Go to nordvpn.com/snappydragon or use code snappydragon to get a 2-year plan plus 4 additional months with a huge discount. The full #CoSy2021 schedule : drive.google.com/file/d/1SbrOBOySTxgJsYMeG1H-SutjRHA4Ri6A/view If you're watching after CoSy2021, you can still see all the videos! Look through the program for a list. Contribute to the Small Dragon Tea Fund on Ko-Fi : ko-fi.com/snappydragon Follow me on IG for more stitchy business : @missSnappyDragon For business inquiries, send an e-mail to : SnappyDragonStitches at Gmail dot Com I do not take personal costume/sewing or research commissions.
Honey, I over-heated just watching this! I am allergic to wool. I only wear cotton dresses. Wish I could sew since it is almost impossible to find cotton dresses in plus sizes.
I didn't realize sha-atnez applied to thread! I'm on a medieval kick at the moment, and the discussion of sha'atnez got me wondering about medieval men's clothing. Men's braies were underwear and therefore presumably linen. Chausses, or hose were worn over, and had to be tied onto the braies or later a doublet in order to stay up. Hose were usually wool for better fit and elasticity. Do we know if hose and braies were considered separate garments? Did Jewish men stick to linen hose? There's some indication that wool braies existed, but it's thought that they were meant to match a pair of hose, and separate linen ones worn underneath for laundry.
This was marvelous. We should all take time to question not who history remembers but who was left and why. These two outfits were great, I would happily wear them both. I love seeing you share the history of your people that is so often left out or forgotten.
As someone who is jewish who knows very little about my own culture, I love your videos about Judaism and Jewish history within the topic of historical dress, and it's a way I feel able to connect to my heritage in a way that I haven't been able to before! thank you!
I'm in the same boat! A lot of the "religious/spiritual" elements don't click for me, but the culture and the history is something I'm really excited to have found a way to connect to.
@@bestaqua23 i recommend them as well! I live in Tel Aviv and actually went there back when it was called bet hatfutsot (The diaspora museum in Hebrew). Highly recommend them. They are a great resource.
@@Jennaw95 I found a link for either the Tel Aviv museum or the Israel museum (I know big difference lol...also hi, I too am Tel Avivit!) that had an exhibit on Jewish dress from different communities around the world, but that's literally all I could find.
"We were there." This brought tears to my eyes because I've started to research my Jewish roots in France and Belgium. It's SO DIFFICULT to find good information, and I know that's not an accident. Thank you for this video and for all the work you're doing.
I'm "lucky" enough in that respect that most of my Jewish ancestors emigrated in the 1880s (a notable period of unrest, for certain!), and so records from that point forth take place in the US. Records from beforehand are ... questionable. Land changed hands so much in Europe - was it Galicia-Lodomeria? was it Poland? Was it Prussia? Was it Denmark? Was it Germany? No worries, it was literally ALL of those at one point or another! So good luck finding records from a time and place you don't even know to look in, because it's a nation who no longer exists, and who knows where any of those records WENT. In your case - Belgium is a very new nation, on the European scale of things. If your ancestors lived on the land that is now part of Belgium, you will very likely be looking for a completely different nation's name on the map if you want any good data about those lines of descent. France has been a bit more stable for a much longer time, but Alsace-Lorraine has changed hands a comical number of times. Most of the diaspora that spread Jewish folk throughout central Europe took place a good thousand years ago,, but due to the endogamous nature of many Jewish communities, the genetics are traceable even after such a time in a new place, because we did not completely genetically assimilate into local populations. Mitochondrial DNA or, if you have a Y chromosome, following that direct line of descent, can give you an incredible amount of information about who *did not* overtake your genes along the way. The fact that so many Eastern and Central European Ashkenazi Jews share the same haplogroups, and the same haplogroup as the Middle East for the last four thousand years, is an amazing testament to how strongly we perpetuated our own continuous line among ourselves.
The Jewish community in France was expelled in 1392 and moved to Poland. Most of the Jewish community in France today came from Spain and North Africa. The Jewish community in Belgium came from Amsterdam after the Holocaust. I probably have distant relatives there I haven't met, but not a lot. The Nazis were pretty thorough. 😖 I have a video on another channel about Jewish genetics and ancestry.
Tell me you’re starved for decent historical representation without telling me you’re starved for decent historical representation: I read the title and got so excited I teared up!
Wow I’m so excited already as a frum Jew for this because i feel like I never get to see how women like me dressed more than like maybe 200 years ago! Could you do a video going in depth on different modes of hair covering in history for Jewish ladies? I know you talked a bit about Jewish vailing, but I’d love to know more about it at various points. Maybe you’ll talk about it in the video though!!!
I'm always a little hesitant to talk about being frum or veiling because those aren't practices that are part of my life, but it seems like people really do want something about head coverings! Maybe Shoshi and I can do a deep dive in the future.
As someone who does cover her hair as an observant Jew (but has zero costume history expertise), I can tell you that exactly how someone chooses to cover her hair (how much of it, with what) is a huge identifying marker within Jewish communities. It would be really interesting if we had information on such distinctions beyond the past 200-300 years.
The Israel Museum in Jerusalem has a large permanent exhibit on historical women’s head coverings across many (mostly middle eastern) countries, and had an ashkenazi exhibit about ten years ago. They have a book on Jewish sartorial tradition from these exhibits - could be a good place to start your search!
There are also many medieval and Renaissance images (albeit by non-Jewish artists) that depict Jewish clothing (albeit on various saints and major players in Xtian iconography) Through cross referencing from Jewish images likely by, about or for Jews, certain styles of turban head wraps are quite apparent along with the veiling.
@@SnappyDragon IIRC, the video you did about the Jewish veil a while back showed a hairstyle which is actually discussed in halachic texts, where the veil covers most of the head, but the hair that's braided and then sculpted into a mass at the back of the head is peaking out. There are legal debates from the period between rabbis who discussed whether it it was okay for a married woman to wear her hair like this, and many said it was, because the hair was not wild or loose. I don't remember the source at the moment, but it's quoted in a book by Rabbi Henkin (who died earlier this year) called UNDERSTANDING TZNIUT.
Ah, this is wonderful. I study in Oxford, and I'm very interested in the Jewish history of the city--as you say, it was home to one of the biggest Jewish communities. I know that some of the wealthier landowning Jewish men sold land to the University in its early days. But even before the expulsion, the Jewish community there also experienced extreme violence from the crown and other political figures. Many of the sites were stolen and used for Christian purposes post conversion also. Nowadays there's a Jewish history group which does tours and provides information about this specific history in Oxford, and there's a strong Jewish community at the synagogue
It makes perfect sense that Jews would be allowed to swear on the Torah, because making them swear on the Bible would be exactly as meaningful as making their Christian neighbours swear on the Torah, and the whole point of swearing on your Holy Text was to take your oath more seriously.
@@rolandscales9380 sure. And the Koran explicitly refers to Jewish and Christian scriptures. So let's make Muslims swear on the Bible (or the Tanakh) because that would be super logical, meaningful and appropriate. 🤷🏻♀️
It makes perfect sense...if you respect the religious texts of a religion you're not a part of. If the current local ruler is more of the "convert to my religion or I'll murder your whole family" line of thought it's much less likely to happen, which is why it's such a big deal that medieval Jews were allowed to use their own religious texts in kingdoms ruled by other religions.
@@cam4636 Yeah, it does depend on whether you consider it more important that people follow a particular religion or that they take their oaths seriously.
When I started dating my bf, he and his family hadn't even met a jewish person before. Around the holidays I wanted to throw them a hanukkah, since they never had one, but there was some funny confusion around the menorah. They thought you put the candles in all at once and it didnt matter what candles, so they put birthday candles in all the spots on the first night. It was really funny and really sweet they took initiative to try
In England they also found bodies of people who had been murdered in a pogrom , who lined up genetically with modern Ashkenazi except they had no Eastern European or Germanic ancestry.
Check out ‘The Modern Maker, Matthew Gnagy’ for some serious deep tailoring advice and revelations of 16th c. Spanish Tailoring…his incredibly well researched work(on RUclips) and in print is inspiring. He’s apparently ‘cracked the code’ of the Bara system of proportional measurement and cutting as published in the 16th and 17th c. manuals.
I love this video! But as a portuguese historian i have to point out a few things, the iberian dress would be longer about ankle lenght with just a bit of the trousers showing and the belt wouldn't be as thight to show the waist and the female figure, face covering although not mandatory was also visible, in the elite you could also see alot of luxury in the clothes in terms of design and jewels as well as makeup.Overall as a portuguese woman who still sees the influences of this period on my culture i apreciate the fact that you made an effort to study iberian history!And as a fun fact, for the last part of the video about the jewish expulsion from iberia, Portugal under D.Duarte rule took alot of the escaping spanish jews. Despite feeling the pressure from the portuguese inquisition, wich was allied with the spanish one, to expulse the jews he decided to instead force conversion because he had big plans for expansion on the sea and the jews were one of the most educated groups, because of that he was able to maintain in Portugal the biggest minds of the time period making one of the most brilliant and rich times for Portugal. Sorry for the rant xD
Thank you so much! I did run into a lot of issues finding sources for details like that, probably down to being an English speaker researching a non-English speaking area. For a lot of reasons I'm describing this outfit as a "steaming pile of conjecture" in the video about making it, but it's always good to know more.
@@SnappyDragon thank you so much for talking about sephardi jews even with the limited sources ! i dont know if you usually work with volunteer subscribers, but im sure that there's lots of us portuguese/spanish speakers that would love to help out w translations ☀ also as a portuguese gentile, these informative videos are so important to us ! even when learning the mandatory iberian history today the jewish community is often erased like you said, even in smaller cultural accomplishments (such as the first book printed in portugal with a gutenberg press being a Torah) and also when discussing regional populations and culture (like the amazing historical jewish community of Belmonte!!). Learned so many new information with your video !! ps: im not good with words and dont usually comment, but im v thankful for your work in general (and also the more traction this video gets, the better!)
@@lauraprecioso2152 Yes! I would really recommend "Arabs in history" of Bernard Lewis. In my spcefic history of islam class this was the most useful book, its has everything since the beggining of islam. Its not from a portuguese/spanish author but alot of iberian historians helped writting it and its the easiest book for begginers.Hope it helps!
@@lauraprecioso2152 About specifically women in Medieval Iberia, I know the book (in Spanish) "Velos y desvelos. Cristianas, musulmanas y judías en la España medieval", by Maria Jesús Fuente, and also you can find several short articles written by her on the same subject on the Internet. Note that since she is a Spanish Medievalist, she usually covers late Medieval History (13th-15th Century, the era when Christian rule became the main power in the Iberian peninsula, and because of that it's easier to find iconographic sources), and uses mainly Castilla and Aragon sources, not Portuguese ones.
As someone who isn’t Jewish (or religious) I used to go to interfaith meetings and it was all religious sects in the area (I was raised Presbyterian) and so caltholic, Jewish, Muslim kids would all get together and the two I remember are of Jewish religious dates. Also in regards to wool thread, i recommend Etsy, quilting shops, and yarn shops. There is also apparently wool embroidery thread, and some wool yarn is spun so finely that I could see it being able to be used for thick thread. Front porch quilting shop has a wide selection of 100% wool thread It appears that most of the thread is described as embroidery thread. My assumption is that this is because it is thicker than traditional thread. Edit: made it easier to read the text by adding space
In a lot of ages and locations, we were not allowed to own land, and so that is how we ended up being bankers, doctors, lawyers, etc. Also, per my Rabbi, he said that most ships had a Hebrew literate Jew on board to communicate with other ports, as one might not be able to communicate with different languages in each port.
Yup, that's about the size of it! I have some interesting future plans to do with the presence of Jews in marine trade . . . for which I blame @Faye Sterling 100%.
I loved all the little historical stories & interesting facts linked. In with the cultures like the Spanish 'house outfit'. It's is VERY similar to what I wear at home in the summer here in Australia (cotton yoga pants & an oversized knee length long T shirt) for the same reason - the unbearable heat. I was also happy (in a sad way) to learn about some historical facts I hadn't been aware of till now. Like I wasn't aware that the first instance of blood libel took place in England. I thought that it had started up in Germany during the period of the Black Death.
Blood libel? Is this when you are not the direct cause of physical harm or death but something you did indirectly hurt/killed someone? I was raised in a small sect of Christianity and they use the term blood guilty. I am not sure if this concept is common across most christian sects. I don't even know if blood libel and blood guilt are similar concepts.
@@cayman144 Blood libel is the libellous accusation that a particular demographic are guilty of murdering someone (often a child) in order to use the victim’s blood in a ritual. Those accusations are hardly ever true, or even consistent with the religion of the accused.
@@cayman144 Blood guilt is a different unfounded accusation, that Jews were responsible for the death of Jesus, who was, of course, crucified by Romans. Whenever the gospels refer to "the Jews", it is the leadership of Judea who are meant, not the people as a whole. The leadership was probably involved, being concerned about a rebellion leading to a bloody response from Rome (which indeed happened about 40 years later), but it's unreasonable to apply guilt from a government under occupation to all of the inhabitants, and to their descendants for millenia.
I love this so much. I hope you keep doing these historical vids about Jewish fashion in the past. I'd love to see a '600 years of Jewish fashion' or something like that. I know Jewish history can be full of painful experiences of oppression, but it's great to remember both the resilience of the Jewish people and the way throughout history oppressed people used fashion to do something beautiful and express themselves despite being marginalized by the state/hegemonic culture
@Rhyannon Ashford - In your research, allow the time to read "Bury Me Standing: The Gypsies and Their Journey" by Isabel Fonseca. It describes the life of the Romani people in eastern Europe into the 1990s and their possible past origins (India?). Generally, they seem to be trapped in a positive feedback loop of under-education that inspires murderous bigotry against them, forcing them to live insular lives of deep poverty that further inspires more murderous bigotry. They suffered as much in the Holocaust as any other group, for example, yet that is seldom discussed. You will need a big box of tissues while you read.
Your speech at the end reminds me of 9th grade history class, where our teacher had very different things to say about 1492 Spain. Even though this was in a city with a large Jewish population, no one openly disagreed with him. In following years, I used that class to explain how terrible my high school education was.
Ngl, that last bit shook me. I, too, am a cultural Jew and my grandparents were holocaust survivors. It hit me hard when you spoke about who history tends to forget. Thank you.
I just found out that 20% of spaniards have jewish blood by DNA. It fascinates me since I received a citizenship based on the fact that my family ran away from Spain in the banishing of the jews, 600 years ago.
so as evidenced by my stan comment below, i am really into your work. however, as someone who is musta'arabi mizrahi (meaning from arabized populations of jews who have been in the middle east since there have been jews in the world), i strongly strongly caution against conflating sephardic dress with musta'arabi dress. they are not the same cultural context, especially not on the level of what everyday people were doing. i am still doing research into pre-ottoman musta'arabi dress and culture, as it's often very hard to find, so i understand if you weren't able to find much either. it would have been AMAZING if you had done a video on iraqi jewish culture as well, and preferable if you're using their dress style, but i understand that the sources are (somewhat) limited. so while i appreciate your note about this style of dress being from iraq, if you were going to talk about sefarad, in my opinion it would have been more responsible and historically accurate to present this character as being, for example, the daughter of an iraqi jewish trader passing through or immigrated to andalusia. that way you could have still talked about jews in sefarad, since you already have that information/it's easier to find research on in general, without implying that there is/was cultural conformity across the jewish arab world. because that could not be further from the truth! there are similarities, but our ethnic groups are distinct. accurately preserving our heritage, especially post-sephardic immigration into musta'arabi lands, depends on it. and thanks for showing that you know that jewish cultures are super diverse in the intro, it was very well done!
Thanks for your comment! I apologize if I wasn't descriptive enough about how I used the sources I did-- a lot of that is coming in a few weeks in the video focusing on this outfit. Of course it would be a huge problem to use exclusively or primarily Iraqi sources for an Andalusian outfit. There were several situations where there wasn't a piece of evidence specific to Al-Andalus but there *was* evidence directly connecting that garment in Al-Andalus to a similar or equivalent garment in another medieval Islamic territory. For instance, a picture in El Libro de los Juegos shows a Spanish lady wearing sarwal in what was definitely an Andalusian rather than a Visigothic-Spanish fashion, but there don't seem to be surviving sarwal from Al-Andalus. In that case, I based a pattern on extant, similar-looking sarwal from Egypt. I hope this makes more sense!
@@SnappyDragon And thanks for being understanding! Unfortunately it can be a really big intracommunity issue that since the combining of Sephardic communities with Musta'arabi communities in the last 100 years (in Syria anyway, that's the context I know) there has been a really big issue of Sephardic hegemony where Musta'arabi culture is being pretty much erased from the historic record and we are almost never talked about; the whole Levant is represented as being Sephardic with there being "almost no" Jews left, which is absolutely not true. So, I get really protective! Looking forwards to all the details & def very interested in the sources you were able to find.
Amazing video! I absolutely love learning about Jewish culture and historical dress. One thing that really resonated with me in this video is your quote "You will find us, if you remember to look." I think this quote works for many minorities- I know there has been lots of discussion in the historical costuming community on gatekeeping the "historical accuracy" of individuals very existence, whether that be asian people, LGBT people or, in this case, jewish people. We were always there, you just have to remember to look
Oh, I can't wait for this to premiere! I first discovered your channel through your video about Jewish veiling, and as someone who loves to learn more about the several Jewish communities that have always lived in Europe, clothing is such an important part of that journey and of their lives.
We have record of at least one very famous Baghdadi oud player (named Ziryab) moving to Muslim Spain during the Umayyad period! Somewhat earlier than your video is set, in the 9th century, but it's definitely historically plausible to use the music that you chose, there was a lot of culture swapping taking place! We see influences ranging from Syrian to Visigothic in the architecture and objects of the time - so it's very possible that hairstyles were the same, cherry picked based on personal preference from a wide pool. The ruling family was from (recent) Syrian roots, so on a more courtly level styles of hair styling would likely have followed those seen in Syria in the early 11th century/late 10th century. I'm going to go comb through my books and see if there's anything I've missed before now on hair! (sorry for the infodump, I grew up learning about these things and very rarely get a chance to share!)
This was brilliant! I really love how you did two different locations too, and how different they look. For my Medieval History course at uni last semester we had a couple of lectures on Jewish history for one of my modules, and they were some of my favourite lectures! I actually recommended your last video on the Jewish veil to my lecturer! As for wool thread, I buy thin and strong yarn labelled as 'embroidery and weaving' yarn, as I find this is a great thickness and should be nice and strong for the seams.
My mother-in-law's father was a kosher tailor in Poland. The wool and linen bit is so fascinating! Think there might be rules about lining too?!? Thank you for this video!
I'm not Jewish, but I'm excited to see this! I'll be revisiting your veil video for arranging mine (without blue stripes) if I ever finish my medieval ensemble.
This is so interesting! i love how you explain the Jewish concepts. I'm modox myself, and am super interested in the intersession of historical clothes and halacha ever since I found this corner of the interwebs. I wonder if the overdress would be something not considered acceptable in some circles because of the emphasis around the torso? While, obv, chazal aren't as strict as us in some respects and stricter in others, I wonder if this would be something they wouldn't count as arva since you are technically covered, but hypothetically could be because the whole idea is the silhouette. I'd love to see you do more videos on other Jewish communities clothes across Europe (and other places, obv lol but I understand that's not really your wheelhouse). I recently did a Jewish tour of ancient Rome and the guide's insights into regular life was so interesting. Edit: lol by recently I obviously mean in 2019.... strange how that feels like only months ago.
The bliaut's silhouette and the evolution of more fitted kirtles + the "gates of hell" sideless surcoat that followed it were considered pretty shocking by some Christians, so it would not surprise me if there were Jews who felt the same way!
That state at 18:06 just made me burst into tears from the emotions on your face and the words you were speaking, like legit tears streaming down my face right now. Thank you for teaching us 🤍
I'm so interested in seeing this video. Most historical videos (fashion or otherwise) rarely give you anything. But a glimpse at the lives of minorities (if you're lucky) during the period they're talking about.
So here I have left a link about the awesome group l'am de foc (the master of the fire) they sing in a language long forgotten, called "Occitá" is a mixture of old catalán (the lenguaje from Barcelona) and Sephardic words. The group was dissolved long ago, but the singer, Mara aranda, still does really cool Sephardic music from the Mediterranean
i literally teared up 30 seconds in and paused to write this comment. thank you so much for this video, your attention to detail -- both in sewing and history -- really shines. as a mizrahi/ashke/sephardi jew i love your work!! will def be sending this one to my friends as well.
The expelling and erasure of the Jewish People can still be felt today. My mother is from New Mexico, and many of the Crypto-Jews there kept their faith and heritage secret as late as the 1970s, when she was in high school. My mother herself was recntly surprised to do an ancestry test and find Jewish genetic markers.
This is so interesting, and as a Jewish woman, it brings me such joy to learn about the sartorial history of my people. Todah rabah and shalom aleichem ✡️❤️
That Andalussian outfit looks super comfy, I really look forward to seeing the in-depth video of it later. Thank you for telling the stories of your people; I'm now inspired to do some more research. Excellent work!
Jewish history is my favorite subject. The alephbet, the calendar, the feasts even the mazzaroth. I always thought much about how the Jewish peoples were the most meticulous record keepers in history and how it became for the benefit of the world. I love how each letter of the alephbet has certain meanings as well as a number associated. Whose words can be powerful and sacred. When more letters are placed together the combinations of meanings increase and after that you can meditate on the profound messages hidden in plain sight in the very first verse of the Torah or think about the significance behind a name. I love how the constellations of the mazzaroth tell a complete and wonderful story from beginning to conclusion. I also love the history outside of the scriptures from the maccabean revolt and it's heroes to the bubonic plague in Europe where it was noticed that the plague was not decimating the Jewish community. Jews were then accused of placing curses on the local populace in order to take over their land and country. This because Jewish people had a traditional concept of sanitation and uncleanliness. In the time of Moses they were instructed not to defecate near their encampments because the spirit of the Lord traveled with them and it was offensive for their sewage to be so near their encampments. They were told not to cohabitate with unclean animals like rats and mice. If vermin we're actually spreading the bubonic plague in Europe then the Jews were at an advantage indeed. We know they were not placing curses but rather blessed with knowledge. I also love the music and the food. Mazzoball soup with dillweed garnish has a featured spot on my ethnic foods of epicness list.
I love that she makes the distinction on HAIR covering, often spoken of as head covering. I listened to a podcast from michael heiser an ancient Hebrew scholar, where he argued that in ancient Greek times, a woman’s hair was thought of as a part of the reproductive system....
I was not raised jewish, my mother was Italian and my father was german-french and my step father was from Arkansas and I was also "adopted" into a Mexican family(whom I love more than anything and are basically the only family I have left) but I've always felt a strong connection to jewish culture. I love the culture and the food( which I do cook on occasion yum!) and the family aspects and all the love shared. I just love all of it! Thank you for all of your videos they are lovely, educational, and entertaining 💚💜😸
Who knows the play "Nathan the Wise" by Gotthold Ephraim Lessing? It's set in Jerusalem during the Third Crusade (1189-1192) and tells the story of a Jew (said Nathan), a Muslim (Sultan Saladin), the adoptive daughter of Nathan and some unnamed Christian Templar. The play is a plea for friendship and understanding between the three religions. Sadly, the play was only written in the 18th century and its message was not heard in many periods of history. :(
Well, I am subscribing. 4th video today and am very impressed with info, humor, history and everything! Great when I want to stay out of all the breaking/depressing news too. Have to show this to my aunt.
since you asked about our favorite often forgotten part of history. i do a lot of research into queer history, and often run into a similar issue to what you mentioned where, even though we are everywhere and everywhen, missing records of what local queer people were up to is very common, due either to erasure or the need of queer people at the time to stay hidden.
I live in York, and for a uni essay I had to research into the local medieval history (believe me there's lots of it here). There's an account of a mass'acre of approx. 150 jewish people (in 1190) in what is now called 'Clifford's Tower' in William of Newburgh's 'Histories of English Affairs' - the effects were so extreme there wasn't a jewish population here again until the late 1800's. The council only marked the action in the 1970's which means for about 800 years the massacre went unrecognised by the public.
Thank you. The costumes are beautiful. The content was thought-provoking. History isn't always (or even usually) about what we easily see but about what you may find if you are willing to search a little deeper.
Great video! I just learned last year that my family is descended from Sephardic Jews from Spain. Having been raised Catholic, this was more than a bit surprising, and goes to your point of erasure. I do not know (yet, the family is doing some research on it) whether there was forced conversion for survival, but it seems likely.
OH MY GOSH- I'm starting to get into historical costuming and history bounding and I've been debating if I should document my work or not creating modern interpretations of historical garments and making them for modern frum fashion. I'm so happy you're making videos on these subjects!!!
I think your best option would be to reach out to your local fiber arts guild and see if you can get a spinner interested in a commission. Personally, I find this fascinating and as a spinner and a Jew, but I am also located on the other side of the country, so less than ideal for a collab. I've read about considerations for spinning sewing thread, but never thought of putting them into practice. Ideally for wool sewing thread, you'd want to find someone with considerable experience doing worsted fiber prep as the smoother and sleeker that spun yarn is, the better it would be for sewing. I've never made top before and have never really had a desire to until now, lol. Commercially, I've been finding a lot of 50/50 wool acrylic for applique which is frustrating. I'd almost suggest using crewel embroidery thread or tapestry yarn, but both are much chunkier than traditional sewing thread.
Yup, tapestry yarn is lovely stuff and I just used some for a non-sha'atnez embroidery project, but I probably wouldn't want to sew with it. Someone did recommend a brand of wool embroidery yarn that can be used for machine-embroidery, so I have high hopes for that!
@@SnappyDragon That does sound promising! Random sidenote, a friend of mine gifted me with a roving of 33%wool, 33% linen, and 33% silk a couple years back. I spun it up and gave it back to her and named the finished yarn "Trayf" It was a very different spin than what I'm used to.
Wow! This video was amazing, you really filled in huge gaps in my knowledge of the time and place! Your seams are beautiful, those garments you model are really something to be proud of in more ways than one. Thank you for telling me stuff I didn't know I didn't know!
two extra pieces of information at either end of your historical narrative. Whether Al-Andalus was a pleasant and tolerant place to live depends highly on what you are comparing it to. Compared to other regions at the time, it was comparatively tolerant; compared to modern day society it was a brutal apartheid state. Jews lived in a state of oppression, with restrictions on diverse aspects of their lives. Thousands of Jews were massacred at least twice during the Muslim occupation, they were also massacred during the Reconquista by Christians. Life wasn't fun for Jews anywhere in the Medieval period. Jews were already present in England when they were "invited" back by Oliver Cromwell in the 17th Century. In fact the debate centered more around deciding if the government should openly acknowledge the Jews that were already present, rather than allow more Jews to arrive. Up until that point they were not publicly advertising themselves as Jews, because technically Jews were not permitted by law, instead they were simply merchants and supposedly 'Christian' on paper, while authorities discreetly avoided looking too closely at what religion they practiced. There was already at least one synagogue in London prior to the invitation. Cromwell's government was the first to discuss whether or not Jews should be free to openly identify. It took a while after that before there was any influx of new arrivals.
Another hint that Jews were still living in, or had returned to, places from where they had officially been expelled is the prominence given to eating pork in religious and academic festivals, including those of Oxford colleges. Some have interpreted this as a way of giving "hidden" Jews a hard time.
Under Muslim rule, both Jews and Christians were considered second class citizens in the way you're referring to. They both have a status of tolerated subjects, unlike populatios practinig non-abrahamic religions as far as I understand. I'm more familiar with the Ottoman context in south eastern Europe than with Al-Andalus, but if you ask me, paying higher taxes as a citizen is miles better than being legally slaughtered if you were found within the city walls, as was the case for Jews and Muslims under subsequent Christian rule in western Europe. Even for the wrong kind of Christian at certain times.
@@teodorasavoiu4664 You shared some interesting thoughts. And life in Europe was undoubtedly oppressive for Jews, as you say. But I think your statement is a little naïve in a way. The jizya tax was essentially "protection money" and you paid it to prevent the government from killing you. How likely was it do you think, if the options are "pay me or I kill you", that the people asking for the money really cared about your safety or wellbeing? It was as safe as the same tax was under the Mafia, ie not very safe at all. Sure they _said_ this would keep you safe, but would it _really?_ You had to be identified by your dress, so that people could see you were a dhimmi (second class citizen) at a glance. Which made you a target for abuse and cruelty from the general population, to which you can be certain the government would turn a blind eye. And along with that were ordinary petty persecutions such as depriving you of business, or making it harder for you to financially prosper. Because you were visibly a dhimmi, people could easily choose not to do business with you at all. The attitude towards Jews in Muslim countries has always been negatively influenced by a handful of hadith and Quranic verses that some people sadly interpreted as reason to treat Jews with mistrust, especially in business dealings, or outright hatred. So at least a portion of society viewed you as dirty and beneath them. When people look at you like that, it comes out in all their actions towards you. You may be protected from the government doing anything to you, theoretically, but that didn't mean the population couldn't, or wouldn't, conveniently do it for them. Jews could be beaten up, or killed by a Muslim, and how likely were the law courts on investigation to find in the Jewish family's favor, when the pervasive view towards them by those in power and the general population, was similar to the racism of apartheid South Africa? The injustice was systemic. You were also forbidden from practicing your religion in any visually noticeable way. Nor did it make you safe from being forced to convert, in spite the jizya tax theoretically being to protect your right to follow your own religion. There were multiple state-driven slaughters of both Christians and Jews under the Ottomans, and forced conversions. The Ottomans stole children from their dhimmi parents to raise them as Muslim, and notoriously trained those kids as soldiers then sent them back to their own communities to kill their own people. They even built towers out of the skulls of those who resisted their control, as a big terrifying reminder of what happened if you dared to think yourself a free individual not under dhimmitude. And as for those who were not 'People of the Book' their options were "convert or die". It's believed that under Islamic rule in India, 600 million Hindus were slaughtered. None of this is to say that life in Christian Europe wasn't violent and oppressive for Jews, but it's to say that frankly, saying that Jews under Islamic rule were better off than in Europe to me always seems very much to be splitting hairs. It was much of the same for them in either place, in reality.
@@teodorasavoiu4664 Non-Abrahamic religions encompasses most human religions, and most human societies have had tolerated subjects with their own culture, creed, etc. If anything, the Republican and Imperial Romans were more tolerant than many later Abrahamic societies, particularly most Christian ones and many current Islamic societies. There were multitudes of different faiths flourishing in Rome before the Church seized power.
excellent video! i'm an archaeologist, and my job always deals with the people and objects that no one bothers or wants to write about, the things that history doesn't always want recorded. it's always good to see these things brought to light, and i have such a fondness for learning about historical dress! thank you for the lesson!
This was amazing! There's very little evidence on how my own Finnish ancestors would have dressed at the time, so I'm always really excited to see how people dressed in other parts of Europe.
I absolutely loved this!!! I love history, especially about clothing. I knew there were some clothing restrictions and requirements for Jews in the past centuries, but you blew me away with your research and your garments. Thank you!!!
This was great. It's true, many of us were educated to picture European history as white and Christian. Learning about the long centuries of Islamic rule in Spain was eye opening, and seeing so many people of African descent depicted in European art lets you know that everybody was traveling everywhere, whether voluntarily or not. We all need to get used to each other, there is no denying that. It's a big world full of wonderful and interesting varieties of people, and we all need to have our rights and dignity protected as we share the planet.
I'll do my best! Although I will definitely have to call in some reinforcements because in the Jewish communities I've been part of, people being frum was not really a thing.
Thank you for lifting this perspective! This was both interesting and important. Beautiful outfits. I've sewn medieval wool clothing before with either thin embroidery yarn (I've used a brand named Appleton, mostly because they come in so many colours that it's easy to find a match) or that kind of thin wool yarn that you use to mend old socks (that I have no idea what it's called in English unfortunately. Stoppgarn in Swedish if anyone else can find a better dictionary than I did)
As always, really great video! I'll have to keep an eye out for wool sewing thread for you; so far I've done well with Devere yarns in my sewing, but that was mostly when it came to felling and decorative top-stitching. Since I'm considering using it again for the construction of one of my upcoming projects, I'll have to tell you how it goes!
So interesting learning about the lived histories of groups not focused on in mainstream American history textbooks. Sharing on my Twitter accounts and with family. Thank you for your hard work.
I really needed to thank you for this video. I watched it yesterday and in this morning I woke up crying (for the second time lol) because I was thinking of this video. The re-enacting and the information you gave is really really important and it also means so much to me because of my Ashkenazi and Sephardi roots. Also I’m a history nerd and I love to search about historical fashion. This video is really special for me and it really touched the deepest part of my soul. Thank you so much again and keep with this wonderful work ❤
Lovely video. I eagerly await more videos from you. It's amazing all you can find from sumptuary laws, and how much is left out. Amazing work, i can't wait to see what else you dig up. Perhaps if in need in the future it might be useful to contact YIVO for some research aid. Or another amazing and wonderful resource I'm sure you may have come across, The Israel Museum, which has a beautiful collection of historic jewish garments from Afghanistan, Morocco, and Yemen to name a few. An early Shabbat Shalom! Thank you for being amazing Jewish Representation in the costuming community!
Additionally for a fun fact, for Lithuanian and Russian Jewish Women, there were sumptuary laws written to prevent them from wearing too much Jewelry. From some additional primary resources it becomes evident that Jewish women used to quite enjoy wearing lots of jewelry around in their daily lives. I wish i could have a peak back in time to see, it evokes some feel to me of candle lit small eastern European synagogues with the light flickering off metal.
I love your videos and your deep respect and love for history. Your narration is pleasant and easy to follow, but does not subtract from the impact of your message.
Thank you so much for this video. So informative, so important, and so well presented. It's important for everyone to learn. (Also as an early music nerd, I appreciate the commitment to musical integrity! I have a mild pet peeve of otherwise historically well informed folks using generic vaguely medieval sounding recorder music for anything prior to the 1800s 😅 )
Thanks V, for the super interesting and entertaining history lesson 🙏. It’s difficult to state one single forgotten time and place in history, my favorites are the once I did not know about. Like this one.
Loved the video! Just watched the 13th + 14th century veil one as well. Still very much just getting into historical clothing, and it’s awesome to see stuff other than the ‘this is what the ruling class wore’. Actually would love recommendations from anyone on where to get info on Jewish garments for the 15th + 16th century, both male and female.
I can’t believe i discovered your channel! As a jewish girl with ashkenazi blood, i am so excited to hear more about my ancestors lives. The most I know about Renaissance Jews comes from Shakespeare’s “the Merchant of Venice” and it’s not the best depiction. I love historical dress and my heritage. thank you for being an awesome creator ✡️💚
Thank you so much for your videos. As someone who has been hobby researching Jewish garb to be period correct (16th century) when going to ren-faires and other eras of cultural and period accurate clothing events… the resources are so few and far between. About the best accuracy I can find is what has shown up in preserved classic artwork from those periods… and most of those are paintings of brides, not much on Jewish family’s with small children and the daily garb they wore. And most of the surviving paintings and preserved clothing that show more of the Jewish garb life seem to be mid 18th century to 19th century. I do hope you’ll continue to shed light and history on this topic in the future. I would really love to show my husband that he has more period accurate garb to choose from besides the tights he continues kvetching about “eating” his natural yeti layered legs. 🤣
AMAZING video! I love how detailed this is. I only have an amateur interest in social history and material culture myself but I've noticed it can be difficult to find records of this kind of history (particularly from Medieval Spain) so I really appreciate how much effort and research went into this!
Thanks fo another fascinating dive into this overlooked area of historical dress! As for wool thread, darning wool is a good option because it is fine yet strong, but often only comes in small quantities (same with embroidery wool). You might have better luck looking for lace-weight wool yarn which can sometimes be bought in bulk on cones for weaving or knitting machines.
The climate really only gives you two options unless you pick something in which modern westerners would interpret you as undressed. Depictions of the Sari pre-muslim conquest, for example, depict a garment that would get you sent home from an American school for immodesty. It's interesting that this culture (and by this culture I mean the culture of her research materials not Iberia) embraced this over an abaya, but not that surprising given the more cosmopolitan nature of the area. Given the practical benefits of raising the hems of upper garments to the knee, and the differences in how Muslim rulers interpreted feminine versus masculine clothing compared to Christian rulers in Northern Europe. Interpretations that influenced how local Jews interpreted their religion's prohibition against crossdressing. That's part of why fancier outfit equals more layers. Yes, rich people could afford more fabric, but they could also afford to stand around talking instead of engaging in physical exertion. So they would need the extra layer just to stay comfortable.
Friends of mine have at times given up on finding wool thread and spun their own. Not the easiest option, for sure. I tried to learn drop spinning once and instantly knew it wasn't for me.
This is a wonderful video. I'm a long time reenactor [medieval and Civil War] and I love looking at the outliers and edge-dwellers of an era, so I'll be passing this video on to some SCA people of my acquaintance.
I know it's shipping from the UK, so the shipping might be prohibitively expensive for you, but DeVere Yarns makes worsted wool embroidery thread which is very fine and strong and could be used to sew seams if you were careful about your tension and waxed it first to strengthen it (they also make excellent silk thread). You could also use a "cobweb weight lace knitting yarn" (search for these terms, and you'll find plenty of sellers), but it might be a pain to sew with because the fibres are likely to break with very minimal tension as they are not spun as tightly as embroidery thread.
Depends on the cobweb yarn, if it's firmly and/or worsted spun (and especially if it's from a long-but-fine staple breed like Shetlands) it can actually be pretty strong! There's at least one Shetland woollen mill (I think it's Jamieson and Smith rather than Jamiesons) that produces a 2 ply that's still cobweb weight, and I think also a "2 ply equivalent weight jumper/sock yarn" for colour stranded knitting that's actually 4 plied, again for extra sturdiness. I'm sure there's similar breeds and producers stateside but don't know of any personally.
It makes sense to me as a (novice) weaver not to mix wool and linen in threads when weaving because... that would be a disaster. Linen: lightweight, breathable, hardy! A plant fibre that soaks up water but also dries easily. Wrinkles like crazy, but also is very hardy, especially in the heat. Super soft if made well. I love, love linen clothing and before all this rage about linen fabric, prized it well over cotton (which is very rough by comparison) and had to import it. Now, linen fabric clothing is sold at Target and sometimes even at Walmart! The fibro sufferer in me cries in relief. If it's pure linen, you can dry it on hot, line-dry it, it's so, so hardy... but it does wrinkle a lot. So. Be prepared to use an iron if you want it smooth. Wool: itchy as hell, prone to allergic reaction in wearers, soaks up water but also wicks it away. Super warm, whereas linen helps keep you cool. Attracts moths because it's a protein fiber, so keep it safe. Can't wash it on warm or hot water because it will shrink like crazy. ... that last part is especially important. You just spend 40 hours spinning thread and 80 hours weaving a small amount of cloth with wool-linen mix? .......... and you.... washed it with hot water? ...... oh, honey. And it's rotting because one fiber can't let go of water easily but one wants to wick it away? Oh. Oh no. .......... You know what. Screw it. This is a sign. You know what, I think... I think g-d thinks this is bad. This is so bad I think even the Heavens think this is bad. No more mixing linen and wool, okay. Write that down. Just. Don't. .... what if one is just linen fabric sewn with wool thread, or vice versa? ... you know what, i don't know, but it's takes like 50 hours to sew a dress, so ... just better not risk it.
People have done it, though. As is mentioned in the video, "linsey-woolsey" is what the fabric is called. It's cheap and usually not considered desirable, but it has been done.
Girl, I just looooove your fashion design choices. Your colors blend nicely and I like the amount of detail/research put into it. Also, the storytelling bits are super nice. Side note though, it's pronounced "zimmi", with a z since. :D
Go to nordvpn.com/snappydragon or use code snappydragon to get a 2-year plan plus 4 additional months with a huge discount.
The full #CoSy2021 schedule : drive.google.com/file/d/1SbrOBOySTxgJsYMeG1H-SutjRHA4Ri6A/view
If you're watching after CoSy2021, you can still see all the videos! Look through the program for a list.
Contribute to the Small Dragon Tea Fund on Ko-Fi : ko-fi.com/snappydragon
Follow me on IG for more stitchy business : @missSnappyDragon
For business inquiries, send an e-mail to : SnappyDragonStitches at Gmail dot Com
I do not take personal costume/sewing or research commissions.
Honey, I over-heated just watching this! I am allergic to wool. I only wear cotton dresses. Wish I could sew since it is almost impossible to find cotton dresses in plus sizes.
I didn't realize sha-atnez applied to thread! I'm on a medieval kick at the moment, and the discussion of sha'atnez got me wondering about medieval men's clothing. Men's braies were underwear and therefore presumably linen. Chausses, or hose were worn over, and had to be tied onto the braies or later a doublet in order to stay up. Hose were usually wool for better fit and elasticity. Do we know if hose and braies were considered separate garments? Did Jewish men stick to linen hose? There's some indication that wool braies existed, but it's thought that they were meant to match a pair of hose, and separate linen ones worn underneath for laundry.
This was marvelous. We should all take time to question not who history remembers but who was left and why. These two outfits were great, I would happily wear them both. I love seeing you share the history of your people that is so often left out or forgotten.
Hystory is told by the winners
Agreed- and thank you for posting all of this!
"Ask two Jews, get three opinions" is such a wonderful little turn of phrase that always tickles me. Very sobering conclusion, and rightly so.
It must be an Ashkenazi saying, as exactly the same phrasing exists in Polish: where two Poles, there are three opinions. :)
@@berlineczka Actually it is ask two Jews and get FOUR opinions. As in "On the other hand." I'm part Ashkenazi Jew myself.
@@suzettekath9860 Yeah, I guess this saying has a number of variations in both Jiddish and Polish. I once heard "three Poles, six opinions" as well.
The only thing two Carpenters can agree on, is that the 3rd one is wrong. Ha
@@suzettekath9860 that’s how I’ve always heard it corollary- ask two rabbis, get 6 opinions. 🤣
As someone who is jewish who knows very little about my own culture, I love your videos about Judaism and Jewish history within the topic of historical dress, and it's a way I feel able to connect to my heritage in a way that I haven't been able to before! thank you!
I'm in the same boat! A lot of the "religious/spiritual" elements don't click for me, but the culture and the history is something I'm really excited to have found a way to connect to.
You should contact ANU Museum of the Jewish People from what I know they are very nice about answering questions like thet
@@bestaqua23 i recommend them as well! I live in Tel Aviv and actually went there back when it was called bet hatfutsot (The diaspora museum in Hebrew). Highly recommend them. They are a great resource.
@@Jennaw95 I found a link for either the Tel Aviv museum or the Israel museum (I know big difference lol...also hi, I too am Tel Avivit!) that had an exhibit on Jewish dress from different communities around the world, but that's literally all I could find.
@@Ashley_tipsyshades which Tel Aviv museum? We don’t have a museum just called the Tel Aviv museum lol.
ושלום מלב העיר !
"We were there." This brought tears to my eyes because I've started to research my Jewish roots in France and Belgium. It's SO DIFFICULT to find good information, and I know that's not an accident. Thank you for this video and for all the work you're doing.
I'm "lucky" enough in that respect that most of my Jewish ancestors emigrated in the 1880s (a notable period of unrest, for certain!), and so records from that point forth take place in the US. Records from beforehand are ... questionable. Land changed hands so much in Europe - was it Galicia-Lodomeria? was it Poland? Was it Prussia? Was it Denmark? Was it Germany? No worries, it was literally ALL of those at one point or another! So good luck finding records from a time and place you don't even know to look in, because it's a nation who no longer exists, and who knows where any of those records WENT.
In your case - Belgium is a very new nation, on the European scale of things. If your ancestors lived on the land that is now part of Belgium, you will very likely be looking for a completely different nation's name on the map if you want any good data about those lines of descent. France has been a bit more stable for a much longer time, but Alsace-Lorraine has changed hands a comical number of times.
Most of the diaspora that spread Jewish folk throughout central Europe took place a good thousand years ago,, but due to the endogamous nature of many Jewish communities, the genetics are traceable even after such a time in a new place, because we did not completely genetically assimilate into local populations. Mitochondrial DNA or, if you have a Y chromosome, following that direct line of descent, can give you an incredible amount of information about who *did not* overtake your genes along the way. The fact that so many Eastern and Central European Ashkenazi Jews share the same haplogroups, and the same haplogroup as the Middle East for the last four thousand years, is an amazing testament to how strongly we perpetuated our own continuous line among ourselves.
The Jewish community in France was expelled in 1392 and moved to Poland. Most of the Jewish community in France today came from Spain and North Africa. The Jewish community in Belgium came from Amsterdam after the Holocaust. I probably have distant relatives there I haven't met, but not a lot. The Nazis were pretty thorough. 😖 I have a video on another channel about Jewish genetics and ancestry.
You will be hard-pressed to find good information on the era anywhere.
Tell me you’re starved for decent historical representation without telling me you’re starved for decent historical representation:
I read the title and got so excited I teared up!
Wow I’m so excited already as a frum Jew for this because i feel like I never get to see how women like me dressed more than like maybe 200 years ago! Could you do a video going in depth on different modes of hair covering in history for Jewish ladies? I know you talked a bit about Jewish vailing, but I’d love to know more about it at various points. Maybe you’ll talk about it in the video though!!!
I'm always a little hesitant to talk about being frum or veiling because those aren't practices that are part of my life, but it seems like people really do want something about head coverings! Maybe Shoshi and I can do a deep dive in the future.
As someone who does cover her hair as an observant Jew (but has zero costume history expertise), I can tell you that exactly how someone chooses to cover her hair (how much of it, with what) is a huge identifying marker within Jewish communities. It would be really interesting if we had information on such distinctions beyond the past 200-300 years.
The Israel Museum in Jerusalem has a large permanent exhibit on historical women’s head coverings across many (mostly middle eastern) countries, and had an ashkenazi exhibit about ten years ago. They have a book on Jewish sartorial tradition from these exhibits - could be a good place to start your search!
There are also many medieval and Renaissance images (albeit by non-Jewish artists) that depict Jewish clothing (albeit on various saints and major players in Xtian iconography) Through cross referencing from Jewish images likely by, about or for Jews, certain styles of turban head wraps are quite apparent along with the veiling.
@@SnappyDragon IIRC, the video you did about the Jewish veil a while back showed a hairstyle which is actually discussed in halachic texts, where the veil covers most of the head, but the hair that's braided and then sculpted into a mass at the back of the head is peaking out. There are legal debates from the period between rabbis who discussed whether it it was okay for a married woman to wear her hair like this, and many said it was, because the hair was not wild or loose. I don't remember the source at the moment, but it's quoted in a book by Rabbi Henkin (who died earlier this year) called UNDERSTANDING TZNIUT.
Morgan Donner has a video “How to make a 500-year-old dress” uploaded on January 28, 2021 that has a link to wool thread.
Unsung hero. Thank you from everyone here.
Ah, this is wonderful. I study in Oxford, and I'm very interested in the Jewish history of the city--as you say, it was home to one of the biggest Jewish communities. I know that some of the wealthier landowning Jewish men sold land to the University in its early days. But even before the expulsion, the Jewish community there also experienced extreme violence from the crown and other political figures. Many of the sites were stolen and used for Christian purposes post conversion also. Nowadays there's a Jewish history group which does tours and provides information about this specific history in Oxford, and there's a strong Jewish community at the synagogue
I'm hoping to visit the UK sometime in the next few years and I will have so much exploring to do!
It makes perfect sense that Jews would be allowed to swear on the Torah, because making them swear on the Bible would be exactly as meaningful as making their Christian neighbours swear on the Torah, and the whole point of swearing on your Holy Text was to take your oath more seriously.
Except that the Torah (aka the Pentateuch) is a substantive part of the Christian Bible too.
@@rolandscales9380 As a Christian, I have to tell you that this is deeply unhelpful and wrong.
@@rolandscales9380 sure. And the Koran explicitly refers to Jewish and Christian scriptures. So let's make Muslims swear on the Bible (or the Tanakh) because that would be super logical, meaningful and appropriate. 🤷🏻♀️
It makes perfect sense...if you respect the religious texts of a religion you're not a part of. If the current local ruler is more of the "convert to my religion or I'll murder your whole family" line of thought it's much less likely to happen, which is why it's such a big deal that medieval Jews were allowed to use their own religious texts in kingdoms ruled by other religions.
@@cam4636
Yeah, it does depend on whether you consider it more important that people follow a particular religion or that they take their oaths seriously.
When I started dating my bf, he and his family hadn't even met a jewish person before. Around the holidays I wanted to throw them a hanukkah, since they never had one, but there was some funny confusion around the menorah. They thought you put the candles in all at once and it didnt matter what candles, so they put birthday candles in all the spots on the first night. It was really funny and really sweet they took initiative to try
There was an archeology dig recently in England that found evidence of medieval Jews keeping kosher from the food residue on pots.
Oh that's so cool! Excuse me while I go look it up 😃
In England they also found bodies of people who had been murdered in a pogrom , who lined up genetically with modern Ashkenazi except they had no Eastern European or Germanic ancestry.
I'm excited to see historic Spanish dress. I only ever find English and French references
That's part of what made this video so fun. I love researching and showing things that don't get enough attention.
@@SnappyDragon I was struck by how it wouldn't look out of place on a young hijabi woman today!
Check out ‘The Modern Maker, Matthew Gnagy’ for some serious deep tailoring advice and revelations of 16th c. Spanish Tailoring…his incredibly well researched work(on RUclips) and in print is inspiring. He’s apparently ‘cracked the code’ of the Bara system of proportional measurement and cutting as published in the 16th and 17th c. manuals.
I love this video! But as a portuguese historian i have to point out a few things, the iberian dress would be longer about ankle lenght with just a bit of the trousers showing and the belt wouldn't be as thight to show the waist and the female figure, face covering although not mandatory was also visible, in the elite you could also see alot of luxury in the clothes in terms of design and jewels as well as makeup.Overall as a portuguese woman who still sees the influences of this period on my culture i apreciate the fact that you made an effort to study iberian history!And as a fun fact, for the last part of the video about the jewish expulsion from iberia, Portugal under D.Duarte rule took alot of the escaping spanish jews. Despite feeling the pressure from the portuguese inquisition, wich was allied with the spanish one, to expulse the jews he decided to instead force conversion because he had big plans for expansion on the sea and the jews were one of the most educated groups, because of that he was able to maintain in Portugal the biggest minds of the time period making one of the most brilliant and rich times for Portugal.
Sorry for the rant xD
Thank you so much! I did run into a lot of issues finding sources for details like that, probably down to being an English speaker researching a non-English speaking area. For a lot of reasons I'm describing this outfit as a "steaming pile of conjecture" in the video about making it, but it's always good to know more.
@@SnappyDragon thank you so much for talking about sephardi jews even with the limited sources ! i dont know if you usually work with volunteer subscribers, but im sure that there's lots of us portuguese/spanish speakers that would love to help out w translations ☀
also as a portuguese gentile, these informative videos are so important to us ! even when learning the mandatory iberian history today the jewish community is often erased like you said, even in smaller cultural accomplishments (such as the first book printed in portugal with a gutenberg press being a Torah) and also when discussing regional populations and culture (like the amazing historical jewish community of Belmonte!!). Learned so many new information with your video !!
ps: im not good with words and dont usually comment, but im v thankful for your work in general (and also the more traction this video gets, the better!)
Yumi do you happen to have any recommendations of portuguese or spanish books that go deeper into these subjects? 👀 would love to learn more ☀
@@lauraprecioso2152 Yes! I would really recommend "Arabs in history" of Bernard Lewis. In my spcefic history of islam class this was the most useful book, its has everything since the beggining of islam. Its not from a portuguese/spanish author but alot of iberian historians helped writting it and its the easiest book for begginers.Hope it helps!
@@lauraprecioso2152 About specifically women in Medieval Iberia, I know the book (in Spanish) "Velos y desvelos. Cristianas, musulmanas y judías en la España medieval", by Maria Jesús Fuente, and also you can find several short articles written by her on the same subject on the Internet. Note that since she is a Spanish Medievalist, she usually covers late Medieval History (13th-15th Century, the era when Christian rule became the main power in the Iberian peninsula, and because of that it's easier to find iconographic sources), and uses mainly Castilla and Aragon sources, not Portuguese ones.
As someone who isn’t Jewish (or religious) I used to go to interfaith meetings and it was all religious sects in the area (I was raised Presbyterian) and so caltholic, Jewish, Muslim kids would all get together and the two I remember are of Jewish religious dates.
Also in regards to wool thread, i recommend Etsy, quilting shops, and yarn shops. There is also apparently wool embroidery thread, and some wool yarn is spun so finely that I could see it being able to be used for thick thread. Front porch quilting shop has a wide selection of 100% wool thread
It appears that most of the thread is described as embroidery thread. My assumption is that this is because it is thicker than traditional thread.
Edit: made it easier to read the text by adding space
In a lot of ages and locations, we were not allowed to own land, and so that is how we ended up being bankers, doctors, lawyers, etc. Also, per my Rabbi, he said that most ships had a Hebrew literate Jew on board to communicate with other ports, as one might not be able to communicate with different languages in each port.
Yup, that's about the size of it! I have some interesting future plans to do with the presence of Jews in marine trade . . . for which I blame @Faye Sterling 100%.
There were also involved in the transatlantic slave trade
@@gnostic268 So was everyone else. Is there a point you are trying to make, or are you simply trying to be annoying?
I loved all the little historical stories & interesting facts linked. In with the cultures like the Spanish 'house outfit'.
It's is VERY similar to what I wear at home in the summer here in Australia (cotton yoga pants & an oversized knee length long T shirt) for the same reason - the unbearable heat.
I was also happy (in a sad way) to learn about some historical facts I hadn't been aware of till now. Like I wasn't aware that the first instance of blood libel took place in England. I thought that it had started up in Germany during the period of the Black Death.
England was also the first place in "modern" times (1290) to expel their Jewish population. And it came into effect on Tisha b'Av.
Blood libel? Is this when you are not the direct cause of physical harm or death but something you did indirectly hurt/killed someone?
I was raised in a small sect of Christianity and they use the term blood guilty. I am not sure if this concept is common across most christian sects.
I don't even know if blood libel and blood guilt are similar concepts.
@@cayman144
Blood libel is the libellous accusation that a particular demographic are guilty of murdering someone (often a child) in order to use the victim’s blood in a ritual. Those accusations are hardly ever true, or even consistent with the religion of the accused.
@@cayman144 Blood guilt is a different unfounded accusation, that Jews were responsible for the death of Jesus, who was, of course, crucified by Romans. Whenever the gospels refer to "the Jews", it is the leadership of Judea who are meant, not the people as a whole. The leadership was probably involved, being concerned about a rebellion leading to a bloody response from Rome (which indeed happened about 40 years later), but it's unreasonable to apply guilt from a government under occupation to all of the inhabitants, and to their descendants for millenia.
I love this so much. I hope you keep doing these historical vids about Jewish fashion in the past. I'd love to see a '600 years of Jewish fashion' or something like that. I know Jewish history can be full of painful experiences of oppression, but it's great to remember both the resilience of the Jewish people and the way throughout history oppressed people used fashion to do something beautiful and express themselves despite being marginalized by the state/hegemonic culture
I love your videos about Judaism in historical costuming. It makes me want to do the research on my own Romani history.
@Rhyannon Ashford - In your research, allow the time to read "Bury Me Standing: The Gypsies and Their Journey" by Isabel Fonseca. It describes the life of the Romani people in eastern Europe into the 1990s and their possible past origins (India?). Generally, they seem to be trapped in a positive feedback loop of under-education that inspires murderous bigotry against them, forcing them to live insular lives of deep poverty that further inspires more murderous bigotry. They suffered as much in the Holocaust as any other group, for example, yet that is seldom discussed. You will need a big box of tissues while you read.
Your speech at the end reminds me of 9th grade history class, where our teacher had very different things to say about 1492 Spain. Even though this was in a city with a large Jewish population, no one openly disagreed with him. In following years, I used that class to explain how terrible my high school education was.
As someone whose ancestors are part Sephardi I am very exited about the Spanish ensemble!
Ngl, that last bit shook me. I, too, am a cultural Jew and my grandparents were holocaust survivors. It hit me hard when you spoke about who history tends to forget. Thank you.
The cinematic punch of you saying "erased" as your two dressed up selves walk off camera... i started crying
As a Spaniard who is obsessed with medieval history this video was truly a blessing, thank you!
I just found out that 20% of spaniards have jewish blood by DNA. It fascinates me since I received a citizenship based on the fact that my family ran away from Spain in the banishing of the jews, 600 years ago.
so as evidenced by my stan comment below, i am really into your work. however, as someone who is musta'arabi mizrahi (meaning from arabized populations of jews who have been in the middle east since there have been jews in the world), i strongly strongly caution against conflating sephardic dress with musta'arabi dress. they are not the same cultural context, especially not on the level of what everyday people were doing.
i am still doing research into pre-ottoman musta'arabi dress and culture, as it's often very hard to find, so i understand if you weren't able to find much either. it would have been AMAZING if you had done a video on iraqi jewish culture as well, and preferable if you're using their dress style, but i understand that the sources are (somewhat) limited. so while i appreciate your note about this style of dress being from iraq, if you were going to talk about sefarad, in my opinion it would have been more responsible and historically accurate to present this character as being, for example, the daughter of an iraqi jewish trader passing through or immigrated to andalusia. that way you could have still talked about jews in sefarad, since you already have that information/it's easier to find research on in general, without implying that there is/was cultural conformity across the jewish arab world. because that could not be further from the truth! there are similarities, but our ethnic groups are distinct. accurately preserving our heritage, especially post-sephardic immigration into musta'arabi lands, depends on it. and thanks for showing that you know that jewish cultures are super diverse in the intro, it was very well done!
Thanks for your comment! I apologize if I wasn't descriptive enough about how I used the sources I did-- a lot of that is coming in a few weeks in the video focusing on this outfit. Of course it would be a huge problem to use exclusively or primarily Iraqi sources for an Andalusian outfit. There were several situations where there wasn't a piece of evidence specific to Al-Andalus but there *was* evidence directly connecting that garment in Al-Andalus to a similar or equivalent garment in another medieval Islamic territory. For instance, a picture in El Libro de los Juegos shows a Spanish lady wearing sarwal in what was definitely an Andalusian rather than a Visigothic-Spanish fashion, but there don't seem to be surviving sarwal from Al-Andalus. In that case, I based a pattern on extant, similar-looking sarwal from Egypt.
I hope this makes more sense!
@@SnappyDragon Ah ok awesome, thank you for clarifying!! It wasn't super clear in the caption you shared. Can't wait for the next two.
@@SnappyDragon And thanks for being understanding! Unfortunately it can be a really big intracommunity issue that since the combining of Sephardic communities with Musta'arabi communities in the last 100 years (in Syria anyway, that's the context I know) there has been a really big issue of Sephardic hegemony where Musta'arabi culture is being pretty much erased from the historic record and we are almost never talked about; the whole Levant is represented as being Sephardic with there being "almost no" Jews left, which is absolutely not true. So, I get really protective! Looking forwards to all the details & def very interested in the sources you were able to find.
@@lemonbalm3781 The way that Sephardi and Mizrachi Jews are pushed aside, 'the other' and being made invisible really takes the piss
Morgan Donner used wool thread for her Greenland Dress. Darned if I can’t remember what the company was. But they have loads of colors. It’s amazing.
Amazing video! I absolutely love learning about Jewish culture and historical dress. One thing that really resonated with me in this video is your quote "You will find us, if you remember to look." I think this quote works for many minorities- I know there has been lots of discussion in the historical costuming community on gatekeeping the "historical accuracy" of individuals very existence, whether that be asian people, LGBT people or, in this case, jewish people. We were always there, you just have to remember to look
Thank you! The fact that it applies to all sorts of other marginalized people is why I said it.
Oh, I can't wait for this to premiere! I first discovered your channel through your video about Jewish veiling, and as someone who loves to learn more about the several Jewish communities that have always lived in Europe, clothing is such an important part of that journey and of their lives.
We have record of at least one very famous Baghdadi oud player (named Ziryab) moving to Muslim Spain during the Umayyad period! Somewhat earlier than your video is set, in the 9th century, but it's definitely historically plausible to use the music that you chose, there was a lot of culture swapping taking place!
We see influences ranging from Syrian to Visigothic in the architecture and objects of the time - so it's very possible that hairstyles were the same, cherry picked based on personal preference from a wide pool. The ruling family was from (recent) Syrian roots, so on a more courtly level styles of hair styling would likely have followed those seen in Syria in the early 11th century/late 10th century. I'm going to go comb through my books and see if there's anything I've missed before now on hair!
(sorry for the infodump, I grew up learning about these things and very rarely get a chance to share!)
This was brilliant! I really love how you did two different locations too, and how different they look. For my Medieval History course at uni last semester we had a couple of lectures on Jewish history for one of my modules, and they were some of my favourite lectures! I actually recommended your last video on the Jewish veil to my lecturer! As for wool thread, I buy thin and strong yarn labelled as 'embroidery and weaving' yarn, as I find this is a great thickness and should be nice and strong for the seams.
My mother-in-law's father was a kosher tailor in Poland. The wool and linen bit is so fascinating! Think there might be rules about lining too?!? Thank you for this video!
I'm not Jewish, but I'm excited to see this! I'll be revisiting your veil video for arranging mine (without blue stripes) if I ever finish my medieval ensemble.
(i found you through hat pin swashbuckling though)
I have curly red hair, and really wanted to colour it partly green/blue. Thankyou for showing me how awesome it'll look xx
This is so interesting! i love how you explain the Jewish concepts. I'm modox myself, and am super interested in the intersession of historical clothes and halacha ever since I found this corner of the interwebs. I wonder if the overdress would be something not considered acceptable in some circles because of the emphasis around the torso? While, obv, chazal aren't as strict as us in some respects and stricter in others, I wonder if this would be something they wouldn't count as arva since you are technically covered, but hypothetically could be because the whole idea is the silhouette. I'd love to see you do more videos on other Jewish communities clothes across Europe (and other places, obv lol but I understand that's not really your wheelhouse). I recently did a Jewish tour of ancient Rome and the guide's insights into regular life was so interesting.
Edit: lol by recently I obviously mean in 2019.... strange how that feels like only months ago.
The bliaut's silhouette and the evolution of more fitted kirtles + the "gates of hell" sideless surcoat that followed it were considered pretty shocking by some Christians, so it would not surprise me if there were Jews who felt the same way!
Israeli Jew here! I love historical fashion videos and was absolutely not expecting one about Jews! So cool :))
All the more reason to have done it! Thanks for watching 💚
That state at 18:06 just made me burst into tears from the emotions on your face and the words you were speaking, like legit tears streaming down my face right now. Thank you for teaching us 🤍
I'm so interested in seeing this video. Most historical videos (fashion or otherwise) rarely give you anything. But a glimpse at the lives of minorities (if you're lucky) during the period they're talking about.
So here I have left a link about the awesome group l'am de foc (the master of the fire) they sing in a language long forgotten, called "Occitá" is a mixture of old catalán (the lenguaje from Barcelona) and Sephardic words. The group was dissolved long ago, but the singer, Mara aranda, still does really cool Sephardic music from the Mediterranean
i literally teared up 30 seconds in and paused to write this comment. thank you so much for this video, your attention to detail -- both in sewing and history -- really shines. as a mizrahi/ashke/sephardi jew i love your work!! will def be sending this one to my friends as well.
The expelling and erasure of the Jewish People can still be felt today. My mother is from New Mexico, and many of the Crypto-Jews there kept their faith and heritage secret as late as the 1970s, when she was in high school. My mother herself was recntly surprised to do an ancestry test and find Jewish genetic markers.
This is so interesting, and as a Jewish woman, it brings me such joy to learn about the sartorial history of my people. Todah rabah and shalom aleichem ✡️❤️
That Andalussian outfit looks super comfy, I really look forward to seeing the in-depth video of it later. Thank you for telling the stories of your people; I'm now inspired to do some more research. Excellent work!
Jewish history is my favorite subject. The alephbet, the calendar, the feasts even the mazzaroth.
I always thought much about how the Jewish peoples were the most meticulous record keepers in history and how it became for the benefit of the world.
I love how each letter of the alephbet has certain meanings as well as a number associated. Whose words can be powerful and sacred. When more letters are placed together the combinations of meanings increase and after that you can meditate on the profound messages hidden in plain sight in the very first verse of the Torah or think about the significance behind a name.
I love how the constellations of the mazzaroth tell a complete and wonderful story from beginning to conclusion.
I also love the history outside of the scriptures from the maccabean revolt and it's heroes to the bubonic plague in Europe where it was noticed that the plague was not decimating the Jewish community.
Jews were then accused of placing curses on the local populace in order to take over their land and country. This because Jewish people had a traditional concept of sanitation and uncleanliness. In the time of Moses they were instructed not to defecate near their encampments because the spirit of the Lord traveled with them and it was offensive for their sewage to be so near their encampments. They were told not to cohabitate with unclean animals like rats and mice. If vermin we're actually spreading the bubonic plague in Europe then the Jews were at an advantage indeed.
We know they were not placing curses but rather blessed with knowledge.
I also love the music and the food. Mazzoball soup with dillweed garnish has a featured spot on my ethnic foods of epicness list.
"We were there, and you will find us if you remember to look. And if you can't find us, it isn't happenstance; it's because we were erased."
I love that she makes the distinction on HAIR covering, often spoken of as head covering. I listened to a podcast from michael heiser an ancient Hebrew scholar, where he argued that in ancient Greek times, a woman’s hair was thought of as a part of the reproductive system....
I was not raised jewish, my mother was Italian and my father was german-french and my step father was from Arkansas and I was also "adopted" into a Mexican family(whom I love more than anything and are basically the only family I have left) but I've always felt a strong connection to jewish culture. I love the culture and the food( which I do cook on occasion yum!) and the family aspects and all the love shared. I just love all of it! Thank you for all of your videos they are lovely, educational, and entertaining 💚💜😸
I love the Spain's head cover for the thumb nail
Who knows the play "Nathan the Wise" by Gotthold Ephraim Lessing?
It's set in Jerusalem during the Third Crusade (1189-1192) and tells the story of a Jew (said Nathan), a Muslim (Sultan Saladin), the adoptive daughter of Nathan and some unnamed Christian Templar.
The play is a plea for friendship and understanding between the three religions.
Sadly, the play was only written in the 18th century and its message was not heard in many periods of history. :(
Well, I am subscribing. 4th video today and am very impressed with info, humor, history and everything! Great when I want to stay out of all the breaking/depressing news too. Have to show this to my aunt.
I have both Sephardic and Ashkenazi ancestors, so I enjoyed learning what they wore.
since you asked about our favorite often forgotten part of history. i do a lot of research into queer history, and often run into a similar issue to what you mentioned where, even though we are everywhere and everywhen, missing records of what local queer people were up to is very common, due either to erasure or the need of queer people at the time to stay hidden.
I live in York, and for a uni essay I had to research into the local medieval history (believe me there's lots of it here). There's an account of a mass'acre of approx. 150 jewish people (in 1190) in what is now called 'Clifford's Tower' in William of Newburgh's 'Histories of English Affairs' - the effects were so extreme there wasn't a jewish population here again until the late 1800's. The council only marked the action in the 1970's which means for about 800 years the massacre went unrecognised by the public.
Thank you. The costumes are beautiful. The content was thought-provoking. History isn't always (or even usually) about what we easily see but about what you may find if you are willing to search a little deeper.
I love your videos about Jewish history! I was raised in denial of my culture, and your videos provide starting point for the research
You made me cry! Thank you for this V! I'm looking forward to the sewing videos!
Love everything about this. And that pink overdress is so hecking cute!
Great video! I just learned last year that my family is descended from Sephardic Jews from Spain. Having been raised Catholic, this was more than a bit surprising, and goes to your point of erasure. I do not know (yet, the family is doing some research on it) whether there was forced conversion for survival, but it seems likely.
It's very common
OH MY GOSH- I'm starting to get into historical costuming and history bounding and I've been debating if I should document my work or not creating modern interpretations of historical garments and making them for modern frum fashion. I'm so happy you're making videos on these subjects!!!
I think your best option would be to reach out to your local fiber arts guild and see if you can get a spinner interested in a commission. Personally, I find this fascinating and as a spinner and a Jew, but I am also located on the other side of the country, so less than ideal for a collab. I've read about considerations for spinning sewing thread, but never thought of putting them into practice. Ideally for wool sewing thread, you'd want to find someone with considerable experience doing worsted fiber prep as the smoother and sleeker that spun yarn is, the better it would be for sewing. I've never made top before and have never really had a desire to until now, lol.
Commercially, I've been finding a lot of 50/50 wool acrylic for applique which is frustrating. I'd almost suggest using crewel embroidery thread or tapestry yarn, but both are much chunkier than traditional sewing thread.
Yup, tapestry yarn is lovely stuff and I just used some for a non-sha'atnez embroidery project, but I probably wouldn't want to sew with it. Someone did recommend a brand of wool embroidery yarn that can be used for machine-embroidery, so I have high hopes for that!
@@SnappyDragon That does sound promising!
Random sidenote, a friend of mine gifted me with a roving of 33%wool, 33% linen, and 33% silk a couple years back. I spun it up and gave it back to her and named the finished yarn "Trayf" It was a very different spin than what I'm used to.
Wow! This video was amazing, you really filled in huge gaps in my knowledge of the time and place! Your seams are beautiful, those garments you model are really something to be proud of in more ways than one. Thank you for telling me stuff I didn't know I didn't know!
two extra pieces of information at either end of your historical narrative.
Whether Al-Andalus was a pleasant and tolerant place to live depends highly on what you are comparing it to. Compared to other regions at the time, it was comparatively tolerant; compared to modern day society it was a brutal apartheid state. Jews lived in a state of oppression, with restrictions on diverse aspects of their lives. Thousands of Jews were massacred at least twice during the Muslim occupation, they were also massacred during the Reconquista by Christians. Life wasn't fun for Jews anywhere in the Medieval period.
Jews were already present in England when they were "invited" back by Oliver Cromwell in the 17th Century. In fact the debate centered more around deciding if the government should openly acknowledge the Jews that were already present, rather than allow more Jews to arrive. Up until that point they were not publicly advertising themselves as Jews, because technically Jews were not permitted by law, instead they were simply merchants and supposedly 'Christian' on paper, while authorities discreetly avoided looking too closely at what religion they practiced. There was already at least one synagogue in London prior to the invitation. Cromwell's government was the first to discuss whether or not Jews should be free to openly identify. It took a while after that before there was any influx of new arrivals.
Another hint that Jews were still living in, or had returned to, places from where they had officially been expelled is the prominence given to eating pork in religious and academic festivals, including those of Oxford colleges. Some have interpreted this as a way of giving "hidden" Jews a hard time.
Under Muslim rule, both Jews and Christians were considered second class citizens in the way you're referring to. They both have a status of tolerated subjects, unlike populatios practinig non-abrahamic religions as far as I understand. I'm more familiar with the Ottoman context in south eastern Europe than with Al-Andalus, but if you ask me, paying higher taxes as a citizen is miles better than being legally slaughtered if you were found within the city walls, as was the case for Jews and Muslims under subsequent Christian rule in western Europe. Even for the wrong kind of Christian at certain times.
@@teodorasavoiu4664 You shared some interesting thoughts. And life in Europe was undoubtedly oppressive for Jews, as you say. But I think your statement is a little naïve in a way. The jizya tax was essentially "protection money" and you paid it to prevent the government from killing you. How likely was it do you think, if the options are "pay me or I kill you", that the people asking for the money really cared about your safety or wellbeing? It was as safe as the same tax was under the Mafia, ie not very safe at all. Sure they _said_ this would keep you safe, but would it _really?_ You had to be identified by your dress, so that people could see you were a dhimmi (second class citizen) at a glance. Which made you a target for abuse and cruelty from the general population, to which you can be certain the government would turn a blind eye.
And along with that were ordinary petty persecutions such as depriving you of business, or making it harder for you to financially prosper. Because you were visibly a dhimmi, people could easily choose not to do business with you at all. The attitude towards Jews in Muslim countries has always been negatively influenced by a handful of hadith and Quranic verses that some people sadly interpreted as reason to treat Jews with mistrust, especially in business dealings, or outright hatred. So at least a portion of society viewed you as dirty and beneath them. When people look at you like that, it comes out in all their actions towards you. You may be protected from the government doing anything to you, theoretically, but that didn't mean the population couldn't, or wouldn't, conveniently do it for them. Jews could be beaten up, or killed by a Muslim, and how likely were the law courts on investigation to find in the Jewish family's favor, when the pervasive view towards them by those in power and the general population, was similar to the racism of apartheid South Africa? The injustice was systemic.
You were also forbidden from practicing your religion in any visually noticeable way. Nor did it make you safe from being forced to convert, in spite the jizya tax theoretically being to protect your right to follow your own religion. There were multiple state-driven slaughters of both Christians and Jews under the Ottomans, and forced conversions. The Ottomans stole children from their dhimmi parents to raise them as Muslim, and notoriously trained those kids as soldiers then sent them back to their own communities to kill their own people. They even built towers out of the skulls of those who resisted their control, as a big terrifying reminder of what happened if you dared to think yourself a free individual not under dhimmitude. And as for those who were not 'People of the Book' their options were "convert or die". It's believed that under Islamic rule in India, 600 million Hindus were slaughtered.
None of this is to say that life in Christian Europe wasn't violent and oppressive for Jews, but it's to say that frankly, saying that Jews under Islamic rule were better off than in Europe to me always seems very much to be splitting hairs. It was much of the same for them in either place, in reality.
@@teodorasavoiu4664 Non-Abrahamic religions encompasses most human religions, and most human societies have had tolerated subjects with their own culture, creed, etc. If anything, the Republican and Imperial Romans were more tolerant than many later Abrahamic societies, particularly most Christian ones and many current Islamic societies. There were multitudes of different faiths flourishing in Rome before the Church seized power.
excellent video! i'm an archaeologist, and my job always deals with the people and objects that no one bothers or wants to write about, the things that history doesn't always want recorded. it's always good to see these things brought to light, and i have such a fondness for learning about historical dress! thank you for the lesson!
This was amazing! There's very little evidence on how my own Finnish ancestors would have dressed at the time, so I'm always really excited to see how people dressed in other parts of Europe.
I absolutely loved this!!! I love history, especially about clothing. I knew there were some clothing restrictions and requirements for Jews in the past centuries, but you blew me away with your research and your garments. Thank you!!!
This was great. It's true, many of us were educated to picture European history as white and Christian. Learning about the long centuries of Islamic rule in Spain was eye opening, and seeing so many people of African descent depicted in European art lets you know that everybody was traveling everywhere, whether voluntarily or not. We all need to get used to each other, there is no denying that. It's a big world full of wonderful and interesting varieties of people, and we all need to have our rights and dignity protected as we share the planet.
I'm also frum and would absolutely love it if you could make a video about historic veiling methods!
I'll do my best! Although I will definitely have to call in some reinforcements because in the Jewish communities I've been part of, people being frum was not really a thing.
@@SnappyDragon Thank you
Thank you for lifting this perspective! This was both interesting and important. Beautiful outfits.
I've sewn medieval wool clothing before with either thin embroidery yarn (I've used a brand named Appleton, mostly because they come in so many colours that it's easy to find a match) or that kind of thin wool yarn that you use to mend old socks (that I have no idea what it's called in English unfortunately. Stoppgarn in Swedish if anyone else can find a better dictionary than I did)
The literal translation of “stoppgarn” is “darning yarn”, and I do get some hits for that on Google.
Unfortunately, darning yarn is usually a wool/nylon blend, not pure wool.
As always, really great video! I'll have to keep an eye out for wool sewing thread for you; so far I've done well with Devere yarns in my sewing, but that was mostly when it came to felling and decorative top-stitching. Since I'm considering using it again for the construction of one of my upcoming projects, I'll have to tell you how it goes!
So interesting learning about the lived histories of groups not focused on in mainstream American history textbooks.
Sharing on my Twitter accounts and with family. Thank you for your hard work.
Thank you for sharing!
I love the conviction in your voice when you speak. Thank you for educating me on the history and fashion of the medieval Jews in Spain and England.
I really needed to thank you for this video. I watched it yesterday and in this morning I woke up crying (for the second time lol) because I was thinking of this video. The re-enacting and the information you gave is really really important and it also means so much to me because of my Ashkenazi and Sephardi roots. Also I’m a history nerd and I love to search about historical fashion. This video is really special for me and it really touched the deepest part of my soul. Thank you so much again and keep with this wonderful work ❤
Lovely video. I eagerly await more videos from you. It's amazing all you can find from sumptuary laws, and how much is left out. Amazing work, i can't wait to see what else you dig up. Perhaps if in need in the future it might be useful to contact YIVO for some research aid. Or another amazing and wonderful resource I'm sure you may have come across, The Israel Museum, which has a beautiful collection of historic jewish garments from Afghanistan, Morocco, and Yemen to name a few.
An early Shabbat Shalom! Thank you for being amazing Jewish Representation in the costuming community!
Additionally for a fun fact, for Lithuanian and Russian Jewish Women, there were sumptuary laws written to prevent them from wearing too much Jewelry. From some additional primary resources it becomes evident that Jewish women used to quite enjoy wearing lots of jewelry around in their daily lives. I wish i could have a peak back in time to see, it evokes some feel to me of candle lit small eastern European synagogues with the light flickering off metal.
I love your videos and your deep respect and love for history. Your narration is pleasant and easy to follow, but does not subtract from the impact of your message.
Thank you so much for this video. So informative, so important, and so well presented. It's important for everyone to learn.
(Also as an early music nerd, I appreciate the commitment to musical integrity! I have a mild pet peeve of otherwise historically well informed folks using generic vaguely medieval sounding recorder music for anything prior to the 1800s 😅 )
Thanks V, for the super interesting and entertaining history lesson 🙏. It’s difficult to state one single forgotten time and place in history, my favorites are the once I did not know about. Like this one.
Loved the video! Just watched the 13th + 14th century veil one as well. Still very much just getting into historical clothing, and it’s awesome to see stuff other than the ‘this is what the ruling class wore’.
Actually would love recommendations from anyone on where to get info on Jewish garments for the 15th + 16th century, both male and female.
I can’t believe i discovered your channel! As a jewish girl with ashkenazi blood, i am so excited to hear more about my ancestors lives. The most I know about Renaissance Jews comes from Shakespeare’s “the Merchant of Venice” and it’s not the best depiction. I love historical dress and my heritage. thank you for being an awesome creator ✡️💚
Thank you so much for your videos. As someone who has been hobby researching Jewish garb to be period correct (16th century) when going to ren-faires and other eras of cultural and period accurate clothing events… the resources are so few and far between. About the best accuracy I can find is what has shown up in preserved classic artwork from those periods… and most of those are paintings of brides, not much on Jewish family’s with small children and the daily garb they wore. And most of the surviving paintings and preserved clothing that show more of the Jewish garb life seem to be mid 18th century to 19th century. I do hope you’ll continue to shed light and history on this topic in the future. I would really love to show my husband that he has more period accurate garb to choose from besides the tights he continues kvetching about “eating” his natural yeti layered legs. 🤣
AMAZING video! I love how detailed this is. I only have an amateur interest in social history and material culture myself but I've noticed it can be difficult to find records of this kind of history (particularly from Medieval Spain) so I really appreciate how much effort and research went into this!
Thanks fo another fascinating dive into this overlooked area of historical dress! As for wool thread, darning wool is a good option because it is fine yet strong, but often only comes in small quantities (same with embroidery wool). You might have better luck looking for lace-weight wool yarn which can sometimes be bought in bulk on cones for weaving or knitting machines.
I wish I could thumbs up a hundred times. Great video! I will be watching it many more times. Thank-you for telling the hard stories.
The option for wool thread is to spin your own. I have spun my own wool thread for embroidery. You have to spin a very thin single to use.
As a frum jew I'm just so ridiculously happy that this video exists ;.;
Thank you! I love learning about these hidden stories.
Thank you for the beautiful history lesson. You are doing amazing work!
It’s shocking how “modern” of a silhouette the Arabian/Iberian version is. But this is coming from a westerner so 🤷🏼♂️ What a great video!
The climate really only gives you two options unless you pick something in which modern westerners would interpret you as undressed. Depictions of the Sari pre-muslim conquest, for example, depict a garment that would get you sent home from an American school for immodesty. It's interesting that this culture (and by this culture I mean the culture of her research materials not Iberia) embraced this over an abaya, but not that surprising given the more cosmopolitan nature of the area. Given the practical benefits of raising the hems of upper garments to the knee, and the differences in how Muslim rulers interpreted feminine versus masculine clothing compared to Christian rulers in Northern Europe. Interpretations that influenced how local Jews interpreted their religion's prohibition against crossdressing.
That's part of why fancier outfit equals more layers. Yes, rich people could afford more fabric, but they could also afford to stand around talking instead of engaging in physical exertion. So they would need the extra layer just to stay comfortable.
Your bliaut is an absolute dream to look at. I am absolutely in love with the color, fit, style...everything!
Friends of mine have at times given up on finding wool thread and spun their own. Not the easiest option, for sure. I tried to learn drop spinning once and instantly knew it wasn't for me.
This video was so informative. Thank you! I really found the section on not mixing linen and wool in one garment so interesting. Thank you!
THANK YOU. I don't know why, but as a fellow MOT, I cried seeing this video come across my dashboard. I would LOVE to see more.
can't wait! also found you through the Jewish veil video.
This is a wonderful video.
I'm a long time reenactor [medieval and Civil War] and I love looking at the outliers and edge-dwellers of an era, so I'll be passing this video on to some SCA people of my acquaintance.
Your introduction... relate, full on relate.
Loud, jewish, and a history nerd who loves fashion.
Fascinating! Thank you very much for the explanation and the visuals of the clothes.
I know it's shipping from the UK, so the shipping might be prohibitively expensive for you, but DeVere Yarns makes worsted wool embroidery thread which is very fine and strong and could be used to sew seams if you were careful about your tension and waxed it first to strengthen it (they also make excellent silk thread). You could also use a "cobweb weight lace knitting yarn" (search for these terms, and you'll find plenty of sellers), but it might be a pain to sew with because the fibres are likely to break with very minimal tension as they are not spun as tightly as embroidery thread.
Depends on the cobweb yarn, if it's firmly and/or worsted spun (and especially if it's from a long-but-fine staple breed like Shetlands) it can actually be pretty strong! There's at least one Shetland woollen mill (I think it's Jamieson and Smith rather than Jamiesons) that produces a 2 ply that's still cobweb weight, and I think also a "2 ply equivalent weight jumper/sock yarn" for colour stranded knitting that's actually 4 plied, again for extra sturdiness. I'm sure there's similar breeds and producers stateside but don't know of any personally.
It makes sense to me as a (novice) weaver not to mix wool and linen in threads when weaving because... that would be a disaster.
Linen: lightweight, breathable, hardy! A plant fibre that soaks up water but also dries easily. Wrinkles like crazy, but also is very hardy, especially in the heat. Super soft if made well. I love, love linen clothing and before all this rage about linen fabric, prized it well over cotton (which is very rough by comparison) and had to import it. Now, linen fabric clothing is sold at Target and sometimes even at Walmart! The fibro sufferer in me cries in relief. If it's pure linen, you can dry it on hot, line-dry it, it's so, so hardy... but it does wrinkle a lot. So. Be prepared to use an iron if you want it smooth.
Wool: itchy as hell, prone to allergic reaction in wearers, soaks up water but also wicks it away. Super warm, whereas linen helps keep you cool. Attracts moths because it's a protein fiber, so keep it safe. Can't wash it on warm or hot water because it will shrink like crazy.
... that last part is especially important. You just spend 40 hours spinning thread and 80 hours weaving a small amount of cloth with wool-linen mix? .......... and you.... washed it with hot water? ...... oh, honey. And it's rotting because one fiber can't let go of water easily but one wants to wick it away? Oh. Oh no. ..........
You know what. Screw it. This is a sign. You know what, I think... I think g-d thinks this is bad. This is so bad I think even the Heavens think this is bad. No more mixing linen and wool, okay. Write that down. Just. Don't. .... what if one is just linen fabric sewn with wool thread, or vice versa? ... you know what, i don't know, but it's takes like 50 hours to sew a dress, so ... just better not risk it.
People have done it, though. As is mentioned in the video, "linsey-woolsey" is what the fabric is called. It's cheap and usually not considered desirable, but it has been done.
This is such a wonderfully powerful video! Thank you for making it!
I hope you are doing okay as possible during this difficult time. 💙
Girl, I just looooove your fashion design choices. Your colors blend nicely and I like the amount of detail/research put into it. Also, the storytelling bits are super nice. Side note though, it's pronounced "zimmi", with a z since. :D
The English version looks like the interesting character in Walter Scott's Ivanhoe.