Fashion of the Elizabethan Era Essay Sample.
Essays and Articles on life in Elizabethan and Tudor times, including marriage, childhood, houses, theatre. Contributions from Alan Roberts.
The Elizabethan era had its own customs and social rules that were reflected in their fashion. Style would depend usually of social status and Elizabethans were bound to obey The Elizabethan Sumptuary Laws, which oversaw the style and materials worn.
Fashion in the Elizabethan era saw women wearing a number of different layers. Each piece was carefully designed and styled to cover every part of a woman’s body. The women who belonged to the upper class wore a knee-length or full-length chemise. On top, they donned a kirtle along with a fitted bodice that helped accentuate the small waist.
By the late Elizabethan period the alehouse was an integral part of town life. Arguably the primal importance of the alehouse lay in its role as a social centre. It was a place where the locals could meet up of an evening, talk, make friends, and wind down after a hard days work.
In the first half of the twentieth century, many writers and artists turnedto the art and received example of the Elizabethans as a means ofarticulating an emphatic (and anti-Victorian) modernity. By the middleof that century, this cultural neo-Elizabethanism had become absorbedwithin a broader mainstream discourse of national identity, heritage andcultural performance. Taking strength from.
The era is most famous for theatre, as William Shakespeare and many others composed plays that broke free of England's past style of theatre. It was an age of exploration and expansion abroad, while back at home, the Protestant Reformation became more acceptable to the people, most certainly after the Spanish Armada was repelled.
The men and women both wore several layers of clothing for all occasions. Women wore corsets at all times during the day, and always wore floor length dresses. Men typically wore bloomer-like pants and shoes called mules. But, Elizabethan era clothing had different styles for different occasions and for different social classes.