Sumptuary laws regulated dress and expenditures to maintain social hierarchies during the Middle Ages. Such laws dictated who could wear certain fabrics, colors and styles based on social class. They aimed to distinguish classes visually and curb excessive spending. Violations were punished harshly through fines or imprisonment. Prostitutes were also regulated through sumptuary laws, often required to dress in distinctive styles to identify their profession. By the late Middle Ages and Renaissance, sumptuary laws proliferated but became difficult to enforce as societies grew wealthier and social boundaries blurred.

1. REGULATION OF APPEARANCE LAWS, WHORES AND OUTCASTS

7. MORE RECENT SUMPTUARY LAW

18. SOME OF THOSE LAWS

19. Elizabethan Restrictions For Women (Small Sample) Buttons and Facings Russet, green, grey) Silk, Taffeta, Velvet As Above (Brown, beige, yellow Wool, Linen, Sheep Lower Class Women Petticoats, Cloaks Damask, Taffeta, Silk Knights Daughters Crimson Black Velvet Fur: Genets & Lucerns Wives Knights of Garter Gowns Velvet, Silk, Leopard Wives Barons Sons Furs: Genets, lucerns As Above Crimson Velvets Wives of Knights etc Cowls, Kirtles, sleeves Silver Cloth of Silver Viscountesses, Baron : Gowns, Kirtles, sleeves Gold Cloth of Gold As Above Sable Fur Duchess - Countess Purple Silk Queen – Direct family ITEM ALOWED COLOUR MATERIAL STATUS

35. BUT AT THE BOTTOM END OF SOCIETY Regency Dancing rooms- victorian slums (Note clothes)