The Dictionary of Fabrics & Fashion Terms in Shakespeare

Gown (noun): 1a. a loose flowing outer garment formerly worn by men; b: a distinctive robe worn by a professional or academic person; c: a woman's dress; d(1): DRESSING GOWN (2): NIGHTGOWN; e: a coverall worn in an operating room

A gown in Shakespeare’s time was a long garment worn by both men and women. It was open in the front and usually worn over other garments. Sandra Clarke tells us that “for men, it usually denoted status or profession,” and gowns had various symbolic functions: “Richard II will exchange ‘My gay apparel for an almsman’s gown’ meaning the poor gown of one who begs for alms or perhaps the attire of a mendicant from a holy order.”

Recently it has been argued that gowns are the most important garments in history. Sabrina Maddeaux writes that “Gowns feature in both societal and personal histories the way few other single items do – and they often transcend the limits of their fabric and the bodies who wear them to find permanent places in the public imagination.” She continues, “It’s the moment when a dress meets its wearer and transforms her that it gains power for [designer] Siriano. “You can be any girl at home with any type of job, put on an evening gown and be an entirely different person,” he tells me over the phone. It’s also why millions of women obsessively watch shows like Say Yes to the Dress. If you think the show is just about pretty wedding gowns, then you’re missing the point entirely.” Based on this article, at present, gowns are associated with women’s empowerment and high status, since they are often worn by celebrities on the red carpet.

In “‘Your Gown’s a Most Rare Fashion:’ Costume and Shakespeare,” Sylvia Morris writes about Queen Elizabeth’s relationship to gowns: “Elizabeth was said to have 3000 gowns, many of them embroidered and covered in jewels. They were popular gifts to the Queen from her loyal subjects, and costumes were more than adornments, representing the power of the monarch and the aspirations of the state. The more elaborate and valuable the better.

Elizabeth’s interest in costume spread to her courtiers, and from them down to ordinary people.” This connects with fabrics like silk, which were reserved for nobility and policed by the sumptuary laws. Since most women couldn’t afford to buy their own clothing, their nicest clothes often came in the form of gifts from men who were trying to court them or maintain power over them. Receiving gifts of such high quality indebted the gift receiver to the gift giver—i.e., women to men, or subjects to their queen. See the silk page for further information.

At present, many articles are appearing about whether or not queer women feel pressured to wear dresses. In “Dressing While Queer: Powerful reflections from 10 queer, cisgender college women on what it means to live and dress as their authentic selves,” Lauren Stockmon Brown interviews queer women about whether or not they feel pressure to wear dresses. Many do. Brown writes, “In terms of the contextual space in which these women act in, one could argue that that is the greatest challenge when dressing while gay. Whether it’s at the office, a summer internship interview, your extended family’s Christmas gathering, or a cocktail event that calls for the infamous ‘formal attire.’ There is an incessant concern when attempting to dress in a way that brings the stranger beside you as well as a dearly beloved a sense of clarity in relation to the gender you identify as and the sexuality you have found relief in expressing.” Queer people can wear whatever they want—and it’s important to acknowledge the pressure that queer women face in terms of using fashion items like dresses and gowns to express femininity.

GOWN” APPEARS IN THE FOLLOWING TEXTS:

HAMLET

Up from my cabin,
My sea-gown scarf'd about me, in the dark
Grop'd I to find out them; had my desire,
Finger'd their packet, and in fine withdrew
To mine own room again; making so bold
(My fears forgetting manners) to unseal
Their grand commission; where I found, Horatio
(O royal knavery!), an exact command,
Larded with many several sorts of reasons,
Importing Denmark's health, and England's too,
With, hoo! such bugs and goblins in my life-
That, on the supervise, no leisure bated,
No, not to stay the finding of the axe,
My head should be struck off.

HENRY IV, PART I

Bardolph, am I not fallen away vilely since this last
action? do I not bate? do I not dwindle? Why my
skin hangs about me like an like an old lady's loose
gown; I am withered like an old apple-john.

HENRY IV, PART II

Well, you shall have it, though I pawn my gown.
I hope you'll come to supper. you'll pay me all together?

HENRY IV, PART II

Come, thou shalt go to the wars in a gown. We will
away thy cold; and I will take such order that thy friends
ring for thee. Is here all?

HENRY IV, PART

Not all these lords do vex me half so much
As that proud dame, the lord protector's wife.
She sweeps it through the court with troops of ladies,
More like an empress than Duke Humphrey's wife:
Strangers in court do take her for the queen:
She bears a duke's revenues on her back,
And in her heart she scorns our poverty:
Shall I not live to be avenged on her?
Contemptuous base-born callet as she is,
She vaunted 'mongst her minions t'other day,
The very train of her worst wearing gown
Was better worth than all my father's lands,
Till Suffolk gave two dukedoms for his daughter.

HENRY VI, PART II

Why, that's well said. What colour is my gown of?

HENRY VI, PART II

But cloaks and gowns, before this day, a many.

HENRY VI, PART III

I know it well, Lord Warwick; blame me not:
'Tis love I bear thy glories makes me speak.
But in this troublous time what's to be done?
Shall we go throw away our coats of steel,
And wrap our bodies in black mourning gowns,
Numbering our Ave-Maries with our beads?
Or shall we on the helmets of our foes
Tell our devotion with revengeful arms?
If for the last, say ay, and to it, lords.