Post by Nikki on May 31, 2015 21:53:42 GMT
People in the lower class were mainly poor people such as peasants, servants, marketpeople, and beggars, who did not have much money to spend on things such as clothing. People wore aprons, fitted sleeves, and partlets or neckclothes. Colors of clothes at that time stood for the position and rank of their status.(source) For example, working women should wear simple clothes because they couldn't wear clothes that are visualized and having decoration, and because of this, patterns and fit of the people were absolutely different. During that period, clothes with decoration was the symbol of the upper class. Furthermore, they wore fewer layer than the other classes because they could not afford to buy the same fabric as the richer upper classes. People in lower class usually wore clothes that look like one-piece, and it fitted to their body so that it shows with a waistline seam. With this look, they also wore the matching bodices and some narrow skirt.(source) Clothing of lower class were definitely different from upper and middle class because they weren't able to afford the fancy materials, such as silk, that were needed to make luxurious clothes. Due to this fact, most of the people in the lower class wore clothes that were made of muslin and wool because those were the most basic and inexpensive fabrics that they could easily obtain. Also, lower class people had a limitation on their color of the clothing because most fancy color fabrics were for other classes. For instance, most wore muted shades of red, blue, green, brown, or yellow color (source). Becuase they could not afford expensive dyes,they used natural plants to get the color of the clothes. Wood provided the blue color, roots supplied the red color, and the yellow color was obtained from a dye plant called golden marguerite. Blue was the most common color for the lower class because it was cheap and people could get it easily.
For their hair styles, both women and men of the lower class had a common style. They could have longer hair than before the Elizabethan time because the Queen allowed them to grow their hair longer. Women almost always braided their hair into one braid so that it was more comfortable when they were working.
For their hair styles, both women and men of the lower class had a common style. They could have longer hair than before the Elizabethan time because the Queen allowed them to grow their hair longer. Women almost always braided their hair into one braid so that it was more comfortable when they were working.