Middle ages (mar 26, 400 – aug 19, 1400)

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Peasant men wore stockings or tunics, while women wore long gowns with sleeveless tunics and wimples to cover their hair. Sheepskin cloaks and woolen hats and mittens were worn in winter for protection from the cold and rain. Leather boots were covered with wooden patens to keep the feet dry. The outer clothes were almost never laundered, but the linen underwear was regularly washed. The smell of wood smoke that permeated the clothing seemed to act as a deodorant. Peasant women spun wool into the threads that were woven into the cloth for these garments.
Fashion and dress, just like everything else in the period, was dictated by the Pyramid of Power which was the Feudal System. Medieval clothes provided information about the status of the person wearing them. There were strict rules about apparel. The type of clothes that men and women could wear was strictly enforced by Sumptuary Laws that prohibited sumptuous clothes to all but the greatest nobles and dignitaries in the land.
Law controlled what each social class could wear punishments include fines, imprisonment, and death.

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