Viking Fashion

Two women-figures in silver from the Viking period, Sweden.



An experiment! I imagine the woman to the left has a fur collar and fur-pompoms on the red woolen cape, the woman to the right has a cape in gold-brocade.

Clothes for Viking men and women are known from some findings, especially in a tapestry from the Oseberg-ship in Norway. In the male dress the Viking was seen in full coat of mail with a white-painted shield and a spear, in his civilian clothes he also had his indispensable spear. The civilian dress is a coat or pea jacket coming to the middle of the thigh or a little higher; it has long sleeves, maybe a belt , but usually loose-fitting. But it is tailor-made with a dart like in a tight-waisted coat. This coat is also known from Gotland picture-stones, and a coat almost similar is seen on the Lindisfarne reliefs.

There are two kinds of pants on the Oseberg tapestry, either long and tight, or wide and puffy, almost like plus-fours or golf-pants. They are also seen at the Gotland picture-stones. The Arab Ibn Rosta once mentioned in the 10th century these Rus-merchants with their excessive fabric-rich trousers, which were fastened at the knees. At a stone from Gotland two Vikings wear wide trousers , which look as they are supported by an inner "construction" like in a crinoline. Trousers like that were probably made for rich, aristocratic people. The fashion was and is still dictated not only by vanity, but also by a desire to display one's riches.

A third piece of cloth belonging to the male Viking dress was a long cape, which ended in 2 ends, almost reaching the ground and worn in various ways, the ends stood either outh to both sides or front and back. This cape is also known from Gotland. Canute the Great is pictured elegantly dressed in an English manuscript , which shows the king and his queen below hovering angels, placing a large golden cross upon the altar in New Minster in Winchester.

The woman's dress is also shown in the Oseberg tapestry. Furthermore a textile expert Agnes Geijer has studied cloth-rests from the graves at Birka (in Sweden) and has given a valuable contribution to our knowledge about the aristocratic or more wealthy woman's dress in the Viking period. Next to the skin the woman wore a fine pleated shift or shirt, above this the gown, sleeveless and in two parts and hanging in straps in two oval bronze-buckles upon the chest. The gown was foot-long with a train. Above the gown a shorter or longer sleeveless cape. The Viking-lady probably looked impressive with train and an abundance of fabrics, with pearl-necklaces and oval breast-jewelry, from where hang fine chains with scissors, needle-case, knife and keys.

Her hair was tied in a heavy chignon, gathered in a hairnet or under a head-cloth. Young girls might have dressed less conventional, like the girl upon the Oseberg-waggon, who whore a short skirt and long boots. The male Viking was often pictured with a pointed or round-crowned cap in fabric or coat/ leather. The woman also wore a cap or a cap-like head-wear. From the Oseberg-finding were women-shoes in tanned leather.

The Vikings loved luxury.There have been found exquisite dress-finery in their graves, mainly in Birka. Chinese silk, Byzantic and oriental gold-thread embroidery made in the most complicated technique, there are passementeries, heavy gold-brocade and braidings in the best quality. The silk is of course imported, and several other things, but the brocade-work has often an unmistakeable Nordic style.

A Nordic warrior's luxury equipment is seen in a grave from Mammen in Mid Jutland, where the dead was lying with his silver-inlaid war axe and with an eiderdown pillow under his head. Only small pieces of his cape were left with an embroidery in a free pattern. Most well-preserved were his two bracelets in woolen-pad silk, interwoven with gold-thread, and two extremely finely made streamer-shaped silken bands, where the mid fields were sewn with gold thread in a very artificial winding-pattern. Probably were these two bands the warrior's headband, the diadem-like headband, which in the Sagas is known as the "hlad". Even the toughest Viking liked to smarten himself up. According to the Saga the most ferocious of the Njal-sons, Skarphedin, wore his fine silken-hlad on his forehead, when he went to the Thing.

Source: Johannes Brøndsted, "Vikingerne", Gyldendal, 1960.

sketch: gb

Stays/Snøreliv

It was necessary in the 1700s to have wasp waist of a very alarmed small diameter, but the ladies endured patiently the torments of the corset like their kindred spirits had done for centuries. A physician published a book in 1767 where he warned against the tight stays with drastic expressions which make you wonder that mankind has survived this fatal fashion.

He meets women everywhere, he's especially alarmed by young beauties walking along the streets snorting and panting, they can only take a few steps, before they have to take a pause in order to catch their breath. He wonders how the air is able to reach the lungs at all, and how the blood is able to run. The women are fainting all the time and have to sniff some strong perfume to wake up. How can women endure it he says. They have headache, tooth and ear-ache, colics and stiches in their side, the stomach is disturbed, the intestines press upon nerves, and they have indigestion and cramps and break winds; they suffer from vomitting and haemorrhage, and he's also alarmed when he thinks about the pregnant women blaims them for abortions and warn them that they might give birth to a stillborn baby and die themselves. When a woman read that book she would probably be terrified, but she had to put the book away and follow the fashion like we do today, hadn't she?


The stays are an old form of corset which were used from about 1500 to after 1860. A tight-lacing corset is a common form used today.
The leather corset in ab. 1550 was the first where they made a cheap version of the iron corsets, corsets were made from linen, leather, wood and iron sticks which were gathered in a lace, since buttons were expensive at that time. It was a great progress, when they got fishbones (whalebone) as ribs instead of iron and wood ribs. Later the whalebones were replaced by spring steel.
With Rococo and Neo Classicism (ca. 1730 - 1800) came a style, which was modelled after the breast of the goddess Venus, who was the woman ideal in the Greek Antique and in Neo Classicism after the French revolution. This made the stays out of fashion for a short period, where women wore thin Greek flowing robes, even in the Nordic winter cold.

The later Victorian corset pressed all ribs of the body up. If it was tightened in front it pressed all the ribs down. The taille was down on the hips, so the upper part of the body was a narrow cone placed upon a ball.

The "cone-ball-stays" (from ab. 1840 - 1870), the Neo Rococo demanded crinoline in order to keep out the skirts, and the still larger crinolines demanded a larger , stiffer and tighter belt.
So the stays emerged again and developed gradually a new low stay, which remined about two half balls with a broad stalk in between. From this came a new stay formed as a broad cone placed upon a ball. This type pressed the ribs up and opened the lungs, and it meant that women could dance longer than before. Thus it was possible to create the modern ballet. The large tyl full skirts used in ballet is an inheritance from the Neo Rococo. A form of cone-ball stay is still made in 2004, the lacing is so that the intestine and the liver are just lifted without being pressed. Finito!

Source: Archaeological Magazine Skalk, nr. 1., 1968; Wikipedia: Snøreliv, Dansk.
Details from illustrations by Des Asmussen.

Iron Age Fashion/ Hairstyle/ Frisurer i Jernalderen

Silkeborg Museum, Jutland



Some hair styles from a comprehensive Iron Age exhibition in Silkeborg Museum, Jutland. Many findings from the Iron Age makes it possible to imagine how people looked and how they were dressed in that period.



The exhibition is constructed around artefacts and replicas, fx textiles and clothing. In a heath, Lønne Hede by Varde was in an Iron Age burial found a young girl who wore a pretty dress in blue and red colours. The blue colours came from the plant vajd (Isatis tinctora)and bands and edges were in fine red-blue patterns. The blouse on this reconstructed model is kept together with jewelry pins which were found upon a burial place in Vinding ab. 20 km south of Silkeborg. The dress to the right is a reconstruction of a dress worn by a woman who was found in a moor, Huldremosen at Djursland . Her clothes were a cape of sheep skin and a woolen skirt woven in a fine check pattern.

Link: Silkeborg Museum

photo Silkeborg Museum 10/1-2009: grethe bachmann, Silkeborg Museum, Mid Jutland