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. 

Medieval Store European Close Helmet French Cut and Thrust Sword Celtic Cross wall relief

Flanders and Italy also became centers of textile manufacture in their own right. Flanders was known for its skilled craftsmen adept at spinning raw wool into yarn and weaving it into rich cloths. The trade in wool also meant specialization of craft and production, and different Flemish towns gained reputations for the

manufacture of particular products. The commerce generated by the textile industry between Flanders and Italy also eventually led to exchange in artistic and cultural ideas toward the end of the Gothic period and what was to become the movements of International Gothic art and the Renaissance.

*image—Brueghel—Village Wedding Feast, 1567
*image 2– calendar page for November of Les Trés Riches Heures du Duc de Berry 1410-1416

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