Vikings were excellent at crafting their clothes. Generally, women sew clothes for men, for themselves, and for children.
They used different materials, like wool, fur, etc., for making their clothes. One can get a clear image of their attire from historical artifacts like books of their times and pictures.
Furthermore, men liked to wear trousers and tunics, while women preferred long-strap dresses.
The interesting part was women could either make the dress first and then wear it, or she could place the fabric over her body then another woman stitches the cloth for better fittings.
Viking women also used undergarments and smocks beneath their dresses. Not only in dress materials, but they also had varieties of accessories. For example, they wore belts and brooch to enhance their looks.
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The Clothes And Jewellery Of The Vikings
The clothes and jewelry of Vikings are vividly to different economic classes of the society.
Rich people wore clothes made of expensive fabrics like silk, while the poor had only wool and linen to wear.
With that being mentioned, it will be not wrong to say that Viking clothes and jewelry manufacturing is expensive that includes usage of gold threads to create embroidery on their clothes, used animal fur in cloth making to boost their wealth.
Moreover, they also used to wear different jewelry. Men and women used arm rings, brooches, rings, etc., to enhance their appearance. One can see the social division of materials used in jewelry making.
Wealthy people used gold and silver to create their ornaments, while the poor depended upon animal bones, iron, and sometimes copper.
Viking’s Female Clothes
Female clothes of Viking are worth the look. It has gorgeous layering pattern and designed with stunning brooches that enhance the creativity of that age.
Even Viking women wore undergarments generally of ankle length. And the Researchers also found that Viking women of different regions preferred different undergarments.
For instance, women from Denmark like plain underdress, but Swedish women prefer pleated ones. Over that, they wore a woolen dress almost the same height or a little bit shorter than undergarments.
The upper dress has straps on the shoulders and is tied to the dress by brooches. They used various decorative brooches. Most of the time, women attached numerous strings between two brooches to make the dress more beautiful. Colored glass and stones were used in making the strings.
During cold times women used woolen shawls and cloaks over their dresses. The cloaks often had fur decorations at the borders, while shawls had fine embroideries at hemlines.
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They were also fascinated with wearing belts and head coverings to accessorize their clothing. Women used belts made with fabrics rather than leather. Women wore leather shoes like men without hills.
Viking Women On Expeditions
From some studies, researchers got evidence about the Viking women’s expedition. Arabic researcher Ibn Fadlan said that Viking women of Russia carried a chest filled with gold, silver, copper, and iron. Women also carried a knife in the chest.
Generally, archeologists may name the chest as a concave brooch. Archeologists discovered many concave brooches in different parts of Europe where evidence of Viking settlements has been found.
Also, researchers in England, Iceland, Ireland, and Russia found the already mentioned chest. In a recent study conducted in 2014, researchers used mitochondrial DNA to prove Norse women’s presence on expeditions to England and Iceland. The study concluded that Viking women played an important role in migration.
The Viking Woman Warrior’s Clothes
Apart from regular clothing, women need extra protection during battle. They also varied various weapons like axes, spears, shields, etc.
They protect their bodies with helmets, lamellar made of sewn iron plates, and metal armor of chainmail. They wore cloaks made of fur to keep them warm. In war, they used leather belts to carry their weapon easily.
Iron was expensive in the Viking period, so not all-female warriors could wear the mentioned iron protections. They used knitted woolen and linen cloths to layer their regular clothes as protection.
Fabrics And Coloring Woman’s Clothes
Researchers have found facts that established the idea that Viking women loved colorful clothes. They boiled the fabrics with the specific color-yielding plant to get the color on the fabric.
Viking women wore colors like black, red, blue, white, purple, and yellow. Interestingly researchers only found blue-colored clothing in burials of wealthy people.
Thus they concluded it was a precious color at that time. Vikings produced blue color from a local plant named woad or imported indigo. Blue and red were expensive at that time as they had to purchase madar plants from other parts of Europe.
The root of the Madar plant was used to make red. Viking women also incorporated embroideries and designs on their clothes. Researchers found a huge amount of flax in their clothes, about 40% in their fabrics.
Thus researchers assumed that flax was an important component in the clothing. Archeologists discovered some places in Denmark where they got evidence of flax production on large scales.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. What did Viking women wear?
Viking women wore long strap dresses. They wore an ankle-length undergarment first made of linen. On top of that, they wore woolen dresses with straps on their shoulders.
The dresses sometimes remain open on both sides. The straps were attached to the dress with beautiful brooches. They accessorized their clothes with belts and head coverings. In addition, Viking women wore leather-made shoes.
2. What did Viking women wear for undergarments?
Viking women wore long, ankle-length dresses made of linen as undergarments. However, researchers found that Viking women from different regions preferred different types of undergarments.
For example, Swedish women used pleated undergarments. On the other hand, Danish women preferred plain underdress.
3. What is a Viking dress called?
The Viking women’s dress is called the hangerock, which resembles the shape of a pinafore a little bit. The Viking dress of a woman has straps attached to the dress with lovely brooches.
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