Elizabethan Fashion

During this age, what they wore depended on their class in standing socielty. In fact, there was such a thing called Sumputary Clothing laws to make sure people wore the right attire accorting to how rich they were and if that was disobeyed, they had to obey heavy fines. But in general, fashion back in 1550s-1600s, you can imagine it to be dramatic and a little uncomfortable. In this age, there were three classes; the upper, middle and poor class. This is how they differ;

Rich Class Attire: The Elizabethan view of ideal beauty was a woman with light hair and a snow white complexionwith red cheeks, red lips and thin eyebrows. This idea revolved around Queen Elizabeth, also known as the 'Virgin Queen' who had natutral red hair who often dyed it yellow and wore over 80 diffrent wigs known as periwigs. Mostly consisted of Ruffs, corrsets, gowns, under clothing, hats, collars, peacocks and shoes. Hoops were worn to keep a round figure to the skirt. They wore expensive cloth like satin, silk, velvot reserved only for the upper class order. Also brighter colors were only to be worn by this class to symbol power and wealth.

For the men they wore hats, breeches, ruffs, cuffs, a big jewels; the bigger the jewels the better. Comonly hoes to hide their bare legs, long fluffy coats. A method as you should call it where you have a slash in your clothing with a huge puff.

The middle class usually wore hats and gloves in public along with jewlery. Most all of them had an acessory such as keys, pouch or a hankeirchef. Both women and men wore gloves as it protected and was seen as beautiful. Many women sprayed perfume before going out to protected them from the filthy streets. Perfume was considered as a luxury in this age rather then a usual in our day of age. Elizbethan middle class women could wear clothing made out of broadcloth, linen, and cotton as well as wearing a chemise to protect their clothing from sweat and other bodily oils. Since they were middle class, men would wear an undergarmet to make there bellies to look more fuller called codpiece. If you were skinny in this age, you would look like you are starving all the time, so the bigger the better.

In contrast, the poor wore dull colors, cheap material, like wool or muslin.

Women usualy had a braid in there hair so it would be easier to work in. Also, due to countless hours working, they did not wear little to no designs on their clothing or jewlery. Women wore simple, long skirts with puffs and slits on their sholders; infact the clothing was rather sinple.