During the middle ages the fabrics used most for clothing were wool and linen. The tradition of spinning wool for fiber had existed for more than 5000 years and by the medieval period in Europe wool was established as the standard fabric for all classes. The gradations of thread quality determined the cost of certain types of wool fabric but everyone, from peasant to landowner to royalty, wore wool as a staple of their wardrobe. The peasant classes would afford the coarser wool for their simple tunics, cowls and headwear while the landed classes would have fine garments made of wool woven as fine as silk, dyed in rich hues, and often enhanced with embroidery. Silk as a popular material for costume was not easily available to western Europe until the period of the Crusades when the materials and methods of oriental fashion were brought back by the crusading armies. Linen, too, was used for undergarments but was not as valued as wool because linen threads could not be spun to the same levels of distinction as wool and linen fabrics were not as good as wool in absorbing color dyes.
In medieval Europe the wool trade was particularly a phenomenon of England’s dealing, mercantile class and became its leading industry, at its peak accounting for close to 90% of the revenues. The significance of wool to the development of England’s economy is even manifest in church structures that were built to grandiose scale with money from the wool trade—known as wool churches. England dominated the commercial routes of the material, closely managing exportation and essentially monopolizing distribution. 
The knight-errant was a figure chosen from the nobility and representative of military life under the medieval feudal system, emerging towards the end of the eleventh century. With the knight came an era of parade and pageantry and courtly ceremony that would usher in new fashions, largely drawing on styles and textiles from distant and exotic places.
The knights, who evolved their presentation during the period of the Crusades,would travel to the Middle East and return with rich silks and Arab designs. The gowns drawn from Arab designs were longer, billowing with fabric and detailed with intricate weavings and embroidery and gold threading. The knights learned to dress their horses as ornately as themselves with protective coats of cloth matching their own garbs.
The Crusaders also returned from the East with the custom of painting their shields with their colors and coats of arms. This began the fashion for heraldry and emblazoning one’s symbols on not only one’s own outer coat (surcoat) but also introducing women to the fashion of wearing coats of arms on their gowns. Certain terms of heraldry themselves were taken from the vocabulary of costume and tailoring– ‘couped’ (cut), ‘bend’ (sash), for example.
By the middle of the twelfth century, heraldry and the use of symbols designating one’s affiliations were widespread. Suits of armor were made entirely in the colors of the knight’s blazon (the description of the coat of arms) or the knight’s lady’s blazon. Furthermore, the significance of the colors and emblems one wore were such that relationships could be demarcated through them. The livery (non-military uniform or costume detailed with a particular emblem) worn by a person would tell a viewer that he/she was a servant, follower, or ally of the person who had gifted the uniform or piece of costume. ‘Livery’ came from the French word ‘livree’ or ‘delivered’ and the types of livery passed on to one’s servants and allies would have elements of the giver’s heraldry, often dipslayed on metal or embroidered badges.
SOURCE: the image displayed is the right panel of the Wilton Diptych, circa 1400,where the angels are shown wearing the livery of King Richard II of England–the white hart (deer).
Tags: costume, courtly cermony, crusader, crusades, fashion, Fashion History, feudal system, heraldry, knights, livery, medieval europe, pageantry, uniform
