One or two details might tip a reader off to a period and setting that she was already familiar with. But a reader visiting that period for the first time, may need those details in a more, er, detailed context.

Some readers enjoy an exhaustive description of a modern woman's ball gown. But imo the effect of a gentleman wearing "shoes with high red heels, a purple cloak, a purple and gold coat, a flowered silk waistcoat" goes way beyond that, in several directions. This is definitely not a gentleman of Kansas!