Getting Dressed as an Elizabethan Courtier

The Elizabethan age would usher in a new kind of courtier. Elite gentlemen trying to compete against each other to stand out for their queen. Men such as Robert Dudley, Robert Devereaux, Walter Raleigh and many others. How better to do so than by dressing to impress? We're here at Hampton Court Palace and we're going to take you step by step through dressing an Elizabethan male courtier. James, I see you're, well, not fully dressed. No, not quite. I've just got out of bed and I've put on my nice new linen shirt. Separate from the one that I slept with, because I am a gentleman, I will wear a clean laundered shirt for the morning. Are you warm enough, however? Well, I'm a little chilly. I wouldn't mind wearing some more, actually. What about some breeches? Fine idea. I shall get them. Would you have had somebody historically to help you get dressed? Well, yes, I might do. I might have a servant who can help point me in. But I think practically, to put on things you can put on by yourself, they would probably place those parts on they can do themselves. Thanks. So they go on like trousers, really. So I'll tie these bits at the front. Very good. There we are. And this is where we can see all these extra ties or points. This is so that you can attach the breeches to your doublet. Now, that might seem a little strange to some people. You're going to be entirely tied into your clothes. Have you been to the toilet? Yes, I have been. Good. Let's just talk a little bit more about these breeches that you're wearing or these hoes, as you mentioned them as. So they're very fine. And we said they've got the canyons hanging down from them, but they wouldn't have always been like that. If we reverse a little and we go back to the idea of hoes and medieval times, they would have been wearing hoes, which are very tight on the leg. And if we jump forward to the sort of Wars of the Roses period, you would have that panel in front of your nether parts, referred to as the cod, which then brings us to the main part. If we look at the most famous possibly Tudor piece that goes on a pair of hoes is your cod piece. I notice you're not wearing one with these. No, thankfully not. They've become well out of date in the Elizabethan era. So it really was mainly a Henrician thing, with Henry as a male trying to show off male virility. It's dying out, is it? It's very masculine, that period, with the kind of big shoulders, the cod piece. They're supposed to look like manly men. We're now in the time of the Virgin and Queen. So we want to look a bit different. We're going to be gentlemen now. While you can still bend and still move, this is the point where we should put your shoes on. They've developed a little bit from Henry VIII's time. They've got these kind of almond kind of toe, more rounded toe, unlike in Henry VIII's time when they're quite square. People decorate them in all sorts of ways. So one of the popular ways was pinking, which is when you sort of take a little slash of the material and you allow maybe a little more silky material out of the shoe. And that's something we would have seen in the britches as well, and perhaps in doublets as well. What a way to show off your wealth by having silk down by your feet, close to the ground where it can be destroyed. But what are these? This is probably the main thing we want to try. So these are my fabulous shoe roses. So lovely little roses made out of silk. So that's really to make me stand out in the crowd when I come to... These also have silver thread in them as well. So putting silver down there where they can get destroyed by the ground. That is opulence and wealth to the extreme. I've got the money to burn. So I often find when I'm wearing shoes like this, it's very easy to trip over and cobbles because they don't really have much of a heel. So I always have to watch my balance when I'm walking around in them. Well, here we are. Quite the doublet. Absolutely bejeweled. There's gold and then there's pearls. Now, am I right in thinking that that's a symbol that you're trying to show off with? Yeah, in the time of Elizabeth, I want to sort of show off her purity, really. I hope she notices that. It's becoming more and more popular. However, this is covered in them. This would be velvet, a type of silk of short pile. And it's black as well, which is another thing that shows off my great wealth because black is such a hard colour to dye and get a true black on. So it's very expensive. So I'm going to put it on simply like a jacket. And it fits very comfortably in that sense. Some of them have these very high necks as well. And the shirts sometimes get higher as well to allow for that kind of high necked shirt. But by this time, the late Elizabethan, the neck's shortened somewhat here. Later, I'll have a ruff to show off that part of my neck or my whole head. But this stops it from rubbing, am I right? Yeah. Pointing, we call it pointing. It's basically just lacing. However, we have on the ends of these essentially points that are easier to stab through the holes as you go. So this ties in quite simply directly into the doublet itself. It's called the doublet because it's two pieces, double. It comes from a much older time when it used to be almost like a piece of armour underneath. And then you'd have the armour go on top. So you had double piece to go on top. However, this now, still being worn, just ties in and secures you all together. Around here, the sort of middle, they get padded as well. You have what's called a peace god. And it sort of shows off your wealth by showing how much you can eat, really. You know, I can afford fine food. So I've got a nice little belly here. Sometimes they get longer as well. They can go sort of right down to your groin and they become these kind of huge bits that sort of stick out from your body. Now we see it all pieced together. It works really well. The colours, as we said, this outfit has clearly been designed. The black, the white, contrasting with the pearls. And like we said, absolutely covered in jewels. I have these lovely cuffs here that you might see, made of lace. Probably a good Italian lace. They have the best kind, although France are doing very well at this at the moment. And this makes my shirt look better than it actually is. Now you saw earlier, I had a relatively plain shirt and a lovely linen one, but it didn't have these elaborate cuffs here because I've got them sewn into my arms just over here. All right. So I have a belt. I also have a pouch for you because, of course, am I right? Nowhere to keep anything otherwise. No pockets within this. No, they won't be invented for about another hundred years. This is the only way for you to carry anything. So we'll put a very fine black leather pouch, of course, to match. And then we can... Let me make sure I've got this the right way around for you. Place this, if you wouldn't mind holding that there. So what's great about this as well is it's going to help show off my peace God. So I showed you my belly earlier and now Toby tying me in here is going to help promote that belly a bit more. You might be thinking that it's a bit odd that the belt has gone over the top of the doublet. Well, the thing is, he doesn't need a belt to hold his britches up because we already know that they are pointed in. So the belt is the accessory and that's where you can hang your pouch from that. So this is something you want to make a point of. Well, here we go. The most infamous piece of Elizabethan clothing, the ruff. Quite grand, isn't it? Oh, yeah. Yeah, this really shows you off. Yes. So this is almost, it draws attention up towards the face, am I right? Again, moving away from, like you said, that masculine, heavy symbol of physical strength. Now, I understand that, of course, these are hugely expensive at the time and having them reset because they can be quite difficult to keep in one piece. Yeah, they're tricky to keep sort of pleated like this. They're just sort of strips of linen that are pleated and sort of tied together and sometimes held together by a wire as well. So they're fiddly, they can fall apart. You have to be very careful with it. And sometimes they can even have bits of lace that come from out of them as well. So they're very delicate. So let's put this on. So simply around the back and then if you give me a moment to tie it up. Now, often these, when they were worn, they would be tied at the front and this lacing would all be hidden within it and pinned so it was disguised. But actually, in our case, when we're wearing these, it's quite difficult for us to disguise this and it can sometimes droop open. So the best thing for us to do is we'll tie it up and we'll slide it around to the back so no one can see it easily. How does that feel? Yeah, fantastic. Does it? Yeah. You surprise me. It looks quite odd and quite uncomfortable. It makes me feel I want to change my posture and look and stand with a straight back. Feel quite elegant and refined. Hold your head up high. Exactly, hold my head up high. Here we are. One of the finest silk velvet capes I've ever seen. Oh yeah, it feels lovely. It is very good. Shall I put it on for you? Yes, please. This goes over one shoulder and then tucks down over and underneath. Now a cape is slightly different than a cloak in as much as you might wear a cloak over the top of your cape. So this is designed really just for show. How does that feel? Yeah, good. Yeah, already I feel it gives me a certain sort of swagger wearing a cape. It's sort of flinging around and walk around like this. Now it's not really going to give you extra warmth, is it? No, no, not at all. It's purely for fashion. Well, I'd say you're almost fully dressed. I think all we need now are some accessories. Yes, so I will need a hat first of all, perhaps with a feather in it to show off. I also need some rings. Perhaps not just for my fingers. I might wear them as well around my arm or perhaps around my neck. I perhaps might like to wear an earring or a chopped pearl. I'd carry a sword. Often the courtier might have a rapier that they will wear around at court. And I shall also need garters to show off some more material on my legs. Well, James, I think you look magnificent. The perfect Elizabethan courtier, ready, in fact, to meet the Queen. Well, then I best not keep her waiting.