Read and translate the text. In the 16th century styles of dress in Europe still varied from country to country

In the 16^th century styles of dress in Europe still varied from country to country. Most items of men’s clothing, including shoes, were slashed, and bombasting (padding) became increasingly popular. Doublets were often bombasted all over. Various forms of trousers were worn over the hose or stockings. In Italy knee length ones were preferred, while in Spain, France, and Britain short, padded trousers in various shapes as well as longer knee breeches were worn. Short cloaks, small caps, and a range of ruffs were the fashion both at court and among the new merchant classes.

Women’s dress varied too. In Italy, oval or square necklines were worn with tight bodices and gently gathered skirts. There was a fashion for richly embroidered sleeves. These were often made separately from the dresses and could be worn with a variety of bodices.

Spanish court styles were more rigidly stiffened over strongly boned corsets, with high necks and conically shaped stiff skirts. By the 1580s, the French wheel farthingale (a wheel-like frame beneath the skirt at waist level) was being worn at the English court, with full, padded sleeves narrowing to the wrist. The rigid bodices were deeply pointed over the stomach. Large ruffs worn with small caps, called coifs, were fashionable. In England pretty floral embroidery often replaced imported Italian silk brocades for court wear.

Up till the age of five, small boys wore dresses like those of their sisters. After that, boys were dressed exactly like their fathers. From the age of about four girls wore adult styles, including corsets and skirt supports. Little girls were allowed to wear long pinafores of white linen.

All over Europe merchants’ and storekeepers’ wives wore modified styles of court dress. Their choice of fabric was still dictated by sumptuary laws, as well as by personal finances. Width of ruffs and the use of silk velvet were all dictated by law. If the law was broken, the offenders were fined.

The poor people wore clothes of home-spun wool, coarse linen, and leather. Their styles bore very little resemblance to the clothes worn at court. The court of Queen Elizabeth I of England witnessed perhaps the most extreme European fashions ever worn. The queen created an almost fairytale image of herself, wearing rich symbolic embroidery and vast ruffs of transparent lace, which stood up behind her head. In the later years of her life (she died in 1603) she wore bodices with long V points over the stomach and huge wheel farthingales. Her countries gave her fabulous gifts from their explorations in the West Indies and Africa – peacock feathers made into fans and long lengths of black pearls.

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