In the middle and high classes of the medieval times, clothing was important to your reputation. You were often judged by what you wore. Royalty had the best of clothing; kings and queens would wear crowns and brightly colored silks. Their clothes were very expensive, and only they could afford such things. For the wealthy part of the population, most clothes were tailor made. The other part of the population, however, made their clothes themselves. Fabrics used by tailors were perse, burnet, kersey, sandal, damask, lincoln, scarlet, chalons, and nusset.
Holy orders, like friars, wore cloaks with hoods and a rope belt with wooden beads to count prayers. Most all medieval clothes were bright, not dark.
Peasants wore simple clothes such as straw hats, linen shirts, breeches (pants), all made by themselves.
The middle class clothing consisted of fairly simple clothes, yet beautiful ones.
People in the middle ages rarely washed their outer clothes. The inner garments however, were washed quite often. The inner garments protected the outer garments from sweat and oil. If no under clothes existed, people would smell very bad. Under clothing for men and women consisted of a gown or something in the same style as the outer garment. Again, this was often made of linen that protected the outer garments from sweat and oil. Unless men wore pants, the clothing of both sexes was similar. However when Renaissance came, the styles differed.