aka birka coat
9-10th century green woolen kaftan, birka style, with embroidery. The kaftan is lined with brown linnen. It is held closed with bronze
buttons. The buttons are replica's of origonal buttons
found in Birka, they are bought at
Medieval
Design Dark Ages.com.
Bronze buttons found in Birka, Grave 716. They are 1.3 - 1.6 in length.
After reading How to make an authentic Víking Era tunic written by Carolyn Priest-Dorman, I decided to convert my old green woolen birka style tunic into a kaftan.
A quote from this article:The excavations at Birka, Sweden, which cover the ninth and tenth centuries, did not include entire garments.
However, the pieces of clothing that were found there yielded quite a bit of information on different types of
tunic-type garments, including smocks, tunics, and coats. There is plenty of evidence for linen smocks, wool tunics,
wool and linen coats, and even one possibly Byzantine-style linen long tunic. Construction details common to them all
include front and back panels cut in one piece, rather than two-piece construction with shoulder seams, and small round
or keyhole necklines. Triangular gores were added for additional width in the skirt area of many garments. Unique to
Birka is evidence for the woman's pleated smock from the tenth century; this style of undergarment would not have
required gores for widening. Also unique to Birka is the men's sleeved "riding" coat closed on the chest with small
cast bronze buttons running from neck to waist; it is thought to be influenced by Persian riding coats by way of
Byzantium and the Rus lands.
A wonderful and well documentend Rus Male costume with
kaftan, a similar kaftan Rollo's Riding Coat
and a slightly different version, closed by a trefoil brooch and a belt Wintercoat
