Clothing In The Elizabethan Era

“Style is a way to say who you are without having to speak.” This quote by Rachel Zoe speaks volumes about fashion in the time period in which Shakespeare lived. Many people believe royal women from the Elizabethan era only wore fancy dresses for looks, however, their outfits were more complex because they contained many layers, the law regulated them, and they showed which class they were in.

During this time period, the royal women’s outfits were extremely complex and contained many different pieces such as a chemise, stockings, a corset, a petticoat, a farthingale, a gown, sleeves, a neck ruff, and wrist ruffs (Leed 1). Gowns, embroidered with colorful threads and all kinds of jewels such as diamonds, rubies, and sapphires were handmade

Clothes were an important symbol of “who was who” during this time period (“Elizabethan Sumptuary Laws”). In addition, which social class a person was in determined which clothes they wore. For example,only royalty and the highest nobility wore colors such as: gold, silver, crimson, deep indigo, violet, black, and white. People who wore the color blue were often servants of the royal family (Hun 2). The queen, the queen’s mother, daughters, sisters, and aunts often wore clothes of gold (Elizabethan Upper Class Fashion). Along with color, a person’s title or status also determined the material of clothes they wore. Women of the upper class were often wearing clothes of velvet, satin, fur, silk, lace, cotton, or taffeta. They used imported materials from other places to make these expensive clothes (Hun 3). Despite all of the fancy garments of the upper class, the queen still dressed more magnificent than everyone else in the land (Thomas 1). On the other end of the spectrum, women of the lower class mainly wore natural colors such as brown, yellow, and beige. In order to follow the dress code, they made their dresses with only wool or linen (Hun 7). Women of the middle class also wore simple dresses like the women of the lower class, however, their dresses were nicer wools and linens and were often white (Hun