Historical Renaissance Costumes for Adults, Teens & Kids

Renaissance costumes, or clothing, are easily the most recognizable feature of the many facets of the renaissance culture in England. The Elizabethan age was acutely conscious of fashion and used fashion as a reflection of the wearer's social status. Conspicuous consumption was as popular then as it is in today's modern era. Popular high fashion styles featured a look which was extremely artificial, highly stylized, elaborate, overdone, and very striking. Both men and women in the renaissance wore costumes, or clothing, to court and other formal occasions because, to them, style was paramount. To us, renaissance costume appears to be highly constrictive and extremely uncomfortable. We associate tight doublets, hosen, corsets, ruffs, and garments with extreme tailoring with the clothes of the period because this is what we see in our research in the extant portraits and descriptions which survive from the period