Noble Women's Dress
The goal of women during the Renaissance period was to make themselves look as attractive and petite as possible. Their outfits were rather complicated and took a lot of work. First they added the shift, which was basically just a regular shirt. Then they had a corset on, which was pulled really tight. They wanted their waists to be extremely tiny. They then added a petticoat on top of that. Some women even added hip pads underneath to give them shape, or hoops to make the dress even fuller. Finally the dress was added on top. They added ruffles to the dress to show their class in society. The sleeves on the dress also helped to show their placement in classes. The dress was stuffed in order to get rid of all the creases. They stuffed it with something called "bomast." It consisted of rags, flock, horsehair, cotton, and bran. Another ruffle was later added to show higher class. It was simply a string drawn through the edge of the top of the shirt to form a ruffle. Women who wore them were also known to follow the "Seduction Principle" which flaunted the woman's charm. Elizabethan style has the ruffle open in the front and wings out in gauze wings behind their head. The sleeves of their dresses were stuffed with many fabrics underneath to make them puffy. The outside was made of many small pieces of fabric put together by jewels. Women also wore belts and girdles. Chains, jewels, gems were all over the outside of the dress. They wore beautiful gloves of silk and other fabrics. Some of them were cut at the knuckles to expose the rings. Altogether, women in this time were very proud of themselves, their fashion, and their class and showed it in the way they looked and dressed, and the amount of time they put in it.
Picture and Info:
http://www.springfield.k12.il.us/schools/springfield/eliz/womensfashion.html