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)
Sam H. –
Awesome I have found that this garment has totally transformed my experience wearing my armor. Definitely pay attention to your measurements . This gambeson is a vast improvement over anything else I have used with my armour.
Nathan G. –
A great base gambeson, but needs some work It has been my experience, after owing two of these, 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.