T
he clothes people wear
matter a great deal in
the 21st century.
Choosing an outfit
for a job interview or
a first date requires
careful thought and
preparation. In Tudor and Stuart
England, dress was important too, and
the daily lives of ordinary women were
affected by what they chose to wear- especially in London, which by 1700
was the largest city in Europe.
In 1616, T homa s Tu ke publ ished a
pamphlet called A Treatise Against
Painting and Tincturing of Men and
Women, in which he complained that
“once a yeere at least” an Englishwoman
“would faine see London, tho’ when she
comes there, she have nothing to doe, but
to learn a new fashion”. Although hostile to
those who lavished too much time on their
appearance, Tuke’s comments about
women coming to the capital in order to
view the latest trends were accurate.
A major attraction of London was the
range of shopping opportunities. By Queen
Elizabeth’s reign in the second half of the
16th century, merchants were importing a
wide range of different fabrics, dyes and
textiles that meant that clothes were
becoming more diverse and colourful.
Most of this linen and lace came from Italy
and the Low Countries but, by the end of
the 17th century, more exotic commodities
such as East Indian chintz and calicos were
available too.
Women thus had a selection of fabrics
to choose from and were able to purchase a
range of accessories as well. These were
both decorative and practical. Muffs not
only kept hands warm, but functioned as
substitute handbags to store handkerchiefs,
money and scent. Face masks and hoods
were popular too, enabling women to
move around the busy city without being
recognised. Many women personalised
their clothes by adding laces, ribbons
and flowers, or by embroidering designs
and patterns.
Clothes could be purchased from many
different places. Wealthy women, such
as the wives of London citizens, shopped
at the Royal Exchange and the New
Exchange, but tailors, shoemakers,
embroiders, glove-makers and milliners
could be found throughout the City and
in neighbouring Westminster.
As the clothing industry developed,
more ready-to-wear clothes became
available at cheaper prices. But many
women continued to make their own
clothes or purchased second-hand ones,
often from other women who were
prominent in the trade. Many of these
second-hand items would have been
stolen; and shoplifting by women became
a growing problem in the later decades of
the 17th century.
Yet even law-abiding women did not have
to purchase all the clothes they acquired.
Growing numbers of women worked as
domestic servants, and were given work
clothes by their employers. For example,
one Mrs Wynnington made a gown for her
servant, Anne Fenton, which was to be paid
for out of her wages. Young people gave and
received clothes as gifts when courting,
elderly women left items of clothing and
textiles to female relatives and friends in
their wills, and poor women received
donations of clothes via their parish if they
were eligible for poor relief.Laced up to
the neck
London women were
thought to be more
fashion-conscious and
better-dressed than
their sisters in the
provinces, and, when
visiting, were said to
“take all their best
apparel with them” so
“that their friends in
the Country, may see
all their bravery”.
Travel lers f rom
other countries alsocommented favourably on the dress of
metropolitan women. In 1562, the Italian
Alessandra Magno observed that women
wore “dresses laced up to the neck, which
make them appear very graceful” and, in
1592, Duke Frederick of Wirtemberg
thought they were “magnificently
apparelled”, perhaps because some of the
women he saw wore “gowns after the old
German fashion”. In 1662, the Dutchman
William Schellinks went walking in Hyde
Park and afterwards wrote how “one can
see here the most beautiful ladies’ dresses”.
Wearing appropriate clothes for the
occasion was very important. Working
women needed to have a set of practical
informal clothes for everyday wear, but
would have aspired to have particular
items and outfits to wear on special
occasions. In 1660, Elizabeth Pepys, the
wife of the famous diarist Samuel, changed
her clothes before she went to see her
husband and their friend at The Miter, a
tavern in Wood Street. In May 1684, Joan
Kirk refused to go and visit her husband’s
cousin because she believed she lacked
clothes which would be “good enough to
go a visiting”. Her husband, Edward, only
managed to persuade her to come with
him after Joan borrowed a hood and scarf
from another woman.
People noticed if women wore anything
unusual or distinctive. When Elizabeth
Hazard went out in “her best apparel”, her“Shoplifting by women
became a growing problem
in the later decades of
the 17th century”
A coloured engraving showing the “habit” of a wealthy lady in c1630. By this
GETTY IMAGEStime, women were personalising their clothes with laces, ribbons and flowers