Question about clothes

[Epaminondas]

I find myself having difficulty describing what characters are wearing. I know armor fairly well but very little about what regular clothes would be called. What would a knight wear when riding for weeks? (no fear of battle so no need for hot armor).
What does a wealthy noble wear? I'm wondering specifically for a typical high fantasy/ western European time period. I can see in my head what I want them to be wearing but don't know what it was called.

[Xanados]

Medieval Clothing
All you need to know.

[Benjamin Clayborne]

And honestly, don't obsess. A mention here or there about someone's cloak, boots, trousers, doublet, vest, or whatever is more than enough, unless it has some bearing on the plot or character, or is being used to illustrate contrast. If you're following a group of peasants for several chapters, and then a nobleman comes into view, it makes sense to give a short paragraph describing the finery he wears. But you don't need to talk about each peasant's simple wool clothing every time another peasant shows up. They're all peasants! We get it!

[Graham Irwin]

Benjamin is right.

Some of the fantasy my girlfriend reads has pages and pages spent on clothing. I understand it can speak a lot about character and culture, but I leave it out of my writing altogether. I'll use color and item, such as 'purple robe', but that's it. Okay, maybe sometimes it's tattered.

Again, Benjamin is right. Only describe it so far as you need it in your story.

[Jess A]

Yes, you don't want to go overboard, but such references are important and I for one like to know more than I am going to write down.

Even if giving a brief mention of clothing, you want to make sure that you are using the right word in the right context for the correct person(s) etc.

Researching for books in my view is a little like making a film. You film a lot (learn a lot), but you might only use ten seconds from a whole heap of footage.

[Epaminondas]

Thanks guys, and great website Xanados. Yeah, like storm cloud said I just wanted to use the right descriptor. Even though they are perfectly acceptable words I hate being limited to "shirt" or "breaches" which just sound too modern to my ear.

thanks again guys

[Ravana]

As with most such topics, avoiding the wrong word is probably a bigger concern than using exactly the right one. It may not matter whether you refer to something as a "houppelande" or merely describe it… but if you talk of someone running in one, or washing dishes, someone out there's gonna know you screwed up. Likewise the lady who sits to table wearing an elegant chemise. Or even a man who does. Or any landsknecht described as wearing anything rational for the battlefield whatsoever. (And before anybody says anything, I've done pike drills in puffs and slashes, thank you.)

When in doubt, everyone wears tunics.

[SeverinR]

As with most such topics, avoiding the wrong word is probably a bigger concern than using exactly the right one. It may not matter whether you refer to something as a "houppelande" or merely describe it… but if you talk of someone running in one, or washing dishes, someone out there's gonna know you screwed up. Likewise the lady who sits to table wearing an elegant chemise. Or even a man who does. Or any landsknecht described as wearing anything rational for the battlefield whatsoever. (And before anybody says anything, I've done pike drills in puffs and slashes, thank you.)

When in doubt, everyone wears tunics.

Hoobah!
I agree.

No peasants in poodle skirts, No turtlenecks on tunics.

[Ravana]

Heh. When I joined, most ladies' first "garb" was their prom dress.…

Of course, when I joined, carpet armor was still the norm for beginning fighters. How far we've come.

[Caged Maiden]

Ah clothing..... my obsession. In my real life I am completely mad about clothing, undertaking any challenge to recreate. In writing, however, I am the opposite, using clothing only as a secondary description. If an article is important, say a king's robe, I mention it, but rarely do I even describe a color if it is not pertinent. In one scene I described a woman convalescing as wearing a man's shirt of soft linen and men's knickers.....
it didn't matter to me whether the reader pictured the shirt as button-front or pull-over, or the knickers as thigh, knee, or ankle-length. All that mattered for the scene was that she was laying around healing, in borrowed underwear. You could employ a similar tactic, deciding how important the clothing is, and only describing what's necessary.
Also, a doublet, let's say, meant different things at different times, and was worn differently by a man and woman. There are many great books out there which help the thousands of historical costumers like me, and many websites which show historical portraits and actual surviving garments if you are inclined to study more in-depth.