Fashion Police

Can you imagine being prohibited from wearing certain colours and types of clothing material on the basis of your social standing? 

We may not be too far from that in some respects today but in England in the 15th and 16th Centuries, particularly in the Tudor Period the Sumptuary Laws imposed a restriction on just those things dependant on your class. 

Henry the Eighth, known to be a bit of a snazzy dresser passed an Act to this effect in 1510 building on earlier legislation from the mid 1400's. There was the sanction of prosecution and financial penalty for both men and women should they transgress the rules and Henry continued to broaden the scope to cover fabrics and fabric length. 

Elizabeth the First took it upon herself to reinforce the restrictions from her father's reign even to the extent of recommending that each Parish appoint two watchers for transgressors and take responsibility for bringing offenders to Court. 

At a time of a rapidly expanding Empire across the known and New World Queen Elizabeth cited that serious problems could be caused to the Realm by "the excess of apparel and the superfluity of unnecessary foreign wares". 

A Statute in 1574 gave a specific list of items which covered every aspect of Elizabethan costume.

Strictly reserved for the Queen and Royal Family were purple silk and sable fur. The highest nobility of the land had permitted use of crimson and scarlet velvet. Lower ranks but still of noble birth could wear tinselled cloth, (cloth woven with gold and silver), also in embroidery. 

Means testing with an income over £100 a year permitted adornment with lynx and civet cat fur, enamelled buttons, chains, silk,satin and damask. 

The only non-nobles who could sport clothing above their station were those in service to the Queen in diplomatic, legal or other court offices. 

What was available to the ordinary working person in the kingdom? 

It was no use in hard physical and manual labour of the day to wear fancy embellished outfits and labourers and apprentices just went for the practicality of lighter linen (a product of the flax plant), wool of which there was an abundance or sheepskin similarly. Most of the workers would have only one set of clothing anyway unless they were in domestic service when liveries as a reflection of the Master's wealth and prestige were exempt from the Sumptuary laws. 

In order to protect the dominance of the wool export market in England there was a strong protectionist policy by Elizabeth and this prohibited the import and manufacture of cotton. It would be a further 200 years before a combination of Colonial Plantation imports and the Whitney Cotton Gin made the cloth readily available for mass appeal. 

There were other motivations behind the legislation. 

An emerging nouveau riche of gentlemen of means, making their fortunes in trade and commerce, had to be controlled. If dressed as a noble then the otherwise rigid social structure would become blurred and indistinct. Being upwardly mobile was an unknown quantity in that era. Social conformity and etiquette had to be protected from incursions by the riff-raff. 

Fashion could also bankrupt those putting on a show for progressing up the ladder, after all a class system had to work efficiently with no lookie-likies. 

Tweaking of the laws did see some strange applications to everyday apparel. Tailors were obliged to enter into a covenant to control the amount of fabric used in hose, or Medieval leggings.One servant of a merchant tailor was detained at her Majesty's pleasure for possession and display of an "outrageous great pair of hose" and others were similarly convicted. Thomas Bradshaw, a tailor, had to witness the removal of all of the stuffings and linings from what was deemed an unacceptable hose and then suffered the embarassment of being led to his house to be chastised by his wife. 

Fines and jail time of up to three months were the common penalties and although not high at fourpence for every day of the offence this was enough to cause problems to many of the working classes. 

Perhaps, as today, the greatest disincentive to flounting the laws was public opinion. 

Wearing something that did not fit into society's perception of acceptability could be the target for ridicule and even the Elizabethans were a bit image conscious after all.