Irene Preston's Historical Writing
14th CENTURY LIVERIES
The robe or suit of clothes for men consisted of 3 or
4 garments, a linen shirt worn next to the skin, a tunic and
super-tunic, and a cloak with a hood. Winter liveries always included
fur linings, red squirrel for royalty and family, the lower orders made
do with lambskin, coney and fox.
The King and Queen had new suits of clothes made for each of the main
feasts of the year - Christmas, Easter, Pentecost, Michaelmas and All
Saints Day. Other members of the household were only entitled to summer
and winter liveries at Pentecost and Christmas.
Throughout the 14th century, legislation enforced a distinctive form of
dress on anyone who was ‘outside society’. Prostitutes had to wear their
clothes inside out so they would not be mistaken for respectable women.
In many European countries, including England, Jews had been obliged to
wear a distinctive sign, such as a yellow stripe upon their outer
garments since 1218. By the 14th century this had been replaced by a red
and white circle on the chest.