Why Is Fashion Important In The Elizabethan Era

Fashion is a part of everyone’s life. It’s what people first notice about you. While some people don’t care much, others care a lot about how they look, that including people of the Elizabethan Era. Fashion in that era was astonishing, but did they push the limits too far? Beauty and fashion standards in the Elizabethan era were strict and very important in life. Makeup and skincare cosmetics have been around since forever. Since one's face is the first thing most notice, one might try to their best to keep it at society’s standards of beauty. That standard in the Elizabethan was pale skin, large foreheads, red-orange hair, and rouge lips and cheeks. Rogue lips and cheeks were achieved by using animal dyes and plants. Rosemary, lemon juice, and mercury were used to keep skin spotless. Mercury causes kidney damage and can lower cognitive functions.

There were laws about which classes could wear which clothes. Members of the royal family and upperclassmen had the most clothing options. There were laws that “forbade any men except members of the royal family and other high ranking people to wear any silk of the color of purple, cloth of gold tissued” (Evans). Velvet hats were exclusive to aristocrats, coats and gowns with velvet were unique to men of rank. “Only the Queen and her relatives were allowed to wear clothing that used gold or gold tissue as embellishment. Also, clothes trimmed with ermine were only permitted to royalty” (Oddly). The upper class and nobles could wear clothing with fox or other types of fur. It could be brightly colored if you could pay the price, most lower classmen could not. Lower classmen could not afford fur. Most of the clothes they could afford were made from linen, sheepskin, or wool. They were not allowed to wear silk or velvet. Brown, russet, green, gray, blue, and beige were the colors of clothing they could wear. If they didn’t abide by these rules, they would be