Urban elites everywhere struggled to differentiate themselves from their "inferiors" not only by the design of their dress, but by the materials as well. … In Elizabethan England, "commoners were prohibited by law from wearing clothing fashioned from gold or silver cloth, velvet, furs and other 'luxury' materials" (Sjoberg, 1960:127). Hair length also indicated status. Among the Franks, only the elites had long hair. Males of lesser rank "wore theirs more or less short, according to the degree of freedom which they possessed, and the serfs had their heads completely shaved."

XREF: Connects to sumptuary laws and how status markers recur across societies — relevant to any study of fashion, class, or social stratification.

Lyn H. Lofland, World of Strangers_ Order a…, loc. 241