Urban elites used dress materials to signal rank over inferiors

Evidence

Urban elites everywhere struggled to differentiate themselves from their “inferiors” not only by the design of their dress, but by the materials as well. The cap of the medieval Frenchman was made of velvet for the elites, rough cloth for the poor (Lacroix, 1963:523). In Elizabethan England, “commoners were prohibited by law from wearing clothing fashioned from gold or silver cloth, velvet, furs and other ‘luxury’ materials” (Sjoberg, 1960:127). Hair length also indicated status. Among the Franks, only the elites had long hair. Males of lesser rank “wore theirs more or less short, according to the degree of freedom which they possessed, and the serfs had their heads completely shaved.” — Lyn H. Lofland, World of Strangers_ Order and Action in…, 241

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the reader’s published essay on sumptuary laws and moral panics over dress as class/identity signaling.
• ADDENDUM: Directly supports the ‘Complaints About Immodesty Go Way Back’ article theme of dress regulation as class/political signaling.