What makes a medieval cloak practical as well as stylish?

When I saw my neighbor return from the Renaissance fair recently, I was appalled by his outfit. A big woolen cloak, floor length, charcoal gray, deep hood pulled back off his shoulders as if he had just gotten off a horse. I was holding a turkey leg at the time, and for some reason I was two-minded about his outfit: it looked the most ridiculous thing I had ever seen and at the same time I wanted to have the same outfit.

They weren't decorative. They were survival gear.

Cloaks were actually working clothes, in that they were worn by a wide range of people as part of their daily activities. Before central heating, people did not wear a lot of clothing when they were indoors. So that when they went outside on a cold day, they would immediately feel the cold. In the medieval period, people would have gone outside on a cold day wearing very little, for example, just their shorts and a t-shirt. To survive the cold, they would then throw on a cloak. And, they needed something that would work well for them.

As previously stated the medieval cloak was a working garment made for the folk of the medieval era. The garments were to be worn for long periods of time while the wearer could be participating in a variety of activities. Some of the most notable people to wear cloaks would be soldiers. They would wear the cloaks during their campaigns. Merchants would wear them while traveling on horseback to and from the markets. The garments would also be worn by shepherds. The wearers would don the cloak on rainy days and nights. They would wear the cloaks for months at a time while they were out in the rough weather watching over their flocks. The cloak was worn by the rich and the poor. It was affordable for just about anyone.

The following are several of the features of a working medieval cloak and an outline of why each of them worked and how they were used by the various owners of cloaks in the medieval era.

• The circular or semicircular cut meant almost no wasted fabric, and when draped over the shoulders it shed rain naturally — no seams to funnel water inward, no weak points where stitching could fail under heavy downpour

• A deep hood pulled forward in wind or rain still left the wearer's hands completely free, which anyone who has tried to hold an umbrella while doing literally anything else will recognize as a significant advantage

• Heavy wool retains lanolin, which resists moisture before it ever soaks through — not waterproof exactly, but far more weather-resistant than most people give it credit for

• A cloak doubles as a blanket. When you're sleeping rough on a journey, that single fact matters enormously

Honestly, the design of the medieval cloaks is almost annoyingly smart. The cloak is such a great garment that one would wonder why anyone would abandon such a great design and opt for something so much less functional as most modern garments.

Materials made the difference between comfort and genuine misery

Honestly? The design is almost annoyingly smart. The kind of thing where you sit back and think

Soften though medieval craftsmanship is so often portrayed as very primitive or even inaccurate, wool production in medieval Europe for example was a huge industry with a sophisticated network of producers. This would include the weavers – of famous Flemish weavers for example or the wool merchants of England. The cloth traders of Italy were also a huge part of the wool trade, running a massive network of producers and running a huge logistics operation to move the goods around. So the best cloaks would have been made from the tightest woven broadcloth that had been fulled – wetted, heated and then compressed to form a sort of felted material. This material would be incredibly dense and very wind resistant. And the good news is that these cloaks would wear incredibly well for decades with just a bit of cleaning now and then. So here is an example of really top quality craftsmanship that people wish they could find today.

This fulled fabric is a result of medieval technical fabric engineering. The best cloaks were made from tightly woven broadcloth (often of wool), which in its fulled state was dense, and very wind resistant. The resulting cloak was to be a very durable garment, to last for decades, and even centuries. Indeed, many full length woolen cloaks from the Middle Ages would have lasted decades. The worst that the fabric could do, is for the wool to wear thin in places, but this would not affect the overall look of the garment, or its overall integrity. This is where much of modern fashion fails, it is made from cheap synthetic materials, designed to look good for a short time, and then be thrown away.

For the interior of the cloak, wealthier travelers could opt for finer wool, fur or even silk. The design of the cloak takes advantage of the fact that the traveler is wearing multiple garments in the same direction. Therefore, the wind-blocking outer section of the cloak can be used to block the wind while the warm interior sections (with wool, fur and/or silk) can be trapped in between to provide additional warmth. In this way, the cloak functions similarly to many modern winter coats and the outer shell of wool was chosen for its excellent wind-blocking properties, while the interior lining was chosen for its warmth. In addition to wearing the cloak, many fully dressed travelers would also wear a variety of other items such as hats and gloves to help keep warm and protect themselves from the elements.

Most cloaks were made from more ordinary wool, perhaps not even brushed or carded to separate the fibers. They may have been left to dry as they were, straight from the sheep, or they may have been dyed with various plant and animal based dyes, some more successful than others. Less expensive cloaks would not have been as finely made as the elite garments, and so they would not have been as elegant. They would, however, have been worn by just about anyone and in a wide variety of situations. As mentioned before, the medieval cloak was a democratic garment of great practical use to people of all levels of society during the medieval period.

Cloaks of different types and how they were made.

Cloak type	Primary material	Best suited for
Full-circle traveling cloak	Heavy broadcloth wool	Long journeys, variable weather
Hooded short mantle	Medium-weight wool	Daily town or market wear
Ceremonial mantle	Fine wool, silk lining, fur trim	Court appearances, formal events
Military campaign cloak	Coarse fulled wool	Durability, sleeping outdoors

The cleverness of the design was to mean that the cloak kept its form for the centuries to follow.  The anchor of the cloak’s function was to keep the weather at bay. In terms of comfort, different materials could be used for a wearer’s comfort, but the ways in which the weather could affect a person were solved in a variety of ways, all of which were ingenious and worked.

Why the medieval cloak look is back

The look of the AnchorLink[ANCHORLINK[anchorlink](https://knightweave.com/)]ENDANCHOR has never really gone out of fashion. And right now there’s a huge resurgence of interest in so-called “Medieval Inspired Fashion”. This isn’t just the Province of the Cosplay Enthusiast; many people wear “fantasy clothing” as part of their everyday wardrobe. Why is that? Is there something in the look of the cloak that speaks to us today?

(And I shall not deny that there is something dramatically excellent about the lines of a cloak, whether of the Middle Ages or of the modern era).

A cloak is completely different from a puffy jacket. For one, the silhouette of a well-made cloak is very beautiful and it follows the lines of the body very well. The way a person carries themselves is in part influenced by the clothing they wear. This is not to say that wearing a cloak makes one feel superior, although that may be part of it. But also simply that there is something to the way that a person wears a cloak that is very different from the way that a person wears a puffy jacket.

Wool is having a moment in the media as sustainable fashion continues to emerge in recent years and become more mainstream. While it is true that a garment made with no synthetic fibers, made to last for decades with minimum wear, made from a renewable resource is better for the environment than a garment made from plastics and other synthetic materials that will likely be in a landfill in 3 years, there is more to sustainable fashion than just looking at the fibers used to make a garment. People have been talking about sustainable fashion for about 15 years now and for a long time, people argued that the best way to be sustainable was to buy less. While that is true to a large extent, there are many ways to buy better than to just buy less.

The part most people miss

When you wore a cloak in the medieval era, it didn’t matter whether you were rich or poor – they were functional and stylish garments. The cloak was a form of dress that was to be worn every day. The cloaks of the wealthy and the poor were made of wool, the difference was the quality and weight of the wool used. The outer shell of the cloak was made of heavy wool for durability against the wind and rain. But wealthy cloaks were also lined with fine wool, silk and fur. The wearer could show off their status through elaborate embroidery and highly saturated dyes on the garment. It is no surprise that the form of the cloak was influenced by its function and that the function of the cloak was reinforced by its form.

My neighbor is a total cloak master. He’s wearing this charcoal-colored cloak right now and I can see it from where I am sitting. I went out to him about 6 hours into his wear of the cloak on this rather cool October day and asked him if he was cold. He was wearing no hat and no scarf, by the way. I told him that on the basis of its looks, I’d have thought that on a day like today, he’d be freezing in such a cloak. But he just shrugged and said that this was just a really good coat.

So the end – He was wearing a great coat. He was not cold. He wore it.

Honestly, that's the entire argument right there.