Clothing and Appearance in Norman Societies

Clothing in Norman societies changed with place, activity and resources. The eleventh-century Bayeux narrative depicts English and Norman people in tunics, leg coverings, belts and cloaks as they travel, work, feast and fight. A royal mantle made in Palermo in 1133–34 preserves silk, gold, pearls and an Arabic inscription from a later Norman court. From preparing fibre to fastening a finished garment, clothing joined skilled work to daily movement and public appearance.

On this page4 sections

From fibre to cloth

Wool began as a fleece sorted by quality and cleaned to remove dirt and separate the fibres for spinning. A spinner drew out and twisted fibres into yarn, using a spindle and whorl, the small weighted disk that helps the spindle turn. For linen, workers first had to free flax fibres from the woody stalk. They soaked them or spread them on damp ground until the binding material softened, then broke and scraped the stalks and combed out the usable strands. Spun yarn became cloth on a loom, where lengthwise threads called the warp were crossed over and under by the weft. A needle could join panels into a garment and mend a split seam or worn edge.

Clothing layers helped adjust warmth and fit. The Bayeux scenes show tunics, a garment worn over the body, with separate coverings around the legs. Belts gather a tunic at the waist, while cloaks rest over the shoulders as an outer layer. A separate early Anglo-Saxon English comparison comes from the Ashmolean’s interpretation of grave finds and images: men wore linen and wool tunics with trousers and a belt, while women wore long underdresses, probably linen, beneath wool overdresses held by paired shoulder brooches.

Dress at work and in the Bayeux narrative

In the embroidery, shipbuilders wear shorter tunics while handling timbers, and attendants wear tunics as they carry food at a meal. Shorter hems leave more room for the legs to move; a belt keeps loose cloth close while a wearer bends, lifts or rides. Seated dignitaries appear in longer garments. These scenes place clothing in the actions of a shipyard, household and court rather than presenting dress as a separate display.

Mail shirts were linked rings worn over a tunic for protection in battle. Helmets and mail identify the campaign equipment of fighting men, while the same narrative shows builders and servers in ordinary tunics. The artists also distinguish groups through hair: many English figures have moustaches, while many Norman men have hair cropped or shaved at the back of the head. The contrast helps viewers follow people through the story of events leading to the English conquest in 1066.

The embroidered cloth

The Bayeux work itself is a textile nearly 69 metres long, made from nine joined linen panels embroidered with colored wool thread. Stitches outline figures and fill areas of color, carrying one continuous narrative across the cloth. Examination has identified woad for blue, madder for red tones and weld for yellow in this object. The dyes, linen ground and wool threads are part of the surviving work, while its scenes show how the makers represented clothing and movement.

A royal mantle from Palermo

The semicircular mantle now held in Vienna was made in Palermo in 1133–34 during Roger II’s reign. It measures about 3.45 metres across and 1.46 metres long. Silk, gold embroidery, pearls, enamel plaques, precious stones and an Arabic inscription cover its surface. The inscription dates the work to year 528 of the Islamic calendar and identifies Palermo as its place of production and royal workshop.

Lions and camels flank a palm tree on the mantle’s central design. Rows of pearls and gold embroidery frame the imagery, making the garment’s surface as important as its shape. The mantle later became part of the regalia used at coronations of Holy Roman kings and emperors. Its manufacture in a Sicilian royal workshop and its later ceremonial use belong to distinct moments in the garment’s history.