Illuminating Fashion: Dress in the Art of Medieval France and the Netherlands

Glossary of Medieval Clothing Terms
Extracted from Illuminating Fashion: Dress in the Art of Medieval France and the Netherlands, 1325–1515

Bag hat
A man's hat with a baglike crown attached to a burlet.

Baldrick
A belt worn across the chest to hold a sword, quiver, or horn; a chain worn in a similar fashion.

Bombard
A funnel-shaped sleeve or cuff.

Boulevars
The upper part of stocks.

Burlet
A ring of flock or wicker covered with cloth or fur.

Capeline
Another name for a bag hat.

Carmignolle
A man's hat with a divided brim held up by laces tied on the crown in a tuft.

Chaperon
A separate hood, comprising a crown, a cornet, and a cape.

Chausse
Hose.

Chaussembles
Hose with leather soles.

Coif
A woman's enveloping caul of precious, sometimes jeweled, material, worn alone or under a veil, burlet, or head cloth.

Cornet
A tube of cloth attached to the crown of a chaperon; a scarf attached to a man's hat or burlet.

Cote hardy
A man's shortened surcot, with a fitted bodice and a knee-length full skirt; also a woman's fitted gown, often slightly shortened.

Dorlott
A bang or curl on the forehead; a fringe of cloth on a caul or crispin.

Doublet
A man's inner jacket, sometimes padded or quilted.

Frontlet
A band on the front of a woman's coif; a separate band of black satin or velvet worn on a coif or head cloth, and alone by young girls.

Gipser
A purse or bag worn on a girdle.

Gown
A lady's outer garment; in the 15th century the man's outer garment as well.

Hose
A stocking or footless legging; the two joined in a single garment.

Houpeland
A full outer garment, worn by men and women; the man's with gores inserted
in the skirt; made full-length, calf-length or very short.

Kirtle
A sleeved tunic, worn under an outer garment or alone.

Mahewter
A padded roll added to the shoulder of a doublet or gown.

Mantle
A large front-opening cape.

Paltock
A loose jacket with sleeves, sometimes a jacket of any kind.

Pantoffles
Slippers.

Partlet
A cloth worn by women around the midriff and breasts, visible in the deep V-neck of the gown.

Poke
A bag-shaped sleeve, a bombard whose opening is sewn shut up to the wrist.

Pouleine
A stick of bone or wood inserted in the toe of a shoe; also the shoe itself.

Pourpoint
A close-fitting jacket of fine cloth, often quilted; also a doublet.

Sayon
A man's outer coat, often of luxurious cloth with a fitted waist and a many-gored skirt.

Smock
A woman's long undershirt.

Stocks
Hose divided in two parts: upper (boulevars) and lower.

Surcot
The outermost garment of men and women, made in two versions: the sleeveless open surcot or the sleeved closed surcot.

Temples
A woman's two-horned coif.

Templet
A cloth or metal base for a woman's headdress.

Tippet
A strip of cloth extending from the back of a short sleeve or fastened around the upper arm, sometimes integral with the garment.

Tressour
A woman's circlet of cloth or metal, sometimes jewelled and with hanging posts to hold braids looped on either side of the face.

Turret
A woman's conical coif.