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The clothing of the Vikings
Clothing styles and fashions changed very slowly in the early Middle Ages. In addition, the lower social classes only had one set of clothes anyway: women wore ankle-length dresses and, at most, a cloak over them, while men wore long trousers and thigh-length shirts, also with a cloak over them, sometimes with a hood. In urban areas, traditional dress was influenced by foreign fashions, especially Carolingian court dress, with men having more leeway than women, whose clothing remained very conservative for centuries.
Viking jewelry
Important elements of clothing were brooches, which served the dual purpose of fastening clothing, such as the straps of women's traditional dresses or coats, while also serving as decorative elements. Such brooches were crafted with great skill by goldsmiths using clay or stone molds, which were made with the help of bronze matrices for casting silver and gold jewelry. Silver was the most important precious metal of the Viking Age due to the large influx of silver from the Middle East from the slave trade. Rare gold jewelry was primarily reserved for royal circles.
In addition to brooches, silver was also used to make brooches and pendants, as well as the extremely popular arm rings, which were often artfully twisted or braided.