How Did Renaissance Women Dress?

The English Renaissance period spanned a total of 150 years from 1450 to 1600 and followed the Medieval years. Women's fashions changed dramatically in this time and were heavily influenced by Italian Renaissance art and German designers.

Investing in Fashion

• Clothes were an important status symbol and retained their value. Women's clothing was made of silk, brocade, velvet and cotton and could be re-sold to realise capital. Ribbons, pearls and golden thread added value and women were literally wearing their own wealth. In 1574, Queen Elizabeth I passed a law limiting spending on clothes for working women in order to preserve class distinction.

Changing Fashions

• Women's clothed silhouettes changed from slim and simple at the end of the Medieval era to wide, structured and balloon-shaped in Renaissance times. One piece dresses initially became three pieces: underskirt, bodice and robe. Soon a typical woman's outfit comprised of at least five pieces: skirt, underskirt, bodice, over-bodice, hoop and collar.

Historical Fashion Records

• Visual evidence of what Renaissance women wore comes mainly from paintings of the time. Portraits were popular, providing today's historians with crucial insight into fashions for rich women. Working women of course could not afford to be painted so fewer images remain of them. Genre paintings, though, show an homogeneous style of dress for servants and market women who wore linen smocks with open-fronted, laced-up gowns.