Sumptuary Laws
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
laws intended to repress extravagance, especially in eating and drinking, and in dress. They were common in ancient times, and also appear in the old statute books of most modern nations. They were more frequently enacted in ancient Rome than in Greece. After the Twelve Tables, the first Roman sumptuary law was the Lex Oppіa (215 b. c.), directed exclusively against female extravagance in dress, jewelry, etc. The other Roman laws of this kind were nearly all designed to suppress extravagance in entertainment. The Lex Julia (Julian Law), the last sumptuary law, was passed in the reign assed of Augustus. Sumptuary laws were revived by Charlemagne, and in France various laws and decrees of a similar nature were passed down to the reign of Louis XV. In England these laws were passed from the reign of Edward III. down to the time of the Reformation. Most of them were repealed by an act of James I., but they were not all expunged from the statute book till 1856. Sumptuary laws were also passed by the ancient Scotch legislature, but they were all repealed, evaded, or neglected. As late as 1883 in Montenegro strong laws were passed against gloves, umbrellas, and non national costumes. Neither in England, Scotland, nor France do sumptuary laws appear to have been practically observed to any great extent. During the World War nearly all the countries engaged enacted sumptuary laws of some description. The most drastic of these were aimed at the liquor traffic. Russia put absolute prohibition into effect, and other countries greatly restricted the manufacture and consumption of liquors. The most remarkable sumptuary legislation put into effect was the 18th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, forbidding the manufacture and sale of intoxicating liquors. See PROHIBITION.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Collier's wrote in 1921 with Prohibition fresh on the books, calling the 18th Amendment "the most remarkable sumptuary legislation put into effect." It lasted twelve more years: the 21st Amendment repealed it in December 1933, the only amendment ever passed to undo another, and Russia's wartime prohibition, also cited here, was abandoned by the Soviet government in 1925. Sumptuary regulation did not vanish so much as change instrument — tobacco advertising bans, alcohol and sugar taxes, and drug prohibition now do the work that laws against gloves, umbrellas and costly banquets once did. Montenegro, whose 1883 dress laws the entry mentions, spent most of the intervening century inside Yugoslavia and regained independence only in 2006.
Written for this edition, 2026.