Elizabethan on the catwalk

I’ve been doing some research for a bit of inspiration and these are a couple that stood out to me. Doing this actually made me realise that Elizabethan style still has such a huge influence on fashion today. Designers such as Marc Jacobs and Alexander McQueen have used hair designs inspired by Queen Elizabeth in their fashion shows.

The elements of these hairstyles that make them Elizabethan are frizz, curls, structure and decoration. I found that generally for catwalk shows, the hairstyles didn’t involve a lot of structure. There is often lots of little bits of hair being pulled out to make it look more cool and casual. A lot of the time there will be very little structure at all and the main focus of the design will be the texture. Huge and frizzy yet simple hairstyles are very popular on the catwalk, however the designer will often use a model with fair or red hair. Although the hairstyles are quite simple, the texture combined with the colour makes it clear that there were Elizabethan influences. 

This is taken from Alexander McQueen’s spring/summer show from back in 2007. The classic ‘heart shape’ has been incorporated into this design, but has been given a modern twist. A lot of backcombing has been done to create that frizzy texture, rather than using curls. Back in the Elizabethan era, the heart shaped hair style would be a lot more precise with more structure. The hair line would have been a lot more defined with the hair pulled off the face.  This is a much more relaxed approach on the heart shape, its actually quite uneven with lots of little strands of hair falling down to shape the models face. The designer also chose to use a model with pale skin, fair hair and used very little make up. With all of these extra details combined, it gives an all-round Elizabethan feel.

Here is another catwalk look from Chanel 2010 which has clear Elizabethan influences. Although this is very different to the last picture, they have used the same Elizabethan hairstyle as the basis of their design. Again, this look is heart shaped, but this time it is far neater with a lot more structure. They have made it contemporary by using straight hair and putting in a full fringe. You would never have seen a fringe in the Elizabethan era, foreheads were always on show.

Elizabethan’s loved to decorate their hair, hich is why the designers chose to include this bow. Although bows wouldn’t have been used, the material used for this bow actually makes it look like a ruff, which is what connects it to the Elizabethans.

Here is an image of Elizabeth that may well have inspired the images above- 

contemporary images- http://missrosyrabbit.blogspot.co.uk/2010/08/big-hair.html

 http://forum.3us.com/thread-11872-1-1.html

elizabeth- http://www.bbc.co.uk/timelines/ztfxtfr