Elite Elizabethan Fashion

An engraving by printmaker Pieter Nolpe showing a woman in twelve different stages of life. In the bottom left corner, she is depicted as an infant, and in the bottom right she is depicted at 100 years old. In between is a stepped brick wall, and on each step, she stands, representing a decade of her life, wearing clothes of the 17th century. Courtesy of Folger Digital Collections. Public Domain.

Overview

In the early modern period, as now, fashion offered people a visible way to communicate their status, wealth, and ideology, as well as stay modestly covered and comfortable. In England’s highly stratified society, a person’s clothing indicated many aspects of their identity. Sumptuary laws regulated what colors, fabrics, decoration, and even weapons a person was legally allowed to wear based on their rank. Only nobles were allowed to wear fabrics like silk and velvet.

Officials in the Church of England supported sumptuary laws. Starting in 1563, a sermon entitled Against Excess of Apparel was regularly preached around England, a rite that continued through the reign of King James I.

Common people were prohibited from wearing specific types of rich fabrics and particular colors. However, starting in the 1580s and again in 1604, the strictest of the sumptuary laws were loosened to allow for the increasing numbers wealthy commoners such as merchants to wear richly made or decorated clothing.

It is worth noting that actors wearing costumes in the theater were exempt from these laws, much to the irritation of some Puritans. Actors often impersonated rulers and nobles, so many theatrical costumes featured indicators of high status, which religious conservatives objected to as inherently untruthful and deceitful.

Fabrics and Colors

English sumptuary laws controlled who was allowed to wear what colors and fabrics based on social class. For example, purple was only for the royal family. Crimson, which was made with rare ingredients, indicated immense wealth and was reserved for royalty and high-ranking officials in the church. Indigo was similarly limited to the highest members of the nobility and royalty. Regular red fabrics, which were dyed with common madder root (producing a less brilliant color), was worn by people of all classes, but especially by soldiers. Anyone from any station could wear the following colors: black (but fine, darkly dyed black cloth was very expensive), pink, orange, brown, gray, green, and yellow. Blue was worn by both upper and lower classes, but it was mostly used by servants.

Expensive fabrics like velvet (from Italy), cotton and silks (from the Middle East), fine furs like sable, and lace were widely available, both domestically produced and imported from elsewhere in Europe. These fabrics were limited to the nobility and gentry. The lower classes most commonly wore clothing made from domestically produced materials such as wool, linen, leather, and sheepskin.

A gentleman wearing a black doublet, breeches, and hat from Royal, military and court costumes of the time of James I, a set of Italian watercolors, c. 1615. Courtesy of the Folger Shakespeare Library, CC BY-SA 4.0. Lord’s Clothing

Gentlemen wore many layers of clothing, although not as many as gentlewomen. The gentlemen likely wore gown (a long fabric robe, often trimmed with fur) or a doublet (a tight jacket of fabric or leather that buttoned up the front) separate detachable sleeves (tied to the doublet) cuffs (sometimes plain, sometimes made of lace or embroidered linen) breeches (knee-lengthh trousers) a belt a ruff (an elaborate piece of neckwear made of starched and pleated linen or lace) a cloak shoes a hat

For undergarments, men wore linen or lightweight woolen shirts, often quite long to tuck into outer clothing instead of underpants. Linen shirts were changed and washed frequently. Men also wore stockings or hose (one for each leg) of wool and occasionally silk. Some fashionable men chose to wear a codpiece (a prominent, often decorative, pouch to hold and highlight male genitalia).

Like women, men kept their heads covered a great deal. Gentlemen wore various types of headgear, which might include a coif or biggin (a fitted fabric cap often worn by older men, sometimes under a hat) tall-crowned hats with brims (almost like top hats today) of velvet or silk, usually decorated with feathers, jewels, brooches, or ribbons low-crowned hats with brims, decorated similarly to the tall-crowned ones

Women’s Clothing

Women’s clothing was complex and fit tightly to her figure. Elite women wore a dress with many separate parts placed over elaborate underclothing, while women of lower rank wore outfits that featured fewer complex pieces.

Elite women’s underclothes had as many as ten different items: smocks, shifts, or chemise (an underdress of linen or wool, usually changed daily) corset or inner bodice (to accentuate, narrow, or flatten aspects of a woman’s body) a roll (around the waist to accentuate the hips) stockings or hose (knee length socks) farthingale (hoop skirt)

For exterior layers, high-ranking ladies also wore stomacher (a stiffened triangle design along front of the skirt, below the bodice) a petticoat (an underskirt) a kirtle (a kind of overskirt) forepart (like an apron) bodice or corset (a stiff, vest-like garment covering the torso and shoulders) sleeves, inner and outer (tied onto the bodice) a partlet (often of sheer linen, covering the neckline area to keep the outfit modest) skirt or gown (often of heavily decorated fabric) Sometimes a ruff

Ladies also wore cloaks when outdoors, as well as shoes, and a hat or other head covering. Women were expected to cover their heads most of the time and so wore various kinds of hats or other headgear, which might include a white linen coif (a fitted cap hiding most of the hair) a French hood (a small hood with a curved border at the front and material falling to the shoulder at the back) the Mary Stuart hood (made of sheer cloth and edged with lace) a caul, or hairnet (made of gold mesh, silk thread, or even human hair, worn alone or under a hat)

Like men, elite women wore elaborate hats, such as the taffeta pipkin, a brimmed hat trimmed with ostrich feathers and jewels, and the court bonnet, a velvet pillbox adorned with the same.

Key Print Sources Huang, Helen Q., et al. Elizabethan Costume Design and Construction. Focal Press, 2015. Haywood, Maria. Rich Apparel: Clothing and the Law in Henry VIII’s England. Ashgate Publishing Co. 2009.

Key Online Sources Alchin, Linda. Elizabethan Clothing. Elizabethan Era. https://www.elizabethan-era.org.uk/elizabethan-clothing.htm. Accessed 15 Nov. 2018. Alchin, Linda. Meaning of Colors in the Elizabethan Era. Elizabethan Era, 7 Feb. 2017, https://www.elizabethan-era.org.uk/meaning-colors.htm. Accessed 15 Nov. 2018. Alchin, Linda. Tudor Clothes for the Rich. The Tudors. 2014. https://www.sixwives.info/tudor-clothes-for-the-rich.htm. Accessed 15 Nov. 2018. Best, Michael. Court Fashions. Shakespeare’s Life and Times. Internet Shakespeare Editions. University of Victoria. https://internetshakespeare.uvic.ca/Library/SLT/society/court%20life/fashion.html. Accessed 13 Nov. 2018. Best, Michael. Elizabethan Fashions. Shakespeare’s Life and Times. Internet Shakespeare Editions. University of Victoria. https://internetshakespeare.uvic.ca/Library/SLT/stage/costumes/fashion.html. Accessed 4 Jun. 2023. Best, Michael. Fashion and Colour. Shakespeare’s Life and Times. Internet Shakespeare Editions. University of Victoria. https://internetshakespeare.uvic.ca/Library/SLT/stage/costumes/colour.html. Accessed 13 Nov. 2018.

Image Sources A Gentleman Wearing a Black Doublet, Breeches, and Hat. From Royal, military and court costumes of the time of James I. c. 1615. Folger Shakespeare Library. Nolpe, Pieter. Woman in Twelve Different Stages of Life. N.d. Engraving. Folger Digital Collections. ART Box A265 no. 2. https://digitalcollections.folger.edu/img3150.