This Arming Doublet Gambeson of padded cotton is closed in the front with lacings with brass tips. Extra lacings are present on the doublet by which armor can be attached to it. Its interior is lined with cotton felt. As this gambeson is crafted from organic material, it will breathe better than poly-fill gambesons on the market. It is handcrafted – sizes will vary so these measurements should be taken as approximations.
A thick, padded jacket common to Medieval and Renaissance warriors, the Gambeson was a protective layer beneath chain or plate armor – it served both as a shock absorbing layer and chafe protection for its wearer. Poorer combatants and lightly-armored archers and skirmishers might wear only the gambeson as their major piece of body armor.
Quilted with many layers of fabric, typically linen, a padded jack could act like a sort of kevlar and give its wearer excellent protection from cuts and slashes. It could even stop arrows in some circumstances. Additional protection could be added to such gambesons with jack-chains, a sort of partial-plate protection which could stop a strong slash from cutting into the shoulders and arms.
**IMPORTANT SIZING INFO PLEASE READ**
Please Note: This Gambeson is constructed with the necessity that its wearer have a smaller waist measurement than their chest measurement. This is important to note, because a padded armor gambeson is not flexible in the same way a common and comparatively thinner shirt is.
Please Note: The length of this gambeson terminates where your natural waist is, not your belt waist. This makes it shorter than modern garments, though this gambeson is following the fashion of the 15th Century.
SIZING
SMALL
Chest Size: 37 1/4 (94.6 cm)
Waist Size: 32 1/4 (81.9 cm)
Length from Back Collar to Bottom of Coat: 22 (58 cm)
Weight: 5 lb 11.6 oz
MEDIUM
Chest Size: 40 1/2 (102.8 cm)
Waist: 34 3/4 (88.2 cm)
Length from Neck to Bottom of Coat: 23 (60 cm)
Weight: 5 lb 11.6 oz
LARGE
Chest Size: 43 1/2 (110 cm)
Waist Size: 36 1/4
Length from Neck to Bottom of Coat: 25 (64 cm)
Weight: 6 lb 1.6 oz
X-LARGE
Chest Size: 46 3/4 (118.7 cm)
Waist Size: 37 7/8 (96 cm)
Length from Neck to Bottom of Coat: 25 (64 cm)
Weight: 6 lb 2.2 oz
XX-LARGE
Chest Size: 49 7/8 (127 cm)
Waist Size: 41 (104 cm).
Length from Neck to Bottom of Coat: 26 (68 cm)
Weight: 6 lb 5.5 oz
XXX-LARGE
Chest Size: 55 (139 cm)
Waist Size: 42 (106 cm)
Length from Neck to Bottom of Coat: 26 1/2 (67 cm)
Austin G. –
A good all-around gambeson About a quarter inch of padding, if you use this in hema I recommend buying a chest protector (padded paintball vest) to wear underneath. Excellent flexibility in the arms, I’m able to move freely without the jacket binding up on me. Also the laces can be removed if you’re not attaching armor to them. Two complaints.. First one is the laces aren’t the highest of quality and they can break easily (they’re easily replaceable). Secondly is the stitching of the shoulders is overlapped (over 1/2 inch of fabric) and it forms a hard spot on the jacket, sometimes it will rub your shoulders and it is uncomfortable.. You get used to it after awhile. Sits directly at the waist, so be sure to get a skirt or some other form of waist/hip protection if you’re using this for contact sparring. Overall it looks nice, it’s adaptable to how you want to use it, and the cost is desirable.
Colyn Bowman –
Beautiful Looking Doublet With Some Large Flaws Let’s start off with the bad.
I had my leg armor tied onto the lower portion of the doublet and within 2 minutes of wearing it in a dueling event in front of a fundraising crowd the lacing ripped through the eyelets and ripped all the way through the lower portion of the doublet on both sides. I had to remove my leg plates for the remainder of the event and now have a 4×4″ ripped section on each side of the doublet which obviously looks atrocious. Also, the lacing that comes with the doublet is basically yarn. I had 4 or 5 of the lacing straps rip immediately when trying to tie on my armor and some of the lacing the brass tip stripped right off. Upon further/closer inspection after my leg armor ripped the bottom half of the doublet I noticed that a lot of the eyelets were not sewn all the way around and that it likely the structure flaw that caused it to tear immediately.
The Good: It looks beautiful and it feels like it is really sturdy and it does fit perfectly. I had no issues with the upper portion of the doublet other than the long lace that is used for the spiral lacing had the brass tip fall off. It held up my shoulder and arm armor with no issues for 4 hours of constant fighting.
Conclusion: The price is affordable and overall I like the doublet, especially the upper portion. I don’t think the bottom part can be repaired as it is pretty much destroyed, so I would recommend that if you buy this doublet to have someone craft you a cuisse belt or something. Also, if something goes wrong you can’t return it because by time it breaks it will be counted as used.
Travis Gardiner –
Excellent quality Value for money . I love it
Nathan G. –
Great base gambeson, but definitely a project It has been my experience, after owing two of these (one white and one black), that the sizing runs about 2 sizes smaller than you expect. I normally wear medium-large in most cloths, and XXL is the size that fits me properly in this doublet.
The jacket itself is decent quality, and provides good mobility. I have been using it for HEMA and SCA rapier for several years now. But the doublet has two major drawbacks.
First, the padding is not sewn in place, and you will either need to add additional stitching to keep it from balling up over time, or remove it altogether. If you are planning on adding stitching, do yourself a favor, and do that before wearing it, as the padding layer is likely going to start bunching up and causing tumors the first time you wash the jacket.
The second issue is that it takes a long time to lace up the jacket. This is not necessarily a drawback, just a feature of the design, but it will take you a long time to get in and out of it, unless you add a different closure method.
Overall, I am happy with the jacket for the price point, but it is definitely a project jacket, not a wear out of the box model. If they had stitched the padding in place more securely, I would probably have given it 5 stars.
PS: If you are going to use this for SCA rapier, it is advisable to add a gusset under the front closure, as there are small gaps that could be considered a safety hazard depending on your marshal.
cameron (verified owner) –
so in short im pretty sure mine is the wrong size, i got the medium but i probably needed the next size up. it fits as a tailored garment but im built very thick chested so the upper half is a bit small. the sleeves are long enough but like others have said, the elbows are very tight and can restrict movement. in short i give it a recommend if you can let out the elbows a little for movement because this doublet is well made and just rough around the edges, others that can be found for similar price are pitiful in comparison. but for those who are looking for a historical garment i would say an honest review is three stars. i give it four because its not too much to adjust.