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Spurred by an increasingly international and competitive market, the Renaissance saw the development of many new fabrics and the use of highly prized ingredients imported from the New World. In response to a thirst for the new, fashion's pace of change accelerated, the production of garments provided employment for an increasingly significant proportion of the working population, and entrepreneurial artisans began to transform even the most functional garments into fashionable ones. Anxieties concerning vanity and the power of clothing to mask identities heightened fears of fashion's corrupting influence, and heralded the great age of sumptuary legislation intended to police status and gender through dress.
Drawing on sources from surviving garments to artworks to moralising pamphlets, this richly illustrated volume presents essays on textiles, production and distribution, the body, belief, gender and sexuality, status, ethnicity, and visual and literary representations to illustrate the diversity and cultural significance of dress and fashion in the period.
List of contents
List of Illustrations
Introduction
Elizabeth Currie (freelance lecturer and author specialising in the history of fashion and textiles, UK)
Chapter 1 – Textiles
Maria Hayward (University of Southampton, UK)
Chapter 2 – Production and Distribution
Susan Vincent (University of York, UK)
Chapter 3 – The Body
Isabelle Paresys (Université de Lille, France)
Chapter 4 – Belief
Cordelia Warr (University of Manchester, UK)
Chapter 5 – Gender and Sexuality
Ann Rosalind Jones (Smith College, USA)
Chapter 6 – Status
Catherine Richardson (University of Kent, UK)
Chapter 7 – Ethnicity
Eminegül Karababa (Middle East Technical University, Turkey)
Chapter 8 – Visual Representations
Anna Reynolds (Deputy Surveyor of Paintings, Royal Collection Trust, UK)
Chapter 9 – Literary Representations
Gerry Milligan (City University of New York, USA)
Notes
Bibliography
Notes on Contributors
Index
About the author
Elizabeth Currie is a lecturer and author specialising in the history of fashion and textiles. She was formerly a Research Fellow and Tutor in the History of Design at the Royal College of Art, UK and an Assistant Curator in the Furniture, Textiles and Fashion Department at the Victoria and Albert Museum, UK.
Summary
Spurred by an increasingly international and competitive market, the Renaissance saw the development of many new fabrics and the use of highly prized ingredients imported from the New World. In response to a thirst for the new, fashion’s pace of change accelerated, the production of garments provided employment for an increasingly significant proportion of the working population, and entrepreneurial artisans began to transform even the most functional garments into fashionable ones. Anxieties concerning vanity and the power of clothing to mask identities heightened fears of fashion’s corrupting influence, and heralded the great age of sumptuary legislation intended to police status and gender through dress.
Drawing on sources from surviving garments to artworks to moralising pamphlets, this richly illustrated volume presents essays on textiles, production and distribution, the body, belief, gender and sexuality, status, ethnicity, and visual and literary representations to illustrate the diversity and cultural significance of dress and fashion in the period.
