Fashion And Clothing In The Elizabethan Era

One of the most defining things of a generation or time period is the fashion, and the most prominent example of this is the Elizabethan era. When the majority of people are reminded of the Elizabethan Era, they think of “poofy” dresses, and/or a ruff. This among many other things, is helping the Elizabethan Era stay alive. However, fashion is an umbrella term and contains many uses such as the color used, hats and hairstyles, gowns, and shoes. For some people, the first thing they notice about someone is what they are wearing. Elizabethan women wanted to make sure they had a good first impression, and that they did with sometimes more than 13 different parts to a gown. The materials used in each part were different, and some could become

Women’s hairstyle styles included the French hood, coif, caul, atifet, and the pillbox style. The most popular way to wear women’s hair however was in a hair net, which could be decorated. This era was also known as the peacock era, so men could not let the women take all of the spotlight and sported fashionable beards that could be cut in a square, t-shape, oblong, round, or pointed style. As the era grew, so did the length of men’s hair in the styles. When men wore their hair down, it was required to be curled. They would curl their hair with a hot iron, and used wax or gum like hairspray to keep it in

In Elizabethan times, just like hats and hairstyles, there were many different types of shoes. Examples are: Boots, gamanches, buskins, startups, pumps, chopines, clogs, corked shoes, galoches, pantofles, and pincnets. These shoes could be made with a red, black, or white leather or a red, green, black, or white velvet. They would often also have silk or embroidery, and could also be pinked like gowns. Many different types of leather were used, and it could be made waterproof by soaking it in liquor and then rubbing it repeatedly with grease. Queen Elizabeth used Sumptuary Laws just like rulers before her had back to even the Romans, and they would dictate what color, style, and material of clothing you could wear. Each color had a different meaning, and some of the dyes used to make these colors were hard to come by. Yellow was dyed with saffron, which came from India and only the wealthy could afford. Purple was the color of royalty, and only those in the close royal family were allowed to wear it. Some colors were primarily worn by lower classes, such as muted or light pink, blue, and