There are a lot of older books out there with great photos of Medieval needlework. Itbis also true no garments appear that are not ecclesiastical. We know Chaucer mentioned one of his characters had black embroidery on her white shift and that it was the same front and back. But not a lot of textual evidence of embroidered clothing exists. That…[Read more]

I think you make good points, both about the accepted assumption of embroidered clothing not being “a thing” and also with your own guess about human nature. 🙂
I’m somewhat familiar with the blackwork-embroidered underclothing, as it became prominent later in history, but I didn’t know Chaucer had referred to it so early on!
I have been…[Read more]