Clothing In The Elizabethan Era

Elizabethan women dressed reasonably different than we do today. Women often wore many layers. The first layer would

There was great variation in materials as well as style. Materials used in the upper classes included silk, satin, velvet, and brocade, which were all very expensive materials. Long dresses was the style that was worn. Dresses were usually passed from mother to daughter. People of nobility and power, like kings and queens, more than others influenced fashion, much like modern day trends.

Have you ever wondered what people in the Elizabethan Era wore? Fashion was just as important in those days as it is to some people today. What people were wearing mattered to others, and even the government. During the Elizabethan Era clothing, accessories, and cosmetics were all a part of daily life.

Although the style was the same, the material was different. In those times clothing was expensive and difficult to get. In modern America, status does not matter at all in the market. If a person cannot afford the clothes from a luxurious brand, there are many duplicate brands being churned out from which one can get the same styles. Wealthy people from both time periods purchase custom made clothing and the middle and lower class purchase readymade.

The Elizabethan Era was a time where everything flourished. After the Black Plague, England entered a time called the Renaissance. Family life during the time was simple and on a routine. Each day seemed more and more liked the day before. Each member of the family had a different impact on the community and society. Ordinary life in England consisted of being with family, working everyday, going to school, and eating food.

The Elizabethan time period emphasized the dominance of men in society and family ties. Women had no choice but to depend on their families and the man the family picked for them to marry. All the money comes from the husbands income. Family was essential to Elizabethan time, because everyone in the household depended on one another. Men and women both could not function without their immediate family.

Depending on their job, wealth, and other factors, clothing people wore may have varied. But it was not uncommon for women to wear dresses(Some more high end than others ) or cotton print shirts and skirts. It was common to see a man in a bit more casual clothes rather than suits almost all around like previous decades.

There are cheaper materials that don't last as long and there are more expensive materials that last longer. Unlike today, in Elizabethan Time the people didn't chose what fabrics to wear. Just like the colors it depended on their status and rank. "Elizabethan Nobles and Upper classes wore clothing made of velvets, furs, silks, lace, cottons and taffeta" ("Material & Fabrics used in Elizabethan Era Clothing"). "The Elizabethan Lower Classes had to wear clothing made of wool, linen and sheepskin however, silk, taffeta and velvet trimmings were allowed" ("Material & Fabrics used in Elizabethan Era Clothing"). Just like breaking the law of colors people would also get punished for breaking the laws of fabrics and materials. In the Elizabethan time the rank of a person made a huge impact on the clothing they would

Women wore underdresses made of linen or flax and woollen overdresses like aprons with straps fastened by decorative brooches. Over the dresses and aprons she wore cloaks or shawls made of wool. Their shoes were made of leather. They had long hair and usually wore scarves.

Imagine a woman rising from bed wearing heavy bedclothes of wool or cotton. Underneath she would be wearing a corset for sleep, made of cotton, wool or a mix of heavy linen. After brushing out long hair, which was rarely washed, she would be wrapped in a light cotton garb that would protect her skin from actually touching her formal corset. Often corsets would stretch from the mid-hip region to the breasts. Corsets were constructed of whalebone and metal stays, which shaped the ribs and stomach to form a fashionable waist of approximately eighteen inches. After the corset was tightly laced (which required assistance of at least one other person), then heavy wool or cotton stocking would be pulled on. Stockings were held up ties, girdle-like bloomers or special buttons in the petticoats. At this time, a woman would put on six to eight petticoats . She would put on a special top to keep the corset from touching her dress. At this point, a woman may have worn a large hoop skirt. The large metal device would allow the woman to keep proper social distance from her guests and potential suitors. Often the woman would have to be lowered into the hoop skirt. If the hoop was too heavy, a woman would be placed in the parlor room and she would remain there until after a dinner party or until such a time she could remove the hoop because it could render her immobile. In some rare cases, small rolling wheels were attached at the bottom of hoop skirts to aid women in moving

People use to wear clothes that we would see in plays, wearing costumes practically. Kind of like the hunger games with less technology ha-ha. People wore colors that based off of their royalty or as we call it "classes" purples, reds, and golds were for the higher royalty and lower classes could not wear those colors. Men liked to wear clothes that made them look bigger because the bigger you were meant that you could afford to eat a lot of food "royalty." Now we like to wear clothes that make us look more skinny, black does that. Jeans and t-shirts are worn daily and we only wear fancy clothes for occasions, well for the most of us. We don't were costumes as regular clothes, that's only for plays or if your acting. We can wear any colors we want and it won't tell us if we have any kind of royalty.

Men in the Elizabethan Era were not allowed to wear whatever they wanted. They had to follow laws, known as the Sumptuary laws, which was basically a dress code for society. While rich men indulged in flaunting their riches, poor people were known and treated with less respect. Even though the Sumptuary laws were

In the Medieval Period (1000-1500), what you wore largely depended on what class you were in the feudal system and what your status was. The rich could afford the latest styles and dyes shipped from abroad, while the poor may only own one or two items of clothing.

The people who lived during the Elizabethan Era were not allowed to wear whatever they like or desired. Their Fashion choices had to be followed by a strict law! The English people chose to establish social classes by the colors they wore and this had an affect on costumes used in theatre. Queen Elizabeth I followed the sumptuary laws, which was only certain classes were consent to wear specific fabric and colors. Therefore in plays the actors could only wear certain colors for their costumes that displayed what role and class their character was in. The clothes worn during this era was a result of Queen Elizabeth’s sumptuary laws, which had an affect on costumes used in plays, and each color a person wore had a significant meaning.

Queen Elizabeth I left a great and lasting impact on the country of England. She became queen at twenty-five years old in 1558 and reigned successfully from November 17, 1558 to March 24, 1603, a total of forty-four years.