Clothes Maketh the Man/Woman Even in 14th Century Ireland by Kristin Gleeson

Irish Gael 14th century dress

You have probably heard phrases like “dress for success”, a phrase that hints of the older saying “clothes maketh the man”. Both phrases clearly indicate that clothes certainly form a part of the judgement one person makes about another, whether it’s conscious or not. It’s not a new concept. In the past, for example, in parts of Europe during Medieval and Renaissance times, nobles enacted sumptuary laws that prevented the rising middle classes from wearing certain items and fabrics in case those middle classes might be mistaken for nobles.

The history of fashion in a social history context has fascinated me for a long time, back to my teen years when I would pore over the two enclopedias of fashion history that I bought with my hard earned babysitting money. So, recently, when I was researching 14th century Ireland for a book I was writing, I came across a fashion rabbit hole about the clothes of that time period and gleefully travelled down it.

The first half of the 14th century was a time of great change and stress in Ireland. After 150 years or so dealing with the results of the Norman English encroachment in Irish land, the descendants of these invaders held sway over a significant portion of the country. The English king counted Ireland as its vassal by and large and, in an effort to establish greater control over the land created loosely drawn lordships or earldoms over the four Irish provinces whose boundaries were fluid. These earldoms were headed by descendants of the invaders and their Irish wives, as were their retainers, creating an Anglo Irish population (known as Galls).The earls, in an effort to expand the regions under their control fought each other and Irish chieftains constantly. The Irish Gaels formed alliances with each other or an earl, whichever achieved their struggle to maintain or expand their own holdings

Such conflicts often caused bouts of famine from neglected, plundered or unplanted fields. In addition to those challenges there were long stretches of bad weather which also contributed to sickness and high death rates. The arrival of the plague in 1348 made matters worse. The death rate from plague was higher among the Anglo Irish than the Irish Gaels for complex reasons of settlement, trade and social patterns (at least that’s what the sparse evidence suggests).

In such tumultuous times, when interaction with members of the other culture could be dangerous, assessing and correctly concluding a stranger’s identity when encountering them could be critical. The style of dress was part of that assessment, because there were distinct differences between the Anglo Irish manner of dress and the Irish Gael manner of dress. Many of the clothes that the Gaelic Irish wore were suited to the particular climate and others revealed a particular Gaelic sense of flamboyant, unlike the Anglo Irish who adopted the fashions most prevalent in England or places on the continent with which they traded.

One distinctive clothes item the Gaelic Irish wore was the cloak/mantle or brat. The brat was a rectangular shape garment and was sometimes large enough to wrap around the body five times. It could be brightly coloured with ornate decorative borders fringed and plaited or tablet woven. It was made of frieze (loosely woven wool) with tufts of wool tucked into the weave to keep out the rain. The brat was secured at the breast often with a bronze, silver or iron brooch or pin, depending on the wearer’s social status. Under the brat, they wore a long shirt /tunic(léine), an ankle length sleeveless garment worn next to the skin and made of either white or gel (bright) linen. It was secured at the waist by a belt with which it could be hitched up to allow greater freedom of movement. The footwear among those of higher status would be leather boots or shoes, but for those of lesser status it was more practical and cheaper to go barefoot in a country whose climate was wet with winters that were relatively mild.

Irish Gael dress 

If riding, or engaged in vigorous outdoor activity, a male Irish Gael often wore truibhas (trousers). It’s difficult to know with certainty the range of clothing women wore specifically because of the scarcity of images. The few images that do exist show them each wearing a brat and a léine, like the men, but their heads are covered with a veil or headdress and occasionally, like the men, they would wear an ionar, a form of short tunic. Other parts of the Irish Gaelic clothing range included a short-hooded cloak called a cochall and a poncho-type cloak of coloured and patterned cloth called a fallaing and interestingly, a kind of woollen truibhas (trousers) with feet and soles.

In contrast, as previously mentioned, the Anglo Irish wore more sober coloured clothes that were closer to that of the style found in England and parts of the continent. They wore tunics of mid to lower calf length with Magyar style sleeves belted at the waist, with a white sash from which a scabbard was suspended. On top of that, if needed they wore a traditional mantle or cloak. In the mid-14th century a closer fitting outfit emerged for Anglo Irish men, consisting of a knee length garment called a gipon, a forerunner of the doublet, which was worn with hose. Unlike the Gaelic Irish men, the Anglo Irish tended to be clean shaven. Anglo Irish men and women also wore an underdress, or kirtle, and an overgown, or surcoat. The surcoat could be sleeved or sleeveless, with deep armholes and vertical slits called fitchets that provided access to objects suspended from the girdle. Both male and female versions of the surcoats had a slit at the neck. In winter a mantle, or fur-lined cape was also worn. Later, the Gaelic Irish mantle was adapted and became and important trade item. Among the Anglo Irish, by the early part of the 14th century, along with the mantle, some of the men apparently adapted the Irish Gaelic truibhas as indicated in statutes that were enacted that sought to discourage Anglo Irish from adopting Irish Gaelic modes of dress.

English Medieval dress

Fashion and clothes styles for any one time period in the past can tell much about the peoples and the time in which they live. The style and composition of the clothes of the Irish Gaels show them to be aware of the need to be out in a wet climate and the need for a flexible type of clothing for active outdoors, for example. The Anglo Irish clothes reflect their close connection to their English overlord and the importance and profitability of showing their links to their trade partners in England and on the continent.

The distinct differences in fashion between the Anglo Irish and the Gaelic Irish meant that when encountering a stranger or a group of strangers, each could use the information about their appearance to judge whether they might be a potential enemy, or even a person who would more likely been exposed to the plague. And those clothes certainly might “maketh the enemy” or the friend.