Dress codes

The politics of clothing in medieval times is the subject of Sartorial Strategies:Outfitting Aristocrats and Fashioning Conduct in Late Medieval Literature (University of Notre Dame Press), by Nicole D. Smith, assistant professor of English.
Smith says churchmen complained that fashion invited sins such as pride and lust — pride because it could be excessive or make people appear better than their neighbors, and lust because new styles, such as lace, knots, belts and form-fitting tailoring, revealed too much of the body’s contours. But medieval writers such as Chaucer, Smith writes, put a virtuous twist on the clothing.
 
 
 
 
 

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