Secular Dress in Church Vestments : A Proposed Method for Identifying Secular Dress Repurposed in Chasubles

The purpose of this thesis is to try and create a proposed method for object-based research, that can identify the presence of secular dress that have been repurposed in church vestments. By applying the basic principles of Material Culture Studies and current research methods for the fields of Textile Studies, a proposed model is developed in accordance with different process development strategies. The result of the study gives not only a new possible format for object-based studies within the research of repurposed textiles in a historical context, but also renders new data about a large quantity of chasubles in the collection of Statens historiska muséer. The results can shed new light on secular dress repurposed for liturgical vestments