Bulgarian clothing in the Middle Ages

4a class pupils with their teacher Mrs.Frangova learned about materials and patterns of  Bulgarian medieval clothing. The information was taken from local clothing, compared with wall-paintings and descriptions in the documents.

Fabrics

      There are fragments of silk,cotton,linen and woven fabrics and less used-wool.The use of silk and linen has not been defined on the class-sign/in King Kaloyan’s burial was found linen./The women decorated their heads with silk ribbons and cords. There was a variety of silk fabrics and veiling. They are usually painted in red, brown, green, white and blue. In the murals appeared yellow and orange clothing. High-ranking people from the portraits wore brightly woven clothes.

        Due to the climate the most common was “sarma”/tinsel/-a kind of woven fabric with thin metal stripes/”lame”/ or textile fibres. It was used  for the clothes of people with different social status. Poor people used it for decoration on the head. It was made by cotton, silk, linen and metals such as silver, gold, copper.

      Another kind of material for clothing was leather.

Decorations on fabrics

      The traditional  decoration was embroidery - flowered or geometric. Ordinary embroidery was in blue, gray, black, red, green. As decoration were sewn fabrics, woven stripes, pearls, metal plates.

      There was a variety of the female hats decoration: beads, caps, silver and gilt stripes, silk cords.

Belts

      The belts of the noble and rich people were expensive, with beautiful silver decoration. The items were on silk or woolen red-colored fabric. The highest-ranking Bulgarian wore covered with gold belts. Poor people wore belts with iron, lead or copper decoration.

      During The Second Bulgarian Kingdom was developed the female-fastening of the belt-“pafti”.They were  beautiful  round relief buckles, made from bronze, with small hooks and loops for junction.