The following "Red Booklet" is a set of guidelines on the historical costume of Duke Siemovit’s Mazowiecka Banner. All of the information contained therein relate to what is required internally in our camp, and they are the choice of iconography and sources from the vast information about costumes from the period of our interest – i.e. 1390-1410. All kinds of questions and uncertainties related to the discrepancies between the guidelines of the Siemovit Banner and other Grunwald banners – should be cleared up within own camp, with persons involved in the control of the historical costume and with their costumography choices. Commander of the Siemovit’s Banner Małgorzta Rekosz-Piekarska, Red Booklet II Introduction to the reconstruction of the costume Reconstructing dresses of the bygone era we must rely on historical sources. The most reliable, are of course clothes preserved to our days, which we can, which we can freely examine and take to pieces. Unfortunately, the fabric does not stand up well to the passage of time, therefore from the late Middle Ages a little survived to our times. We therefore need to supplement our knowledge both with iconography as well as written sources. In the art of the turn of the 14th and 15th century there are plenty of depictions, which may become useful in reconstruction of the mediaeval clothing. Unfortunately there also is a lot of confusion and traps. Firstly, all depictions mainly show the higher society (founders and their entourage). Secondly the artists of this period often simplified the look of the clothing; there also was a custom of borrowing whole compositions or types of presentations from other artists (famous medieval patterns). Thirdly, many characters seen in the artistic works of paintings and sculptures, are mocking figures, people form foreign lands dressed in exotic dress, etc. So we have to be careful and learn as much as possible about the presentation we use. Best is to find other works of art, depicting the element of our interest. Thus we shall minimize the possibility of blunder. Another – very useful source – are the documents from the era. Court rotas, last wills, bills as well as other written texts, provide us with names, materials, and the value of the costumes worn then. Unfortunately very rarely there are descriptions of the appearance of individual items of clothing, and that forces us to speculate, which name corresponds to a certain fashion. So in order to obtain an overall picture of clothes worn in the period of our interest, we connect these three types of sources and try to draw conclusions. This is not an easy task and can often lead to conflicting conclusions, but this is the specifics of this field of research The assumption of the „ Red Booklet” Work presented here, is a compilation of reflections of other old material culture researchers as well as our interpretation of the sources. However there are many uncertainties and issues not fully explained. So while reading it must be remembered that the Red Booklet is not unerring. Since this is not a dead area of science, and costumology is constantly developing, together with new archaeological findings, researches as well as publications, some changes might be introduced into this booklet in future! It was not written with the idea to create a comprehensive scientific work; it was written to create: firstly – introduction for people wanting to get acquainted with the subject, and, secondly: the principles and minimum requirements for Duke Siemovit’s Banner. There are many issues that were not addressed, since this work does not aim at completeness of the subject... Therefore, with all our hearts we are open to discussion on items of clothing that are not in the text, as well as ours, presented in the interpretation. We also assure, that we do not restrict anyone to use only items of clothing presented here,, if anyone wants to reconstruct a part of the dress the book does not include, one can do so, provided, that its existence will be proved, based on relevant sources (dissertations, photographs of exhibits, the art of the era, etc.).Please treat this text as an introduction only, to learn more we suggest looking up the bibliography given at the end of the text. The dating remains unchanged, still in force is the time-interval 1390 – 1410. In order to illustrate the various items of clothing sometimes pictures appear – might be a little later or earlier; not to exceed, say, 1380 - 1415 r. In the future an index of illustrations will be created – so that there will be no doubts where the individual pictures were taken from. Michał Zambrzycki. Shoes It is often said that the shoes are the basis for every good reconstruction of dress. Surely this is an important element that should be done very exactly, with care for every possible detail. To properly restore the old shoes, a large professional knowledge is required as well as a detailed analysis of previously used techniques. Luckily thanks to the archaeological research we have pretty much information on the work of the medieval shoemakers. Unlike fabric, leather does not decay so rapidly and to our times there remained relatively a wide variety of copies of medieval shoes, and scraps. Their construction is therefore based mainly on the authentic relics. We use iconography mainly in order to choose appropriate cut shoes to the rest of the outfit. To match shoes with the dress one question should be answered: representative of what social class I'm going to play? The answer will be crucial to the proper selection of footwear; for example, if I want to be a knight, it will not be fitting for me to wear shoes known from the iconography of the shepherd.... Not because it was the worse kind of shoes, but because in the era of the Middle Ages attribution to a particular social group was almost irreversible and it was often associated with wearing a particular dress code. It usually confined to how wealthy one was, and what he could afford. It has to be added that footwear first of all had to fulfill some specific functions. One usually had several types of shoes - worn depending on occasion. For example, a nobleman at a duke’s court would dress fashionably, e.g. in ornamented long-toed poulaines, or chausseschausses with full foot and sole. The same knight setting off to war or hunting, would rather wear comfortable shoes and suitable for riding. It is worth remembering, while preparing for the reconstruction Design The footwear consisted of an upper and sole. Usually a heel was sewn in, and leather "seal" (called Otok) to strengthen the construction and protect it against wear off too fast. Upper is covering the upper part of foot. It was usually made of full grain calfskin, rarely goat’s, horse, deer, sheep and even a dog’s. The sole was made of sole calfskin. Pigskin was not used, because it leaked and was difficult in processing. The upper was sewn to the sole with linen or hemp twine. Shoes were sewn on the left side on the last. After sewing the shoe was soaked and then turned right-side-out, what hid the seam and protracted its existence. The problem appeared with long toed shoes, therefore, the fifteenth century shoemakers often did not stitched them to the end, or sewn them only after turning right-side- out. Sometimes a special stitch was added to reinforce the shoe frame. Different shoe styles were worn – from very low, to the ankle, through knee-high boots, to high, reaching up to the groin. The latter had to be fastened on the outer side of leg - these are typical riding boots. The footwear does not necessarily have to be pointed, although it may. The long toe was a trend within both lower and higher classes in the late fourteenth and late fifteenth century. There are historical descriptions of the knights, cutting the log toed shoes to escape safely and sound from the battlefield. [One can kill himself stumbling over his own shoes.] Slender shapes were an expression of elegance, so chic shoes should be tailored to the foot. Excavations provide a less tailored, high boots with loose top (probably worn by the lower class [il.11]). Soles should be clearly distinguished - left and right. Lacing of the footwear should not occur at the outer side of the calf (except are the horse riding boots, reaching up to the knee) or on the Achilles tendon. The shoe can be laced in front or on the inside of the leg. Shoe can also be buckled with one or several buckles. An alternative to leather shoes, were wool chausses with sewn on soles. Such a solution was very popular at that time, as evidenced by the iconography ("Grandes Chroniques de France", or different versions of the "The Hours of the Duke of Berry). In an elegant dress most frequently observed were just chausses with a leather sole or very low shoes. Often with pattens [il.6,7,8], meaning – a kind of wooden clogs with wooden or leather sole and leather fastenings.. Pattens were worn also on shoes to protect them from bad weather conditions, or to isolate the foot from the cold floor. In tat time known were both pattens made of one piece of wood, as well as with the fold in the front and laced to the heel. We do not attempt to distinguish the footwear into shoes, poulaines, or turnshoes, as such classification is not needed at his stage. We recommend Mark Carlson’s website; he is well known in the field of medieval footwear, as well as publications on preserved shoes, discovered during excavations in Kołobrzeg and London.