Clothing/garb

 Ranger Clothing 

A Ranger's clothes are generally rugged serviceable clothes that are ideal for quiet movement and blending in to the local background.

Generally this includes boots, a tunic, perhaps a coat, and a cloak.

Throughout this wiki you will see the Terms clothing, garb, and costume. From a reenactment standpoint these mean very different things.

Tunics
A tunic is a long shirt. There are many patterns of tunics available. Here are a few we've tried.

Nockert Type 1
This is a good basic tunic that was used throughout Europe from 1000-1500. With simple modifications it can be made to have split skirts, or an angled bottom (like the leather jerkins of the Rangers of Ithilin in the Two Towers movie).

This pattern is adapted from the tunic of Bocksten Man, a bog find find from about 1300 in Sweden.

Nockert Type 1 Pattern and Sewing Instructions

15th century Shirts
A shorter shirt with tapered sleeves becan popular in western Europe in the 1400's, a good style this appears to be close to what Aragorn wore in the Peter Jackson movies.

16th- 19th century Shirt (Poet Shirt)
A Shirt with gathered sleeves became popular in the 1500's and continued into the 1800's. While not currently in fashion, it has been used for Middle Earth interpretations in the past.

Cloak
Cloaks are a widely used and referenced piece of kit in both Tolkien's middle earth and historical europe. There are a wide variety of styles that range from roman history through the high medieval period and beyond to the fantasy realm, but all serve the same basic purpose: you're wearing a blanket. For this reason, they can be very utilitarian, but many are considered fashionable/stylish for their look. A basic cloak can be one of the easiest garments you'll ever make, or it could be a complex, highly historically accurate fabric-saving garment made of pieced-together shapes cut from a larger blanket.

Watch CLoak

Bocksten cloak

modified bocksten cloak

Elven Watch Cloak

full circle cloak

modified half-circle ranger's trekking cloak