Today you may truley wear what you please, however in the Elizabethen Era what you wore was based on your rank and you social class. The higher your rank was the nicer, better clothing you had.
The most distinctive aspect of the Elizabethan Era is the clothing they wore. Women in the Elizabethan Era wore dresses that broadened their shoulders and slimmed their hips. There are many steps to getting on and wearing a high class Elizabethan dress. First women would starts with a smock. All women wear a smock, whether you are considered low class or high class you owned a smock. They would wear smocks to help protect their outer clothing from sweat and body oils. Some smocks neckline would come all the way up to the neck and some smocks would have a square neck line. For different dresses you would wear a different smock.
Depending on your social rank you would wear a different dress. Lower class people would mainly wear torn straight dresses while higher class people wore elegant poofy dresses. Only high class people would wear a corset. A corset is worn to make the woman's stomach appear smaller and thinner. A Spanish farthingale is from the waist down and gives the dress more of a poof shape rather than straight shape. Lastly is the gown and sleeves. The gown will flow off the Spanish farthingale and be a few inches from the ground.
Depending on your social rank you would wear a different dress. Lower class people would mainly wear torn straight dresses while higher class people wore elegant poofy dresses. Only high class people would wear a corset. A corset is worn to make the woman's stomach appear smaller and thinner. A Spanish farthingale is from the waist down and gives the dress more of a poof shape rather than straight shape. Lastly is the gown and sleeves. The gown will flow off the Spanish farthingale and be a few inches from the ground.
Men who lived in the Elizabethan Era could not wear whatever they wanted. Even if they were considered high class they still had to follow strict guidelines on the clothing they would wear. The color, fabric and material of their clothing was based on their social rank. If men did not follow these rules they could be punished by getting fines or loss of property. Higher class men could wear woolen cloth made of realm, tisdale satin, or silk. Lower class men would wear wool, linen, or sheepskin.