The Celts wove textiles, although weaving is basic technology by today’s standards, it was advanced for the time.

The Celts were fond of bright colours and would have used brightly coloured dyes that were available at the time made from berries, seaweed and plants. The process would first have involved using a mordant, which would help the dye adhere and change the end colouring. These would have been stale urine and metals such as copper. Dyeing was strictly a woman’s craft as it was seen to be unlucky to dye in the presence of a man. He was seen to curse the cloth so that it dyed unevenly. There were also rules about which days of the month or week were okay for dyeing. Dyers had a reputation for being herbal healers, since many dyes were used in folk medicine.

Wool was one of the most used material in the Celtic times and would have been felted and shrunk in order to make it water proof. Wool was shorn from sheep, sorted, scoured and then combed. It would then have been spun using a drop spindle.

Other popular materials with the Celts were linen and silk. Silk was brought over from Asia in the early period as prestigious gifts but later brought to Europe along trade routes. Old silk clothes would have been unravelled and used again to create new cloth.

Leather and fur were used for capes and jackets. The furs that they would have used included badger, fox and seal. Leather hide was sometimes used not only for shoes and clothing but also for boats and sails. The leather might have been made using a technique called cuir boulli. This involved boiling it in wax then letting it dry and harden in the desired shape.

Materials were mostly woven using a warp-weighted loom. The weaver would have walked back and forth along the loom. Sometimes more than one woman was needed for bigger pieces, working side by side passing the shuffles between them. Smaller looms called tape looms were used for weaving ribbons and other small bands of cloth.

Belts were made using a technique called card weaving. This was used as complex patterns could be made. Card weaving was also used to make fringes for clothes.

Fashions varied from place to place and time to time, so Celtic clothing wasn't the same in all places over the years that they survived. Clothing in the Iron Age varied from tribe to tribe; one tribe may have favoured baggy trousers, while another tribe liked them skin-tight.