Pale faces, rosy red lips and pink cheeks, just some of the Elizabethan beauty trends that was around at the time. Now you look at celebrities and catwalks and you're bound to run into this style of make up.
To understand the cosmetics worn by Elizabethan women, you have to understand the effect they wanted to achieve - that "ideal" of beauty is beautifully summed up in one of Shakespeare's most popular sonnets;
"My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun
Coral is far more fair then her lips fair
If snow be white, why the, her breast is dun,
If hair be wires, black wires grow on her head.
I have seen roses damasked, red and white,
But no such roses see I in her cheeks..."
Even just by reading this short quote from Shakespeare's you can catch a glimpse of the ideal Elizabethan female: bright eyes, snow-white skin, red cheeks and lips, and fair hair. And as you can see from the images above, they all have those main components but have been interpreted in different ways, every recreation have aspects of the Elizabethan beauty ideals but still keeping with a modern touch that shows how each designer pictures the Elizabethan era.
(L-R: D&G A/W 09-10, Alexander McQueen A/W 2014, Ashley Smith by Sharif Hamza for Vogue Russia)
Every aspect of the Elizabethan era has been an inspiration in almost anything in the fashion industry, and even down to the style of clothes they wore. A common theme is this idea of baroque, as a lot of the Elizabethan fashion have the same kind of patterns and designs as seen from the first image from the left. Another common feature that is used quite often in fashion is the use of a ruff around the neck. A ruff was worn by men, women and children which evolved from the small fabric ruffle at the drawstring neck of the shirt or chemise. A ruff could/was also used to reflect light onto a persons face, making their appearance seem brighter and whiter than it actually was.
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