The period ranging from the mid-13th century to the beginning of the 16th century (roughly 1250–1500) is considered the final phase of the Middle Ages, namely, the Late Middle Ages. By the end of that era, the tunic had transmuted considerably in terms of cut and variety, and by then, it was being worn almost exclusively as outerwear—individually embellished by the rich and the nobility, who used exquisite fabrics and elaborate adornment to flaunt their stratum.
Differences between the tunics of the higher and lower strata in the Late Middle Ages
The tunics worn by the members of the lower strata were usually made from materials that were abundantly available locally. The garment needed to be practical, sturdy, and suited for hard physical labor; thus, the wide, simple cuts known from the Early Middle Ages and even antiquity hardly changed at all. In addition, sumptuary laws prohibited the lower strata from wearing certain colors; as a result, their fabrics had to remain undyed.
Members of the nobility, on the other hand, dressed themselves in clothes with particularly bright, almost garish colors and daring color combinations. Strong dyes were rare and expensive, after all, and since nobles primarily wished to flaunt their prosperity, the excessive use of exquisite materials was an excellent means for depicting the wearer’s stratum. Consequently, the nobles’ tunics were also longer than those of the peasantry.
What we know about the tunic in the Late Middle Ages
Because textiles consist of organic materials that decay relatively quickly, only a small number of discoveries of tunics are extant from the Late Middle Ages. For the most part, we have obtained our knowledge about their appearance primarily from books and paintings from the respective period. But since paintings from the era depict countless variations in cut, material, and level of detail—depending on the wearer’s stratum and region, not to mention the purpose of the painting itself—we still cannot be entirely certain what a characteristic tunic in the Late Middle Ages actually looked like.
