Renaissance costumes

Answer 1

The Era

From about 1400 to 1600, the Renaissance saw an explosion of art, music, scholarship and exploration. Europeans discovered the "New World." Protestant reformers rebelled against the Catholic Church. Michelangelo and Leonardo DaVinci, Dante and Shakespeare, Galileo and Isaac newton flourished. Costumes evolved over the period and varied regionally, between men and women and by wealth and social class.

Women's Clothing: Nobility

Early Renaissance gowns had high waists with wide gored skirts and trains, gathered at center front and worn over a linen shift. They had square necklines and flat bustlines. Sleeves were puffed, interchangeable and separate from the bodice, tied to it with laces. Fabrics were rich: brocaded and embroidered silks and velvets, fine linen in dark, deep colors accented by gold and jewels. By the late Renaissance, waistlines of gowns dropped to the natural waist. Skirts became much fuller, supported by hooped underskirts that showed through slits in the gown. Collars became high and ruffled. An outer garment for warmth was the houppeland, a long, full, sleeved gown that opened in the front.

Women's Clothing: Peasantry

Peasants' clothes were simpler. Women wore a shift under a laced bodice and overskirt for everyday with a houppeland for warmth. For rare festive occasions they may have had gowns similar to those of noblewomen but in coarser, plainer fabric.

Men's Clothing: Nobility

The basic men's garments were chausses and a doublet or jerkin. Chausses were knitted stockings tied to braies, which were similar to a loincloth. Doublets and jerkins were padded tunics fitted at the waist and flaring out from there to the hips. As with women's gowns, sleeves were detachable. They were made from the same fabrics as women's gowns, and worn over a linen shirt that was gathered at the neck and wrists. By the late Renaissance, chausses and braies had evolved to resemble modern-day tights. The stockings were connected in the back by a triangular piece of fabric and tied to a codpiece in the front. The late Renaissance ruffled collars were worn by men also. Men's houppelands were shorter, ending at about the knees.

Men's Clothing: Peasantry

Peasant men wore chausses and braies as well, but of coarser fabric. Over that they wore a long shirt and a doublet, jerkin or houppeland.

Summary

Then as now, social status and personal taste were reflected in clothing. There were no designer labels, but the fabric and decoration told the story.