What could Nell look like?

Nell Gwyn

17th century common dress

Nell was considered to be a very beautiful woman in her era. Since most of the paintings that were done of her, were from the time she was already one of King Charles II mistresses, she is already in position of power and certain amount of wealth. She wouldn't be dressed in fancy silk dresses, when she wasn't even in the playhouse yet, but just a barmaid or selling oranges at the theatre. She would have been most likely wearing something brown or grey, dirty dress that she would have worn every single day.

Playhouse Creatures

In this picture of another production of the play, you can see the different actors having different sort dresses, the woman in the middle obviously being Mrs. Marshall or Mrs. Betterton because of her more expensive dress. Nell would be most likely wearing something more like the woman on the left or the girl in the green dress, simple, no-fuss dresses.

In the last scene, Nell would be wearing something better quality, since she has been the Kings mistress for some time, enabling a stable life because of his help. Still, she is weak condition, so she would most likely be wearing something a bit more comfortable than a hard corset  and pounds of jewelry and accessories. I think, that she should be wearing something yellow or orange, since a lot of the paintings she is portrayed in those colours.

The hair during the Restoration era was often curled and made as extravagant as possible, since the return of Charles II to throne made French fashion popular. Women's hair was often flattened at the top and then curled from bottom.
   Before the return of Charles II to England, the Puritans insisted on modesty and simpler style, encouraging women to keep their hair short, straight and preferably covered.  I think Nell will probably have her hair up in some sort of a bun or a braided hair-do, since it is still the early days of Restoration and
her style might still be affected by the Puritan fashion. Also, that way her hair would be away from her face when she is working at the pub.