Sumptuary Laws of France
* The sumptuary laws existed from 1294 to the time of the French Revolution in 1789.
* It restricted people from wearing certain clothes and from consuming certain foods and beverages such as alcohol.
* The French Revolution swept away the existing dress codes.
* Later, both men and women wore clothes that were loose and comfortable, and were simple to express their idea of equality.
Clothing and Notions of Beauty
* Although the sumptuary laws ended, the poor still could not dress or eat like the rich.
* Women were expected to be docile, delicate, frivolous and passive.
* Women in Victorian England wore stays and corsets to look elegant and attractive.
* As wearing corsets was painful, some women wanted to change their dressing style to something simpler and comfortable.
* Both in Europe and America, women began a movement for rational dress reform.
New Times, New Clothing
* Several changes took place in Britain due to introduction of new technologies and fabrics as well as working conditions of women.
* After Industrial Revolution, Britain began to manufacture and export cotton textiles.
* Women wore lighter, shorter and simpler clothes made of artificial fibres.
* Due to the war, women started working. They wore sober colours and simple and comfortable clothes.
Transformations in Colonial India
* Colonial India showed significant changes in men and women’s clothing.
* Men and women had different reactions towards western style clothes.
* These changes in clothing however had a turbulent history.
* The caste system defined what the lower and the higher castes could wear or eat.
Designing the National Dress
* The men and the women of the upper classes experimented to define India’s national dress.
* Rabindranath Tagore suggested that the national dress should combine elements of Hindu and Muslim dress.
* The Swadeshi Movement brought in a political aspect to dressing.
* People were urged to use Swadeshi goods and boycott British goods.
* The use of khadi became a patriotic duty. However, some found it unaffordable.
* Gandhiji dreamed that the entire nation should wear khadi, but some thought differently.