Sumptuary laws dating back to ancient Greece and Rome aimed to regulate dress and expenditures to distinguish social classes and curb extravagance. Such laws proliferated in medieval Europe, dictating what fabrics, colors and styles different social ranks could wear. They also required groups like prostitutes and Jews to wear distinctive clothing to mark their outcast status outside mainstream society. By the early modern period, sumptuary laws had declined but other regulations still targeted women's fashion and the clothing of marginalized groups.