"Thinking About Female Images in Viking Art" by Cathy Raymond

Cathy's blog is here.

This is the post I'm reading and pondering right now.

Just a few thoughts on aprons

So here's something to think about. In the post comments, a poster writes that the Anglo Saxons and Franks weren't known to wear aprons (at least in any extant finds or contemporary artwork). However, in Viking Age Norse art there are quite a few images that suggest (in a very stylized way) the presence of aprons.

Another commenter on the post points out that Venetian courtesans wore aprons as a disguise to blend in with the local goodwives, but that it eventually became symbolic of their status.

Follow me in this musing

Most modern people think of the apron as simply a utilitarian item (and an increasingly uncommon one, or one associated with pre-feminist Western life). An apron is virtually unnecessary in a world where modern people dress in very accessible, affordable, easily washable fabrics and have access to washing machines and dryers that remove 90% of the work of laundering.

Your shirt got dirty? Throw it in the wash.
Your shirt got stained and you can't get it out? Send it to Goodwill or throw it away and buy another.

However, in a world where your clothing has to travel from the back of a sheep to a spindle to a loom to a needle to get to your body, you want to protect the precious fabric that it took you a year or more to make if you include the husbandry of the sheep.

That's where an apron comes in. A linen apron makes a lot of sense to me, even if the linen or flax had to be imported to the more northerly Scandinavian regions. Linen is much easier to wash, bleach, and replace. Linen has a nearly as intense process from ground to cloth as wool, but the fiber itself is easier to care for once it's made and it doesn't depend on a food source to grow.

Linen, unfortunately, does not last as long as wool when buried with a decomposing body. Very few examples of linen are found in the extant record for the Viking Age. Cathy Raymond suggests that they could have just decomposed before the find was dug up. This seems a likely possibility.

So why would Norse women/goddesses be depicted wearing aprons?

I've got to go back to symbolism.

We already know from the record in the Sagas and some of the written laws that women had a much more equal and vocal footing in a marriage and in society than their Christian contemporaries and their eventual progeny as Christianity spread into the far corners of Europe.

So what if the pagan Norse symbolized womanhood or wifery with the apron as the symbol? The female head of the household would be ultimately in charge of many, many important responsibilities on a landholding, many of them messy and guaranteed to ruin a fine wool gown.

Any good pagan worth her salt will wish her representations of her goddesses to reflect the world she lives in. A responsible wife needs an apron to run her household and maintain her wardrobe, well why wouldn't a goddess? Thus we see the images of goddesses women in art as wearing aprons.

It's possible, then, that the Anglo Saxons and Franks, used aprons but never attached any symbolic meaning to them and so never represented them in their art.

Like the Venetian courtesans, aprons from utility to symbolism.

-Jorun

Interesting developments

So I'm thinking of taking a huge step.

I want to make and sell some garb. On Etsy.





Not a lot. Just a few pieces. Test the waters, if you like.

I find there's a dearth of reproduction/recreation/accurate-in-any-sense-of-the-word clothing for the SCA or even for LARPers and Rennies. I want to develop a few basic cotes, kirtles, hoods, and body linens with the basic Nockert types found at this site. I'm trying to get my hands on the Nockert articles and books, but they are proving illusive to my ILL.

Carlson's site is definitely one of my favorite sites as far as collected information on basic medieval clothing that most medieval hobbyists wear. Very organized, very professional. I'm trying to find a way to do this without stepping on Marc Carlson's copyright.


I made a version of this gown last year for Val Day. I added sleeves to the undergown and left the original as a surcote. It's based on the gown of St. Clare of Assisi. There's not much information the Carlson's page about this particular gown, but the extant examples of some of the Herjolfnes kirtles and cotes are more in-depth and worth a look.

Obviously, making my own personal version of the gown is fine because I'm not selling it (plus I added an extra gore accidentally, thus changing the gore count of the gown). Making it up as-is and selling it may be on the sueable side of wrong. Even if it's not, I still feel uncomfortable selling something I haven't personally researched and thought through.

At the very least, I can use the Nockert types as proto-patterns to create a few gowns for myself and refine my own style (as I'm convinced most everyday medieval people did) to fit my body or the body of my customers.

This is assuming I will have any. Anyways, I need my gowns to use for pictures on the site so I can provide examples for buyers so they can order their own custom garment. I don't want to hold any stock and I'd like to be able to personalize each garment. I think it's important to have nice garb even if you can't sew.

I'm also using Etsy because they unofficially encourage barter as a form of payment, but also offer PayPal as a payment mode. For example, I really need someone who can do tablet weaving for me. My patience with it is very limited. I want more historical trims for these garments, or at least someone who I can send my customers to if they are interested in historical trims.

I can't tell you how tired I am of seeing crappy, unhistorical garments labeled as "SCA", "medieval", "renaissance", or any combination of the three on eBay and Etsy. It's a damn shame that so few options are required. Metallic and polyester trims make my eyes bleed. I want to give people a choice. Right now all they have is a choice between junk and more junk. I really hope I can influence the SCA community (at least, if not a wider audience) to go more authentic.


More work is going into this and you'll hear more from me to this end. Oh, and I was planning on offering versions done with a machine and versions done by hand, just so people would a have a choice. Also offering very simple embroidery around the interesting edges or the seams...or anywhere I guess...for extra, of course. And offering them in wool, linen or silk. I think that covers a lot of bases.

YiS,
Gillian


Picture from:
Carlson, I. Marc. Some Clothing of the Middle Ages Historical Clothing from Archaeological Finds. Last date edited. 1996-. Text html and digital images. Marc Carlson. Available: http://www.personal.utulsa.edu/~marc-carlson/cloth/bockhome.html. 24 January 2009