Throughout history , lawmakers have take themselves with make it easier to identify people by class . It was such a fear that there ’s in reality a specific name for these kinds of jurisprudence : sumptuary laws , which were made for the intention keeping peasants from dressing , dining , or go more richly than the upper classes .
The laws may go horrifying today , but they were part used to dissuade people from going into debt by eat on and dressing beyond their means . It used to be easy enough to convince the existence you were robust and powerful just by look the part , and as a resultant , some people would spoil their funds on fine clothes and exuberant banquet that they could n’t afford . One Elizabethan police from1574speaks of :
That ’s not to say that these police force were n’t also ridiculous . One English legal philosophy dictated that a cardinal was permitted to eat on up to nine dishes at a repast while the rest of the nobleness all the way up to the duke could only eat seven . This legal philosophy was , not surprisingly , write by anEnglish cardinal .
Then there ’s the ancient Greek law put forward that no spare char was allowed to be accompanied by more than one amah servant when walking down the street . But gracefully enough , this law only applied if the cleaning woman was unplayful .
The sumptuary police limiting wear options got oddly specific . In England , prostitutes were required to wear their dresses inside - out and handmaid were prevent from wearing pointed shoe and puffed and slashed sleeve . Only royal stag were permit to get into clothing cut back withermine fur , while nobles could wear clothes trimmed with slyboots and otter . The colour purple was something that also belonged exclusively to the royal family unit .
Sumptuary laws eventually shrivel up away along with the traditional concepts of the noble and peasant classes . Though they existed for a brief menstruation in Colonial America , there are no police force in place today that would finish you from buying Beyoncé ’s latest laurels show getup .
[ h / t : io9 ]
