In the Middle Ages most people wore basically the same style of clothing: a
simple tunic, a small shoulder cape and perhaps a hood to keep off the rain. Depending on
one's class in society, the cloth would have been either rich or simple. Because pockets
had not been invented, the wealthy wore a leather belt fastened around their waist on
which was suspended a money bag, dagger and sword.
After his conversion, Francis decided to throw off his adorned belt and instead tied an
ordinary rope around his waist as all the peasants wore. He eventually tied three knots in
the rope as reminder of his three promises to God: poverty, chastity and obedience.
The word "habit" is derived from the Latin, habitus, "to put on a way of a
life". The external garment represents an interior change. In traditional imagery,
the religious habit is appreciated as the armour of salvation and a mantle of justice.
Within the Franciscan fraternity the habit acts as both the wedding garment and the burial
shroud; it is the sign of unity and the visible link between brothers long since in heaven
and those yet to be born.
The history changed the design and colour from gray - colour of the earth into black for
Conventuals in some countries in Europe and North America, or brown for Capuchins and
Leonians. In most regions Conventuals do wear gray habit, although the colour reminds more
the ash than the earth.
In the Middle Ages most people wore basically the same style of clothing: a
simple tunic, a small shoulder cape and perhaps a hood to keep off the rain. Depending on
one's class in society, the cloth would have been either rich or simple. Because pockets
had not been invented, the wealthy wore a leather belt fastened around their waist on
which was suspended a money bag, dagger and sword. 
