ABOUT CLOTHES

CLOTHES FROM HISTORICAL ART

SUMPTUARY LAWS

GLOSSARY OF CLOTHING NAMES

CLOTHING CARE

Clothing Care
Traditional remedies and recipes
for care and management of clothing
CLEANSING - WATERPROOFING - STAIN REMOVAL - RESTORING COLOUR - IRONING
- CARE OF FURS - STORAGE OF CLOTHING

How did medieval women wash their clothes? Did they wash them? Where? And with what? It's hard to imagine washing some of those grand silk velvet court clothing down at the stream. And if one lived in the city, what then?

We know that in medieval London, townswomen washed at a common wash-house. It was a woman's domain, where news and gossip was exchanged in addition to the laundering of clothing. In medieval Spain, any bridge leaving town was required to be wide enough for two women and their water jugs. Since men were not expected to be at places where woman washed, only other women were permitted to act at witnesses in disputes if they happened at the river or stream.

Fortunately, there is some information of clothing care which has been preserved for posterity. The best known examples of domestic instruction come from a treatise known as the Goodman of Paris which was written in 1393 by an elderly Parisian for his 15 year old bride. It is primarily concerned with good behaviour and on the running of a household. Here and there in other manuscripts, a snippet of information appears.

Cleansing of clothes
It is generally accepted that outer clothes were not washed after every wear, in the same manner that you would not wash an overcoat or wool jacket after every wear. Heavy outer clothing was shaken after wear to remove dust, sometimes with a light beating with a brush or whisk of dry twigs.

Woolen clothes with a long nap could be reshorn when they were very dirty or worn to expose a fresh new surface. The cost of shearing was averaging 1s a cloth at the time of Bogo de Clare. It was a skilled procedure which was deemed to be fairly expensive.

Soapwort saponaria officinalis (at right) was a herb used during the Middle Ages for cleaning cloth and clothing. Also known as bruisewort, dog cloves, fuller's herb and latherwort, soapwort grew originally in northern Europe until its introduction to England by Franciscan and Dominican monks. By the end of the 16th century the use of soapwort had become widespread in England for laundering, fulling and washing dishes. Many museums still use soapwort to this day for its ability to gently cleanse delicate fabrics.

According to a British historian, washing at the wash-house was rinsed, twisted and beaten where the tongues are quite as active as washer-woman's beetles.

Clothing at home could be rinsed carefully by hand in a tub of heater water. Underclothes were rinsed more frequently and hung to dry over a pole. The use of the herb marjoram origanum vulgare (also known as organum or oregany) lent its scent in washing waters.

Waterproofing
We know from warderobe records of the 14th century, that wax was bought specifically for the purpose of waxing garments for weatherproofing. Exactly which garments were treated this way is not mentioned but it can be assumed that they were outer garments for winter or wet weather, most likely cloaks.

Stain removal
There are many interesting medieval recipes for the use of stain removal on clothing. Fuller's Earth was recommended if soaked in lye for other kinds of stain removal. It must be applied to the stain, allowed to let dry and then rubbed. Ashes soaked in lye and put onto the stain was also believed to be good. For dresses of silk, silk damask, satin, camlet 'or other material', soak and wash the stain in verjuice (from Middle French vertjus "green juice" - an acidic juice made by pressing unripe grapes) and it will be cleaned. An image of verjuice being made from the 14th century French manuscript, Tacuinum Sanitatis, is shown at left.

Recipes for the removal of grease and oil were somewhat more complex. One recipe is such:

To remove grease or oil stains, take urine and heat until warm. Soak the stain for two days. Without twisting the fabric, squeeze the afflicted area, then rinse. As an alternative for stubborn greasy or oily stains, soak in urine with ox gall beaten into it, for two days and squeeze without twisting before rinsing.

Chicken feathers were also recommended as a cleaning aid. Firstly they must be soaked in very hot water then wet again in cold water. The stain may then be rubbed with the feathers and it will be clean. Exactly how successful the feathers method was is unclear.

Restoring colour to faded garments
Remedies to restore the fading were also available. This advice is offered: On a pale blue garment, a damp sponge dipped in clear, clean lye should be squeezed out and then wiped over the offending area, or to restore fading on clothes of other colours, use very clean lye with ashes on the spot. It must be left to dry, then rubbed. The colours shall then be restored. If a dress is of silk, silk damask, satin, camlet 'or other material' soak and wash the stain in verjuice and its colour will be restored.

Ironing
Many people consider the iron to be a modern invention but versions of tools used to flatten and de-crumple clothes have been around for centuries. Vikings from Scandinavia had early irons made of glass and roughly mushroom-shaped by about the tenth century. These were also called linen smoothers. The smoother was warmed in steam before it was rubbed across the clothing.

According to historians of domestic household appliances, it was during the 1300s that the tool we recognise as an iron first appeared in Europe. It was comprised of a flat piece of iron with a metal handle attached. The flatiron was held over or in a fire until it was heated, when it was picked up by the handle with a padded holder. A thin cloth was placed between the iron and the garment in order not to dirty the clothing whilst the ironing process took place.

In the fifteenth century, an improvement to the flatiron was introduced in the form of a box which could hold coals to retain radiant heat for longer than the old method of placing the flat iron in the fire. The hot box, also known as the slug or box iron, was constructed from a hollow metal box with a handle. Heating elements such as coals or hot metal inserts were placed inside. Both the flatiron and hot box were used for several hundred years.

Care of furs
A remedy to revive furs or fur skins which have become hard through wetness was given as: the fur must be removed from the garment and sprinkled with wine. It should then be 'sprayed by mouth as a tailor sprays water on the part of a dress he wishes to hem'. Flour must be put on the wetted parts. It must then dry for a day or so, before rubbing well.

Storage of clothing
Wardrobes as we know them today do not seem to be depicted with great regularity in medieval art and it is thought that general storage of linen and clothes was in large wooden chests. Pictured right is the 1470 painting, The Birth Of Mary showing a large, wooden chest for the storage of linen.

Airing of dresses was encouraged to avoid moths and their larvae. This was a practice which 'must be done on a sunny day in the summer and dry months for if the dresses are put away in a chest after airing on a cloudy day, the cold air will be folded into the dress and encourage vermin'.

Many household washing and storing of cloth and clothing involved the use of herbs either to make the linen sweet-smelling or to discourage harmful insects. In the late 15th century, a mixture of powdered anise and orris iris florentina was used to perfume household linen in storage. Medieval linens were also scented with lavender lavendula vera, lavendula spica by being stored with it, or rinsed in lavender water.

Rue ruta graveolens also known as the herb o' grace o' Sundays was used in linens to keep away bugs and noxious odors. The image from the Tacuinum Sanitatis shows collecting rue.

Wormwood artemesia absynthum was the most common element cited in recipes to protect medieval clothing from damage whilst in storage. It was often placed among woolen cloths to prevent and destroy moths. A mixture of wormwood, southernwood, the leaves of a cedar tree and valerian mixed together and put wherever clothes were stored was thought to help repel moths and other vermin.

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