In Fine Style: The Art of Tudor and Stuart Fashion

It’s not just the 21st century’s celebrities that spend excessive amounts on elaborate and luxurious clothing.  In Fine Style: The Art of Tudor and Stuart Fashion, shows that the monarchs of the 16th and 17th centuries saw designer threads as a huge part of 'court culture.' The exhibition in The Queen’s Gallery at the Palace of Holyroodhouse includes paintings, drawings, and jewellery from the Royal Collections as well as rare examples of Tudor and Stuart clothing and accessories.

For the people of the Stuart and Tudor period, garments were clear signifiers of wealth, social status, religion and even marital status. Henry VIII and Elizabeth I even imposed laws dictating what types of attire could be worn at each level of society. For the Stuarts and Tudors, to appear powerful was to be powerful and the works in this exhibition show how clothes could make great political statements.

Like the designers and celebrities of today, there was a constant search for innovation and new style and monarchs often popularised new techniques of production and styles of garment. And it certainly wasn’t just the women – men’s fashion was just as, if not more, luxurious and extravagant.

In Fine Style: The Art of Tudor and Stuart Fashion, will showcase the varying and constantly changing types of garment that sprang from the search for the most novel and unique fashions throughout the 16th and 17th centuries. If you are into the history of fashion (and a little bit of decadence!), this is the exhibition for you.