Crimes of fashion
The plague of the mid-1300's, which killed one-third of the people of Europe, triggered enormous economic and social changes. Surviving workers and craftsmen were in great demand and therefore able to earn higher wages than ever. These people eagerly spent their new wealth on items that had once been beyond their reach--including foods, wines, furnishings, horses, and especially clothes.
Even lower-class workers could now afford to wear fashionable styles, and middle-class tradesmen could buy the fine fabrics, furs, and accessories traditionally worn only by the nobility. In turn, it became hard to identify people's social class based on their appearance. The aristocracy considered this trend an unnatural challenge to the proper order of society. To preserve that order, they turned to sumptuary laws.
The sumptuary laws actually had little effect on dress. Legal records of the 1300's suggest that the laws were rarely enforced, and people wore whatever they could afford to buy. Still, sumptuary laws do serve a purpose that their framers never anticipated -- they show people of today what people of the 1300's valued most in fashion.