Things I Learned When I Looked Up from Facebook: 16th Century Edition

This semester, I'm taking a class called "The History of Western Dress," and it's pretty awesome. Granted, I'm sort of a nerd about clothing, but I find this stuff way fascinating. It's not only what my Neolithic and 12th century sisters wore, but also why they wore it. (Sidenote: I'm also learning about the brothers. "Sisters" just fit better with the sassy tone I was going for). I could be way off base, but thought I'd take a whack at sharing some of the things I'm learning with you guys. What do you think? It goes without saying that I want this to be a space where I can write about what I want to write about, but I also want to feature things that my readers (and those I will hopefully gain in the future....)(was that awkward?) will enjoy. Basically, I'm completely open to suggestions, so if you hate this, please let me know. In a constructive way : ).
Ok, here goes. I'll try to leave the boring bits out.

This week, we're smack in the middle of the 16th century. Some Fun facts:

/1/

The handkerchief was essentially invented because folks used to snort their tobacco, and needed something to sneeze it back out into.

/2/

When soldiers would return from battle, their clothes would be torn and slashed all over. Duh. Seeing these alterations as a sign of victory, the wusses* and grannies who didn't go to war began imitating the soldiers, cutting slashes into their own clothing and pulling their underclothes through the slashes. The result was an armful or chestful of little white tufts, as seen above. An early form of bottom-up inspiration, if you will. But don't worry: you don't even have to say it. I feel the same way.

/3/

A) How awkward is this picture? B) Dudes used to wear codpieces, but you already knew that. What you didn't know is that they frequently stuffed them with herbs to ward of the dreaded syphilis. I might've suggested, you know, just not sewing as many wild oats, but whatevs. Do you, gentlemen. Do you.

/4/

According to Google, this is a portrait of Queen Elizabeth; note the ginger. Apparently, if you were a woman "of age" around the time of Elizabeth's reign, and you were sitting for your portrait, the final product would be complete with red hair, like Lizzy here, no matter what your natural color. What the queen did, you did. Control freak!

There, that wasn't so bad, right? I'm thinking about making this a sort-of reccuring theme, unless it's completely boring to everyone. Tell me what you think! 

*Term used solely for comical purposes. I don't actually believe people who don't go to war are wusses. War sucks.