Conspicuous Consumption and the Viking Age

I am once again exploring new ways of patterning Viking Age garments.  I always have kept in mind the need to make as little waste as possible when patterning, but am looking to explore options that allow for even less fabric usage.  Another part of this experiment is also to look at the different lines and silhouette that I can get in a garment, and to possibly step further away from a modern mindset.

My early Viking aprondresses are pretty full at the hem.  I like full, swishy skirts and that carried over to my patterning.  My first dress had almost no waste at all and made a comfortable dress with a very, very full skirt. The front and back panels have flared bottom edges (based on the Hedeby fragment) and full triangular gores added to the sides.  I actually pretty quickly decided that the skirt looked odd, with such a full hem, and I took the gores out and made them more narrow.  I was more happy with it then, but looking at it now, I still think that the bottom hem is too full in proportion to the rest of the dress.

Pattern for my first aprondress (I think I might even have had a back gore in this one at one point).

When I look at examples from Hedeby, the gores found there relatively narrow (even if you use two together), compared to some I have made.  The aprondress fragment also has a subtle flare than I tend to use.  Given that many people wear aprondresses that do not reach the floor, I think that a exceedingly full hem becomes unnecessary as movement would not be hindered by the skirt.

Aprondress fragment from Hedeby

Gore from Hedeby

I have seen arguments about the width of hems in the period online.  Unfortunately, we, at this time, cannot truly settle that based on the evidence we currently have.  Frequently, someone will cite "conspicuous consumption" as the reasoning behind such full dresses.  I will grant that could well come into play with textiles in later time periods, but during the Viking age we are still looking at the possibility of a great deal of textiles still being woven in-home.  (And it is often at this point that it is mentioned that the families were large and it was more than one person doing the spinning and weaving.  Yes, but, those people then also need clothing.)  Even with the possibility of some local textile production (which has been considered possible for sites such as Birka), the time involved in crafting the cloth is still very high, and would still make it costly to purchase.

Imported fabrics were also available to those that could afford them.  I can only imagine that the cost for these goods was steep.  While I agree that a wealthy woman would likely had a more full hemline that that of a poor farmer's wife, I still do not think that, during this time period, that the skirts showed the excess use of textiles the way they would later in time.

So, based on my thoughts above, I am playing with additional patterns and making garments to see what I think of them after wearing them for a time.  Further, I am looking to play with a more subtle tailoring in the garments, to try to further step away from the cotehardie silhouette or an overall hourglass shape.

The beginning of this process is a dress I recently made with a pleated front based on the finds at Kaupang, Kostrop and Vangsnes.  I wear this now under my handwoven dress (as the pleated dress from Kaupang was found under an aprondress with a plain front).  The cut on it is only very slightly tailored from the bust to the waist at the side panels.  I am quite surprised at how much I like the final look of the garment.  The hem is not as excessive as some I have used in the past and this can be cut with absolutely no waste at all.

My pleated aprondress cutting diagram. I tailored the tops of the side panels only a tiny bit from the bust to the waist. The overall fit is still quite loose.

 I used a bit of leftover linen from a project 15 years ago last night to cut an exceptionally simple dress with a narrow hem (approx 68 inches, compared to the 34 inch bust while many of my previous dresses had hems in excess of 108 inches).  I will put it together tonight and give it a test this week to see what I think of the garment. 

Exceptionally simple aprondress cutting diagram.

In the photo is the aprondress cut from the scrap linen mentioned above. It only has a little tailoring in the back, and none on the front panel. It could be more tailored, but that would make for a less versatile garment. The hem is narrow compared to many of my other dresses, but is just wide enough to allow for a full range of movement.