Name: Fashion Through History: Episode 4 – Elizabethans
Uploaded: 2025-08-05T18:21:48.000Z
Duration: 14 min 44 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

Welcome to Fashion Through History brought to you by English Heritage.

I am fashion historian Dr. Serena Dyer and I'm here at Kenilworth Castle and Elizabethan Garden in Warwickshire.

We're here to explore the impressive fashions of the Elizabethan era and so our fashion icon had to be Queen Elizabeth I.

Today we'll be looking at what Elizabeth and her contemporaries would have worn earlier in her reign but first we're going to meet English heritage historian Jeremy Ashby who'll be telling us more about Elizabeth I and life here at Kenilworth.

Who lived here at Kenilworth during Elizabeth I's reign?

Kenilworth Castle belonged to Robert Dudley the Earl of Leicester.

Elizabeth herself gave him the estate in 1563.

There were wide rumours at the time that their relationship was a romantic one.

Elizabeth came four times to Kenilworth Castle and Robert spared no expense at all in keeping the Queen entertained.

And when Elizabeth visited Kenilworth she would have been a spectacle herself.

So let's look at all of the layers that went into those impressive gowns.

Danielle are you ready to become a queen?

Yes so I'm a little bit hoping it's not going to be too hot under all those layers.

Absolutely although Elizabethan garments are all made from lovely natural fibres like wool and linen so while there are a lot of layers they're all quite breathable so you should be quite cool and they shouldn't be too heavy.

So our first layer is this partlet so if you just pop your arms through and then I'll tie you at the front.

The Elizabethan era is often known for its ginormous looks like you've swallowed a plate kind of ruffs and that was really popular later in Elizabeth's reign but early in the period we just see these little frills.

Next we have your bum roll so this starts to give you a bit of the silhouette that you'll be looking for so you want to have a nice wide skirt that will help you to show off your very expensive fabrics and the most important part of that is the farthingale so if you want to know what a farthingale is a Spanish farthingale so this would really hold your skirts out and it could be stiffened with bents originally so a kind of cane and later whalebone.

On top of that the thing that you're really showing off is your kirtle.

If you want to dive in again so this is made from silk taffeta but you can see that rather ingeniously the very expensive silk is just at the front whereas the back is made from a far plainer silk taffeta.

The kirtle was spiral laced in place so it's just a single lace that runs down the side so it feels a bit like you're sewing yourself into it and this would also allow you to have a little bit of flexibility so you can lace it not quite as tight if you've had a bit more for dinner at the feast that evening.

There you go and show off your very expensive silk brocade.

So your next layer is an even more expensive silk.

The sleeves could be interchangeable so you could wear the same gown with different sleeves, you could have matching sleeves or you could have some very impressive cloth of gold sleeves.

It was very very important to have clean white linen so you'd have separate cuffs.

Next we have the gown itself so you can put this on like a coat and then this just does up at the front with hooks and eyes.

So this style of gown would have been really fashionable in the 1560s and 70s when Elizabeth was here at Kenilworth.

This gown is made from a very high quality black wool but then of course it's also embellished with lots of gorgeous gorgeous decoration.

So we've got the slashing on the front here so you're not only getting that outer fabric but it's cut through so you can see the fabric beneath so you're showing off all these layers of expensive fabrics that you can afford.

We've got the lace which for Elizabeth would have been made from real metals and then we've got the puffs at the sleeves which are made from silk satin.

These kinds of adornments were only allowed to be worn by Viscountesses, Baronesses and higher ranking ladies.

And then we have the headwear so this is in two parts.

So firstly we have this paste which is a solid part that goes on your head and now this might seem a little bit scary but I'm going to attach it to your head with straight pins I promise not to impale you.

So this was part of fashionable headwear from medieval times so even Elizabeth I's mother Anne Boleyn wore a hood almost identical to this.

The difference is how you fold it back on the head.

This hood is decorated with pearls and pearls symbolised purity and virginity which for the Virgin Queen was something which was very important.

So the pomanda is a cast metal adornment which would go on the end of a silk cord and you would wear it around your waist and it's filled with lovely scented beads so this one's got some lavender scented beads inside so you can very nicely hold it up to your nose whenever an unpleasant aroma is near.

It feels really nice and it's a lot lighter than I was expecting actually.

Excellent well why don't you go and enjoy the gardens here at Calder?

So Jeremy could you tell us a bit more about Elizabeth and Dudley's relationship?

It was a very close relationship and it started when they were children.

Robert later recorded that he and the Queen had first met when she was eight years old and it's possible that hard times in their young lives had brought them closer together.

They'd both been prisoners in the Tower of London in the 1550s.

The moment Elizabeth became Queen she gave him a post at court as Master of the Horse.

There's always been a mystery about whether there was ever a serious chance that Elizabeth and Robert might marry and I have to say I have my doubts.

He was her subject and for her to marry beneath her I think would have been socially very difficult for her to do but there was also a bit of a scandal around Robert.

His first wife had died 15 years before the Kenilworth Entertainment in slightly mysterious circumstances so I don't think it was ever really on the cards.

But the events here at Kenilworth were really pivotal in Robert Dudley trying to form that relationship and while they would have been fabulous to experience as a member of the court we must remember that there were so many people working behind the scenes to make these wonderful entertainments happen.

Let's have a little look at what somebody from the merchant classes might have worn.

Now under the reign of Elizabeth's father Henry VIII the merchant classes really rose up and sumptuary laws became incredibly important and that put into law what different classes of people were allowed to clothe themselves in.

Here in your merchant's class outfit you've still got some semblance of prestige about you.

You're wearing an extremely high quality woolen gown.

People in Elizabethan society would have really been able to tell apart the qualities of wools.

You've also got fur trim which was one of the things which was often mentioned in sumptuary laws.

This gown rather wonderfully has pockets.

So in this example there are pocket bags but that also might have just been a slit so that you could access a purse around your waist underneath.

You have got a little bit of silk about you still so you've got silk sleeves and you've got your silk bonnet.

The gown is also decorated with things like ribbons at the front and you might have also had a ribbon on your kirtle which just peeks out underneath.

So Danielle how does this feel compared to your more queenly garment from earlier on?

It's still nice but it feels more practical like I'm ready to make a sale or something you know like ready for work.

Well I'm afraid things are going to get even less glamorous as we now turn to the workers that we've been putting all of the hard labour in.

Could you tell us a little bit more about the entertainments that Dudley put on here at Kenilworth?

Yes the spectacle at Kenilworth is known to have been one of the most elaborate of the whole of Elizabeth's reign.

There was the finest of food, there was music, there was dancing and there was drama and pageantry.

A spectacle like Kenilworth in 1575 needed a lot of people working behind the scenes to make it work.

Now as you can see this is more or less the same as the underwear that Elizabeth was wearing.

We've got two really important elements, the linen smock which was the layer worn closest to the skin and that was really a very very important element for hygiene.

This was something that could be washed and laundered at very very high temperatures and then on top of that we have the kirtle or petticoat.

Like when you're Elizabeth you are once more going to be putting on a parklet.

So for Elizabeth this was partly about modesty but partly you might have been showing off an expensive embroidery on the linen but for you now that you're down in the kitchens I'm afraid that this is more for practicality.

So of course the kitchens didn't have sunscreen so this is keeping you nice and protected from the sun and from any hot splashing oils while you're cooking.

So you've also got a semblance of fashionability there, you've still got that frilly collar.

But the next item is very much a practical item.

So this would have been for keeping your kirtle nice and clean but it could be also used to pick up hot plates or to carry things in.

If you're wearing your Sunday best you might have had a gown like the merchant class lady but for general working especially when you stepped outside of the confines of the kitchen you'd want to put on a jacket like this.

This one is quite fitted and actually quite fancy because you've got a little collar and wings on the shoulders so that's your your attempts at fashionability.

So I'm afraid that there's no more fancy caps and bonnets, now you have a simple linen coif.

Now this was really important for Elizabethan women because they needed to cover their hair and this wasn't just a point of modesty this was also a point of practicality.

Because there's no shampoo this is gonna again help keep you protected from all of those horrible oils in the kitchen and make sure that your hair stays nice and clean.

The working woman did have a lot of accessories so on her belt she would have carried all of the bits and pieces that she might have needed for her tasks.

So if she was working in the kitchen she might have a knife like this, if she was a needle woman she might have had scissors and a needle case and it kept all of those important bits and pieces close at hand.

Fashion in Elizabethan England was really closely linked to social status and rank.

Even in the snapshots of Elizabethan fashions from the 1560s and 1570s that we've looked at today, you can see how easy it is to tell apart both royalty from everybody else and all of the social statuses and rank throughout society.

If you'd like to find out more about Elizabeth I and Kenilworth Castle then please go to the English Heritage website. www.elizabethancastle.co.uk