ABSTRACT
WIDOWS and mourners were a group cut off from the rest of society, physically isolated
by virtue of their bereaved status. Their condition was clearly and publicly marked by the
enforced wearing of distinctly different garments. Mourning clothes served several
purposes: they indicated the piety and chastity of the wearer; they denoted the wealth and
social status of the bereaved family. As royal funeral etiquette filtered slowly down through the class system, widows became a perfect shop window for an impressive
display of social expertise. From the Renaissance onwards the sumptuary laws governing
mourning dress in general (and widows’ weeds in particular) grew into an intricate
labyrinth covering choice of fabric, colour, cut and accessories. Widows’ clothes became
a status symbol-an Yves St Laurent suit or a Zandra Rhodes dress of their day. Today
only finance governs our choice of clothes but in Europe, until the end of the sixteenth century, clothes of the different classes were controlled by strict sumptuary laws. These
laws were directed at maintaining a definite sartorial distinction between the upper, middle and lower classes, and it was the restless ambition of the middle rank of society
which most resented them.