Daily Life in Elizabethan England (26 page)

To the modern eye, Elizabethan clothing may look constrictive, hot, and uncomfortable. Clothing was indeed heavier in the 16th century than it is today. England has never had a very warm climate, and Elizabeth’s reign fell within a period of particularly cold weather known today as the Little Ice Age. At the same time, the clothing we usually associate with the Elizabethan period is the most formal attire of the aristocracy, and formal clothes are typically more constrictive than everyday wear. The ordinary clothes of working people had to allow for more mobility and were considerably more comfortable by today’s standards.

Most people owned little clothing—two changes of attire was typical for the majority, ensuring that they would have clean clothes to wear on Sunday. The wealthy had their garments tailor-made, but ordinary people

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Daily Life in Elizabethan England

A royal hunting party.

[Ashdown]

purchased them off the rack, and many bought them used. Most Elizabethan clothing was robustly made, and would last much longer the modern counterparts—only linen undergarments, which were subjected to regular washing, and footwear were inclined to wear out quickly.

MATERIALS

The principal fibers used in Elizabethan clothing were linen and wool.

Linen derives from the flax plant; it is a very comfortable fabric, absorbent, easy to clean, and quick to dry. It was ideal for wearing next to the skin in shirts, underwear, collars, cuffs, and hose: it could absorb sweat and dirt and keep them from damaging the valuable outer garments. Its absorbency made it less useful as an outer garment in England’s rainy climate. Linen was also used for lining and interlining garments. Sometimes, as an interlining, it was impregnated with gum (a sticky secretion derived from certain plants) to make it stiffer, in which case it was called buckram. A certain amount of linen was produced domestically, although the best linens were imported from the Continent, especially from northern France and the Low Countries. Table linen might be had for 5d. an ell (45

inches). Holland could cost 1s. 6d. for the coarser varieties, 5s. for the finer ones, and cambric could range from 2s. to 20s; both of these were finer
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127

A PURITAN CRITIQUE OF FASHION

Now there is such a confused mingle-mangle of apparel in
Ailgna
[England], and such preposterous excess thereof, as every one is permitted to flaunt it out in what apparel he listeth [wishes] himself, or can get by any kind of means—so that it is very hard to know who is noble, who is worshipful, who is a gentleman, who is not. For you shall have those which are neither of the nobility, gentility, nor yeomanry, no, nor yet any magistrate or officer in the commonwealth, go daily in silks, velvets, satins, damasks, taffetas, and such like, notwithstanding that they be both base by birth, mean by estate, and servile by calling. . . . They have great and monstrous ruffs, made either of cambric, holland, lawn, or else of some other the finest cloth that can be got for money, wherefore some be a quarter of a yard deep. . . hanging out over their shoulder points instead of a sail. . . . Their doublets are no less monstrous than the rest, for now the fashion is to have them hang down to the middle of their thighs, or at least to their privy members, being so hard quilted, stuffed, bombasted, and sewed, as they can neither work nor yet play in them. . . . Every artificer’s wife (almost) will not stick to go in her hat of velvet every day, every merchant’s wife and mean gentlewoman in her French hood, and every poor cottager’s daughter in her taffeta hat, or else of wool at the least.

Phillip Stubbes,
The Anatomie of Abuses
(London: Richard Jones, 1583), 10r, 22v, 25r, 34v.

linens often used for shirts. Lawn, an extremely fine linen used especially in neckwear and cuffs, cost 10s. and up.

Occasionally linen was used for outer garments such as breeches and doublets, particularly for reasons of economy. In such cases, it was generally of a heavier type than shirt-linen, such as linen canvas, which might range in price from 1s. to 3s. a yard. Canvas could also be made from hemp, the plant fiber used in making ropes. Canvas of this sort was very tough, suitable for such purposes as making sails and packing merchan-dise, but it might be used for clothing when economy or durability was more important than comfort. Hemp was also used to make lockram, a coarse fabric used in shirts.

Cotton was imported and most commonly found as a component of

fustian, a fabric woven with a cotton weft and linen warp. Fustian cost 1s.

for coarse stuff, 3–5s. for fine. Fustian was often used to give the appearance of silk and was also used for stuffing padded garments. Cotton fibers might also be used for stuffing or padding a garment. The term can be a source of confusion, since Elizabethans also used it as the name of a heavy woolen fabric.

By far the most common fabric for the outer layers of clothing was wool, which was one of the principal sources of England’s wealth in Elizabeth’s
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Daily Life in Elizabethan England

day. Wool is sturdy and versatile—it sheds water, keeps the wearer warm in cold weather, yet is remarkably cool in the summer. It accepts dye readily but does not absorb moisture (such as sweat) or wash well. One of the cheapest sorts was called frieze, which cost 6d. to 3s. a yard; 2s. to 4s. was a standard range for English wools. Woolen fabrics tended to be heavily felted, improving their resistance to cold, rain, and fraying. In fact, woolens might be so heavily felted that it was unnecessary to hem them, which made them especially suitable for outer garments, where hems can collect rainwater.

These heavily felted woolens had been made in England since the

Middle Ages and were known as
old draperies.
Lighter woolens known as
new draperies
had become fashionable by Elizabeth’s day: these were more elegant but less durable, similar to modern suiting fabric. The new draperies had originated in Italy, and the techniques for making them came to Elizabethan England with Flemish and French refugees.

The finest fabrics were made of silk and quite expensive. Satin was one of the cheaper luxury fabrics, ranging from 3s. to 14s. a yard; taffeta might cost 15s.; velvet, 31s.; and damask a princely £4, more than most people made in a year. Plain silk was used for fine shirts; satin and taffeta, for outer layers and for lining; velvet, for outer layers.

SHOPPING AT THE ROYAL EXCHANGE, LONDON

Atire-gain (the Shopkeeper’s Maid)
Madam, what doth it please you to have?

Would ye have any fair linen cloth? Mistress, see what I have, and I will show you the fairest linen cloth in London, if you do not like it, you may leave it, you shall bestow nothing but the looking on, the pain shall be ours to show them you.

Lady
. . . Have you any fair holland?

Atire-gain
Yes, forsooth, Madam, and the fairest lawn that ever you handled. . . . The cambric will cost you twenty shillings the ell.

Lady
Truly it lacketh no price. And if things be so much worth as those which sell them do make them to be, your cambric is very good, for you hold it at a good price. But yet I will not give so much though.

Atire-gain
How much will it please you to give then Madam?—to the end that I may have your custom.

Lady
I will give you fifteen shillings. If you will take my money make short, for I have other business than to tarry here.

Atire-gain
Truly Madam I would be very sorry to deny you if I could give it at that price, but in truth I cannot, unless I should lose by it.

Lady
I will give you sixteen, and not one halfpenny more. . . .

Sempster
Madam, I am content to lose in it, of the price that I sell it to others, in hope that you will buy of us when you shall have need.

Peter Erondell,
The French Garden
(1605), in M. St Clare Byrne, ed.
The Elizabethan
Home
(London: Methuen, 1949), 57–59.

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129

Leather was also an important element in the Elizabethan’s clothing.

It was used not only for gloves, belts, and shoes, but also for a variety of garments, especially among men, including hats, doublets, and even breeches. Leather garments were often adorned with slashing or tooling.

Furs were also used to trim the edges of garments: cheap options included lambskin, rabbit, and fox; richer ones, mink, marten, and ermine.

DECORATION

The colors of Elizabethan fabrics were mostly based on natural dyes, the commonest being brown, grey, red, blue, yellow, and green. The various colors sometimes had specific associations, in many cases related to the expense of producing them. Brown and grey fabrics were inexpensive and were associated with the poor. There were two types of red fabric. One was dyed with the plant madder, which yields a russet color. Such fabric was also relatively inexpensive and was associated with honest plain folk
.

Bright red fabric, by contrast, had to be made with imported dyes and was expensive. Blue was fairly inexpensive and was often worn by servants and apprentices. The usual source for blue dye was the herb woad. Black was a difficult color to obtain with natural dyes and was consequently expensive: for this reason it was especially fashionable. Intense colors were difficult to produce, and natural dyes tend to fade quickly. Consequently, the colors of most Elizabethan clothing would have been rather muted.

Linen was generally undyed, although it was often bleached by exposing it to the sun. Sometimes it was block-printed or adorned with embroidery, particularly at visible points like the collar and cuffs. Clothes could be further ornamented by slashing or pinking (piercing) the outer layer to reveal a fine contrasting fabric underneath. Other adornments included
guarding
(ribbon trim, often used around the edge of a garment or to hide seams) and even gems or pearls on the most fancy outfits.

A distinctive feature of Elizabethan clothing was the extensive use of padding, known as
bombast,
to give the garments a fashionable shape.

Bombast was especially common in men’s clothes and typically consisted of raw wool, cotton, or horsehair, but oats or bran were sometimes used instead. To achieve the modish, highly shaped look of the fashionable torso garment, these were not only lined but also interlined with a stiffening fabric like buckram.

CLEANING

As a rule, only the inner layers of clothing (such as shirts and underwear) were actually washed; evidence suggests that ordinary people probably washed clothing on a weekly basis, donning a fresh shirt each Sunday. Detachable collars and cuffs might be changed more often. Washing was mostly for linen garments. They would be saturated in soap and hot water, beaten with paddles, rinsed, and then left out in the sun to
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Daily Life in Elizabethan England

FROM THE PRIVY COUNCIL’S PROCLAMATION

ENFORCING THE STATUTES OF APPAREL, 1562

For the reformation of the use of the monstrous and outrageous greatness of hose, crept of late into the realm to the great slander thereof, and the undo-ing of a number using the same, being driven for the maintenance thereof to seek such unlawful ways as by their own confession have brought them to destruction, it is ordained . . . that no tailor, hosier, or other person . . . shall put any more cloth in any one pair of hose . . . than one yard and a half, or at the most one yard and three quarters of a yard of kersey or of any other cloth, leather, or any other kind of stuff . . . and in the same hose to be put only one kind of lining besides linen cloth; . . . the said lining not to lie loose nor to be bolstered, but to lie just unto their legs as in ancient times was accustomed. . . . Neither any man under the degree of a baron to wear within his hose any velvet, satin or any other stuff above the estimation of sarcenet or taffeta. . . .

And whereas an usage is crept in, contrary to former orders, of wearing of long swords and rapiers, sharpened in such sort as may appear the usage of them cannot tend to defense (which ought to be the very meaning of wearing of weapons in times of peace), but to murder and evident death, . . . her majesty’s pleasure is that no man shall . . . wear any sword, rapier, or any weapon . . . passing the length of one yard and half-a-quarter of blade at the uttermost, neither any dagger above the length of twelve inches in blade, neither any buckler with a sharp point, or with any point above two inches of length.

Paul L. Hughes and James F. Larkin,
Tudor Royal Proclamations
(New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1969), 2.189–91.

dry and bleach, either in a field or on hedges (some thieves specialized in snatching linens from hedges as they dried). They might then be pressed with irons. Outer layers of clothing, most often made of wool or richer fabrics, did not wash well and were cleaned with a clothes-brush instead.