Character clothes.

My character is from a village and I was wondering what type of clothes people wear a long time ago.

Well, what kind of village? Where is this village placed? What time period were you thinking of?

If you're thinking of a village setting from medevil times, then just ragid clothes will work. Your basic cotton pants with a cotton shirt. Make sure they're outworn and tattered.

Cause if you and I are both thinking the samething, then most villagers from a long time ago were poor. I think.

Originally Posted by Sabrina

Well, what kind of village? Where is this village placed? What time period were you thinking of?

If you're thinking of a village setting from medevil times, then just ragid clothes will work. Your basic cotton pants with a cotton shirt. Make sure they're outworn and tattered.

Cause if you and I are both thinking the samething, then most villagers from a long time ago were poor. I think.

We were thinking the same thing. Thanks. I'm not good with the obvious.

That's the cliche kind of villager though.

When someone thinks old aged villager, a human wearing tattered, outworn clothes, with dirty sandels normally comes to mind.. or at least for me.

I suppose there's not many ways to work around it and make it unique.

Originally Posted by Sabrina

That's the cliche kind of villager though.

When someone thinks old aged villager, a human wearing tattered, outworn clothes, with dirty sandels normally comes to mind.. or at least for me.

I suppose there's not many ways to work around it and make it unique.

Thanks

Well, as Sabrina said, it depends on the village and what location. For something like that, I would do a Google search on whatever time period you have your village set in; if it's medieval, then search for ancient medieval clothing.

Just so you know, wool and cotton were more common materials for clothing than satin or silk was. For that reason, most villagers would wear clothing made of that. Satin or Silk would be what nobles or aristocrats would wear.

If it were a certain villager that stood out from the others, the clothes should be different.

Again, depending on where the villager lived really makes the difference.

You should also be aware of what the clothing is saying about your character as a person. For example: in the time period you seem to be setting your story in what would be the first impression of a female character who wears pants and a shirt? Or a male character in a poor village whose clothes are always nicer than everyone else's?

I know it's really shallow to think that way, but everyone develops first impressions based on what we see and if you're aware of that in your writing you can use those first impressions to your advantage

I didn't think cotton wasn't that common back then :/

Cotton wasn't grown in Europe, and it wasn't grown in great quantity in the Old World anywhere other than India, off the top of my head. Cotton became more common after the establishment of cotton plantations in the southern Thirteen Colonies, as it was mass produced.

Wool would be a good material to say they wore, possibly linen. It depends on what type of background your character has. If your character is the son of a farmer, they might be dressed in rough woollens. But if they were the son of a merchant who made a good bit of money, they might be dressed in linen or better quality wool. The son of a noble would probably wear silk.

Clothes back then were a notation of rank, for more reason than one. A farmer simply couldn't afford silk. But materials are the only thing that matters. The quality of cut and the type of clothing they wore is also important. Another thing you may wish to mention would be embroidery. A King might be wearing a blue silk coat with gold embroidery, but there would very likely be more gold than blue on that coat.