Middle Class: How Did Merchants and Artisans Dress?

Middle class men and women would have dressed noticeably different from the lower class farmers, shepherds, and other agricultural labors. Often artisans or merchants, their trades would not have required them to dress with the same kinds of clothes and fabrics that could stand up to work in the outdoors day in and day out. Men would have worn “very short doublets, open-necked shirts” and “tight, often parti-colored trunk hose.” A doublet was a padded, fitted mens jacket, that was often more of a fashion statement than it was something to keep one warm. Women would have dressed in “low head-dresses, low-waisted gowns, and square necklines and long, tight sleeves.” They would have been able to have their clothes made out of imported fabrics from across the seas, and would not have been stuck wearing only linen and wool like the farmers were.

Sources: https://www.wga.hu/frames-e.html?/html/m/master/xunk_it/xunk_it3a/index.html