Some historians observe the frequently changing clothing styles as a distinctively Western habit among urban populations.[
dubious –
discuss] Changes in costume often at times of economic or social change (such as in
ancient Rome), but then a long period without large changes followed. In 8th century
Cordoba,
Spain,
Ziryab (a famous musician of that time) is said to have introduced sophisticated clothing styles based on seasonal and daily timings from his native
Baghdad and his own inspiration.
English
caricature of Tippies of 1796
The beginnings of the habit in Europe of continual and increasingly rapid change in styles can be fairly reliably dated to the middle of the
14th century, to which historians including
James Laver and
Fernand Braudel date the start of Western fashion in clothing.
[2][3] The most dramatic manifestation was a sudden drastic shortening and tightening of the male over-garment, from
calf-length to barely covering the
buttocks, sometimes accompanied with stuffing on the chest to look bigger. This created the distinctive Western male outline of a tailored top worn over leggings or trousers.
Marie Antoinettewas a major fashion icon during the late
18th century. The pace of change accelerated considerably in the following century, and women and men's fashion, especially in the dressing and adorning of the hair, became equally complex and changing.
Art historians are therefore able to use fashion in dating images with increasing confidence and precision, often within five years in the case of 15th century images. Initially changes in fashion led to a fragmentation of what had previously been very similar styles of dressing across the upper classes of Europe, and the development of distinctive national styles, which remained very different until a counter-movement in the 17th to 18th centuries imposed similar styles once again, finally those from
Ancien Régime in
France.
[3]:317-24 Though the rich usually led fashion, the increasing affluence of
early modern Europe led to the
bourgeoisie and even
peasants following trends at a distance sometimes uncomfortably close for the elites - a factor Braude
l regards as one of the main motors of changing fashion.
[3]:313-15
The fashions of the West are generally unparalleled either in antiquity or in the other great civilizations of the world. Early Western travellers, whether to
Persia,
Turkey,
Japan or
China frequently remark on the absence of changes in fashion there, and observers from these other cultures comment on the unseemly pace of Western fashion, which many felt suggested an instability and lack of order in Western culture. The Japanese
Shogun's secretary boasted (not completely accurately) to a Spanish visitor in 1609 that
Japanese clothing had not changed in over a thousand years.
[3]:312-3:323 However in
Ming China, for example, there is considerable evidence for rapidly changing fashions in
Chinese clothing,
[4]Albrecht Dürer's drawing contrasts a well turned out bourgeoise from
Nuremberg (left) with her counterpart from
Venice. The Venetian lady's high
chopines make her taller
. Ten 16th century portraits of
German or
Italian gentlemen may show ten entirely different hats, and at this period national differences were at their most pronounced, as
Albrecht Dürer recorded in his actual or composite contrast of
Nuremberg and
Venetian fashions at the close of the 15th century (illustration, right). The "Spanish style" of the end of the century began the move back to synchronicity among upper-class Europeans, and after a struggle in the mid 17th century, French styles decisively took over leadership, a process completed in the 18th century.
[3]:317-21
Though colors and patterns of textiles changed from year to year,
[5] the cut of a gentleman's coat and the length of his waistcoat, or the pattern to which a lady's dress was cut changed more slowly. Men's fashions largely derived from
military models, and changes in a European male silhouette are galvanized in theatres of European war, where gentleman officers had opportunities to make notes of foreign styles: an example is the "Steinkirk"
cravat or
necktie.
The pace of change picked up in the 1780s with the increased publication of French engravings that showed the latest Paris styles; though there had been distribution of dressed dolls from France as patterns since the 16th century, and
Abraham Bosse had produced engravings of fashion from the 1620s. By 1800, all
Western Europeans were dressing alike (or thought they were): local variation became first a sign of provincial culture, and then a badge of the conservative peasant.
[6]Although tailors and dressmakers were no doubt responsible for many innovations before, and the
textile industry certainly led many trends, the
history of fashion design is normally taken to date from 1858, when the English-born
Charles Frederick Worth opened the first true
haute couture house in Paris. Since then the professional designer has become a progressively more dominant figure, despite the origins of many fashions in street fashion.
Modern
Westerners have a wide choice available in the selection of their clothes. What a person chooses to wear can reflect that person's
personality or likes. When people who have cultural
status start to wear new or different clothes a fashion trend may start. People who like or respect them may start to wear clothes of a similar style.
