Noble clothing

[songqu88@gmail.com]

What do you describe your characters as typically wearing, and which realm are you in? I describe most of my characters as either in armor or in some loose traveling clothing. Since most of my characters have ended up being more wanderers than anything else, it kind of makes sense, but I thought nobles were supposed to dress all stiff and pompous and have huge collars or something.

Any Medieval dress experts around to shed some light on what nobles wore back then? I recall that player-character nobles were all among the higher ranks of nobility, as almost all of them were capable of assuming the throne (given a monarchy).

[Bedwyr]

Jenred, King of Arcaea, FEI.

http://wiki.battlemaster.org/wiki/Bedwyr_Family/Jenred_Appearance

[Gloria]

Wow. Jenred is cute.

[De-Legro]

If he wasn't cute, how would he have ever won the hand of the lovely Edara?

[Shenron]

My characters either wear long stereotypical wizard robes or big suits of armour....

Hmm.. that might say a bit about my abilitiy to variety my characters... 

[De-Legro]

Your characters are wizards? Quick burn him at the stake.

[Shenron]

Your characters are wizards? Quick burn him at the stake.

Nah, they're just all mysterious/wise/enigmatic/lame/cliche/douche

Whichever you prefer

[songqu88@gmail.com]

Your characters are wizards? Quick burn him at the stake.

You don't have enough adventuring skill to find him!

Ahem. Though I admit the cloak thing is common among my characters for some reason. Only Kylen dresses differently...

[Glaumring the Fox]

Glaumring is always near naked, or wrapped in a bear skin cloak, he filthy all the time and ragged beard and hair, his body is tattooed and he looks like a wildman. When he does end up in armor its usually rusted banded metal armor with leather mixed in it. His sword is a notched beaten piece of iron.

[Alpha]

Alpha is usually finely dressed. Fur cloak, silk underclothes, waistcoat, breeches, and typically a small ornate sword. For battle, typically heavy steel plate. Armed with sword and shield. Generally uses small weapons since I've RPed him to be like five and half feet tall.

Ulear is similarly dressed. Wears lighter armor due to be of lighter frame, and somewhat taller.

Terivus is dressed as being robed with a leather tunic below. The lightest, and tallest of the three. Doesn't wear plate due to lack of mobility.

[BardicNerd]

Any Medieval dress experts around to shed some light on what nobles wore back then? I recall that player-character nobles were all among the higher ranks of nobility, as almost all of them were capable of assuming the throne (given a monarchy).

Just like today, it depended upon what was in fashion.  And given that the middle ages covered a very great period of time and locations, this varied quite a bit.

Is there any particular time period and culture that you are interested in as far as clothing goes?

[songqu88@gmail.com]

Given that a great deal is probably romanticized, I tend to have some very inaccurate ideas of the times then. When were the knights that go around showing off most prevalent?

[BardicNerd]

I'm not entirely sure offhand and would have to do a bit of searching to figure out.  However, offhand I would guess that it would be France, but what time period I'm not entirely sure.

Define 'going around showing off,' though.  If you mean going to tournaments and such, that's easy to figure out, if you mean just riding around and showing off . . . I really have no idea.

[songqu88@gmail.com]

Yes, tournaments.

[Vellos]

More flourishy clothing is more common the less medieval the time period. So, big shiny suits of armor? 1300-1500.

Dark gray or black oil-burnt chain mail? 700-1300.

Plate armor is for sissies.

My characters vary. They mostly end up in priestly clothing, though. It's a bad habit of mine. If not priestly clothing, then heraldic tunics and breeches.

If anybody has any specific questions about medieval garb I can try and answer as I'm a history nut, sometime LARPer, and live with a professional Medievalist in the summers.

Edit: But honestly, most things are obvious. Nobody actually wears wizard robes, that's idiotic. Try riding a horse in it. Only sedentary folks would wear that. Try taking a poop in plate armor. Try wearing a bear skin in tropical temperatures. Try doing paperwork in gauntlets. See what happens when your three-foot beard is exposed to the candles and lamps and torches that proliferate in medieval society. Just you try and keep clean shaven, and thereby get septicemia. Good luck finding the money to develop an extensive wardrobe of brightly colored clothing. Oh and form fitting dresses? Probably not. Look at Medieval art: women's "hot" clothes are not form fitting, for the most part, until later. Rather, they involve lots of flowy embellishments, veils, capes, etc. Because making stretchy stuff is difficult. Corsets aren't invented until the 1300's at the earliest.