Legally Fashionable

In fourteenth-century Florence, opulent dress was outlawed. But fashionable Florentine ladies weren’t about to let those pesky little laws stop them. They continually changed their clothing styles to keep them just barely legal.

Medieval Florentine Ladies Stay One Step Ahead of Fashion Police

Medieval Florence, like many European cities, had ‘sumptuary laws’ to regulate luxury items, with an emphasis on women’s clothing. However, these laws proved difficult to enforce upon the clever Florentine women. All clothing was regulated, but there were few – if any – prosecutions brought against men, while a multitude were levelled at the fairer sex.

Did this stop Florentine women in the Middle Ages from expressing themselves with their fashion sense? Not at all. First of all, you could buy a license granting special permission to wear a banned item. Alternatively, one could simply wear the forbidden clothing and pay a small fine each time. Some Florentine men willingly did this to keep the ladies in their life happy.

Catch Me If You Can…

For some women, outwitting the authorities became a game. Even with ‘fashion police’ patrolling the streets and denunciation boxes in situ to submit accusations, these elegant ladies were not easy to catch. If an extravagantly dressed damsel saw an officer, she could duck into a church where the fashion police were not allowed and try to outwait him, or she could try to talk her way out of the fine. These ladies became adept at arguing law as the following story shows.

Around 1384, a new official arrived in Florence to take charge of the Office of Women, which was responsible for enforcing the sumptuary laws. This position was always filled by someone from another town, since no local man wanted to take on the fashionable Florentine ladies. After the new official had been in charge for a while, his superior called him in to ask why there had been no changes to the fashions on the street. The official answered that he and his deputies had tried their best, but they simply couldn’t legally fine these women.

He said, “I’ve spent my whole life studying the law. But next to these women, I feel like I know nothing at all. Your women always find reasons why the laws don’t apply to them. Here are some of the reports from my deputies”:

• There was a woman wearing a hood with an extravagant fringe. The deputy said, “It’s forbidden to wear a hood like that. What’s your name? I have to report you.” The lady refused to give her name. She lifted off the fringed ornament and said, “Look, this is just a wreath and I’m not wearing it now.”
• He saw another wearing forbidden buttons. He said, “Signora, you are not allowed to wear those buttons, there are too many and they are too expensive.” She replied, “Of course, I can wear these. The law applies only to buttons and these are not real buttons. See, there are no buttonholes.”
• He approached another wearing ermine and demanded to know her name to report her. She replied, “You can’t report me. This is not ermine. It’s lattizzi.” When he asked, “And what is lattizzi?” She replied, “It’s…like an animal.”

The Florentine women were not only fashionable but they kept informed about the laws and made sure their wardrobe stayed just ahead of them. It must have been frustrating for those trying to enforce the laws but good for the fashion industry. The city of Florence tried to regulate women’s clothing for a few hundred years before realizing the impossibility of the task and giving up.

Last September, when I was in Florence taking an Italian course, I got to study a little bit of Italian literature. One of my professors happened to be the author of a book of stories taken from 14th century writings called, Racconti italiani del Trecento 1 by Antonio Sabatini. I really enjoyed reading from this book because it was so well written and the stories chosen were very entertaining. One of them inspired me to write this article.

This article by Margo Lestz first appeared in The Florentine, The English-speaking news magazine in Florence, 6 November 2014.

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Margo Lestz

Margo has authored seven books and writes mostly about France and England. She has a BA in Liberal Studies with International Emphasis and enjoys travel, languages, history, writing, and experiencing other cultures.

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