Sumptuary laws dating back to ancient Greece and Rome aimed to regulate dress and expenditures to distinguish social classes and curb extravagance. Such laws proliferated in medieval Europe, dictating what fabrics, colors and styles different social ranks could wear. They also required groups like prostitutes and Jews to wear distinctive clothing to mark their outcast status outside mainstream society. By the early modern period, sumptuary laws had declined but other regulations still targeted women's fashion and the clothing of marginalized groups.

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)