A closer look
Nothing says '16th-century piety with a dash of haute couture' quite like chaining a miniature prayer book to your waist. Tudor noblewomen, including Henry VIII’s briefly-tolerated wife Anne of Cleves, flaunted their literacy and devotion by wearing 'girdle books' dangling from their belts. It was the Renaissance equivalent of flashing a designer smartphone—a highly visible, absurdly expensive flex that screamed to everyone that you were both morally superior and ridiculously wealthy.
