Ruffs

Darnley Portrait of Elizabeth I (1575) exhibiting a smaller ruff.

The ruff, a hallmark of late sixteenth-century dress, exemplifies premodern capitalism through its costly production, labor demands, and symbolic display of wealth. Emerging from the gathered collar of an Elizabethan shirt, the ruff evolved into a separate delicately  constructed garment of pleated lawn that might be six yards long and contain up to 600 pleats. Maintenance required significant labor: washing, starching, and setting each fold with heated poking sticks to achieve the desired figure eight form.

(ruff of considerable size) Miniature by Nicholas Hilliard of A Young Man among Roses, probably the Earl of Essex, in 1588

A ruff’s extravagance might also extend beyond the material cost of fabrics: lace, jewels, and dyes signaled class distinction, while working people wore simplified versions made of coarser cloth. Specialized trades arose to serve the demand for properly maintained ruffs, an early instance of fashion labor. These ornate collars also led to a new business in imported talent and to the introduction of starch from the Low Countries. According to Dingen van der Passe, a Dutch woman listed in the 1593 Return of Strangers census, she could charge £4 or £5 for lessons in starching. As both a product and instrument of conspicuous consumption, the ruff transformed textile skill and foreign trade into visible status, embodying the intersection of aesthetics, class, and early capitalist exchange.