Description
The padded gambesone for HMB, IMCF, HEMA, SCA and all types of full contact medieval battles.
The padding made for fighters and designed to provide maximum mobility and protection rate.
Amount of padding layers:
- back of the gambeson 3 layers
- shoulders 3 layers
- hips 2 layers
- elbows (outer part) 3 layers
- front part – 1 layer
After the order you will get an email with instructions on measurements.
Each padded gambeson would be done made-to-measure.
History of the padded gambeson
A padded gambeson (also aketon) is a padded defensive jacket, worn under armor during XIV-XVI century in Europe, containing arming points for attaching plates. Also it could be worn as armor separately by poor or lower-born knights. From the early XVth century gambezon was a part of bourgeois fashion. Men who were not knights wore arming doublets, because of the suggested garment military status and chivalry.
The term gambezon is a loan from Old French gambeson, gambaison, from gambais, wambais “quilted jerkin”, originally wambais, formed after the Late Latin wambasium “doublet, waistcoat”, or from Frankish wamba “abdomen, belly” (compare Middle High German wambeis, from Old High German wamba “stomach”). The term aketon, originally medieval French alcottonem, is a loan from Arabic al qutn “the cotton”. In medieval Scandinavia, such a type of the garment was known as vapntreyja, or “weapon shirt”.
The first examples
The first examples of gambesonish garment were used by Scythians before the IVth century BC. Ancient Greeks used Linothorax – a type of armor similar to gambezon.
The use of padding is connected with the widespread distribution of chain mail armor. Since chainmail rings were made of soft iron (hard steel rings broke upon impact), such armor had a weak protection (it was pierced and cut). Therefore, under the chain mail, in order to absorb shock, a so-called under armour was put on. In the East, as an under armour was used a cotton wool-padded jacket (cotton wool was known in Asia in the XIVth century), and in Europe was used a quilted jacket (a quilted jacket sewn from 8-35 layers of canvas and stuffed with bristles or other similar materials), and later gambezon, arming doublet or jacques.
Historical variations
In different countries began to appear interchangeable names, when describing “armor-clad clothing”: gambezon, quilted shirt, quilted jacket, padded jacket, aketon, jacques, brigantine, etc. All of them had almost identical goals for use and technology for manufacturing. Thus, the British collector and researcher Ewart Oakeshott, referring to the works of Jeffrey Chaucer, defines the entire diversity of this type of clothing, such as “a breke and eke a sherte”. Chaucer describes the procedure for dressing a knight, where after a shirt and before a chain mail, a shirt with strips of metal is put on. A similar description of the costume is given by James Planche.
With the advent of full armor at the end of the XIV century, the combination of worn chain mail and armor, due to the too heavy total weight of the armor, was considered inappropriate. As a result, in the XVth century it was refused to wear full chainmail under armor, and instead appeared sub-armor with chainmail elements (pieces) sewn on them (reinforced or arming doublet). From the XVth century, gambezon began to be used as the main and only type of armor and military clothing.
Sport stylization of gambezon based on European under armor of the XIV – XVI centuries. Lightweight and comfortable padding is made for fighters and designed to provide maximum mobility and protection rate. The best choice for single and buhurt nominations.