First Young Lady: Elizabeth! Don't look now, but there's
a bunch of people watching us.
Elizabeth, the second young lady: Oh! Those are
those people! Remember Arabella, the ones everyone was talking
about in town today!
Arabella: Oh, my! You mean the ones who say they're from
the FUTURE!
Elizabeth: Yes, that's them (talk to class) Uh,
good....good morrow!
Arabella: Liz, look how they're dressed! Oh! Perhaps they're
here to learn about Elizabethan clothing. Ask them!
Elizabeth: Well, uh, do you know much about Elizabethan
clothing?
Arabella: Well, then you've come to the right place! Welcome
to Campanella Dress Shoppe! I'm Arabella....
Elizabeth: And I'm Elizabeth. Maybe you would like
to browse around a bit first. We have clothes both old and new
so you can get a feel of things. Let us know:
Arabella: Let's see, where should we start? How about
with the three main types of women's garments?
Elizabeth: Oh, good idea.
There are 3 main types of attire: the kirtle, the bodice and petticoat,
and the gown. The kirtie is a long, fitted, dress that reaches
down to the feet without a seam at the waist. It is not usually
worn by fashionable women, though it can be worn underneath other
garments.
Arabella: Tell them about the bodice, Elizabeth.
Elizabeth: Hold on, Arabella, I'm getting there.
The bodice is a close fitting garment for the upper body. It is
made out of wool to keep the torso warm, and stiffened to mold
the body into a fashionable shape. It is flat, broad in the shoulders,
and narrow in the waist. The neckline of the bodice reflects fashionable
trends: it used to be low, but now it's high. The degree of stiffening
depends on the wearer. If the woman is upper-class, she'll wear
a stiffly boned bodice. Ordinary women, though, need more freedom
to do everyday tasks. Stiffening may be provided by "whale
bone, dried reeds, willowy wood, or steel. A bodice takes a bit
of strain so buttons are to weak of a fastening. Instead, bodices
are fastened with hooks or laced up.
Arabella: Elizabeth, what about the petticoats?
Elizabeth: You tell them, Arabella.
Arabella: Well, "petticoat" is just a fancy name
for a skirt. It's shape is dictated by the shape of the undergarment.
Bell-shaped farthingales make bell-shaped skirts, lightly gathered
at the waist. Wheel farthingales require huge skirts, heavily
gathered at the waist. Women who do not wear farthingales wear
many layers of petticoats to increase volume.
The last style of female garment is a gown, which is a bodice
and a skirt sewn together. The gown is worn on top of a kirtle
or a petticoat. The gown is the richest form of all garments,
often with huge sleeves that hang down the back and open skirts
in front to reveal other skirts underneath.
Elizabeth: Arabella, just before, when you talked
about petticoats you mentioned farthingales - shouldn't we tell
them what they are?
Arabella: Good idea, we'll tell them all about undergarments.
Most undergarments are the basic shift which serves as a comfortable,
absorbent, and washable layer between the body and the clothes.
They are generally made of white linen, though the rich favor
silk. They can be simple and straight, or elaborate with ruffles
and decoration. Women's shirts are called smocks and are usually
between knee and floor length. The smock also serves as a nightgown,
however wealthy people use special nightshifts. Smocks and shirts
are never a top layer like all of you are dressed. They are always
worn with garments over it. Elizabeth, why don't you tell them
a little bit about the farthingale.
Elizabeth: Sure, a farthingale was worn to support
skirts. There is the bell-shaped farthingale, which is an underskirt
with a series of wire, whalebone, or wooden hoops sewn into it.
there is also the wheel farthingale. This sticks directly out
at the hips, and falls straight down, giving skirts a cylinder-like
shape.
Next, we move to outer and inner garments. In chilly weather,
additional garments are worn. Between the shift and the outergarment
people sometimes wear a knitted undergarment called a wastecoat.
Indoors, linen and knitted jackets are worn for warmth. Loose
gowns are worn by men and women and are knee to ankle length for
an additional layer of warmth.
Arabella: With all garments people wear collars and cuffs.
Originally, shifts were heavily gathered at the neck, making a
ruff around the neckband. Eventually, a new style has emerged,
in which a separate ruff is held around the neck. Both men and
women wear ruffs, and they have become larger and more fashionable.
Not too long ago, starch was introduced to the laundry process.
This method of stiffening enabled the ruff to grow even larger.
Now, some ruffs are so large they need to be supported by a wire
framework to fan them around the head.
Elizabeth: Now, let's move on to shoes and stockings.
Shoes are blunt-toed and flat. Most are made of leather, although
fashionable shoes are sometimes made of velvet or silk shoes used
to just slip on, but now they tie. Lower leg garments are called
stockings or netherstocks. In the beginning, stockings were made
out of woven cloth. Now they are knitted, making them more expensive.
They were originally a luxury made out of silk. However, now knit
woolen socks are appearing. Cloth stockings made of silk or linen
have always been worn and still are today.
Arabella: We Elizabethan women wear our hair long, although
we always pin it up. It's customary to wear at least a simple
cap known as a coif, which is typically linen and sometimes embroidered.
On top of a coif, women wear a variety of head adornments. 1st
is the forehead cloth, a triangular piece of linen that ties.
Another is the French hood, a fabric bonnet shaped with wires.
Women also wear flat caps.
Elizabeth: Last, but not least, we have purses and
belts. The belt is know as a girdle. A girdle is a place to hang
personal possessions on, not to hod up a garment. We ladies have
chain girdles or girdles made of fine fabric. Girdles often hold
purses. Purses close with a drawstring or a flap. Purses might
hold one or more small knit or cloth pouches.
Arabella: Well, I think you are now well informed about
Renaissance Elizabethan clothing.
Elizabeth: And when you go back to the future, I
hope you can help others learn about our styles as well.
Arabella: We must get back to work now so, fare-the-well!
Elizabeth: Fare-the-well! You are welcome to browse
around and get a better feel of the types of clothes we have.
We even have old clothes that you may be interested in from other
times.
Yes, I want to browse!
Arabella: Let's see, where should we start? How about
with the three main types of men's garments?
Elizabeth: Oh, good idea. A man's suit consisted
of a doublet, jerkin, and hose. Underneath it, he wears a shirt
and underwear resembling jockey shorts worn by the men of your
time. There are a wide variety of styles. The heavily padded,
peascod doublet have a pointy waist and a skirt of tabs most of
the time, but there are other styles. Level waists are sometimes
worn by practical people, and especially the lower classes. A
doublet with a natural waist, comfortable sleeves, and deep skirt
(to mid-thigh) is appropriate working-class wear. Doublets with
a very narrow (almost vestigial) skirt are also worn, especially
with Venetians. Sleeves are usually fitted, with buttons up the
back of the arm near the cuff. There is usually a wing or roll
at the shoulder junction of the sleeve and body. Big, puffy leg-o-mutton
sleeves are also worn, often with the narrow-skirted-Venetian
breeches look.
Arabella: The jerkin is sleeveless and cut to fit over
the doublet. It is often left open. Collars are very high, but
have been becoming more reasonable recently.
Elizabeth: Hose are quite varied in style, and there
are two parts: the upper hose and the nether hose (which look
like stockings or tights to people of your time). The basic upper
hose styles are knee-breeches (Venetians or gallygaskins), paned
trunk hose, and short trunk hose with canions.
Arabella: We had better tell them about knee-breeches.
Elizabeth: Alright. Knee-breeches come in several
styles: very full throughout, very tight throughout, and very
gathered and the top and narrow at the knee (like an inverted
pear or turkey-leg). They might button or hook at the knee (either
on the outside or inside of the knee), or might even be left open.
They should be worn with over-the-knee length stockings, either
tucked inside or pulled over the breeches, that are held up by
garters. The garters might be quite ostentatious, or they might
be simple bands with a buckle, with the stocking tops rolled down
over to hide them. Sailors and laborers often wear breeches that
are very loose all the way down and left open at the bottom, falling
to about mid-calf. Codpieces are not worn with any of these styles.
Arabella, you finish telling them about hose.
Arabella: Paned trunk hose (puffy shorts made of strips
of material laid over a lining cloth that showed through the panes)
are worn by most men. At this time, the fashionable line has them
coming to mid-thigh and padded to a bell-like shape (as opposed
to the onion or pumpkin shape popular previously). They are worn
with nether-hose. Codpieces may still be found with them, but
they are going out of style.
Elizabeth: Very, very short trunk hose (sometimes
little more than a padded roll around the hips) might be attached
and worn with canions -- fitted short extensions that came to
around the knee. Like knee-breeches, they should be worn with
stockings, which may be pulled up over the canions and cross-gartered
(or not). They may be paned or unpaned.
Arabella: We better move on to the shirts. The basic shirt
underneath this all is a simple one -- a front and back gathered
to a neck band with a gusset on the side of the neck, and square-cut
sleeves gathered into a wrist band with a gusset under the arm.
Fancy collars and cuffs were often separate, or might button onto
the bands. There also might be a simple fold-over collar.
Elizabeth: We musn't forget about cloaks and hats.
A gentleman is not truly dressed without them.
Arabella: There are a number of cloak styles: short Dutch
cloaks, Spanish cloaks (short, with a large decorative hood that
hung down the back), and French cloaks (very long and often with
a shoulder-length mantle over it). Cloaks are commonly worn over
one shoulder (leaving the sword arm free), with the ties going
under the arms to fasten in the back where they will not be seen.
Cloaks sometimes have hanging sleeves attached, which makes it
hard to tell the difference between them and a coat or cassock.
The cassock is a loose-fitting (no waist), hip-length garment
with sleeves, sometimes open-sides, that is usually put on over
the head (as it does not button all the way down). A loose coat
of this kind is popular with sailors.
Elizabeth: To top it all off, men wear caps. The
flat, beret-like cap that has been worn most of this century is
going out of style, and the tall-crowned, flat-top hat is coming
into fashion. It is usually worn with a feather or decorative
hatband.
Arabella: To bottom it all off, men's shoes are changing
in style also. Boots are worn for riding, but shoes are considered
appropriate for indoors. Heels are just coming into fashion. The
trendy shoe is cut with a tongue and has side-lachets fastened
over the instep with a bow. Slashed slipper-like shoes are going
out of fashion.
Elizabeth: We can't help notice that your men are
mostly clean shaven. That is unusual in our time. Men wear beards
almost universally, cut in different styles -- the van dyke-like
style, spade, square, pique-devant, etc. Moustaches are not worn
alone. Hair has been quite close cropped for the last few decades,
but it starting to get longer and looser.
Arabella: Well, I think you are now well informed about
Renaissance Elizabethan clothing.
Elizabeth: And when you go back to the future, I
hope you can help others learn about our styles as well.
Arabella: We must get back to work now so, fare-the-well!
Elizabeth: Fare-the-well! You are welcome to browse
around and get a better feel of the types of clothes we have.
We even have old clothes that you may be interested in from other
times.
Yes, I want to browse!
References:
"How to Make an Elizabethan Corset" http://www.dnaco.net/~aleed/corsets/
20 June 1996.
"Renaissance Faire Costumes" http://www.resort.com/~banshee/Faire/Costume/costume.html
21 June 1996.
"Footwear of the Middle Ages" http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/carlson/SHOEHOME.HTM
22 June 1996.
Harrison, Molly and Shiela Maguire (illustrator). Children
in History: Sixteenth and
Seventeenth Centuries . University Printing House. Cambridge,
G.B., 1978.
Lace, William W. World History Series; Elizabethan England.
Lucent Books, Inc. San Diego,1995.
Singman, Jeffrey L. Daily Life in Elizabethan England.
Greenwood Press, 1995.
Taylor, Laurence and Angus McBride (illustrator). Everyday
Life: The Seventeenth Century .Silver Burdett Company.
Morristown, N. J., 1983.
Middleton, Hayden and Angus McBride (illustrator). Everyday
Life: The Sixteenth Century .Silver Burdett Company. Morristown,
N. J., 1983.
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