Sumptuary laws were enacted in many centuries and countries. In
Elizabethan England, these laws attempted to restrict the
sumptuousness of dress in order to curb extravagance, protect
fortunes, and make clear the necessary and appropriate
distinctions between levels of society. The principal concern
was that money spent on frivolous display would be better spent
on the state of more important things, such as horses, critical
to a society always in peril of the The other concern was that
letting anyone wear just anything must lead inexorably to moral
decline. If you couldn't tell a milkmaid from a countess at a
glance, the very fabric of society might unravel. These statues
were almost impossible to enforce and were essentially a lost
cause. There were no "costume police". It is most unlikely that
any yeoman's ambitious son in a new sugarloaf hat ever found
himself stopped on the street by a constable zealously
performing his duty, and be carted off to the magistrate. If
your neighbor complained, there might b