Rich people could afford clothes made from fine: wool, linen or silk. Their clothes were decorated with jewels and embroidered with gold thread:
Rich men wore white silk shirts, frilled at the neck and wrists. Over this they wore a doublet (a bit like a tight-fitting jacket), and close-fitting striped trousers. Their clothes gave them a square shape.
Rich ladies wore tight fitting, wooden corsets to make their waists very thin and padded skirts held up with hoops. Their clothes gave them a triangular shape.
Clothes were sometimes stuffed with a mixture of horsehair and rags called bombast to make people's shoulders and thighs look bigger. Some people wore a ruff. This was a large, decorative frill made from lace worn around their neck.
Poor people wore simple, loose-fitting clothes made from woollen cloth. They often put a cloth bonnet on their heads.
