ABSTRACT
Anyone who dared to wear athletic shoes in New York, California, Texas, or any other state had to pay a $50,000 fine. Imagine if this new law declared a dress code for everybody in the whole country. Only people in Montana could wear jeans. Only people in Kansas could wear T-shirts. And only the president and his family could wear the color purple. That would be crazy and really wrong. But that’s exactly what happened in Elizabethan England when Queen Elizabeth declared the sumptuary laws. This was a dress code that was enforced throughout England. There are numerous stories of pirate captains who dressed for battle. Both Blackbeard and Calico Jack were known to change out of their common seaman’s clothing and put on their finest clothes before going into battle.
