page_title: Anglo-Saxon dress
section_title: Tenth and eleventh centuries
hierarchical_section_title: Anglo-Saxon dress / Women's costume / Tenth and eleventh centuries
caption_attribution_description: Detail of the Virgin Mary
context_page_description: Anglo-Saxon dress refers to the clothing and accessories worn by the Anglo-Saxons from the middle of the 5th century to the eleventh century. Archaeological finds in Anglo-Saxon cemeteries have provided the best source of information on Anglo-Saxon costume. It is possible to reconstruct Anglo-Saxon dress using archaeological evidence combined with Anglo-Saxon and European art, writing and literature of the time period. Archaeological finds have both supported and contradicted the characteristic Anglo-Saxon costume as illustrated and described by these contemporary sources.
  The collective evidence of cemetery grave-goods indicates that men's and women's costume was not alike. Women's dress changed frequently from century to century, while men's dress changed very little. Women typically wore jewellery, men wore little or no jewellery. The beginning of the seventh century marked the conversion of Anglo-Saxon kingdoms to Christianity. Religious art, symbols and writings from the conversion years greatly influenced costume fashion from this period onward, especially's women's dress and jewellery.
context_section_description: In the tenth and eleventh centuries, the growth of cities throughout England expanded the variety and quantity of textiles, clothing, and accessories that were made available to Anglo-Saxon women. Textiles and accessories could be mass-produced making these items more affordable. For more affluent women, finer materials and more opulent clothing and jewellery were easily obtainable.
caption: The Virgin Mary in Anglo-Saxon dress, New Minster Charter, 966
exif: {}