Soft Kit for DoK

[Sir Edward]

Looking good. The wool does itch if you're not used to it, but I think an undershirt will help a lot, and won't be visible. I'm a huge fan of cheating when it's not visible. Your skin will build up a tolerance for the wool too if you wear it a lot (as long as you're not allergic to it).

[Sir Wolf]

you should be wearing a linen under tunic under the wool. looks great man. like that you went with those colors rather than all brown.

[Sir Ulrich]

I was gonna go with red and black but they didnt sell it and I think burgundy woulda looked bad without matching. It actually isnt brown it's copper and black mixed together and looks brown in a distance or in pics. Do still plan to get custom tunics but my outfit kinda looks peasantish now with the duller colors rather than bright red and dark black. Still will work for now, I like the way the colors go together and it fits in for the October season.

[Sir Edward]

I wouldn't worry about it looking peasant-like. Actually peasants wore a lot of bright colors. Hollywood has led us to believe they wore drab, dull colors.

So you can wear what you want. Color doesn't necessarily indicate station (with some exceptions).

[Sir Ulrich]

Hollywood usually misleads the public about medieval ages, I always imagine the nobility having bright colors for some reason. Though colors back then were probably less bright as dyes didnt nearly stick to clothing as well as modern dyes do.

Yeah, my parents keep saying it looks like I'm a monk or something, I do like the tunic though (got the anglo saxon one cause it was closest to a 1200s tunic), the way it's not one solid color is quite interesting and the color suits my complexion and hair color. I actually look like someone out of the medieval period with my long hair and beard. I do think a brown belt would be better than a red one but I preferred red because it simply looks better with my armor and whatnot. Green would of looked cool too but again they didnt sell green tunics or hoods there but then people would think robin hood and I already have a robin hood outfit.

[Jessica Finley]

The range and brightness of medieval plant-dyed wool can be surprising to some. 

[Sir Wolf]

awesomeness.

[Sir Ulrich]

I do notice none of them are black. Was black a rare color back then? Most of my arming clothing is in black because I don't like the dirt to show up on it so I can skip washing the outside. I did read that back then when the dyes would decay or fade to grey and black back then after a while. Not sure if that was true or not.

[Sir Wolf]

if u look there not true black like modern black. only black really in period is worn by the rich and by hospitatlers.

modern black is really hard to make and keep it kept fading bad. iron and viniger make some nice black for leather

[Jessica Finley]

Yes, they could get black (look at paintings to see the frequency of black showing up as a color worn).  Certainly that box of yarn isn't an EXCLUSIVE list of colors possible, simply one person's INCLUSIVE example. 

black was expensive because it required frequent re-dyeing to keep it dark.  This cost money for the garment had to be picked apart (the lining removed, buttons, trims, etc), dyed, and relined.  This did, however, keep the garments going for a very long time.  It was the lining that wore out first, and got stinky etc.   So having the ability to take things apart to freshen them was great - for those that could pay for it.

For something like an arming coat - it was highly unlikely.  The things that needed frequent washing were white or undyed.  That said, clearly, some people were wearing garments that were colored as arming garments.  Red seems to be frequent, as well as blue, but then these are easy colors to get. 

Jess

[Sir Ulrich]

Well I usually go with black cause it looks better on me than other colors. I used to go with green and brown but the hippie label kept annoying me so I stopped with that. Plus I'm goth and prefer black stuff, doesnt seem out of place for a military order like the Hospitallers and Teutonic knights to wear black as they prolly could afford it. My new custom gambeson is going to be black with a red trim around the edges to suit my noble persona, though I coulda just went with red as red seems like a nobles color. Black seems to pick up dirt less than other colors so it just looks better to me.

[Sir James A]

The best color to not show dirt marks is brown.

Black was the hospitaller primary color, teutonic cross color, and templar sergeants were in black, too. It wouldn't be common unless you're one of them (or rich), but it didn't not exist either. As Sir Edward said, ignore the Hollywood bias on colors - look at the period paintings for ideas and inspiration.

Jessica, awesome picture!

[Sir Edward]

Thanks for that picture, Jess!

As others have pointed out, Black was much more expensive. There were cheaper versions of it that would fade quickly, or weren't what we'd call a modern black (more of an extremely dark brown), but still more expensive than other colors since they'd fade quite a bit. I guess I'm repeating what Jess said now.

[Sir Brian]

Thanks for the reference picture Jessica! 

I must say everyone's soft kits are looking excellent and I am grieved at the reminder I will not be able to attend this most prestigious and hopefully not singular event!