What Happened To Elizabeth's Clothing In The Renaissance?

Women often times wore gloves made of cherverill, silk and velvet. The Elizabethan time period was known for their exquisite sense of fashion. (Women’s Fashion 1) Although Elizabethan fashion had multiple tricks of the trade, modern day fashion has only few tricks worth sharing.

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.

She was another designer who was designing comfortable loose fitting dresses, her dresses also included a belt at the hips. During this time was when the hobble skirt and the lampshade skirt became popular for a given time. This was also when skirts with lengths above the ankle became popular. In the article 1910 to 1920 the author states, "Asymmetrical designs were featured in bodices and skirts and preferred fabrics were satin, taffeta, chiffon and lightweight silks, with washable cottons to ease hot summers. Early Art Deco inspired prints were seen in the post war

Queen Elizabeth was one of the biggest impacts on fashion in that time. She was mostly the one who set the trends. She also determined the laws about fashion. Many times people would just copy what she would wear. She impacted both women and men's clothing. "Naturally, what the Queen wore greatly influenced those close to her, her ladies in waiting wore her old dresses; other women strove to imitate the style of the Queen and her ladies" (Leed). In the Elizabeth Era the designs and trends came from Queen Elizabeth. Many people looked up to her as a role model for fashion and considered her the image of

Elizabethan men were not allowed to wear whatever they wanted their clothes were dictated by their rank, status or position and this was enforced by English law this law was called the Sumptuary Laws

Elizabethan clothing and fashion was known to be one of the most significant time periods in English History. People believed that social rank and wealth depended on what family one was born into, however it was much more than that. The style of clothing would be easily recognizable today because clothing, accessories and embellishment were all apart of daily life. Clothing during this time period played a big role in determining who associated with who, what your identity was and social rank during this era (“Stubbes on Ruffs.”).

There were numerous pieces of clothing put together to complete the whole look. Men and women were always making sure that they had the most fashionable and newest clothing. In fact, Queen Elizabeth supposedly owned over 2000 gowns.

Despite the fact that they started as a pattern for men's and women's apparel, starting with Queen Elizabeth, they started to exaggerate ruffles to enhance their femininity and to represent their powerful status. In time, the ruffle became less expensive and made way to modern day female embellishments.

In the fifteenth century, women wore a long dress, typically with sleeves, an was worn over a kirtle or an under-gown. During this era, women began to wear robes, which is a dress along with an attached bodice and skirt. Women also wore several categories of over gowns were worn for instance the cotehardie or the houpelande.

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.

These four pictures show sleeves in its elaborate glamor. During the Renaissance period, women sleeves were exaggerated and elaborate in design. Sleeves were usually depicted in the bagpipe, funnel, cylindrical, slashing, laced, and with hanging sleeves that served no particular function. The first picture is a vintage haute couture costume that showed extremely exaggerated bagpipe sleeves. According to the textbook, this was a popular fashion statement for the time period. The second picture shows how a houppelande with sleeve openings may have looked, also this can be seen as a loose fitting elongated funnel sleeve with an opening for the arms. Some of the pictures in the textbook show how sleeves were long enough to drag on the ground, hence

Elizabethan Fashion). Later on, they were dressed in cloaks held by a crucifix and chain with fine stockings in silk, and bonnets or hats with a plume on the side. Like women's clothing, men's clothes were detailed with inconvenient ruffles, too. It was inconvenient because these ruffles were stiff and about eight inches in width. Similarly, the ruffles also revealed the status of men in the society.

At the beginning of the 1900s the skirts of dresses formed a train in the back of the dress. The skirt’s silhouette was slim at the hip with pleating and smocking. The decorations of the dresses were achieved with ruffles, tucks, buttons, and lace insertions. These dresses also had high neck lines. The Dresses in 1910 people were more radical with styles. Some of these radical styles included the hobble skirts and the lampshade skirt. The designers of this time started taking notice in asymmetrical draping

Clothes would accentuate the areas of the body that were associated with gender in a certain era such as bust, hip and waist for women in the Victorian era therefore expressing that the wearer is a woman. Mary Ellen Roach and Joanne Bubolz Eicher (2007) support this idea through their belief that the codpiece that was seen on hoses in the Medieval era was decorative in order to accentuate men’s privates. Padding can also be seen throughout history to make the shoulders wider for men and then in 1980s they are seen on the shoulder

It wasn’t until the 1930s that ready to wear clothes became available with multiple fabrics. Fabrics started to become more elaborate. They could now be embroidered or have prints and designs. Many women began to wear scarves with fringed edges. This was when beaded designs, bright colors and fringes became popular on dresses too (Hossell).