Medieval Monday—What Not to Wear

I do have a point, and it’s that I’m lucky I don’t live in the 14th Century because I wouldn’t have nearly as many options thanks to a wonderful little thing called Sumptuary Laws. These laws were rigid in dictating what you could or could not wear based on your income.

Money talks today, but money really talked in the Middle Ages. If you were rich, you could wear whatever the heck you wanted. If you didn’t have the good fortune to tumble forth from the uterus of a noblewoman, your options were a bit more limited. If you were lucky, you might be a knight with profitable land because then you could wear what the nobles wore but no ermine fur and no precious gems sewn into your clothing. Less-profitable knights weren’t allowed to wear gold cloth or to line their clothing with miniver.

For those classes below the knight, the laws regulated how much you could spend on your fabric. Are you a wealthy merchant? Well then, you can spend up to 3 pounds, 6 shillings on your cloth. Average merchant? You’re limited to 3 pounds, and you’re not allowed to have any embroidery on your clothing either. Yeomen are limited to 2 pounds but are forbidden from buying silk, while servants can spend just over a pound.

And then there’s the very bottom of the totem pole—the working class. If you’re a laborer, a shepherd, a plowman, a dairymaid, etc., you wear a russet sack and a rope belt. Period.

Could you imagine trying to enforce sumptuary laws today? You save money from your paycheck for an entire year to buy yourself a Louis Vuitton bag, only to have the cops come snatch it and fine you because you make less than $250,000 a year so you’re forbidden from carrying it. Or you walk into a fabric store and have to show a W-2 before you’re allowed to shop. Kinda harsh, huh?