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Bliaut
The bliaut was a long gown worn by wealthy men and women. Along with the
houppelande, a long, full, outer garment, The bliaut was one of the long
garments most associated with the late middle ages. One of the most striking
things about the bliaut was the sheer amount of fabric used in its construction.
Bliauts had many, many folds and drapes, and thus used twice as much
fabric as might be needed for a flat skirt.Women's bliauts often had hundreds
of pleats. Men's bliauts fit fairly loosely, often reaching to the ankle, and their
sleeves widened at the wrist.Women's bliauts were usually close-fitting in the
shoulders, torso, and upper arms, but the sleeves widened greatly from the
elbow to the wrist. Women's bliauts reached all the way to the ground.
Both men and women wore belts or some form of sash with their bliauts.

Cote and Cotehardie

The most common garments were the cote and its descendant, the
cotehardie. Likely a variation of the long Byzantine tunic known as the
dalmaticaThe cote was a long robe worn by both men and women. The loose-
fitting garment was pulled on over the head, and its close-fitting neck and
sleeves were likely fastened at the back of the neck and the wrist with either
buttons or laces. Men wore their cotes with a wide belt, and they sometimes
bloused the fabric out across the chest. The men's cote generally reached to
the ankle. Women's cotes were slightly longer, reaching to the ground, and
women wore their belts much higher, just under the breasts. The garments
were likely made of wool, or perhaps silk, and evidence shows that they were
usually dyed a single color. The wealthiest people might wear some
embroidery or fringe on the hem of their cote. The biggest overall trend in
fashion was that garments became more closely fitting. It was this trend that
transformed the cote into the cotehardie.
The cotehardie began as a short version of the cote worn by men. The men's
cotehardie was a hip-length jacket that fit snugly in the torso and the arms. It
might be worn with a skirt and hose.
The women's cotehardie was a truly dramatic garment. The snugly-fitting
bodice and sleeves of the women's cotehardie was attached to a long, very
wide skirt that might have had many folds. The skirt began just below the
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woman's breasts, and its bulk gave the wearer the pregnant profile that is so
often seen in paintings and tapestries from the period.
Some cotehardie skirts had slits cut in them, and women gathered up the
front part of the skirt and carried it before her, adding to the bulk. It was a
custom of women to cut off the sleeves of their cotehardie to give as a prize
to a favored knight in a jousting tournament.

Ganache and Gardcorps

Ganaches also spelled garnaches and gardcorps were over coats worn by
men of all social classes. Most likely made of thicker wool, the primary
purpose of these garments was to protect the wearer from inclement weather
and provide warmth. They might even be lined with fur for extra warmth.
Ganaches and gardcorps were very similar. Both garments were pulled over
the head and hung down past the waist, perhaps as far as the knees.
The sleeves of the ganache were formed from extended fabric at the
shoulders; they were open at the underarm and the sleeves were generally
no longer than the elbow. The gardcorps had separately attached sleeves
and thus was better for cold weather.
Both garments could have a hood that attached at the back of the neck that
was draped over the back when not in use.

Hose and Breeches

Men generally wore two different garments on their legs, hose and breeches,
and the length and fit of these garments grew shorter, allowing them to
display more and more of their legs.Breeches, loose-fitting trousers that were
held at the waist with a belt or a draw-string. These might have a stirrup to
secure the hem of the breeches inside a shoe, or they could be loose at the
ankle.Like most clothes of the time, these breeches were usually made out of
wool.Many men bound these breeches close to their legs with leg bands. As
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the hemlines of outer garments rose, men sought more attractive ways to
display their legs.
They thus began to wear close-fitting hose that reached to the upper calf or
even above the knee. These hose, made from a clingy, bias-cut wool (cut
diagonally to the grain of the fabric), were as skin-tight as the fabric would
allow and were held in place by a garter, or small belt.
Slowly, hose extended further and further up the leg, and breeches
diminished in size. Some breeches were no more than baggy short pants,
and hose had been joined together at the waist to form what we think of today
as tights.

Houppelande
The houppelande was a long, very full outer garment. The houppelande was
worn by men over the top of a tunic and hose, or by women over a long under
robe. The houppelande was close-fitting in the shoulders but then billowed
outward from there in many folds of fabric. By the late these folds were
organized into long, tubular pleats.The houppelande was a very dramatic
garment. Both its hemline and its sleeves could reach to or trail on the
ground. The sleeves were extremely wide and hung down to the side when
the arms were extended.
Both hemline and sleeve cuffs were often trimmed or scalloped into
decorative patterns. Fabric flourishes, looking something like small wings,
were sometimes added at the shoulders.
The houppelande was usually worn with a decorative belt, with women
wearing the belt just below the line of the bust.

Leg Bands

Leg bands were a form of leg wear for men.Many people in the colder parts of
Europe wore the crude breeches or trousers of the Gauls, from the area that
is today France, called Feminalia by the Romans.
Wanting to keep the fabric of these breeches from hanging loose about the
legs, men began to tie leather or woolen bands about their lower legs.
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Over time these bands became more than just a solution to a problem. They
became a garment of their own. Men wrapped their leg bands in regular
patterns around their breeches, and the rising hemline of their outer garments
allowed others to see these bands.
People soon preferred the close-cut look the bands gave the legs, and this
helped encourage the creation of hose, which were very snug fitting.
Breeches with leg bands slowly gave way to hose as the primary form of leg
covering for men.

Mantle
The mantle was an all-purpose over garment that was worn consistently
throughout the middle ages (c. 500–c. 1500) Mantles were extremely simple:
they consisted of a large piece of cloth, rectangular, semicircular, or circular,
that was wrapped across the shoulders and fastened.
In the eleventh and twelfth centuries the mantle was typically fastened at the
right shoulder with a small metal clasp or brooch. By the late twelfth century,
however, people began to drape the mantle over both shoulders and fasten it
at the center of the chest. New fastenings included cords that tied or a button
and loop.
Some form of the mantle has been worn throughout the history of human
dress: the basic form had been worn in ancient Greece and Rome, and was
called chlaina, diplax, and chlamys, and people still wear capes to this day.

Pourpoint
The pourpoint was a close-fitting, long-sleeved shirt that buttoned down the
front. It had carefully tailored arm sockets to allow complete range of
movement for the arms which was key in battle.As knights came to wear
increasingly heavy metal armor they needed some form of comfortable
undergarment to provide padding for their body. The pourpoint was that
garment. Heavily quilted and padded in key places where sharp parts of the
armor contacted the skin, The pourpoint was designed to make the wearer
comfortable beneath his armorThe pourpoint was tailored close to the torso.
The hose that knights wore on their legs had ties that secured directly to
anchors on the pourpoint, called points.
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The unarmed knight in snug-fitting hose and pourpoint became one of the
first images of strength and masculinity to influence fashion, for this image
was widely copied in paintings and tapestries of the day.

Tabard
The tabard, a decorated, open-sided smock, had its origins in the Holy Wars known
as the Crusades.Dressed in heavy chain mail (flexible armor made of intertwining
metal chains), and metal armor, the knights found themselves roasting under the
Middle Eastern sun.Seeking to keep the sun from heating the metal, they invented a
simple smock to wear over their armor. Called a surcoteSurcote was a long
rectangular piece of fabric with a hole cut in the middle for the head. It was belted
about the waist.
When these knights returned home, their utilitarian garments were adopted for use
as everyday wear and were renamed tabards.
The tabard retained the basic form of the surcote, and it was worn on top of
other clothes, but the resemblance ended there.
The tabard was shorter, ending at the waist. It was often trimmed out with fur
at the hem and armholes. It was often parti-colored, which meant it had sides
made in fabrics of contrasting color. Finally, tabards were often decorated
with a coat of arms, emblems that featured different symbols and which were
claimed as a kind of family seal.