![]() If he's some petty born-and-lives-in-the-boondocks type of merchant he might think that Royals could get something similar. Would he notice it was made with abilities beyond the known capabilities of his immediate area? Almost certainly. But that's story-driven so I won't comment further!Īll this together would be a shock to any merchant on the face of the planet in 1100. Or maybe fleeing an attack if she's been wandering around for a while. Strangely-dressed-woman wandering alone is bad enough, but most places would also think she was, charitably, dressed like a hooker. I cannot think of a single culture where that combination wouldn't be seen as a Very Bad Thing. Your heroine would be wearing one layer, probably exposing arms/lower legs/collarbone and potentially much more. The cut of the dress would be a puzzlement to your merchant. because its such a common thing in their world.) Even if they're a musician who never used Word in their life, they'd be able to write a document and tell you it's a program that shows the keystrokes you make and can change colors and font type etc. (by cultural osmosis I mean he'll know something about cloth the way that, say, an American millennial knows something about how microsoft word works. ("she weaved cloth" was a common epithet on Roman womens' tombstones from peasant-equivalent to Senator's wife, for instance, and it was a high honor because fabric was important and REALLY time-consuming to make.) So through cultural osmosis he'd have a good idea that our heroine's dress is something far out of the common way, even if cotton was the standard fabric of his region. Or his sister, or mother, or whoever brought him up as a child. This guy's wife probably makes/knows how to make fabric. Even if he doesn't sell cloth himself, weaving cloth is something more-or-less every woman on the planet whose society HAD cloth did, unless she was ridiculously high up the social ladder. Also (though your question specifies he doesn't) he'll almost certainly know at least something about making fabric. Either way though the detail work (regularity of stitching, the cloth itself) would likely be better than anything this merchant has ever seen. In some places cotton would be rare and expensive, other places it would be the common cloth of the peasantry. What he'd make of THAT is anyone's guess, apart from assuming your heroine was both from crazily far away and rich. Doubly so if he's from an area where cotton is common. You might find "painted" cloth, but that's not really the same thing and your merchant is going to know the difference right-off. Dye specific identical repeating complex patters onto a single pre-made bolt? No. Dye bolts with simple stripes/geometric patters? Yes. Weave individual colored threads into patterned cloth? Yes. I don't know off-hand of a culture that could make patterns like it. ![]() The pattern of the cloth would be wild as far as the guy's concerned. ![]() As this dye becomes less intense after each bolt, the "first dip" bolts were more expensive and had the most vibrant color.) (ancient/medieval dyers would make a vat of clothing dye, and dip bolts of fabric in it. ![]() A is probably more likely, and on top of that he would assume based on the color that she/her family was either involved in the dye-making process or wealthy enough to afford a "first dip" cloth. (despite what HBO would have you believe pre-industrial life was very-much-not all drab colors) Color FIXING was something of a problem, so your merchant would either assume that A: The dress was new (as repeated washing would fade most colors) or B: her far-away land had a blue dye which could be fixed to the fabric. However you can get some pretty bright blues and whites using medieval/ancient dyes. Her dress wouldn't be something the merchant would look at and go "oh that's for-sure made by machines" because there simply wasn't anything that COULD "artificially" make that dress in 1100. Even if they both spoke Russian or French or what have you, the linguistic drift of 900 years would, at best, give her weird word-usage and a crazy accent. Your heroine would instantly be assumed to be some type of foreigner, just from her speech. ![]()
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