Dress & Textile Sessions at the International Congress on Medieval Studies 2013

At the International Congress on Medieval Studies at Kalamazoo, May 9-12, 2013. DISTAFF (Discussion, Interpretation, and Study of Textile Arts, Fabrics, and Fashion) are sponsoring four sessions. Being a medieval conference the bulk of the material is medieval, the only early modern paper is that being given by Melanie Schuessler --“At Hir Passing to the Quene”: Wardrobes of Sixteenth-Century Ladies in Waiting. Full details of the Congress can be found on the website http://www.wmich.edu/medieval/congress/index.html

Details of the four dress and textile sessions are below.

Friday, 1:30 p.m., Schneider 1120
Session 259: Dress and Textiles I: Looking North
Sponsor: DISTAFF
--Viking Age Dress in Norway: Textiles, Quality, and Social Status - Ingvild Øye, Univ. i Bergen
--A Tale of Rags and Sheep: Dress Practices in Medieval Iceland, AD 1100–1500  - Michèle Hayeur Smith, Brown Univ.
--“Silk and Fine Cloth”: Distribution and Consumption of Textiles in Late Medieval and Early Modern Denmark  - Eva Trein Nielsen, Independent Scholar
--The Effects of Spindle Whorl Design on Wool Thread Production: A Practical Experiment Based on Examples from Eighth-Century Denmark
Karen Nicholson, Independent Scholar

Friday, 3:30 p.m., Fetzer 1005
Session 308: Dress and Textiles II: How Shall a Man Be Armed? (Demonstration)
Sponsor: DISTAFF
--Evolution of Armor during the Hundred Years War  - Liz Johnson, La Belle Compagnie
--Members of La Belle Compagnie, a living history organization focusing on English life during the period of the Hundred Years War, will dress four representative English “knights” (from approximately 1350, 1380, 1415, and 1450) in historically accurate reproduction armor to illustrate trends in armor design and techniques over this period. The presentation will include documentary, pictorial, and material evidence, supplemented by the knights’ feedback on the practical experience of wearing and working in each type of armor. The knights: James Barker, La Belle Compagnie; Thomas Taylor, La Belle Compagnie; Bob Charrette, La Belle Compagnie; and Jeff Johnson, La Belle Compagnie.

Friday evening, 5:30 p.m. Fetzer 1035
DISTAFF Medieval Dress/Textile Arts Display and Demonstration
--A display of textile and dress items, handmade using medieval methods and materials. Items will include textiles, decorative treatments, garments, dress accessories, and armor. Exhibitors will demonstrate techniques and be available to discuss the use of historic evidence in reproducing artifacts of medieval culture.

Saturday, 10 a.m., Fetzer 2016
Session 372: Dress and Textiles III: Interpreting Surviving Artifacts
Sponsors: DISTAFF
--Material Values: Alterations of Medieval Egyptian Silks as a Reflection of Aesthetics  - Arielle Winnik, Bryn Mawr College
--A Typology of Pre-Tailored Men’s Garments Based on Key Measurements and Proportions, or, How Tall Was Saint Louis and Who Wore His Shirt? - Heather Rose Jones, Independent Scholar
--Political Iconography in the Medieval Italian Tristan Quilts: The Identity of the Real Knight-Errant  - Kathryn Berenson, Independent Scholar
--Martial Beauty: Padding and Quilting One’s Way to a Masculine Ideal in Fourteenth-Century France - Tasha D. Kelly, Independent Scholar

Saturday, 1:30 p.m., Fetzer 2016
Session 427: Dress and Textiles IV: Speaking of (and with) Clothing and Textiles
Sponsor: DISTAFF
--The Garments of Guy in the Bayeux Tapestry - Gale R. Owen-Crocker, Univ. of Manchester
--The Queen of Sicily’s Paris Shopping List, 1277 -Sarah-Grace Heller, Ohio State Univ.
--The Silk Metaphor: Threads of a Social Discourse in the Middle Ages - Thomas Ertl, Univ. Wien
--“At Hir Passing to the Quene”: Wardrobes of Sixteenth-Century Ladies in Waiting - Melanie Schuessler, Eastern Michigan Univ.