every time i see something about european fashion history pre 16th centuryish my first thought is dang what did we wear everything was shatnez
all the structural kirtles (as opposed to the ones you actually see, but in the case of not upper class it was just your regular everyday clothing which is kind of even more of a question? because it's not like jewish people were exactly wearing the upper class clothing lol) are all wool lined and stiffened with linen. i don't really have access to wool or linen, so when i've made my own kirtle/kirtle inspired things i've used cotton (canvas or coutil) as my structure, but obviously cotton wasn't widely used back then.
and even deeper than just the stiffening layers (though i'm curious if any forward-thinking jewish tailors came up with separate structural linen bodices to wear under their kirtles earlier than the mainstream so the linen would be a separate garment from the wool) what thread did they use to sew with? i'm not a historian by any means but as far as i know linen thread was pretty ubiquitous. it's stronger and less prone to breakage than wool thread (or cotton, for that matter) and is cheaper than silk thread.
anyway if someone (jewish or otherwise) has some answers i am very curious
(shatnez is the biblical law forbidding the mixing and wearing of wool and linen in a single garment, though it is permissible to wear a linen garment and a wool garment at the same time)
