The fashion favored by the Royalist side was known as Cavalier Dress. Although it started out very similar to Puritan Fashion, it underwent rapid stylistic changes that were designed to separate the Royalist fashion from the popular Puritan fashion. At first, the clothing was mainly designed for functional usage -- with little embroidery and frippery. As the war went on, however, the Royalists began to favor a type of dress that showed off their wealth. This fashion sense came from the French and the wealthy courtiers who had accompanied Queen Henrietta Maria to England.
Cavalier Dress was most closely associated with the upper class of the Royalists. Although some of the poorer class Cavaliers could not afford to dress quite so well, they adopted what styles they could. These styles included:
* Large lace collars
* Broad-brimmed felt hats with ostrich feathers
* Silk scarves
* Leather boots with high heels and pointed toes
* Cloaks lined with fur
* Doublets and hose (which became progressively shorter as the war went on)
* Long overcoats
* Gold and silver braid for the wealthy men; more affordable lace and ribbon for those of lower means
* Long curly hair for the men (much to the disgust of the Puritans who believed that anything not found in Scripture was sin)
Clothing in the Parliamentary Forces
The members of the Parliamentary forces dressed, generally speaking, in somewhat plain and somber clothing. Colors tended to be dark, with little in the way of ornamentation or frills. They were far less concerned with fashion than the Cavaliers and were much more interested in function.
Their clothing did not look entirely different from the Cavaliers' clothing at the beginning of the war. However, as time went on, certain differences began to appear such as:
* The shorter doublets and looser boots of the Royalists that were seen as fashionable -- and possibly not suited for battle -- did not catch on with the more practical-minded Parliamentary forces.
* The Parliamentary soldiers tended to wear slashes in their clothing, which were simply horizontal cuts (either with a knife or the blade of a rapier) in their sleeves, shoulders and elsewhere around their clothing.
* The soldiers in the ranks were expected to provide their own clothing. Therefore, they wore whatever would stand up best in the rigors of battle.