reconstructions of early Anglo-Saxon dress and a cutting pattern for a gown from the Bayeux tapestry (by Robin Netherton). Old English garment names are discussed throughout and a glossary is appended. It updates and develops the author's groundbreaking Dress in Anglo-Saxon England in 1986, adding many new illustrations.Read More