Men’s Medieval Wool Chauses

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 chausses 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 fabric or leather garter. While braies are always depicted as being white, chausses came in a variety of colors.

Our chauses are based on surviving historical artwork and extant garments. Made of a sturdy linen, our chauses are cut on the bias, with a clean, close fit in the ankle, creating the smooth line seen in historical artwork. They lace to the braies with a simple “point” (lace) and are cut high enough on the inside of the leg to keep the braies neatly tucked in. 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, creating the medieval equivalent of shorts.

Our braies are designed to have the chause pointed to the drawstring at the waist rather than the fabric of the braies themselves. This method puts less stress on the the linen of the braies as well as lessening the pull of the chause points on the top of the braies which tends to drag the waist down toward the hips. It also gives you complete flexibility on how high or low you can point you chauses to your braies. When you first get your braies you will need to adjust the waistband to your liking as well as the part of the drawstring which you will use to point the chauses to.

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.