Restoration
The Stuart Restoration in English history was the period of time post-Oliver Cromwell and his putrid affiliates. Some people referred to King Charles II (and continue to do so today) as 'The Merry Monarch'. If one considers this nickname, the entirety of the Stuart Restoration was in line with this, in terms of the continuous optimism injected by Charles into Stuart society.
'The Merry Monarch'
King Charles II can be considered as one of, if not the most intriguing and beguiling rulers ever. This may be partially related to the fact that his circumstances worked in his favour...
Oliver Cromwell
After the overthrow of the Crown (under Charles I) of the religious state for the first time in the nation's history, Oliver Cromwell ran the country. Essentially banning anything that brought 'unnecessary joy'. This included Christmas and the theatre. Of course, by doing this, stripping innocent people of their right to exist euphorically, hate began to grow towards him amongst the population. After his death, the country was on a path to deterioration, this is when 'The Merry Monarch' was called back to the country by Parliament to lead, continuing 'true Royalty' for years to come. Upon his return, Cromwell's body was hanged, beheaded, and his head displayed on a spike for years to follow. The King did this as a posthumous punishment for his role in regicide.
Societal Tragedies
During his reign, Charles faired extremely well with many social and political challenges that many other monarchs wouldn't fair well to, at all. These included The Plague, and The Great Fire of London. Whilst escaping and avoiding these things, society was utterly decimated. He responded by encouraging developments into the future, by doing things such as founding The Royal Society. This proved the recovery to be a great success, with the hub of England, London, emerging better than it had ever been in terms of morale, and quality of life.
A very large factor that improved the quality of life in particular, was the Royal encouragement of the theatre.
The Theatre
The 'Restorative Theatre' was a revolutionary era for theatre through the ages. It completely reimagined theatre from anything anyone had known it to be before. Thanks to the assumed heavy influence of Charles, theatre became very French inspired, particularly the costumes.
They contained lavish and expensive looking colours, most notably: Royal Blue, Purple and Emerald Green; three colours which were uncommonly used in theatre, or in common society, up until this point in the history of theatre. The shapes and silhouettes displayed in costume also evolved, finding new ways to manipulate clothing onto the body, often influencing it's viewers. So, in that light, the costumes of Restorative Theatre properly began celebrity trends and culture, crowds of people seeing one thing, and taking it to be popular. Daily life began to become competitive (which is a factor to consider when looking at the beginnings of the middle class in England).