Elizabethan Clothing

Mallory FrostTasnuva Hyder

Martin AfricaCraig McCaw

Elizabethan Era

The Elizabethan Age was the period of renaissance. It involved having new ideas and new thinking methods.Clothing was useful towards forming the social ladder.A person’s clothing determined their prosperity.Clothing was the symbolic way of identifying an individual’s general rank.

Apprentice Clothing

Apprentices were limited to wear only the wardrobe that was presented and allowed by their masters.For example, they were simply to sport a ‘plain upper coat of cloth or leather, without pinking, stitching, edging or silk about it.’Another example is they could wear a woolen cap and no other sort and only within their city of residence.

Peasant Clothing

Peasants were allowed to wear basic material, such as cotton, leather, and wool.They were not permitted to wear any lustrous items of clothing for they were solely worn by the upper class.

Lower Class

The lower classes of the Elizabethan era were restricted to wear elementary material.

They were not allowed to wear any elegant or sumptuous material.

Servants

Servants of richer citizens wore better clothing than the middle class.

their clothing was a mark of their master’s prosperity.

Rich MenAll Elizabethan people wore clothing

that the Elizabethan Sumptuary told them they could wear. But mainly they wore two layers of clothing, underclothes and over clothes. The underclothes consisted of a shirt (usually linen), stockings or hose, a codpiece, and corset. Over that they wore doublet (which is a tight fitting jacket), separate sleeves, a belt, cloak, shoes, and sometimes a hat, both men and women, could also wear a ruff.

A Typical Rich Elizabethan Man

Rich WomenMost rich women wore a lot of clothing on them each day. Like men, they wore two layers of clothing, outer and inner. The inner layer usually contains a chemise, stockings, corset or bodice, a farthingale (hooped skirt), a roll or rowle, stomacher, a petticoat, a kirtle, forepart, and a partlet. On the outside, they wore a gown, separate sleeves, a ruff, shoes, a cloak, and a hat.

A Typical Rich Elizabethan Woman

What did the woman wear?

The woman of the Elizabethan era wore:

Hats

Gowns

Underwear

Corsets

Ruffs

What kind of gowns did they wear?

They gowns were influenced by geometric shapes

To get these shapes they used padding, whalebones, buckram, and quilting.

Rolls were worn around the waist to keep the heavy skirt up also to give the skirt a horizontal shape.

The sleeves were attached and usually had padding or wings. The style of the pads were influenced by the men.

The materials that gowns were made of were expensive - silk, satin, velvet, taffeta, scarlet and sarcenet

They wore a corset to keep their upper body triangular and tight.

What kind of hats did they wear?

Woman had to wear hats, and most woman hid there hair behind their hats.

Most hats had feathers, glass beads, pearls, gold thread, lace, embroidery, and spangles

The little girls in the Elizabethan era wore Coifs; a hat that was close fitted and tied underneath the chin.

Woman also wore hats called a French Hood, a hat that had a veil in the back.

Woman wore the Atifet, which is like the French Hood but had lace on it.

They wore the Caul, which was an Elizabethan hair net.

What kind of shoes did they wear?

Boots: leather shoes, used for riding and walking.

Gamache: was a high boot.

Buskins: calf high boots.

Startups: leather shoes worn for protection outside.

Pumps: light or single-soled slip on shoes.

Clogs: a wooden shoe.

Corked shoes: Corked shoes featured a wedge of cork between the foot and the sole

Sumptuary Law

Elizabethan men were not allowed to wear whatever they wanted. The fabrics and colors of clothes which men were allowed to wear were determined by their position and rank and this dress code was law. These laws about clothing in the Elizabethan era were called Sumptuary Laws. They were designed to maintain the social structure of the Elizabethan Class system.

Men’s Elizabethan clothing emphasized their legs. Their legs were covered in hose, and a was garter placed right below the knee to draw the eye to the shape of their calf muscles. To emphasize a trim waist and muscled legs, breeches (short pants) would be worn, topped with a doublet (short jacket). To add fullness breeches would be filled with either bran or horse hair.

A typical Elizabethan man’s clothing

Rich Male

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