Getting Dressed in Early 17th Century Historical Clothing: 1600-1625

The first twenty or so years of the 17th century are an underrepresented period of fashion among historical costumers today, but one that I think deserves more love and attention! It’s a curious transition period between what we think of as Renaissance or Elizabethan styles and those from later in the 17th century, and you see garments from the 16th century still being worn in these early decades along with newer style garments. It’s also the period when separate boned bodices or bodies start to become more common for non-elite women as opposed to bodices stiffened with layers of fabric with attached boned bodies were the ancestors of 18th century stays and 19th century corsets. We’ll look at the clothing of a working class common woman and a prosperous middle class woman in her Sunday or holiday best. I used patterns from The Tudor Tailor and modified them. The russet wool for the waistcoat is also from them: The bays wool is fro