Why Did People Wear Ruff Collars in Elizabethan Times?
The ruff collar is one of the most recognizable symbols of Elizabethan fashion. Picture Queen Elizabeth I, her head surrounded by a crisp, fanlike collar, or William Shakespeare, the most famous author of the time, whose own likeness and theatrical productions depict the prominent garment. Though the collar began as a modest ruffle on a shirt, it went on to become an elaborate piece of its own. In 16th-century England, it would have been hard to miss the sight of these towering, fluted sculptures circling the faces of the English elite. But why did people wear these stiff, awkward garments?
Like many sartorial choices of the time, ruff collars signified more than just taste; they were statements of status, wealth, and power. In the first half of the 1500s, English men exposed just a hint of a collar of their shirt, ruffled up from underneath their doublets. By the mid-1500s, however, Spanish fashion began to infiltrate England, and the exaggerated collar worn by Spain’s aristocracy was adopted by the English as well.
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Elizabethan society was highly hierarchical, and fashion was a way for people to visibly demonstrate their rank. The larger and more elaborate the ruff, the more important and wealthy the wearer. One of the ruff’s most famous proponents was Queen Elizabeth I, who, after taking the throne in 1558, used her striking appearance to symbolize her authority. Her ornate, structured gowns and imposing ruff collars influenced the looks not only of her courtiers, but of the whole country: All classes and ages adopted versions of the ruff collar. The queen wanted to ensure that one’s look didn’t outrank their status, however, so she enforced the sumptuary laws previously put in place by her father, Henry VIII. These laws restricted the most luxurious clothing to the upper classes, making the truly showy ruffs the domain of the rich.
Ruffs grew in size and complexity as the century progressed, aided by the use of starch starting around the mid-1560s. By about 1570, the ruff was its own accessory, an entirely separate and detachable collar that was secured to the wearer’s clothing primarily with pins. Though early collars were made of linen, by then, they were also made with lace and could feature embroidered or bejeweled detailing. The collars were often starched in a variety of colors, with blue, green, and yellow being favorites. (Queen Elizabeth did, however, ban blue ruffs in 1595.)
An average ruff, if there was such a thing, required anywhere from 15 feet to 20 feet of fabric to make. By the 1580s, the collars had become wide, sculptural pieces; some of the more extravagant pieces, such as cartwheel ruffs, extended dramatically horizontally from the neck and were so cumbersome that they needed wire frameworks to keep them in place — and in one piece. Despite their starched rigidity, ruffs were ultimately quite delicate and difficult to maintain. While working-class citizens also wore ruffs, they couldn’t always comfortably accommodate them in their day-to-day life, nor could they afford the time and materials needed to take proper care of them, further relegating the accessory to the upper class.
By the early 1600s, women had started wearing open ruffs, displaying their décolletage. Their collars stood upright more than out, a face-framing take on the trend influenced by French Queen Marie de’ Medici — and one that came up against the growing Puritan movement in England. Prominent figures in the movement, such as Philip Stubbes, condemned ruffs as symbols of vanity and excess. Nonetheless, ruff collars persisted throughout the early 17th century, until the falling band collar — another French style — took its place. By the mid-1600s, the falling band collar, with its relaxed drape over the shoulders, marked the shift away from the excessive formality of the Elizabethan era.
