The fashionable ensemble of the early 17th century included either a ruff or a band (collar) worn at the neck. The band was gradually overtaking the ruff in fashionable dress, as it required less linen and was much easier to care for. By the 1620s, the style of ruff most commonly seen was the falling variety, made to drape over the collar of the doublet, jacket or bodice worn underneath.
This example is made of a very finely spun and woven linen, hemmed with stitches so fine they can barely be seen. The extremely narrow pleats were probably set with lengths of fine straw, over which the ruff was ironed. Seventeenth-century laundresses required great skill to execute this kind of setting, heating their irons on a stove to the temperature just hot enough to smooth, but not scorch, the linen.