This clear-cut, accurate, and richly detailed guide is much more than just another history of costume. It takes an effective and fresh approach, classifying the clothes and accessories of the twelfth through fifteenth centuries along social lines. Garments of every type from the wardrobes of peasants and nobility appear in over 200 period illustrations and patterns, presented not as inanimate museum exhibits but as items of vital interest and well worth recreating. Here is the apparel of royalty, clerics, doctors, merchants, musicians, knights, artisans, farmers, and laborers -- all magnificently illustrated with images from tapestries and illuminated manuscripts as well as in drawings and diagrams. Helpful advice covers choosing fabrics; placement of seams; draping and folding garments; how to walk, dance, and climb stairs in unfamiliar and sometimes cumbersome medieval attire; and even the best methods of storage.