CBSE Class 9 Answered

From about 1294 till the French Revolution in 1789, the people of France followed the ‘sumptuary laws’. These laws tried to control the behaviour and dressing of people belonging to the lower strata of the society. In France, the people of lower strata could not wear certain cloth or consume certain food items and beverages. The purchase of clothing was also regulated in France not as per income but as per the social rank. Only the royalty and the aristocratic classes could wear expensive materials like silk, velvet and brocade. These sumptuary laws ended in France after the French Revolution. The members of the Jacobin club even called themselves as the ‘sans culottes’ to distinguish themselves from the aristocracy who wore ‘knee breeches’.

One of the limitations of the sumptuary laws were that laws tried to control the behaviour and dressing of people belonging to the lower strata of the society.