fashion in history: a global look tutor: giorgio riello week 4 tuesday 27 october 2009

Fashion in History: A Global Look

Tutor: Giorgio Riello

Week 4

Tuesday 27 October 2009

Curbing FashionMedieval Sumptuary Laws in Europe and Beyond

Sumptuary Laws are:

The laws that since medieval times limited the consumption of certain items of apparel

But

They regulated not just ownership, but also display, especially at - weddings (what types of gifts could be given, what type of food could be eaten, how much one could spend for one’s wedding); - funerals (the cost of the funeral, the types of cloth that could be used, the number of candles that could be burned)

1. What is a Sumptuary Law

What type of consumption does it regulate?

Not all forms of consumption

but

what is considered to be superfluous: luxury

The definition of what luxury is changes depending on the person


Florence Venice


2. Why were Sumptuary Laws Used?

1. When

- Non existent before 1150- After that date they emerged and continued to

be produced in several parts of Europe

2. Where

- They are not to be found everywhere in Europe- They concentrate in the most economically

active parts of the continent (Italy, Southern France, Catalonia, and later England)


Explanations:

1. Maintaining the existing social hierarchy – Tool of social control

2. Upholding moral values

3. Encouraging economic prosperity


Explanation 1: Tools of Social Control

a. Re-establish the formal divisions between the different parts or classes in society.

b. To stop certain parts of society from using dress as a way to ‘better themselves’.

↓

c. the sumptuary laws acted as a way to fight against fashion, against change and choice through the regulation of appearance


Explanation 1: Tools of Social Control

Not just used by the social superiors (princes, aristocrats, lawmakers) to exclude their social inferior.

Often sumptuary laws were used by social inferiors (ex. artisans) to limit the splendor and luxury of their social superior.


Explanation 2: Moral conduct and good government

To ensure a good ‘statum civitas’ (the well being, or commonwealth of the population),

by preventing moral degeneration (through the corruption of luxury)

that in turn would have created economic disaster and social unrest.


Ambrogio Lorenzetti, The Effects of Good Government, Siena, 1338-40


Explanation 3: Encouraging Economic Prosperity

to guide expenditure

↓Limit use of luxuries

(that are often imported goods)

↓to avoid expenditure on imported commodities

↓give work to local artisans

↓Increase tax revenue

↓More income for the state/city.

3. Who was Regulated by the Sumptuary Laws

They were for the rich/elite who could afford to wear forbidden items (such as silver and precious silks)

Rather than the majority of the population who could not afford such items

Nobles were often exempted from Sumptuary Laws

but

They were warned against the perils of luxury and overindulgence


Sumptuary Laws and Women

- Sumptuary Laws were written by men…although they were often target at women

- Women had inferior social position and little ‘agency’ (capacity to determine their destiny)

- Sumptuary Laws were seen as a way to govern the female tendency to overvalue appearance (as opposed to the intellectual, moral and religious dimensions of life)


Who was excluded from Sumptuary Laws?

-Foreigners: people coming from different states or cities – They were regulated by the laws of their city of provenance.

- Doctors: people who attended university - a title not acquired by birth

4. What was Forbidden by the Sumptuary Laws

Swabian School, The Lovers, c. 1470. Cleveland Museum of Art. Venetian Courtesan, from Vecellio, c. 1590

Domenico Ghirlandaio, Portrait of Giovanna Tornabuoni, 1488. Mixed technique on wood. 77 x 49 cm. Museo Thyssen- Bornemisza, Madrid

Banquet of Herod, mid fifteenth Century, MET, New York

Where

Hunting with falcons at the court of Philip the Good, Fifteenth century, Versailles

6. The Enforcement of Sumptuary Laws

The Law

People should not wear gold trimmings

Students must submit their essays by 22 October at 11.35

The Practice

People did not wear gold trimmings

Students submitted their essays

►

↓

We tend to imply this because there is a law establishing it. But the law does not tell us what people really did

What we need are documents showing that people were prosecuted, but these are few. What does it mean?


Why are there so few documents on prosecution?

1.The archival hypothesisThe documents were not kept

2. The ‘failure’ hypothesisThey were inefective

‘in spite of all these strong ordinances, outrages remained; and though one could not have cut and figured cloth, they wanted striped cloth and foreign cloth, the most that they could have, sending as far as Flanders and Brabant for it, not worrying about the cost’ (Giovanni Villani, Cronica, 1330).

‘those who are neither of the nobility, gentility nor yeomanry, no, nor yet any magistrate, or officer in the commonwealth, go daily in silks, velvets, satins, damasks, taffetas and such like, notwithstanding that they be both base by birth, mean by estate and servile by calling’ (Philip Stubbes, 1583).


Why are there so few documents on prosecution?

2. The ‘failure’ hypothesis (continue)Who enforced the law? How did it work?

Many cities appointed officials to uphold the law. Florence, for instance, appointed in 1330 the so-called ‘Ufficiali delle Donne’ (Clerks of Women) who had the power to stop people and seach them.

3. The ‘success’ hypothesisThere are no prosecutions as the laws were widely respected

Rank Badge, Back Panel of a Embroidered Silk Festival Roundel, Ming (16th-17th centuries) Gold wrapped silk thread; silk; silk floss; embroidery. The Matcaggart Gallery, University of Alberta 2005.5.235

A Winter Party, by Utagawa Toyoharu, Edo Period (|18th century)

Mahmud II, 1785-1839, Sultan of the Ottoman Empire 1808-38

Ottoman Empire

Conclusion

fashion in history: a global look tutor: giorgio riello week 4 tuesday 27 october 2009

Documents