All about daily life in the Tudor times

Fashion

Over the 118 years of the Tudor period, fashions changed greatly. Popular items of clothing included dresses with long flowing trains, tight coats known as doublets, and a variety of different hats and cloaks.

Types of clothes

Children were dressed like small adults. Poor men and women wore homespun fabrics, while the nobility and royals wore heavy damasks and velvets, sometimes with ruffs (high frilly collars) or *slashing. Only royalty could wear cloth of gold and silver and the colour purple. Rich ladies also wore extremely tight fitting corsets, to make their waist look as slim as possible. On Sundays, all men except noblemen were expected to wear a woollen cap.

*When clothes are cut or slashed to reveal the lining beneath.

Accessories

Tudor clothes were usually held together with lace or pins, and buttons were only used for decoration. Wigs were popular with women. Wealthy Tudors wore jewellery made from gold silver and bronze.