Irish Garb Part 3
Early Medieval Irish Garb Part 3: The Tunic To read about sources about Irish garb, see Irish Garb: Part 1 . To read about materials, colors and decoration, see Irish Garb: Part 2 . Uniquely Irish Style Irish clothing varied, depending on the gender, profession and status of the wearer. They had long tunics, short tunics, sleeveless vests, long-sleeved coats, short pants, long pants and (most famously) shaggy cloaks, not to mention shoes and boots, all of which varied in quality and material according to status. The most basic, unisex item in this period, however, was a loose-fitting tunic with sleeves, called the léine (1) . Although it varied by length, color and material, some version of this tunic is appropriate attire for almost every Irish man or woman from the Iron Age through the Norman Conquest. NB: the plural form is usually written as lénte or leni . However, spelling in Old Irish is quite variable from one manuscript to another, so many versions of the...