Fashion and Symbolism in the Portraiture of Queen Elizabeth I

Abstract

By looking at her portraiture chronologically over her reign, we can analyze how she was represented in fashion, interpret
symbolism and determine its purpose and reasons for the evolution of her style. Elizabeth and her advisors carefully crafted and controlled her image through the clothing that she wore at court and in the portraits she commissioned or approved first to legitimize her claim to the throne—despite being a bastard, Protestant and female—and later to project an aura of power, wealth and invincibility around both her, personally, and England, for all of Europe to see.