This beautifully etched plate, created initially by Thomas Jefferys, epitomizes the very pinnacle of Tudor-Elizabethan fashion in the epoch-making year of the Spanish Armada. In this era, clothes were not only a matter of style but an extremely rigid statement of social class.It was by 1588 that English dress was at its height of "defiant ornamentation," while elsewhere in Europe there was already a trend towards softer lines. The English Court, headed by Queen Elizabeth I, took a firm stance towards stiff forms.
