Title: A History of Women's Clothes
Headings: A BRIEF HISTORY OF WOMEN'S CLOTHES
A BRIEF HISTORY OF WOMEN'S CLOTHES
By Tim Lambert
Women's Clothes in the Ancient World
Women's Clothing in the Middle Ages
Women's Clothes in the 16th Century
Women's Clothing in the Americas
Women's Clothes in the 17th Century
Women's Clothing in the 18th Century
Women's Clothes in the 19th Century
20th Century Women's Clothes

Content: The poor wore coarse wool. However only the rich could afford cotton and silk. Rich Tudors also embroidered their clothes with silk, gold, or silver thread. Rich Tudor women wore silk stockings. Women wore a kind of petticoat called a smock or shift or chemise made of linen or wool and a wool dress over it. A woman's dress was made of two parts, a bodice or a corset-like garment and a skirt. Sleeves were held on with laces and could be detached. Working women wore a linen apron. In the late 16th century many women wore a frame made of whalebone or wood under their dress called a farthingale. If they could not afford farthingale women wore a padded roll around their waist called a bum roll.