Parallels for dress: Gemini MALE

[Koen G]

To get a better picture of what we're dealing with, it would be interesting if we could find out the time and place(s) where we can expect the type of dress worn by the Gemini to emerge. Since this is only about the dress, I decided to make a separate thread for man and woman. It doesn't matter who is wearing it: man with woman, man on horse, man in battle... We're interested in the type of dress by itself.

This approach is valid because, as other members on the forum have pointed out, dress evolves separately from other image factors, especially during medieval times.

Now those who have studied medieval wardrobe to some extent can probably say something like "these clothes are typical for much of the 14th-15th century all over Europe", but this broad statement obviously won't help us much. We'll have to dig into the details. What was important enough to include in the drawing? Are there perhaps minor variations in style that could point us to a more specific region or time?

With subjects like these it is difficult to exclude personal impression, so just to help us sift through the available materia I propose to make use of a set of filters wich will allow us to attach a "score" to each individual piece of clothing. It is not the intention to find an image with a 100% score. If our best matches turn out to be only around 50%, that's perfectly fine. Each medieval drawing is unique, so finding a 100% match is not required. We're looking for tendencies.

I propose the following checks for the male clothing, but these should be discussed beforehand. I have doubted to include color, but then decided that it should be included since it might be part of regional or temporal preference, for all we know. And it's only one factor of many.

   

Houppelande: 

1. Belted
   
2. Length: between knees and ankles (?)
   
3. Lobed bottom (wavy)
   
4. Vertical lines in body (folds, plaits...)
   
5. Neck collar
   
6. Sleeve collars
   
7. Sleeves till wrist
   
8. Sleeves fitting/narrow at wrist
   
9. No overcoat
   
10. Green
    

Hat:

1. Wider than head
   
2. Shaped like flat cylinder
   
3. Nothing on top
   
4. Nothing hanging down
   
5. Green
   

Boots:

1. Separate from hose
   
2. Visible laces
   
3. About ankle height or a bit higher
   
4. Tip relatively rounded
   
5. Same color as hose
   

This gives 10,5,5 points to check individual pieces of clothing and 20 for an entire ensemble. It's likely that I got some things wrong or missed something important, so the list should be discussed before starting (although it can always be adjusted afterwards if necessary).