I am in need of pictures of historically accurate medieval clothing and armor

I am spriting for my game. And as a person who is tired of seeing impractical armor, or revealing armor, or hardly any armor in combat, I am in need of pictures of historically accurate medieval armor and clothing for both men and woman. I want my armor and clothing to be realistic and accurate. Preferably of western style, though I'm not too picky on world location. I would also need various levels of social status as well. Peasants - Royalty.

I have tried searching myself, but I usually come up with hardly anything at all. Maybe someone else could help?

Thanks in advanced.

I've had pretty good luck with googleing a location, a time period, and the item of clothing I want.  So, for example, french 1700's armor.

Google Image search yields a TON of reference material. Even broad search terms like Medieval Armor bring up a ton of stuff. But as Sharm said, it helps a lot if you put in something more specific like a time period and/or location. 

The problem with google searches is that they can also lead to mock-ups pretending to be the correct armor, or versions from motion pictures (which were made to look impressive but rarely work in real combat).


I suggest starting with wikipedia. That has only few pictures, but it will give you descriptions that allow you to differ between pictures of real armor and mock-ups, and it will also give you names of the armors used to refine the later google searches.

If you are looking for medieval clothing, google first Jaquard (1800 era) and see the patterns that were made by his loom. These are more for steampunk concept, or for accurate 1800 era clothing but MANY people get confused and think that some of them were medieval. So taking a look at them and then being aware of what to avoid helps.

Your next step is trying to google a little different... like:

"medieval fashion"

"medieval true clothes"

Hope this helped you.

Good luck harvesting knowledge.

My 5th Grade Kiddos do an extensive Medieval Report every year and I keep the images as references - all screened by the teacher who has been teaching this (complete with Medieval feast, costumes, 25 page reports and projects including ballistae, chainmail, etc - IOW she knows her stuff!)


So if you are still stuck, PM me. I can get you images later.


As Andar said, you do have to be discriminating in your searches - there are commercial sites, sites hosted by schools (of varying quality) and all kinds of bosh.


Good luck!


BTW isn't there a "world Building" topic about this stuff?