English sumptuary laws encoded social rank in clothing through state coercion.

Evidence

In sixteenthand early seventeenth-century England, clothing was an indicator of an individual’s status group in a hierarchically stratified society. A series of clothing laws extending back to the fourteenth century regulated the types of cloth and accessories permitted as wearing apparel for the individuals of each social stratum and forbade people in each group to wear clothing designated for those above them. The English Parliament continued passing such laws until the early seventeenth century, an attempt by the state to maintain existing social stratification and to prevent upward mobility (Fig. 16). — Carolyn Merchant, The Death of Nature, 693

Categorization

• ADDENDUM: Directly supports article 2 ‘Complaints About Immodesty Go Way Back’ — sumptuary clothing law is a core instance of dress as class/status signaling enforced by the state.
• XREF: connects to: Sumptuary laws tried to fix social rank to dress — Lyn H. Lofland, World of Strangers_ Order and Action in…, 297; Preindustrial urban dress law encoded rank through fabric, color, and hair length; Puritan ideologies dress up coercion as consent once total pressure succeeds — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 1111 (+4 more)

Broader Connections

• Sumptuary laws tried to fix social rank to dress #corroborates (0.95) — Lyn H. Lofland, World of Strangers_ Order and Action in…, 297
• Preindustrial urban dress law encoded rank through fabric, color, and hair length #expands (0.85)
• Preindustrial cities law-coded minority dress to mark them as outcastes #expands (0.80)
• Symbolic definition and coercion both constitute state social control #expands (0.80)
• Puritan ideologies dress up coercion as consent once total pressure succeeds #expands (0.75) — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 1111