ABSTRACT
Clothing was central to the way that a person presented themselves to their peers in the sixteenth century and to how their peers perceived them. The dress selected by individuals signified their social aspirations in a time when the degrees of nobility were being drawn with increased care and the middling sort had growing levels of disposable income. In both cases, individuals could express their aspirant selves through clothing, accessories and jewellery. Material possessions were used to claim, confirm and assert social identity. This is very evident in the portraits of men such as Sir Brian Tuke, who projected a confident self-image through his cloth of gold doublet, his gown trimmed with dark fur and his gold chain with a pendent cross.1 As a knight, cloth of gold was well beyond his rank. As treasurer of the king’s household, cloth of gold would have been possible subject to the king’s permission. Even so, while Henry VIII’s sumptuary legislation is the underlying theme running through the book, this chapter establishes the social, religious and national significance of textiles in the lives of Tudor men and women.
