Greetings--
Ann Catelli wrote:
Around 800, when Charlemagne was crowned emporer by
the pope, nobody had any lacing anywhere, because the
gowns were too wide to require it.
The waist line (or other smallest area on the tunic)
must be big enough to get past the largest area on the
top of the body, typically around the shoulders or
breasts .
I wanted to second this observation. The evidence we have for this
period shows looser fitting tunics, usually belted, probably worn in
layers. Carolingian (which incidentally isn't early Frankish--that
would be Merovingian, c. 500-750 or so) garments worn by the upper
classes also consciously imitated "Roman" (aka Byzantine) styles--when
Charlemagne was crowned as emperor, he adopted these styles over
"Frankish" styles to drive home his claim to being a spiritual heir to
the ancient Romans. You really see this even more during the Ottonian
period, when there were dynastic marriages between West and East.
Susan
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