Elizabethan Menswear
Shirts were an essential item of clothing for Elizabethan men. They were worn under a variety of outer garments such as the doublet or jerkin. They were loose fitting to the body with full sleeves gathered at the cuff. Ruffs were sometimes pinned to cuffs as well as being an item of clothing worn around the neck. Shirt materials could include various types of very expensive fine linens (Holland,
doublet over its history was its style and cut. In the early Elizabethan period, doublets were padded over the belly with bombast in a "pouter pigeon" or "peascod" silhouette. Padding gradually fell out of fashion, and the doublet became close-fitting with a deep V-waistline.
The jerkin is a man's short close-fitting jacket, made usually of light-colored leather, and often without sleeves, worn over the doublet in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Leather jerkins of the 16th century were often slashed and punched, both for decoration and to improve the fit. Jerkins were worn closed at the neck and hanging open over the peascod-bellied fashion of doublet. At the turn of the 17th century, the fashion was to wear the jerkin buttoned at the waist and open above to reflect the fashionable narrow-waisted silhouette.
The mandilion is a loose men's hip-length pullover coat or jacket, open down the sides, worn in England in the later sixteenth century. It was fashionable to wear the mandilion colly-westonward or Colley-Weston-ward, that is, rotated 90 degrees so that the front and back were draped over the arms and the sleeves hung down in front and behind.
Lawne, and Camerick), and silks, and could be incredibly expensive ranging from 10 shillings to as much as £20. They were sometimes decorated with fine needlework.
The doublet is a man's snug-fitting buttoned jacket that is shaped and fitted to the man's body. Throughout the 300 years of its use, the doublet served the same purpose: to give fashionable shape and padding to the body, to support the hose by providing ties, and to provide warmth to the body. The only thing that changed about the