While I was doing my undergraduate thesis project at Hampshire, a fellow Div III student, Freya, was putting together a museum exhibit of reproduction artifacts of 10th Century Scandinavian domestic life – Vikings at home, in other words. Toward that endeavor, I contributed clothing for Freya to display and then wear, based on archaeological evidence and various hypotheses about what the scraps of evidence might mean and how ancient many-centuries-old Scandinavian clothing would have been worn, looked, and functioned. Only scraps of fabric, beads, and ornaments remain, along with a few vague images of people and references in epic poetry. Researching and experimenting with clothing of a period with so little information presented a new and interesting challenge!
Sadly, this project is still waiting on a proper write up, but eventually I’ll get some pictures from Freya and get back here with my notes and research to detail all of it!
Updated – such as it is – August 7, 2012.
Join me as I research obscure stitching techniques, strive to create obsessively accurate reproduction clothes, and opine at length about the comfort and functionality of various iterations of undergarments.
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