As is the case with many books compiled from excellent work created by diverse authors, this book could warrant a review of each chapter. The book covers the fifth through the sixteenth centuries, from Ireland to Italy and the Mediterranean, and is compiled into three sections based on date(s) covered by the articles.
This tome discusses the distinctions of levels of society as delineated by clothing, the development of the textile industry, and the use of textile analogies in period literature. It examines textile depictions found on monuments, in sculpture, in paintings, and on manuscripts. But in its fourteen chapters this volume manages to convey a cohesive and encompassing view of textiles in the medieval period. It offers the reader not only interesting facts, but the authors' excellent work convincingly connects the dots so as to give clothing a life of its own in the context of the times.
Chapters such as Dressing the Part, From Content to Form and Marie de France's Bisclavret deliver both sides of the coin: we are what we wear as well as wearing what we are entitled due to class structure. Without clothes, Bisclaveret is a wolf, un-recognizable; with clothes he is a nobleman, although Gloria Thomas Gilmore discusses the balance of both sides of the coin. Does form follow function, or is function a result of the form?
In Christ as a Windblown Sleeve, Margarita Yanson explores the changing costumes within Gottried von Strassburg's Tristan where changes in clothing mark the complexity of the main character, Tristan. Simularly, in As Proud as a Dog in a Doublet, Linda Anderson sees costume as an integral part of the play. On the other hand, The Margaret Fitzgerald Tomb Effegy comments on the strong nationalism in the dress of the late 15th and early 16th centuries, when adherance to national norms was seen as akin to patriotic act, and changing one's dress could be seen as treason and situates the effegy within the context of the time.
The chapters written by the editors are pivotal and act to anchor the rest of the book. Snyder's work discusses not only the sculpural forms in the column-figures and document seals in great detail, but in discussing the dress pictured from England to Germany it provides both an overview and excellent detail. Inserted between two chapters that draw from literary sources, the sharp images of the columns offer the mind a break as the detail is made visible to the eye as well as to the mind. Désirée Koslin's chapter touches on materials, dyes, weaving, finishing and meaning of cloth and clothing. Even through its title the final chapter is an overview and a case study. In many ways, it rounds out and sums up the book in a very satisfactory manner.
From art and legal manuscripts to archeological evidence and period documents the authors describe dress and its importance in great detail. The rich description plus the illustrations paint a lucid image of the clothing of the time in detail suitable for recreating the costumes discussed, while the discussion of the meaning of such explores timeless issues regarding the role of clothing and cloth in society and the lives of individuals. Black and white images throughout illustrate the chapters, and a seven page glossary makes terms that may be unfamiliar to some understandable without reaching for the dictionary, and a comprehensive index makes revisiting bits of information a breeze. Although this book is aimed at the student of the medieval period, and specifically at someone interested in the dress of the period, those interested in philosophy and dress in general can see parallels throughout the ages making this a book of value. Reading this book has made me think about dress more closely, not only in a historical context, but also while people-watching, and in movies such as the Matrix trilogy where dress has layers of meaning.
