Louis XIII started wearing them to cover up his baldness, and Charles II brought them back to England after his exile because he was going grey. A lot of people were happy to adopt them because it helped cover up syphilitic baldness and sores.
Was it just more expensive to make and denoted wealth
yes but also some courts did dress codes because centralized monarchs liked distracting the nobility & eating their surplus income on non-rebellious things like parties, gambling, and clothes. it could also serve ideological goals like making the country seem more ‘enlightened’—Peter in Russia particularly did that trying to import french palace culture
There was a department making sure it spends all of its budget so it doesn’t get cut the next year angle to the liquidating of the surplus of lower level nobility. If you were caught sitting on a bunch of peasant plunder then you’d have to kick up more.
What was the idea behind these whack ass looks, anyway?
Louis XIII started wearing them to cover up his baldness, and Charles II brought them back to England after his exile because he was going grey. A lot of people were happy to adopt them because it helped cover up syphilitic baldness and sores.
Makes sense
Because everyone was ugly and balding due to syphilis
hair is more difficult to maintain than wigs
Was there a specific historical reason for this style, though? Was it just more expensive to make and denoted wealth?
yes but also some courts did dress codes because centralized monarchs liked distracting the nobility & eating their surplus income on non-rebellious things like parties, gambling, and clothes. it could also serve ideological goals like making the country seem more ‘enlightened’—Peter in Russia particularly did that trying to import french palace culture
There was a department making sure it spends all of its budget so it doesn’t get cut the next year angle to the liquidating of the surplus of lower level nobility. If you were caught sitting on a bunch of peasant plunder then you’d have to kick up more.