- Hi, I'm Amber Butchart,
one of the hosts of Audible's Fashioned.
I'm a fashion historian,
and my job involves researching clothes
and understanding not just what we wore,
but who we were and who we are today.
I've written books about fashion,
spoken at the Tate and the V&A about it,
and been on the BBC as well.
But today, I'm here to tell you about
how back in the day
your clothes may have cost more than your house,
why Elizabeth I wanted to ban fashion altogether,
and how some establishment even employed fashion spies.
These are the rules of fashion.
The rules of fashion today
may be set by Instagram, magazines, or couture catwalks.
But in the past, there were actual laws
making certain clothing illegal.
These were known as sumptuary laws,
ruling over everything from the shortness of men's tunics.
so as to not expose their buttocks,
to the pointedness of people's shoes,
to prevent them from falling over.
Personally, I don't believe in many fashion rules
when it comes to dressing.
I think that rules are there to be broken.
For example, blue and green should never be seen.
I wear blue and green together loads.
Or that old adage that you should take one thing off
before you leave the house.
I say, put one more accessory on.
More is always more.
So, what are sumptuary laws?
Sumptuary laws were all about curtailing excess
and extravagance from food to fashion,
on the basis that too much luxury
must be bad for you and your pockets.
Although the history of pockets is actually fascinating,
and I suggest you look into it.
So why did these laws exist?
One purpose behind these sumptuary laws
was to try to control social hierarchies and morals
through restrictions on clothing, food, and luxury goods.
Basically, to try to keep people,
especially women and the lower classes, in their place.
They could also be used
to bolster the production of certain materials and items.
So it's a kind of tool to take care of the economy.
Controlling people's dress was key
because before the industrial revolution, dress was perhaps
the most powerful marker of social identity.
After all, there weren't many other ways
in which you could tell people about yourself.
No flashy cars to drive around just yet.
So let's take a look at some examples.
If you're struggling to imagine these in practice,
let me take you back.
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It's the 1400s and Edward IV is on the throne.
He passes a law that says no one below the level of a Lord
is allowed to wear purple silk.
Now purple was expensive to produce,
and so it was a very clear marker of wealth.
Lower ranked knights also had to pay up to 20 pounds
if they wore anything gold colored or with sable fur.
The thing is though, there isn't actually any evidence
that offenders were even punished,
but more on that later.
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Next, we have Elizabeth I,
who had a particular bee in her bejeweled bonnet
about fashion.
She issued a number of proclamations
on the rules of fashion throughout her reign.
Now, this could have been
to try and limit the rise of the merchant class,
who were becoming wealthy and powerful,
but who lacked noble birth.
With their new money, they had the financial means
to buy clothing intended for their social superiors.
Just really wouldn't do, according to Elizabeth.
We also see these ideas around dress equaling identity
reflected in Shakespeare.
You may remember the line, "Apparel oft proclaims the man."
This is from Hamlet.
And in All's Well That Ends Well, we hear
"The soul of this man is his clothes."
Things got so bad, that at one point,
Elizabeth even attempted to ban fashion itself.
"Any new kind or form of apparel and garnishing thereof,
was to be punished."
Now, although we might see this as horrifying,
it might have actually been a blessing in disguise,
because new clothes were so expensive.
In 1588, seven doublets and two cloaks
owned by the Earl of Leicester
were valued at 543 pounds.
This made each item, on average,
more than the price that Shakespeare had paid
for a whole house.
(cash register dinging)
So Elizabeth tried to put a limit on this extravagance
with a proclamation prohibiting,
"Monstrous and outrageous greatness of hose,"
or "Shirts having double ruffs
either at the collar or sleeves."
She was basically saying, your shirts are too frilly
and your pant are to puffy.
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Ruffs around the neck were also reviled
by the pamphleteer Philip Stubbs.
In 1583, he described them brilliantly as,
"These cart wheels of the devil's chariot of pride,
leading the direct way to the dungeon of hell."
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The rules of fashion covered all sections of society.
For example, take the 1571 Elizabethan Cap Act,
this decreed that every male aged six and above,
who was not a gentlemen, had to wear a woolen cap,
which could be known as a statute cap,
every Sunday and on public holidays.
Now, not only was this an effective way
for the government to support the crucial wool trade,
but it also marked the wearer out
as a member of the lower class.
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If you didn't follow these stringent rules,
you might even get rumbled by a fashion spy.
Areas throughout the country,
as well as universities,
were directed to appoint,
"Four substantial and well-meaning men,"
to snitch on those dressing above their station.
So, what were the penalties?
During Elizabeth's rule,
punishment could theoretically include
confiscating the garments, three months in jail,
or fines of up to 10 pounds a day.
To put that in context,
the National Archives Currency Converter
has that at 2045 pounds in today's money,
or 200 days wages for a skilled tradesman,
or enough to buy five cows.
Three days in the stocks was another possible punishment.
However, in reality, the laws were hard to enforce,
some were largely ignored.
And of course, forbidding certain styles
probably made them even more desirable.
The most regular offenders
were usually the rich merchant classes
or members of the nobility.
Now these were people with quite a lot of power,
so there was some reluctance to punish them.
It becomes clear in Elizabeth's later proclamations
that her fashion laws had not been effective.
And at this stage, she tries to double down on them,
"Her majesty finding by experience that by clemency,
this increasing evil hath not been cured."
Oh, dear.
One rare example of a punishment being carried out
is the case of Thomas Bradshaw,
a merchant tailor who had all the stuffing
and lining of one of his hose cut and pulled out
before being led through the streets to his home,
where the same thing was done to his other leg.
And we know just how monstrous and great
those hose could be.
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The sumptuary laws were repealed in 1604,
a year after James I became King of England.
They were beginning to be seen
as being broadly out of step
with contemporary ideas around personal freedom.
If these laws hadn't been abolished,
we may not have the 26 billion pound fashion industry
that we have today.
And we probably all be wearing wool caps on a Sunday.
Instead in 2020,
we have new rules around another item of clothing,
the face mask,
which in certain cases you can get arrested for not wearing.
Thanks so much for watching.
Don't forget to listen to Fashioned, only on Audible.
Out now.
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