Norse Apron Dress Wrap-interpretation

Norse female dress is a contentious issue. Fragmentary evidence leads to a wide variety of conjectural interpretations - all of which may or may not be correct in equal measure. Tricky.

Somewhere around 2005 I decided to try a different style of wrapped apron dress that incorporated as many of the 'knowns' as possible. What was there? There were a variety of loop configurations preserved inside tortoise brooches. There was a fragment conjectured to be the waist/body section of a female dress that had an angled side, implying fullness over the hips. There were legal texts hinting at what was considered feminine dress - low under dress necks, low enough to expose a breast/nipple.

Taken together I inferred a bit and thought about style and practicality. There are really no examples of profoundly impractical dress in the Viking Age (no poulaines or henins) so whatever I concluded had to live within that context. What does a low shirt neck imply in a woman? In our age, sex appeal. In the Viking Age it is more likely to be a practical reason like breast feeding. What does a flare over the hip mean? A skirted garment with a more fitted upper body. What do those two things together mean? A dress that has some fitting but that enables breast feeding. Certainly, alternative designs of this garment can permit that activity but those all require partial undressing to get the job done. I do not have children but I have many friends who do. Feeding a child isn't an occasional thing, it is a constant. Would I want to partially undress that many times a day? Nope.

A wrapped garment can meet all of these fragments (including multiple loops which is often excluded in closed dresses) and remain a practical garment. It took some experimenting but I found a system that worked. I've cooked over hearth fires for days at a time and have never set myself on fire. I've made this dress for pregnant friends and it has seen them through much of their pregnancy and then on to breast feeding. The concept of an entirely different wardrobe for pregnancy is a fairly modern concept - another reason to view this as a likely interpretation of the evidence.

Sorry for the complete lack of pictures - almost none of the pictures of me show the full dress. Oops.

Please keep in mind that until we find a complete garment, ALL interpretations of this garment are conjectural. This is one that has worked for me and satisfies my academic side.

Here is a handout I created to go along with the class I teach on making this garment. If you would like to use this handout to teach, please contact me for permission and use the document un-altered including credit and authorial copyright information. Credit where it is due please!

Norse Apron Dress Alternative Construction by Knaughtress