14th c. Men’s Braies

For the majority of the Middle Ages, the idea of trousers was simply unknown. Rather, men (and possibly women) of all classes wore a pair of baggy drawers under their normal clothing. Laced to these braies was a pair of tight-fitting hose or chauses to cover the legs. Normally made of linen or wool, they are best cut on the bias (diagonal) across the warp and weft to increase their elasticity. While some hose stopped at the ankle, others incorporated feet, and some even had leather soles stitched on to take the place of shoes. These chauses were often further secured beneath the knee with a simple wool or leather garter. While braies are always depicted as being white, chauses came in a variety of colors.

Our braies are based on surviving historical artwork. Like many other elements of clothing, braies went through some substantial evolution in the late Middle Ages. Artwork from the 13th and early 14th centuries depict massive, voluminous shorts, while by the 15th century, these had been reduced to the medieval equivalent of briefs. Our braies depict a moment in time in this evolution. Made of a stout linen, they are mid-thigh length and full, but trim enough to avoid causing bunching or unseemly lines and bulges when worn under a cotte, cotehardie or gown. Placing the lacing point for the chauses at the drawstring allows them to pull against the hips, reducing the drag on the braies, making sure your pants stay up when you want them to. A final advantage to historical underwear that is often overlooked is comfort. The relaxed fit of the braies is of great comfort when lounging around camp, and in hot weather, the chauses can be rolled down and worn around the ankles, for the medieval equivalent of shorts.

To adjust your braies and chauses: Put on your braies and tighten the drawstring to the point where it feels comfortable on your waist and the fabric at the waist is distributed evenly on all sides, tie it loosely leaving a little slack. Use the slits at the side of the waistband to pull out a portion of the drawstring on each side - this will pull some of the drawstring from the center to the sides, let that happen. Once you've adjusted it so that you have a small loop at each side and it fits comfortably on your waist, you can tie the drawstring in a tighter knot in front. Tie a knot at the base of each loop you've pulled out to keep the loop from retreating back into the waistband. These are the loops you use to tie your chause points to. You can point your chauses to this loop with either a bow or a knot (its show with a bow in the sketch). The loop extending from the braies can be made longer for extra length in the fit of your chauses, or left short for higher fitted chauses. Lastly, once you have the braies waist fitting well, you can trim the extra long drawstring to a desirable length (being sure that you leave enough length to stop the drawstring from being lost in the waistband during washing) and finish the ends with knots to keep it from fraying.