Day 8- Costumes and props

Ophelia wore this costume in HAMLET. Ophelia was from the wealthy class. She was unmarried. She could have worn her hair down. Married women must always keep their hair up. The wedding night would be the last time that a maid could "let her hair down." Women must always have a covering on their heads. This dress was considered casual -- like a tee shirt and jeans of today.

Cross-gartered hose! Women held their stockings up in this fashion. Investigate the term "cross-gartered" in Twelfth Night.

The wealthy upper class were allowed to wear scarlet, purple and silk. If you were not upper class and wore outlawed fabric, you would be imprisoned for six month and fined 1,0000 pounds. Investigate the law that imposed this penalty. Wealthy women wore corsets that laced in the back. Their servants laced them. (Notice the neat lacing: thus the phrase - "Straight laced!") Poorer women laced their own corsets in the front (Note the phrase - "loose women.")

The bum roll, the French farthingale, was the fashion for both wealthy and poor women.