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| Charles V with a dog by Titian (1533) |
The rest of France takes for its fashion the fashion of the court. Would that offence might be taken at those disgusting breeches which display so openly our private parts; at that thick padding-out of doublets, which make us quite other than we are, so inconvenient in putting on armour; at those long effeminate tresses; at that fashion of kissing what we give to our friends, and our hands in saluting them--an act of homage formerly due to princes alone; and that a gentleman should appear in a place of ceremony without his sword at his side, all unbuttoned and untrussed, as if he were just from the house of office...
Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592), French statesman and essayist
"Of Sumptuary Laws," Essais I, Ch. XLIII
translated by George B. Ives
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