"Nyce and Straunge": Less Common Ladies' Fashions of the 14th Century

The One True Century called, and it would like you to hear the good news about many potential new projects. Herein I will address both fashions which were uncommon in period (~1330-1410) as well as fashions which were more popular in period, but are rarely seen in recreations today. This list may sprout additional fashions or illustrations in the future.

Uncommon in Period
Two charming styles of headdress show up occasionally: the bycocket (Prince Phillip and Robin Hood's standard issue hat) and the wimple without a top veil.
The bycocket is more commonly seen on men, and as we know from my class "Drunken, Foolish, and Witless Women," masculine styles were daring fashion for women, and if too many were combined in one outfit, could be positively skanky.

(Bartolo di Fredi, Abraham and Lot separating in the Land of Canaan, fresco, Duomo, San Gimignano, mid-late 14th c)

St Helena, detail from Discovery of the True Cross,1380s Italian

Similarly, the wimple alone is conspicuously lacking the more common veil over the wimple arrangement, leaving the hair uncovered on top in an immodest fashion. Some of the examples wearing this style are women of questionable virtue, such as Delilah, shearing the hair of Samson.

Breviarium ad usum fratrum Predicatorum, dit Bréviaire de Belleville. Bréviaire de Belleville, vol. II (partie été) Auteur : Jean Pucelle. Enlumineur Auteur : Maître du Cérémonial de Gand. Enlumineur Date d'édition : 1323-1326

Egerton 881 f.128v c. 1380 French

Go look at all of Pinterest's 14th century images (I'll wait) and you will see a peculiar-seeming lack of necklaces. They just weren't that popular until ~1400, and even then many ladies aren't depicted in necklaces. I can only make educated guesses as to why this is. Necklaces may have been seen as too much conspicuous consumption, an unnecessary vanity that, piled on top of all the rich garments and jewels a lady might have on, was sinfully vain and wasteful. They may have just been unfashionable, too likely to be covered by wimples and hoods while they were popular, and only appeared when the wimple and closed hood had been rejected by fashion. It would be spectacularly pointless to own expensive jewels, only to cover them with most of your outfits. When the high-necked houppelande, which covers the neck and bosom unlike the lower-cut surcotes, appears, necklaces appear at about the same time - it would be perfectly modest to wear a necklace over your super-covering dress, and then you owned it already and could wear it with lower-necked garments.
Tacuinum sanitatis (Muckley) c. 1386

BNF Français 343 - Queste del Saint Graal / Tristan de Léonois f3v,  Milan, Italy 1380 - 1385

Tacuinum Sanitatis, c. 1370-1400, Italian

Missale et Horae ad usum Fratrum Minorum (1385- 90, BNF Latin 757, 258v.) Italian

Now I will present all of the images I have of women wearing garments buttoned all the way to the floor. Spoiler: There's not a lot of them. Buttons much more commonly went down as far as the pelvis, closing an opening big enough to easily dress and undress through without having to spend more money and time on buttons down the skirt front. Buttons were frequently listed in royal accounts as separate jewelry, and may have been detachable from garments (there's many sets of 24 buttons mentioned a part of jewelry collections) which made it advisable to have 24 buttonholes on all of one's clothing. This efficient idea meant that one could have some very, very fancy buttons as they could be worn with multiple surcotes.

1385 English, wife of Reginald Malyns

tomb of Francois I de la Sarra, Swiss, 1390

wood effigy in Collégiale de Neuchâtel, late 14thc Swiss

Speculum humaniae salvationis, Lamech tormented by his wives, 14thc German

(SOMEONE FIND ME THIS SOURCE PLEASE.) Possibly c. 1380 French or English. Also featuring the fur hat mentioned below

Again referencing those drunken, foolish, and witless women, dags were more of a masculine than a feminine fashion. It was daring or positively scandalous for a woman to have too much dagging on her garments because of this association. Here are some examples of dags both subtle and ludicrous.

Aquamanile in the Form of Aristotle and Phyllis, late 14th c, S Netherlandish

Hecyra, a courtesan, Terence des Ducs, circa 1405 - 1410 (Bibliotheque de l'Arsenal, Ms. 664, ff. 85 V., 209v.)

Woman in dagged hood. French c. 1400. MS M.0346 fol 003v.

Das Schachzabelbuch, early 15th century. British Library, London, UK, manuscript Add. 11616, folio 5v.

Tacuinum Sanitatis, Lombardy 1390s? BN MS nouv. acq. lat. 1673 f.52

Uncommonly Recreated
Formal apparel for the highest noblewomen was often more matchy-matchy than we like to dress as reenactors. The suit, a set of up to 4 matching garments (cote, surcote, hood, and/or mantle) was wildly popular, often being commissioned for extremely formal events, such as weddings, christenings, and churchings. The garments could then be worn in various combinations with the rest of one's wardrobe for a higher contrast look. It's much easier to find textual mentions of these, so here are some examples from Fashion in the Age of the Black Prince:

p. 34 "a suit of dark blue - ynde - velvet of particular magnificence was made for her (Queen Philippa) to wear. It consisted of a mantellium (mantle), capa (hood), open super tunic (surcote) and tunic (cote) embroidered with gold birds, each bird surrounded by a circle of large pearls, the whole background powdered with a pattern worked in silks and small pearls and enlivened by 10,000 doublets (faux gems)" (c. 1348)

"the queen's suit was again made of velvet, and again it was embroidered in gold, silk and pearls. This time the design consisted of oaks and other trees, beneath each of which was a lion, worked in large pearls, and again the whole ground was covered by a fine embroidery in silks and small pearls." (c. 1348)

p. 33 "a tunica (outer dress) and mantilletum (mantle) of heavy quality rakematiz, which was a thick imported silk woven with gold" for the wedding outfit of Princess Joan (wedding outfits often include only dress and mantle) "but she also had a whole suit made of the same stuff"

"a suit of red velvet" again for Joan

Detail of a miniature of the marriage of Philip, the Duke of Burgundy, and Margaret of Flanders from the Chroniques de France, Paris after 1380

I have already pontificated on my theories of what the heck that "corset" thing is. I don't see too many of them being worn around (that I haven't directly pushed on people) because of their relative unpopularity in art, being less formal garments that patrons of art would consider too casual for fancy depictions of themselves. The "hunting surcote" and "Coat-Thing" models are both wonderfully practical. Images of these styles are in the corset writeup.

Behold, the CUFFS OF DEATH. These ridiculously long, full extensions of the cote sleeve are so fabric-consuming and hand-impairing that it is no wonder few people bother to inflict them on themselves, but they were all the rage c. ~1390-1420. Note that they flare from the wrist and are not "angel" sleeves hiding under the sleeves of the surcote.

Giovanni Boccaccio, De Claris mulieribus, traduction anonyme en français Livre des femmes nobles et renommees Auteur : Giovanni Boccaccio. Auteur du texte Date d'édition : 1403

Tres Riches Heures, May detail, French 1412-1416

Another outerwear option for the wealthy is the pelicon, a garment popular in the earlier half of the century. It is what happens when a hooded cloak has a baby with a poncho, which then grows to magnificently impractical proportions. Queens saw fit to be depicted in these, as their super-inefficient cut was both expensive and impractical enough to scream "I'M SWIMMING IN MONEY."
Joan of Burgundy, French, 1st half 14th c

3rd from left is Isabella of france, shown with her father Philip IV and family. French c 1313

The fur hat that turns up pretty frequently in Black Prince also appears in a few illustrations, though the illuminators don't bother to depict the insane amount of decoration that they could sport. These hats, made for the wealthy out of beaver fur, are another fashion worn by men, but seem to have not been too masculine as to be scandalous when combined with an otherwise proper outfit, as the princesses of England received these hats.

Roman de la Rose, c 1380

Le Remède de Fortune, Guillaume de Machaut, 1350, French, BNF Ms. Fr. 1586 f.23