Just to make things complicated … Villani complains that in his visit to Tuscany, Kaiser Karl IV dressed in brown without any ornaments so he looked like a hermit (Fashion in the Age of the Black Prince p. 70).
According to the Journal de Jehan Aubrion, on 12 July 1479 Louis XI was going to mass:
Et avoit le ro vestus un gippon de rougue sattin, des chaulces de blan bocquassin, des grans houzel de magre bazenne, et une robe de tannelz jusques une palme ou environ desoure le genoux; et avoit ung bonnet rouset, et ung chappel de brun tanel.
And the king had dressed in a doublet of red satin, hose of white boccasino (a cotton or part-cotton fabric), big gaiters of a poor sheepskin, a robe of tan cloth up to a palm or thereabouts above the knees; and he had a russet bonnet, and a (felt) hat of brown tan cloth.
During the bad times on the Anglo-Scottish border from Edward I to Elizabeth I, we also hear about lords who spend all their money on strong houses and keeping as many armed retainers in porridge as they can.
But many medieval people got quite vocal about people under-dressing or over-dressing for their station.
