A Quick Guide to Byzantine Dress (8th to 12th century)

[_Tristan_]

If there is a demand, I can do something similar for imperial men and women, women of the court, the borderland elite and the non-elite. I can also research about military dress, arms and armor.

Please do

Very nice guide

Could you provide some illustrations ?

[TheFlax]

Please do

Very nice guide

Could you provide some illustrations ?

Anything I should get to first?

As for illustrations, I think I can scan a few. Should I place them in spoilers for those who don't want to load the whole thing?

[Privateerkev]

Very nice guide.

And yes, pictures in spoilers is very kind. I basicly had to skip the KotR battle report thead because my computer would actually crash when I tried to load it.

As for what to concentrate on now, I imagine military dress. Pretty much everyone is playing minor nobility that are also military commanders.

[TinCow]

For the record, spoilers don't prevent your computer from loading the images. They are still loaded when the thread is opened, but hidden from view until the spoiler is opened. That's why the Battle Reports thread can get sluggish even with spoilers. AFAIK, there is no forum code that prevents image loading until a spoiler of some kind is opened.

[Ferret]

You could always upload them at image shack and post the thumbnail in the thread.

[TheFlax]

Thanks for the suggestion EF.

I included some images that are not part of the court dress but could be relevant.

Images

Eleventh-century tradesman or minor court official, wearing fitting bracca (trousers) decorated with embroided bands and tucked under the tops of his footless hose. His long-skirted juppe (shirt) is decorated with geometric-patterned appliqué made from the selvage edges of the pants fabric. (A common practice that utilised every scrap of costly fabric.)



Twelfth-century Court Dignitary. He wears a white tunica with embroidered trim under his dark brocade mantle, which features a gold-embroidered tablion in the form of a triangle.



Eleventh-century Royal Robes. The empress's dark gown is adorned in the front with a light-colored decorative panel. Multicolored embroidery enhances the ensemble. The emperor is wearing his apparel, consisting of a dark cloak worn over a whit, long-sleeved camisia, a metal lorica, a short tunica with embroidered trim, and cloth stockings. His boots are leather, studded with jewels.



Twelfth-century Princess. She wears a dark embroidered and jewel-trimmed camisia with a light-colored short tunica, also heavily embroidered and jeweled. Her elaborate belt has decorative panels.



Eleventh-century Court Dancer. This performer is dressed in a brightly colored brocaded silk gown with exaggerated bell sleeves. Her hat of brightly colored straw is accented with multicolored brocaded bands. She wears red slippers.



Tenth-century Priest. This Byzantine priest wears a dark pallium decorated with white panels and black crosses over his brocaded tunica and long camisia. The ecclesiastical pallium was cut long in the back so it could be draped over the arms in the front, as shown here.




Now I'll get to military dress, arms and armor. Right after posting a story.

[BananaBob]

Wicked stuff man, good job.

[Ramses II CP]

Honestly, if you do the thumbnail bit about 1% of people are actually going to click them. If I'm on a machine using IE I flat out will not go to image shack, not even for funny pictures.

[Ferret]

You don't really need to click them, the images are large enough to see but small enough to stop load times being too big for some people. Anyway great stuff Flax, gives me a good idea of how to describe people now

[TheFlax]

Their loss, the images are in a pretty high resolution (save for the first one), so I don't want to lag everyone with them. The point is, they are here for those who want to see them.