Fashion Week, 1,000 AD
Historical evidence has emerged that Viking women dressed like…..
A runway fashion show in Viking times would have spotlighted women cloaked in imported colored-silk gowns adorned with metallic breast coverings and long trains.
This surprising claim is the result of a new analysis of remnants from a woman's wardrobe discovered in a grave dating back to the 10th century in Russia, painting a picture of Viking panache before Christianity was established that runs counter to previous ideas about buttoned-up, prudish looking Norsewomen.
"Now we can say the pre-Christian dress code was very rich," textiles researcher Annika Larsson of Uppsala University in Sweden told LiveScience. "When Christianity came, the dress was more like that of nuns. There was a big difference."
The fashion findings go beyond apparel, revealing that the Viking Age from 750 A.D. to 1050 A.D. was not uniform and might even have been sort of sexy. (The findings here apply to the Swedish Vikings, who mostly traveled east into modern-day Russia and further on to Byzantium and beyond, rather than the Danish/Norwegian Vikings who went westward).
"Textile research can tell us more about the state of society than research into traditions. Old rituals can live on long after society has changed, but when trade routes are cut off, there's an immediate impact on clothing fashions," Larsson said.
Larsson discovered a blue silk dress and associated ornaments in a grave in the Russian region of Pskov, close to Novgorod and the eastern trade routes then plied by Vikings from Sweden. She said the dress was positioned in the grave as a gift likely to be worn in an afterlife.
Devil with a blue dress, blue dress on? One wonders why the Vikings would leave on raids, but we digress. Offhand, if the find by Larrson is a single data point, it may be an aberration rather than a real historical finding. So it is probably a bit silly to say this single find overturns all the other evidence.
On the other hand, Aurthur Rackham wasn't far off if this is correct.
By NortonPete, Monday, 25 February , 2008 @ 8:34 pm
My wife is a Norwegian Viking who went westward. She doesn’t always wear the most sexiest items but she does have a Viking characteristic that works to her advantage and creates marital bliss.
When she wants to, she can display the look of a Viking Queen that once launched ships on the bodies of scores of slaves.
I am not a foolish man.
By Gaius, Monday, 25 February , 2008 @ 9:05 pm
Obviously not.
By Lars Walker, Tuesday, 26 February , 2008 @ 8:27 am
Somebody’s deriving a lot of publicity from this, but the reenactors I’ve discussed it with find the theory pretty thin. In particular, women state categorically that it would extremely uncomfortable to wear those tortoise-shell brooches directly on top of the breasts.
I think it’s widely understood now that the "Viking woman’s costume" we’ve been talking about for a few decades is based on limited evidence, mostly a few high-status grave finds in Sweden, where there was a strong Slavic cultural influence. But they’re going to have to come up with better evidence than these people have, to convince us their new theory is genuine.
By sam, Tuesday, 26 February , 2008 @ 4:32 pm
Dang those Christians, messing up women’s fashions like that.