Edit: Ah, seems I paid little attention to reading the whole page. Well, anyhoo.

Randall Moffett wrote:

But why do you assume it is tacky or frowned upon in society? Just because one person said so? How do you know it is not his own personal opinion or that it is founded in reality. I'll stick with inventories, simple and direct evidence undiluted by personal opinion.

Well, we can probably trust the writer. The book Elling is refering to is a didactic literary work explicitly commissioned for use in the Norwegian court. It also explicitly states suggestively that the contents were to be used freely to educate the public as well. My guess is that some of the subjects and points the book states wasn't obvious to the general populace. There is some emphasis on proper etiquette, and I imagine the public were equally ignorant, if not more of the specifics of etiquette in the higher classes.

Mikael Ranelius wrote:

The simple answer would probably be that what was considered "tacky" at the early 14th century Norwegian royal court was considered fully acceptable at other European courts at about the same time.

Perhaps! I don't really know anything about medieval fashion. Yet, the high middle ages saw a pretty decent ammount of cultural import in Norway, which was partly part of attempts to europeanize the Norwegian court. It makes sense that this would be reflected in the fashion as well?

E.,

Right but we have so many other accounts that one negative seems a bit like a band aid over a crack in a dam. The overwhelming evidence is that it was done....

Likewise if you trust a lone write over the other evidence it is completely up to you. For me having scores of information, some clear as day that it was done as outer clothing make the issue a dead one. They did and were royal officials so we know it was not a tacky or outdated style.

RPM