Previously I talked about fabric, and where it comes from. In this one I discuss clothing and its applicability to worldbuilding and plot.
In stratified societies there were often sumptuary laws enacted to prevent the lower classes from dressing too well. These laws can range from forbidding embroidery stitches any larger than a grain of rice (Japan), a declaration that only nobles could use certain dyes (the Byzantine Empire), restricting the use of gold and silver in garments and notions to the wealthy (the Massachusetts Bay colony).
Sumptuary laws also enforced distinctive items of clothing for courtesans and prostitutes. In classical Greece such laws were coupled also with a ban on gold jewelry and purple-edged robes for other women, so citizens would not confused the two and offend a virtuous matron with a paid proposition.
How does one apply this to plot and adventuring? It could be as simple as having your party travel to another realm where specific items of clothing are prohibited to commoners, especially those scruffy, hedge-sleeping dungeon-crawling adventurers. Violations of such laws were often punished with fines. Do the player characters have to shuck enchanted items of clothing or face confiscation of the offending items?
A GM could invoke public indecency laws against players who then strip down to avoid the confiscation of their garments. This would set the scene and mood for a place run by bureaucratic bullies or deeply corrupt enforcers.
Nudity taboos could also be used just as a setting element. Ann Leckie’s Ancillary trilogy contains a culture that considers bare hands scandalous. All citizens go gloved, except in the bathroom or boudoir. A character uses their elbow to gesture in a shared bath as pointing barehanded is rude. Bare hands were seen as a marker of foreign, uncivilized behavior.
A less humorous use of sumptuary laws could occur if members of a given insurgency wore specific items to identify themselves - what does a player character do if he’s thrown into prison for owning a scarf similar to those worn by local rebels or bandits? What if the character has never seen the scarf until he’s searched? Who planted it, and why?
Such laws are also enacted to protect the economy. In 1571 the English Parliament decreed that all men above the age of six were to wear woollen caps on Sundays and holidays, save for nobles and persons of degree. This law was meant to stimulate domestic wool production. Wool was vitally important to England’s economy. so much so that the Lord Speaker of the Parliament sat on a cushion stuffed with wool, called the Woolsack. (Amusingly enough, the Woolsack was discovered to be stuffed with horsehair in 1938.)
Elizabeth of England wore a scarlet gown dyed with cochineal captured off a Spanish ship, to flaunt and impress her subjects and enemies with England’s naval prowess. This could be invoked overtly in a campaign, or subtly, such as members of a merchant house wearing purple-lined coats after a mysterious raid on another family’s warehouses.
contributed by M.W. Simmes
In stratified societies there were often sumptuary laws enacted to prevent the lower classes from dressing too well. These laws can range from forbidding embroidery stitches any larger than a grain of rice (Japan), a declaration that only nobles could use certain dyes (the Byzantine Empire), restricting the use of gold and silver in garments and notions to the wealthy (the Massachusetts Bay colony).
Sumptuary laws also enforced distinctive items of clothing for courtesans and prostitutes. In classical Greece such laws were coupled also with a ban on gold jewelry and purple-edged robes for other women, so citizens would not confused the two and offend a virtuous matron with a paid proposition.
How does one apply this to plot and adventuring? It could be as simple as having your party travel to another realm where specific items of clothing are prohibited to commoners, especially those scruffy, hedge-sleeping dungeon-crawling adventurers. Violations of such laws were often punished with fines. Do the player characters have to shuck enchanted items of clothing or face confiscation of the offending items?
A GM could invoke public indecency laws against players who then strip down to avoid the confiscation of their garments. This would set the scene and mood for a place run by bureaucratic bullies or deeply corrupt enforcers.
Nudity taboos could also be used just as a setting element. Ann Leckie’s Ancillary trilogy contains a culture that considers bare hands scandalous. All citizens go gloved, except in the bathroom or boudoir. A character uses their elbow to gesture in a shared bath as pointing barehanded is rude. Bare hands were seen as a marker of foreign, uncivilized behavior.
A less humorous use of sumptuary laws could occur if members of a given insurgency wore specific items to identify themselves - what does a player character do if he’s thrown into prison for owning a scarf similar to those worn by local rebels or bandits? What if the character has never seen the scarf until he’s searched? Who planted it, and why?
Such laws are also enacted to protect the economy. In 1571 the English Parliament decreed that all men above the age of six were to wear woollen caps on Sundays and holidays, save for nobles and persons of degree. This law was meant to stimulate domestic wool production. Wool was vitally important to England’s economy. so much so that the Lord Speaker of the Parliament sat on a cushion stuffed with wool, called the Woolsack. (Amusingly enough, the Woolsack was discovered to be stuffed with horsehair in 1938.)
Elizabeth of England wore a scarlet gown dyed with cochineal captured off a Spanish ship, to flaunt and impress her subjects and enemies with England’s naval prowess. This could be invoked overtly in a campaign, or subtly, such as members of a merchant house wearing purple-lined coats after a mysterious raid on another family’s warehouses.
contributed by M.W. Simmes
