The Armour Archive

At some point anyways. As with most of us here, money is tight, so I'm not looking to spend a fortune. I need simple trousers (of the striped variety) leggings, and tunic. Made of wool. I guess basically I'm fishing for prices. I still need to flesh out my research and nail down specific colors and subtleties in design, so this is a half-assed inquiry for now. Just looking to get an idea on what I'm looking at for cost. Without going into particulars for measurements, suffice to say any torso garments are gonna have to be like XXXL, and waist for pants is 44".

I Feel ya Pain... I Also play a viking & period clothing isnt easy to find... I have to enlist the help of family & friends that can sew... Normally trading off labor Since I cant sew, but I can do almost anything with wood & I Am starting to work with metal lately too... Also Its easier to get help from people if you offer to cut the patterns out yourself since that appears to be the msot hated part of sewing from what I gather..

Ardon "The Bastard"

I can't do it until after May, but contact me directly after then, and I might be able to accomodate you. In addition to measurements, I will need to know a color range (depends on wool availability, so a couple of choices is good, custom dyes will cost considerably extra), if you want your trim hand-woven, and of what, and what time and area of Scandanavia you are interested in (Iceland, Sweden, Hebridies, etc.). My husband is almost 7 foot and 300 lb, so I am used to working big. I will also need to know what your usage is (LH, SCA, LARP), since that will give me an idea of how to price it.

What price range are you looking at?

Broinnfinn

Durin

If your doing this for LH you may want to forego the stripes on the pants

If your doing it for something else please disregard this post.

Halvgrimr

ps, Bjorn Swiftaxe (on the Archive) is starting to carry authentically made clothing at affordable prices, you might try contacting him (sorry Bri;)

Halvgrim wrote:Durin

If your doing this for LH you may want to forego the stripes on the pants

If your doing it for something else please disregard this post.

Halvgrimr

ps, Bjorn Swiftaxe (on the Archive) is starting to carry authentically made clothing at affordable prices, you might try contacting him (sorry Bri;)

Yeah, yeah. Go ahead, cut in on my business, oh, hockey-shirt wearer.

Definitely no stripes on the pants - I wouldn't have done them that way, anyway.

Broinnfinn

We could help. Supply Dark Age ( and other) costume. Our wools and linens are vegetable-dyed. We're in the UK but sell a lot to the States. Can supply hand-woven tablet-weave braid etc also. Full Norse/viking kit no problem. Sell on eBay and direct. Can start any time.

http://embark.to/thewarriorsgateway

Sorry to try and compete broinfinn! Definitely no stripes is SO right!

Cheers
Mike

Si hoc legere scis numium eruditionis habes

EnglishWarrior wrote:We could help. Supply Dark Age ( and other) costume. Our wools and linens are vegetable-dyed. We're in the UK but sell a lot to the States. Can supply hand-woven tablet-weave braid etc also. Full Norse/viking kit no problem. Sell on eBay and direct. Can start any time.

http://embark.to/thewarriorsgateway

Sorry to try and compete broinfinn! Definitely no stripes is SO right!

Cheers
Mike

Si hoc legere scis numium eruditionis habes

Hey, all's fair! I can't take any commissions until May anyway. Hopefully after then I will have a page up with some examples of my work.

Broinnfinn

http://thornyrose.com/

She does all my Viking clothes-- and incase you were wondering, that's OWEN on the front page.

Keeping you all in mind.

The striped pants seem to be more of a southern (ie Byzantium) fashion trait of Norse pants, I just personally prefer them...vikings were very showy and loud in all they did, so am I

The kit I'm putting together is honestly for no other reason than I want to...The vikings have become quite a pssion for me, I've been devouring every book on them I can find, regardless of topic...warfare, seamanship, agriculture, crafts, all of it is of great interest to me. Everyone on Arador is into 14th century and up for the most part, I'm starting to become the 8th-10th century guy on there

I live in central New Hampshire (USA) and there are virtually no LH or even SCA folks around....at least none that bothered to hook up with me after my initial inquiries. No LARPS either, but I wouldnt wanna play one anyways.

So this kit is for my own personal pleasure...it would be worn to Ren Faires (because I'm always disgusted at the crap people wear to those)
and the rare SCA event that comes my way. I also plan to use it for educational purposes at some point, to do talks for local schools.

Thanks for the replies!

Halvgrim wrote:If your doing this for LH you may want to forego the stripes on the pants

Halvgrimr,
I don't understand this, why no stripes? There are several standing stones and tapestry or two that indicate stripes on pants. Granted, they are from the eastern parts of the Norse culture, but there none the less. Am I missing some important bit of information?

Thanks,

Garth

I believe that that would be Varangian and Rus elements - so depends on how truly Norse he wants to be!

Mike

Catapultam habeo. Nisi pecuniam omnem mihi dabis, ad caput tuum saxum immane mittam

But didn't some of the Verangian boy's go back home? I lived in Korea and Japan for years, and when I came home, I didn't throw all their stuff out the window just cuz it wasn't "American". No being a butt head just asking.

sorry to cause such a ruckus but to my knowledge, there is not physical evidence (ie extant material) to suggest multi colored striped material in the Viking Age.

again, this only really matters if its for LH.

I play SCA too and have striped fighting pants;)

H

broinnfinn wrote:

Halvgrim wrote:Yeah, yeah. Go ahead, cut in on my business, oh, hockey-shirt wearer.

Broinnfinn

--oh, so your gonna call me on authenticity at Friday night fights?

thats a whole nother can of worms;)

Halvgrimr
who enjoyed every minute of it;)

After Seeing the Stink here about Viking wearing Stripped pants or not I THink Ima have to get me a pair or 2... With Hot Pink & Lime Green Stripes Even...

Ardon "The Bastard"

Halvgrim wrote:sorry to cause such a ruckus but to my knowledge, there is not physical evidence (ie extant material) to suggest multi colored striped material in the Viking Age.

Okay, kinda what I thought. This would indicate there is physical evidence of colors that are not striped from the Viking age. I would be interested to see it as there is precious little I can find at all, except on rather monochromatic stones. (And a bit of fabric with odd seams used as chinking on a boat, but yow, that's a stretch making that a complete garment) My persona dates from 10th century Sweden, but I'm open to other areas for research. The more I can learn the better!

Thanks,

Garth

I cant recall off the top of my head, but in my reading, Ive found some evidence, if the authors are to be believed anyways...I just recently read in Else Roesdahls book "The Vikings" that evidence in the form of fragments found in Hedeby harbor (among other places) showed finely wooven wool of two colors...now thats not coming out and saying they were striped, however, since no complete examples of viking age clothing have been found, you cannot say "the vikings didnt wear striped pants because they havnt ever found any". Other very showy and ostentatious styles and designs have been found or deduced, for example. the various Birka finds have shown fragments of kaftan like jackets of fine wool, linen, and silk, with extremely ornate buttons, buckles, ties, belts, silk borders, gold and silver thread embroideries, granted, these are almost always Oriental (remember, the vikings got around, in a BIG way). The technology to produce textiles like that depicted in the striped pants was certainly known and available at that time, but like I said, I'm sure it was a predominantly eastern styled influence, in and around Byzantium, Kiev, Novgorod, etc etc. I havnt seen any evidence to support the striped pants theory for Iceland, or Norway, and even Sweden and Denmark theyd probably be very rare, except for the major trading centers (Hedeby, Birka, Schleswig, etc).

I've seen the striped pants depicted in many other books and drawings, the various Osprey books for instance, but those tend to not be regarded very highly for authenticity.

I think it would be very well within the realm of plausibility to go ahead and wear the striped pants....very rich dyes were known, reds, blues, purples, all expensive, so perhaps you only found those pants being worn by chieftans, petty kings, hersirs, lendermen, and the other upper echelons of viking society... Who knows? To clearly and consicely say beyond a shadow of a doubt they did or did not exist is almost impossible,
so I say screw it! If ya like em, go ahead and wear them!

Durin Bloodaxe wrote:I think it would be very well within the realm of plausibility to go ahead and wear the striped pants....very rich dyes were known, reds, blues, purples, all expensive, so perhaps you only found those pants being worn by chieftans, petty kings, hersirs, lendermen, and the other upper echelons of viking society... Who knows? To clearly and consicely say beyond a shadow of a doubt they did or did not exist is almost impossible,
so I say screw it! If ya like em, go ahead and wear them!

--as I have said all along, this frame of mind is acceptable for SCA but not for many (most?) reenactment groups.

Halvgrimr