Accessories for Elizabethan Men & Women
Hats
Elizabethans should always wear some kind of headwear. Yes, noble ladies, very late in the period, did stop wearing headwear, and went on with very small pillbox type hats or even just jewelry in their hair. But it was something in their hair besides just letting it go loose. Anyone portraying any persona lower than the uppermost noble classes, should wear some sort of hat. Just get used to the idea that your persona couldn’t afford lice treatments, and the cheaper alternative would be to wear a hat all the time.
Jewelry
Many necklaces were made mostly of pearls. They were very popular. Long chains draped in multiple strands and hanging over a broach was very popular. Pins on sleeves and other unusual places were popular, not just center front bodice, or over the heart. Pearls or other jewels worn on pins or clips in the hair was popular especially very late period. Rings on every finger except the middle, even multiple rings on the same finger. Dangly earrings were very popular, especially the single large pearl. All jewels should not be very faceted, it was difficult to do in period. Jewel settings should not be set in prongs, but in a bezel setting where the gem is set into a tube, and the edges rounded over the edge of the gem to keep it in. Also see Elizabethan Necklace Instructions to make your own beaded necklace. Similar jewelry was worn by both men and women.
Gloves
Gloves were popular among men and women, to keep their hands out of the sun, and to keep them from getting too dry and chapped. Leather gloves would often be given as gifts and could have embroidered cuffs or pinked around the finger joints for ease of movement and to show off rings worn underneath.
Girdles
Girdles were jeweled belts often seen in portraiture of the time with a tassel, religious icon, or book suspended from the tail in front for women.
Fans
Fans would sometimes be worn from a lady’s girdle, but were more often just carried in hand.Drinking VesselsCups, goblets and other drinking vessels would not have been worn on the belt or anywhere else. It would have been kept in a basket or bag so it wouldn’t get full of road grime. For the nobles, theirs would have been carried around by their servants.
Pouches
Middle and lower classes wore pouches or purses at their girdles, but like the cups, the nobility would have someone to carry it around for them. Keys, needle cases and other utilitarian items may have been suspended from it as well. While it’s possible for men’s bottoms to have pockets, most didn’t.
