Timeline Dorestad (POD: more successful Arianism. Current present: c. 1100)
Clothing and Fashion
The difference between the many who wear clothing and the few who follow fashion is a fundamental social divide. Most people are simply not wealthy enough to choose their clothes according to their taste or desire. Thus, high fashion (dictated by the great courts in Constantinople and the Latin kingdoms) is still rare in the marketplaces of this world, while most people simply wear whatever practical thing will do for cover and modesty.
Most Saxon men wear practical everyday clothing most of the time. Knee-length, long-sleeved wool tunics cut relatively close to the body are the most common article of clothing, worn over linen undershirts that reach only to mid-thigh. Trousers are not always worn, but a common article of clothing. Hosen do not exist. Even when going trouserless in the heat, though, a respectable man will wear linen underpants and (usually) leg wraps up to the knee. In colder climates, many men wear a second short-sleeved overtunic, often in a contrasting colour to their first and sometimes lined with fur. The near-universal foul weather garment is a rectangular wool cloak closed over the shoulder either with a pin (the oldfashioned way) or with a knotted cord (the new manner). This can vary in bulk and length from a paltry wraparound barely covering the torso to a voluminous drape enfolding the man down to his feet. Poor people use their cloak as a blanket at night as well. Only wealthier people can afford the semicircular hooded capes fashionable in the Latin kingdoms, often lined in contrasting colours and fitted with armholes in front, and many less fashion-conscious males consider them effeminate and impractical.
Modesty makes greater demands of women than men, and only very young girls (or prostitutes) get away with wearing tunics less than ankle-length (wealthy women sometimes advertise their status by wearing floor-length clothing that makes it impossible to walk quickly or carry anything heavy while moving). Their wool tunic-style dresses are usually cut narrow at the top, but flare out at the hips. Some are short-sleeved, showing the linen underdress, but most have either elbow- or wrist-length sleeves. Women's undergarments are not a topic of discussion in polite society, but many wear linen underpants and breastbands. Trousers are considered inappropriate attire for women, but long wool stockings are popular in winter. Over the dress, most women wear a rectangular wraparound cloak, pinned over the right shoulder, though circular capes are more acceptable for them even in less cosmopolitan communities.
Social distinctions are shown in the quality of the cloth, decoration, and colour. The poorest wear homespun, undyed wool and coarse unbleached linen that is often enough patched and darned all over. However even a peasant farmer can usually afford better quality cloth (still made in the home, but with more time and resources available to devote to its manufacture). Natural dyes and patterned bands and embroidery add to the appeal of such middle-class dress for both sexes, often applied with little restraint or taste. The women of any household with pretensions to respectability will be skilled in their production, and many earn a respectable incomne producing such clothing and ornament. Some local products of these cottage industries - Frisian linen, English embroidery, Nordelbian gold thread and Swedish woven bands - are even exported. Another method of creating distinction - especially popular among seafarers - is adding foreign clothing. Wide, poofy 'Persian' trousers are very popular throughout the Mediterranean and into the North Sea, and more than one successful sailor or captain has returned with Chinese silk jackets, Indian cotton wraps, or Byzantine brocades.
The upper classes are part of a truly international system of luxury good exchange in which the best things from all over the world are traded. Byzantine brocades, shot through with gold and dyed in purple and kermes, are the finest in wool cloth (though the also come in silk), with Chinese silks and Indian cotton rounding out the fashionable garb. Dyed goatskin leather from Africa and sable and ermine from Russia, American beaver and Arabian pearls all find ready markets far from home. Most wealthy men and women tend to follow Byzantine fashions, with long, flowing robes with broad stripes and fields of embroidery for both sexes. Chinese kaftan-style robes are becoming more popular lately.
Local variation in clothing is a fact of life and often enough helps to identify a man's origin as clearly as his accent. Fur-lined wool cloaks, for cexample, are a peculiarity of Scandinavia, while in America and the Irish realms they are made of furs only, skin-side out. Throughout much of the Americas, leather is a common material even for tunics, and fringes, simple dyed leather embroidery or bead decoration is quite common. Where wool is more common and labour not at such a premium, leather is limited to trousers, shoes and gloves. Only continental Saxon and Thuringian men wear tunics with central slits, while side slits are typical for the Aenglish. Especially in Gyldenerice and Myceltreorice, going 'native' is a very common phenomenon. Many a Saxon noble today goes in loincloth and feather cloak (which, given the weather, is probably a wise choice irrespective).
Some articles of dress are typical for a specific profession or status. The majority of the clergy wear ankle-length, wide dalmatics and poncholike overgarments, though somer more intellectually inclined follow St Paul's exhortation that a pallium befits a pious Christian. Martinian monks wear black, coarse woolens, Patrician ones brown or grey, Honoratians bleached white, which is also the favourite with most secular clergy. Ordained priests have the right to a red stole, while bishops wear purple. Intellectuals in general tend to favour longer tunics or robes and often emulate clerical dress, though their clothes are usually colourful and often garishly decorated (most scribes and teachers make a decent living, and doctors and lawyers are often very wealthy).
Hairstyles tend towards the practical for most people, with very little Byzantine elaboration making it north and west. Saxon men wear their hair short or shoulder-length, with trimmed full beards being the common fashion (some men prefer moustaches or sideburns, but going entirely clean-shaven is almost unheard-of, especially in a world where a luxuriant beard is often enough a major distinguishing mark to set one apart from Native Americans or East Asians). Noblemen sometimes affect the traditional long hair, but this is becoming rarer. Slaves are technically required to shave their heads, but as long as they do not wear their hair 'provocatively' long, this is not usually enforced zealously. Women always wear their hair long (with the exception of penitents, who may be required to cut it off in atonement for some sins), though only unmarried women wear it open. Married women always braid their hair, and often cover it under some kind of veil (only very conservative churchmen consider this necessary, but it is still a mark of conspicuous virtue). Both sexes regularly wash their hair when this is possible, and combing and trimming usually gets much attention.
Hygiene is generally good, considering the circumstances. Most people wash daily and bathe at least weekly (Saturday is traditional, to be clean for Sunday, though many preachers discourage this practice because bathing often leads to lewdness - people now feeling clean and attractive and often sharing unisex facilities - which disqualifies the guilty parties from Eucharist the following day). Larger cities have commercially operated bathhouses that, while not competing with the steam baths of the Mediterranean, offer such things as massages, saunas, and perfumed baths for paying customers. Soap is known, but not used often. Most people prefer mild ash lye and bran water. Only monks and the very pious forgo bathing entirely, and for most religious folk (and their fellow humans) even the prohibition of bathing during Lent and Advent is a trial.
Make-up is limited to women and used very sparingly, though upper-class women often purchase rare preparations from Byzantium or even farther afield. The fashionable face is pale (a white foundation cream based on tin oxide or lead white, or fine-milled starch), with flushed cheecks (ochre or brasilwood). Hair bleaches are popular in a world that still equates blond hair with desireablility. Men who dye their hair (not uncommon either to achieve blondness or to hide grey) are the target of merciless mockery, though. Both sexes use scents, though true perfumes are limited to the upper and urban middle classes. Clothing is often kept with herbs and decoctions of fragrant plants used in wash- and bathwater by all social classes.
As with colour, the denizens of the Saxon north show all the taste and refinement of Christmas trees in their choice of jewelry. Not many can afford much in the first place (brass, copper and tinned pewter have remedied the dearth of genuine gold and silver to some degree), but even they seek to shine with glass paste and enamel. The truly wealthy, of course, can afford to sparkle with the real thing. Cloakpins and -brooches, beltbuckles, pouch lids, knife sheaths, sword handles, and rings adorned with gold and silver inlay, semiprecious stones and pearls are popular with men, brooches, chains, bracelets and mirrorcases with women. The wealthiest even sew pearls and gems onto their clothing and shoes, though this is more a courtly affectation that daywear. Trhe church froms on all of this, but has bought into the fashion wholeheartedly when it comes to adorning the altarcloths, reliquaries and icons of its churches.