A Glimpse into Elizabethan Fashion: From Immoral Excess to Sumptuary Laws

The accession of the Tudor dynasty to the English throne marked England’s transition into the modern age and a confrontation with new challenges both in culture and politics. The growth of a new wealthy middle class brought about confusion and disorder, threatening the superiority of an aristocracy that had stood the test of time. Throughout the Elizabethan age, when luxurious clothes signified social position and declared an aspiration of rank, apparel proved to be the medium through which such confusion became evident. Moral righteousness was the real concern for both Church and State: homilies against excess in apparel were read in churches, calling for sobriety as a virtue indispensable to the salvation of the soul. Urged through necessity and by preachers like Philippe Stubbes, Elizabeth I’s Parliament passed sumptuary proclamations to restrict clothing and impose social order on the basis of economic income. Convinced that costly attire was a cause of poverty and crime, Elizabeth’s proclamations on apparel were, with the exception of the law passed in 1559, based on Henry VIII’s law of 1533, but were no longer negative or prohibitive in character, simply establishing what the people had to do and wear.