Clothing During The Elizabethan Era

The poor man wore very different clothes than the rich. They wore a very simple blouse made of very cheap fabric again, they tucked them in their pants. For pants they wore a often brown loose fitting pant and even the poor man wore this kind of leggings underneath it.

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.

Clothing styles have changed drastically over the many years of civilization. From hand made, hand sewn, pieces of fabric, to mas produced, factory made, clothing, through technology clothing has changed. The evolution of clothing is due to technological advances in the making of mass produced clothing. Throughout history clothing has had a big impact of social status.

Throughout history, fashion has been the biggest indicator of social and economic status. While the sumptuary laws of the Elizabethan era that determined the color and style people of different ranks were allowed to wear ended around 200 years prior to the time the novel was written, society has always imparted a strict set of rules for its given era on propriety. There’s always an emphasis on dress no matter what age, the rules just fluctuate from era to era. Therefore, given societies set rules that it upheld, it was frowned upon for someone of a different

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.

People everywhere find self-expression through what they wear. Many people today are judged by what they wear. Although one doesn’t want it to, clothing can place you in a certain group or social class. Even 457 years ago, when the Elizabethan Era was recognized by its profound range of fashion, clothing showed wealth, inheritance, and social class. People today are allowed to wear what they desire, but during the Elizabethan Era many women were restricted from many fabrics or materials, colors, and patterns.

What would happen if an aunt or uncle murders a parent that belongs to them, to benefit from something such as their bank account? Shakespeare's famous play, Hamlet exemplifies what a tragedy genre is and is a very popular play that has been studied since 1604 ("Hamlet"). In this play, Hamlet discovers that his uncle, Claudius, murders his father in his sleep, by pouring poison in his ear, all this information is said to Hamlet through the ghost of his father. Every good child who respects their parents, will seek to avenge for them, like Hamlet, they will develop a hatred towards the murderer and plot ways to rat them out, but many are afraid of the consequences and as a result, they shy away and choose to not do anything. However, in Hamlet,

Men and Women’s clothes portrayed ranking in society. Wealthier people had more elegant clothes than others. Women usually tried to look like men when they wore outfits with big shoulders, wide hips, and a small waist. A woman's age also influenced what she wore. They wore two piece dresses, which was constructed of many individual parts to it. “The well to do Elizabethan woman might have looked something like this: make up base of white of lead and sulfur, various dyes on the cheeks, beauty spots drawn on, eyebrows plucked thin, lips thickly lipsticked, hair powered pinned and perfumed.” (Tomecek, Jan) These individual parts of the dresses that the women would wear included the bodice, partlet, sleeves, ruffs, kirtle and bumroll. Women usually always had their hair pulled back from their face and wore it in many different styles. Men’s clothes during this period included doublets, breeches, underwear, collars, ruffs, hats and

They had to wear what they were told, by law. Those laws about clothes in the Elizabethan era were called Sumptuary Laws, and they were strictly obeyed. (L.K. Alchin. Elizabethan Era. May 16th 2012.)Lower class women were required to wear the less appealing fabrics and material.

Some might ask, why was clothing in the Elizabethan Era so monumental? The ruler of The Elizabethan Era, Elizabeth I, who possessed two thousand exquisite gowns upon her death was a woman, with her being a woman, fashion was nothing to be toyed with; it was serious business(Lad). Fashion in the Elizabethan Era defined citizens as persons; colors, fabrics, and even hair lines could indicate whether you belong to the lavish upper class or the lower class clothed in wool. Clothing of the Elizabethan Era was indeed serious business, so serious that Elizabeth I introduced the Statues of Apparel In Greenwich on June 15, 1574. (Alchin)

The upper class and the royal family were allowed to wear clothes of different type of expensive and rare materials, such as fur, velvet, silk, and lace. (Fashion and Classes5) However, there were department even in upper class, the person has higher position, the more privileges they had when it's their wardrobe. (Fashion and Classes6) For example, only Elizabeth and her relatives could wore clothes that decorated with gold or gold gift as embellishment.

Clothing of the Elizabethan Era As Sylvester Stallone once said, “Clothing is the first step to building a character.” In the time period known as the Elizabethan Era (1558-1603), fashion meant a great deal to the people and was a way of showing off one's fortune. The strict laws, that stated what people were permitted to wear, distinguished the wealthy from the poor.

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.

During the middle ages, clothing and fashion were a representation of how someone lived. Each social class had clothing very different from one another. Every clothing item was specific to individual groups of people; men, women, rich, poor and the church. Materials people’s clothing were made out of could show if someone had a lot of money or had a little supply of money. Medieval Europe spent a large amount of time making their clothing and presenting it to show who they were and where they were in the social class.

During the ancient and medieval cultures, clothing styles were relatively static and uniform. The dress was dependent upon the practicalities of everyday life that the boundaries impose by these practicalities of life, cultures found ways to imitate and express the beauty they saw in their daily worlds through their self-adornment. These elements in the Early and the Late Middle Ages contain the following: Braies, Cote-Hardier, Sideless Surcote, Wimple, Magyar, Parti-colored, Revers, and Poulaine.