Samuel Pepys’ life-long fashion fascination – Cambridge study

Samuel Pepys’ diary (1660 to 1669) shone a spotlight on Restoration London, covering the ups and downs of his marriage, as well as events such as Charles II’s coronation and the Great Fire of London.

It included an episode in which Pepys was “afeared to be seen” in a summer suit he had just bought “because it was too fine with the gold lace at the hands”.

He finally plucked up the courage to do so, only to be told by a socially superior colleague that the sleeves were above his station. He decided “never to appear in Court” with the sleeves and made a tailor cut them off.

Towards the end of his diary, the naval clerk (civil servant) was on the cusp of professional success. In the next decades he helped establish the Royal Navy, became an MP, was locked up in the Tower of London, elected the President of the Royal Society and died a prosperous man in 1703.