The Chandos Portrait, reputed to be of William Shakespeare, shows a man of some 35-6 years, dressed in black, which denotes how rich he was. To wear black, one had to have the cloth dyed at least three times in red, blue and yellow dye, to attain the depth of black required. The cloth had to be dried after dyeing, three times, and then a tailor would measure you up, and a cutter would cut the measured cloth, then a seamstress would stitch the whole thing together! All this cost money! Eventually, you would emerge, dressed in black and possibly with jewellery stitched into the doublet, again to signify how rich you were, Dandies such as Drake and Raleigh, did so.
