Quotation from: Manners, Custom and Dress During the Middle Ages and During the Renaissance Period

Written by: Paul Lacroix


No great change was made in the dress of the two sexes during the tenth
century. "Nothing was more simple than the head-dress of women," says M.
Jules Quicherat; "nothing was less studied than their mode of wearing
their hair; nothing was more simple, and yet finer, than their linen. The
elegant appearance of their garments recalls that of the Greek and Roman,
women. Their dresses were at times so tight as to display all the elegance
of their form, whilst at others they were made so high as completely to
cover the neck; the latter were called _cottes-hardies_. The
_cotte-hardie_, which has at all times been part of the dress of French
women, and which was frequently worn also by men, was a long tunic
reaching to the heels, fastened in at the waist and closed at the wrists.
Queens, princesses, and ladies of the nobility wore in addition a long
cloak lined with ermine, or a tunic with or without sleeves; often, too,
their dress consisted of two tunics, and of a veil or drapery, which was
thrown over the head and fell down before and behind, thus entirely
surrounding the neck."

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