Pants, Hats and Irish Hairstyles: How Governments Control Citizens’ Attire – Sputnik International

Sputnik takes a look at various clothing bans that occurred in the twentieth century before as well, even in the democratic societies of the West. Governments have been telling people what they can or cannot wear since ancient times.

Emperor’s New Clothes

The first attempt to define boundaries of what garments were permitted by law were made by the Greeks and Romans through decrees against luxury and meticulously regulated consumption (including meals served at feasts and their cost) in order to, as claimed by the legislators, strengthen public morality.

However, these laws were typically not followed judging from accounts of eyewitnesses and archaeological sources.

Under Emperor Tiberius (ruled 14-37) a senate resolution was passed banning men from wearing silk dresses. However, the successor of Tiberius, infamous Gaius Caesar Caligula did not care much about observing the legislation.

According to historian Suetonius’ accounts, “His clothing, footwear and usual outfit was not worthy of a Roman, a citizen or even of simply a man or even human being.”

Tiberius often wore bright colors, capes embroidered with pearls on sleeves and wrists. Sometimes he wore silk and women’s veils, sandals or soldiers’ boots and once he wore women’s shoes. As it can be seen by the historian’s accounts, the poor Emperor’s choice of style brought him a lot of criticism.

Mandatory Wardrobe Regulation

Medieval society was also very concerned about regulating people’s wardrobes. There were decrees regulating clothing for all classes and social strata, from peasants to the nobility. Clothes were regulated for repentant and unrepentant heretics, infidels, actors and even prostitutes.

Even after the “dark ages” clothing was regulated, especially in in Germany and England.

From 1244 to 1816, the German principality passed more than 1,300 laws aimed at regulating its citizens’ attire.

In 1662, a certain Hans Eitel Jacob, son of a weaver from Württemberg was fined an amount equal to two-week earnings, for wearing “very broad trousers.” The judge stated that if he was seen wearing such pants ever again, by the “power of the prince the pants would be confiscated.” It remains unknown whether in the end, young Hans Jacob was left without his pants!

Say No to Kilts

When the British Empire began to expand “wardrobe” laws began to have a more political element to them.

During the reign of Queen Elizabeth I it was forbidden to wear Irish national clothing. British citizens from 1297 were not allowed to wear hairstyles “as those among the Irish.”

The Dress Act of 1746 was part of the Act of Proscription which came into force on August 1, 1746 and made wearing “the Highland Dress” including the tartan or a kilt illegal in Scotland as well as reiterating the Disarming Act. The act was, however, revoked in 1782.

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Sputnik/ Igor Mikhalev

Scottish men in traditional dress with a bottle of whiskey near Dufftown. (File)

All About the Hats

The Hat Act was a former Act of the Parliament of Great Britain enacted in 1732 to prevent and control hat production by colonists in British America. It specifically placed limits on the manufacture, sale and exportation of colonial-made hats.

In the pamphlet, an overview of the rights of British America, Thomas Jefferson, among other things wrote that this law was “an example of despotism, which cannot have an equal in most oppressive centuries of history of Britain.”

Similarly, Russian Emperor Pavel tried to fight the Jacobin contagion by prohibiting a variety of wardrobe items, which in the opinion of the Emperor were the reason for a revolution in France.

He put a ban on jackets, hats with round crowns, boots with outward flips, coats, long pants and for some reason fur collars.

The law however, lasted until his untimely death. According to the French law of November 17, 1800, women in France had to get a special permit from the police to wear “male trousers or men’s clothing.” The law was officially canceled only two and a half centuries later, in 2013.

In 1892 and 1908 there were some changes introduced into that law that allowed ladies to wear pants for riding on a horse or on a bicycle.

Ban on Zoot-Suit

In 1936, New York women were forbidden to wear clothing that revealed their navel. The ban was lifted in the mid-1980s.

The Zoot Suit Riots were a series of racial attacks in 1943 in Los Angeles, California between Mexican American youths and European American servicemen stationed in Southern California.

White servicemen and civilians attacked Mexican youths who wore zoot suits because they were considered unpatriotic and luxurious during wartime.

A zoot suit is a men’s suit with high-waist, wide-legged, tight-cuffed, pegged trousers and a long coat with wide lapels and wide padded shoulders. It was the favorite dress of the semi-criminal youth of California at the time.

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AP Photo/ Gregory Bull

Men dressed in 1940s-era zoot suits dance during a festival in honor of Tin Tan in Mexico City. (File)

Anyone who was seen wearing zoot-suit was threatened to be arrested for up to 30 days.

Cover Those Legs!

This century’s ban on the burkini is not the first restriction on clothing. Apart from the religious laws, there are examples of clothing being banned in completely secular societies.

In March 2001, leaders of the Pacific island republic of Vanuatu Paama decided that shorts and pants on women provoke men to violence and therefore should be banned.

In 2013, several US cities banned wearing of jeans hanging more than three inches below the waist in such a way that person’s underwear is visible. It was banned because it was said to be offensive to the public and it was promoting a gangster image.

In the resort town of Wildwood, NJ, all persons over 12 years are forbidden to walk barefoot or bare-chested on the city’s waterfront.

In Wildwood offenders have to pay a fine of $50, but in Flint, Michigan, for the same violation an offender may face up to three months in prison. “Those who call it racism are talking nonsense,” Wildwood Mayor Ernest Troyano told Bloomberg in an interview. “We are fighting for morality!”

Irony, perhaps, that the burkini is apart of the “struggle” for morality which has gone on since the beginning of civilization.

from Hairstylez http://cityhairstyle.xyz/pants-hats-and-irish-hairstyles-how-governments-control-citizens-attire-sputnik-international/