Late 14th century arming cote cut based off the Charles de Blois Pourpoint
In many ways the medieval analogue of modern activewear, the arming cote not only needed to allow a full range of comfortable motion, but also to be sturdy enough to hold the weight of steel armor which was tied directly to it and act as armour in its own right. To create this functional high fidelty replica garment I pulled from various sources including late medieval manuscript miniatures, texts, and the extant funerary pourpoint of Charles de Blois.
The resulting garment is made of multiple layers of fustian with a sateen lining, as per the recommendations in Hastings MS. [f122b], colloquially known as How a man shall be armed when at his ease. Although this text indicates that the arming cote be lined with silk satin, I opted for cotton sateen to allow the garment to be more easily laundered. Previous iterations of this garment had used silk satin linings which deteriorated with sweat and laundering.
The amount of padding in such garments is a point of contention amongst scholars. Though the only extant garment of this cut, the aforementioned pourpoint of Charles de Blois, shows obvious signs of having once been quilted the extent to which it was padded is difficult to ascertain. To determine the padding on this garment, I used inventories from the late medieval period which will often include orders of specific types of cloth, as well as what garment they were intended for. From these, it appears that there are more or less two consistent levels of padding in this garment: one with minimal padding, presumably for use under armor; and one with high levels of padding, presumably for use as an armor in its own right. With this knowledge, I built this specifically to be the lighter padding version, as that more closely fits my intended use case. One hundred percent wool batting was used for this iteration.
I used a commercially available pattern for Charles de Blois’s pourpoint to make my initial mockup, then modified it extensively to have a more accurate fit and silhouette. Initial alterations included dropping the waistline and restyling the curved centerfront closure. The original closes centerfront using buttons stitched directly to the front panels. As I had opted for laces, the lacing run and underlap had to be drafted. Additionally, the original has no collar, so this needed to be drafted wholesale. Other changes included eliminating an extra gusset found in the underarm on the original, and creating a godet for the bottom side seams. Considerably later in construction I realized that I needed more shoulder mobility, leading to the additional inserts on the back of the armscye; and that the elbow was placed too high, leading to the upperarm bands being added.
Once construction was completely, I began sewing all the eyelets by hand, using stainless steel jumprings as reinforcement. These function as more historically accurate fasteners than later grommets, while giving me the desired corseting effect. The stainless steel, like the sateen, is a concession I am willing to make to allow the garment to be machine washable.