The Trial of Elizabeth
It was that newspaper clipping that shook my foundations. I’d never considered before any idea that men could dress fancy and colourfully.
Telegraph Thursday December 29th 2018 ‘Dressing Up’
A law in the reign of Queen Elizabeth the First declared “None shall wear in his apparel satin, damask, silk, camlet (angora) or taffeta in gown, coat, hose or uppermost garments except that he may dispend £100 by the year.” The article went on about the colours that were allowed - red, purple and so on.
Wow. What an opportunity ….. for anyone born a bit over 400 years ago and had sufficient wealth to dispend. Could it really be true that the male was the flamboyant peacock? I knew some of the words for the materials but I knew nothing about their reality. Once more I looked with disgust and despair into my wardrobe and at the drawers open beside my bed. Drab, dull, grey, black, blue, BORING. Oh to be in Elizabethan times.
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