Late Medieval Fashion Redressed

Medieval Martial Lovefest in Kalamazoo

This coming week is a busy one! I’m flying into Chicago on Wednesday and will then travel to Kalamazoo, Michigan with my beau to attend the 48th Annual International Congress on Medieval Studies held on Western Michigan University’s campus from Thursday May 9th through Sunday May 12th. Bright and early Thursday morning (8 AM), we’ll open the Freelance Academy Press booth in the Book Room. I will then spend a part of the day visiting dear friends in another town in Michigan. Lots of driving for me that day.

Friday morning at 10AM, I will take part in Greg’s Judicial Duel Demonstration, which is set to be a fascinating overview of judicial duels in Europe followed by a re-enactment based on a fictitious accusation. A cast of thousands (I really mean “maybe ten of us”) will thrill the audience with a salacious tale of alleged adultery followed by pitched combat waged between the accuser and the injured party. I play one of the accused, though not the one in armour defending my virtue.  That task falls to the other injured party. I sure hope he wins! My reputation in my guild will be forever tarnished if we are proven guilty by his loss. *bites knuckles dramatically!*

Friday evening at 5:30 PM, I will be displaying my reproduction of the Charles VI pourpoint as part of the DISTAFF exhibition. If you are coming to the conference, please come say hi!

Saturday morning at 10 AM I will be presenting a new paper, “Martial Beauty: Padding and Quilting One’s Way to a Masculine Ideal in Fourteenth Century France”. I present last as part of the DISTAFF session entitled Dress and Textiles III: Interpreting Surviving Artifacts. I will speak for 17 minutes, hopefully on the nose, and will be showing slides as well.

At some point I will fly home and collapse in exhaustion. My only regret is that this conference is consistently held over Mother’s Day weekend, which seems awfully unfair for the moms who want to attend. Nonetheless, I look forward to presenting my new synthesis of data and receiving feedback. I also look forward to the conviviality amongst those of us whose passion exists in the peculiar niche of late medieval martial matters.

2 thoughts on “Medieval Martial Lovefest in Kalamazoo”

  1. Robin Netherton

    I know a medieval historian who routinely solved the “Mother’s Day” problem by bringing his mother to Kalamazoo. Of course, she was a leading Chaucer scholar…

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