Clothing1

A remarkable aspect of Reiving is that it was carried out by all ranks of society, from the poorest agricultural labourer to the heads of the Reiving families, who were often titled lords. Any illustration of clothing, therefore is an illustration of the dress mores of the social classes of the 16th Century. This was a time of sumptuary laws; laws which dictated what various classes were permitted to wear. This was an attempt by the nobility to safeguard what had been one of their perquisites (the ability to dress well) from the advances of a rampant merchant class. Would, however, the likes of Geordie Burn or Wullie Kang have paid any attention to sumptuary laws when they paid scant regard to the Border Laws, the breaking of which was often punishable by death? Indeed it was the profligacy of dress (among other factors) of Johnnie Armstrong which so enraged King James V and which cost Armstrong his life.

Apart from the cut of the cloth, the main differences between the classes were in the standard and the variety of the textiles used. The poorest people will be wearing (literally) home-spun clothes - with coarse wool for outer clothes and coarse linen for body linen. The richer people will be able to afford finer spun wool and the finest grade of linen called “lawn”. They will also be able to afford to buy expensive materials such as calico, muslin, silk, velvets, brocades and satins.

Note that it is also one of the regularly peddled misconceptions (along with “people were much smaller then” and “they never ever washed and were all smelly”) that people didn’t wash their clothes. It is human nature to dislike having body parasites. such as lice or fleas. There are people nowadays who do not wash their clothes regularly enough and others who are fastidious about their appearance. Human nature doesn’t change. Linen was washed regularly, outer clothing, being made mainly of wool, was harder to wash but could be cleaned by brushing. If you look at the high status male you will see that he has ruffs at collar and cuff. This was not merely a fashion. Body linen was designed in such a way that sweat and body oils did not come into contact with the outer clothing but only with the washable body linen. Linen was washed and bleached, to whiten it, with lye and urine - then carefully washed again!