Costume (Renaissance and Reformation)

Introduction

Costume is a relatively new field of study, and its literature is interdisciplinary. Currently, the field draws from literatures as diverse as theory about consumption, law, art history, business history, gender and cultural studies, and even practicum for costuming Renaissance dramas for the stage, cinema, or television. There is no substitute for the eye in studying costume in the Renaissance and Reformation eras, and many of the works cited here are lavishly illustrated. The investigation of Renaissance costume begins with the advent of fashion in Italy in the 14th and 15th centuries. Burckhardt 1945 and Braudel 1973 (both cited under Theory as Applied to Costume and Fashion) share responsibility for this chronology, since both identified the importance of fashion in 14th-century Italy. Italian taste and fashion remain the most carefully studied and densely documented component of the literature on costume, as the following citations indicate. Nevertheless, the North has received significant attention over the past two decades, and the Low Countries and England have promoted the study of textiles, their manufacture, and their export. No part of Europe was left untouched by fashion, from the British Isles to Russia. The increasing consequence of costume may be traced through sumptuary laws that proliferated through the Renaissance and Reformation periods. Cities, monarchs, and the church all attempted to regulate costume with little success. Detailed sumptuary laws are excellent starting points for understanding what was popular and what was considered unseemly because it disturbed social order, presumed privilege beyond a person’s rank or office, or indicated indulgence in immoral, costly, or extreme dressing. Jews were singled out to wear distinctive colors, badges, or articles of dress to distinguish them from their Christian neighbors in some sumptuary codes. Repeated failure did not deter authorities from issuing new sumptuary laws. These laws covered many aspects of consumption beyond costume, including behavior at weddings, funerals, processions, and festivals; food served at banquets; household furnishings; and a host of other consuming behaviors. Nevertheless, articles of clothing were among the most noticeable articles of personal display and earned the most consistent condemnations in the laws, in preaching, and in conduct literature. Costume moved toward increased splendor and cost through the Renaissance centuries, and then toward greater sobriety during the Reformation era. Some scholars have labeled the 16th century the apogee of extreme fashions, because court societies competed with each other in costly and ostentatious dress during this period. From the 14th century onward, fashionable costume penetrated more deeply into town society and attempts to curtail consumption failed because popular fashions could be produced in cheaper editions. Sumptuary laws strictly limited women’s and children’s costume. Gender studies has therefore taken up the history of costume as part of the discipline. Another component of gender studies is an emphasis on hypermasculinity in youthful male court dress in the 16th century. The literature largely concurs that costume became more differentiated by gender in the Renaissance, with an emphasis on tight fit—that is, men displaying their lower torso and legs, and women wearing tight bodices and lower necklines. Buttons were one new technology credited with producing a close fit for a fashionable silhouette. The Renaissance eroticized the nude female figure, although this did signal the death of the traditional eroticized and lavishly clothed figure of luxuria. Over the Renaissance centuries the distinctive dress of a region or town gave way to fashions shared by all persons affluent enough to adopt them. One area of investigation that needs further detailed study is how and when fashions traveled from region to region and country to country. More primary resources should be studied to support the burgeoning interest in historical costume.

Databases, Encyclopedias, Indexes, and Journals

The journal Continuity and Change devoted Volume 15 (2000) to costume (see Belfanti and Giusberti 2000). Medieval Clothing and Textiles is wholly dedicated to the study and interpretation of textile and dress, and it is supported by the organization DISTAFF (Discussion, Interpretation, and Study of Textile Arts, Fabrics, and Fashion). The DISTAFF website includes information on conferences and publications, as well as an e-mail list focusing on the medieval and early modern period costume. Feminae and the Early Modern Women Database provide citations and information on women and gender issues, including costume. British dress over the medieval period is the subject of the Owen-Crocker, et al. 2011.

Belfanti, Carlo Marco, and Fabio Giusberti, eds. Special Issue: Clothing and Social Inequality in Early Modern Europe. Continuity and Change 15 (2000).
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The introduction by the editors (pp. 359–365), is a useful starting point for consideration of how clothing, sumptuary law and fashion illustrated social inequality. Patricia Allerston’s article, “Venice in the Sixteenth Century” (pp. 367–390), considers all classes and their costumes, and even discusses the cost of garments.
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DISTAFF: Discussion, Interpretation, and Study of Textile Arts, Fabrics, and Fashion.
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The DISTAFF site includes an e-mail list, created by Beth Matney focusing on new books, articles, conferences, and scholarly resources on medieval and early modern clothing and textiles.
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Early Modern Women Database.
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It is a great misfortune that the University of Maryland will no longer maintain this database, but the past data is available and full of references to Renaissance costume, from interpretive studies to instructions on how to make a Renaissance ruff.
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Feminae: Women and Gender Index.
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An online bibliography of articles, book reviews, and essays on costume, mostly from the 14th and 15th centuries. The index is updated continuously.
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Medieval Clothing and Textiles.
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The annual journal includes papers presented at DISTAFF sessions. DISTAFF is an organization devoted to medieval dress and textiles.
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Owen-Crocker, Gale Gwen, Elizabeth Coatsworth, and Maria Hayward, eds. Encyclopedia of Medieval Dress and Textiles of the British Isles, c. 450–1450. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 2011.
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A single-volume encyclopedia bringing together recent research from a range of disciplines with knowledge of dress and textiles, inspired by DISTAFF.
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Essential Primary Sources on Costume

Cesare Vecellio’s lavishly illustrated studies of costume, published in 1590 and 1598, are the most essential primary sources for the history of Renaissance costume (see Vecellio 2008). Francois Deserps’s study of clothing augments our understanding of 16th-century clothing, with an emphasis on France (Deserps 2001).

Deserps, François. A Collection of the Various Styles of Clothing, Which Are Presently Worn in Countries of Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Savage Islands, All Realistically Depicted. Edited and translated by Sara Shannon. Minneapolis, MN: James Ford Bell Library, 2001.
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Facsimile of the 1562 edition. Translated from the French, this illustrated study of early ethnography and costume was originally intended for children, in particular the future monarch Henry of Navarre.
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Vecellio, Cesare. The Clothing of the Renaissance World: Asia, Africa, and the Americas; Cesare Vecellio’s Habiti Antichi et Moderni. Edited by Margaret F. Rosenthal and Ann Rosalind Jones. London: Thames & Hudson, 2008.
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This is a beautifully illustrated edition of the Venetian artist Vecellio’s (b. c. 1521–d. 1601) two studies (1590 and 1598), which cover costume of the entire known world of the day. Ancient dress refers to all eras from the Antique to the previous generation. It is the classic source on Renaissance costume and makes careful distinctions by wealth, rank, and gender. Contains a useful glossary of terms (pp. 580–593).
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General Studies and Sources

There are different types of useful general studies listed here. Studies of consumption (Brewer and Bermingham 1995, Evans 1952, Piponnier and Mane 1997) have been popular in recent years. Other general studies emphasize the creation of costume (Richardson 2004, Arnold 1985). Gender is an important component of Renaissance and Reformation dress as well (Jones and Stallybrass 2000, Killerby 1999, Rublick 2010).

Arnold, Janet. Patterns of Fashion: The Cut and Construction of Clothes for Men and Women, c. 1560–1629. London: Macmillan, 1985.
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Covering English costume for the most part, the book has a practical dimension in the costuming of Renaissance drama.
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Brewer, John, and Ann Bermingham, eds. The Consumption of Culture, 1600–1800: Image, Object, Text. London: Routledge, 1995.
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General study of the increasing consequence of material goods and consuming. Focuses on clothes and accessories, along with habitat, food, drink, and public displays such as banquets and festivals during the Renaissance and Reformation.
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Evans, Joan. Dress in Medieval France. Oxford: Clarendon, 1952.
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An early and authoritative history of French costume.
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Jones, Ann Rosalind, and Peter Stallybrass. Renaissance Clothing and the Materials of Memory. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2000.
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Clothing illustrates gender difference in Renaissance England and northern Europe in this highly regarded study.
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Killerby, Catherine Kovesi. “‘Heralds of a Well-Instructed Mind’: Nicolosa Sanuti’s Defence of Women and Their Clothes.” Renaissance Studies 13.3 (1999): 255–282.
DOI: 10.1111/1477-4658.00304Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
One of the earliest secular treatises composed by a Renaissance woman, challenging the prejudices against women found in sumptuary law.
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Piponnier, Françoise, and Perrine Mane, eds. Dress in the Middle Ages. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1997.
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This is an English translation of Se vetir au Moyen Age (Paris: Societé nouvelle Adam Birto, 1995), which interprets “medieval” generously to cover the early modern era.
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Richardson, Catherine, eds. Clothing Culture, 1350–1650. Aldershot, UK: Ashgate, 2004.
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While focused on England, there are also articles on French, Irish, and Russian costume, and the volume emphasizes patterns of consumption, social relations, fabrics, body, and gender. See, for example, Andrea Denny-Brown’s “Rips and Slits: The Torn Garment and the Medieval Self” (pp. 223–237).
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Rublick, Ulinka. Dressing Up: Cultural Identity in Renaissance Europe. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010.
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This is an extensively researched study of Renaissance and Reformation clothing that considers the role costume plays in the formation of nationhood and in religious life. The focus is on German costume, and Renaissance Europe is addressed to make comparisons to German cultural life and costume.
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Theory as Applied to Costume and Fashion

From the 14th century forward, costume and luxury consumption increased in importance in Europe, to the extent that numerous theories have been offered to explain this change (Appadurai 1986, Braudel 1973, Douglas and Isherwood 1979, Elias 1994, Frank 1999, Hirshman 1977, Sombart 1967). Georg Simmel’s brief article on fashion’s origins has received much attention (Simmel 1957). No consensus exists today on why people stepped up their consumption of material goods, but as the annotations below indicate, the debate is stimulating. All these opinions owe a debt of gratitude to Jacob Burckhardt who identified consumption and luxury as new interests in the Renaissance era (Burckhardt 1945).

Appadurai, Arjan. The Social Life of Things: Commodities in Cultural Perspective. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1986.
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Applied theory covering many centuries and places, with relevance to the increased cultural consequence of costume and appearances in the Renaissance and Reformation in Europe.
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Braudel, Fernand. Capitalism and Material Life, 1400–1800. Translated by Mariam Kochan. New York: Harper & Row, 1973.
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Braudel identified the 14th century as marking the advent of fashion in clothing, with an emphasis on urban fashions, which spread rapidly from city to city. His chronology for the advent and spread of fashion in Europe has been widely adopted.
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Burckhardt, Jacob. The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy. Translated by S. G. C. Middlemore. Oxford: Phaidon, 1945.
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Burckhardt is generally credited with first recognizing the importance of costume to the emergence of Renaissance culture in Europe. First published in 1860 (Die Kultur der Renaissance in Italien), and reprinted many times.
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Douglas, Mary, and Baron Isherwood. The World of Goods. New York: Basic Books, 1979.
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This study disagrees with Hirshman 1977, noted in this section as well, and argues that societies have many other social conventions and tools for resolving envy, so that it is unlikely to operate as a primary motive for display and consumption of goods like fine clothing and accessories.
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Elias, Norbert. The Civilizing Process. Translated by Edmund Jephcott. Oxford: Blackwell, 1994.
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Takes consumption of fine clothing and luxury wares in the direction of cultural innovation in the Renaissance era as part of an elaboration of civilized life.
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Frank, Robert. Luxury Fever: Why Money Fails to Satisfy in an Era of Excess. New York: Free Press, 1999.
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Frank is a behaviorist among current economic theorists; he argues here that wealthy spenders on luxuries such as lavish costume provide a climate for others to increase their level of spending. He notes people do not wish to be left out of the fashion parade once it exists.
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Hirshman, Albert O. The Passions and the Interests: Political Arguments for Capitalism before Its Triumph. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1977.
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This study links taste and a broad range of consuming behaviors to economic motives like envy.
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Simmel, Georg. “Fashion.” American Journal of Sociology 62.6 (1957): 541–558.
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An often-cited article on fashion pointing, like Werner Sombart, noted below, to the emulation of elite behaviors for the spread of fashions.
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Sombart, Werner. Luxury and Capitalism. Translated by W. R. Dittmar. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1967.
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Sombart sketches a descent from court taste and style to urban fashions and bourgeois taste, emphasizing envy as motive and consumption of objects of display like fine clothing and accessories as a competitive endeavor.
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Portraiture and Costume

The eyes have it when studying costume, and exhibition catalogues and illustrated books are thus particularly valuable for the study of costume. Beyond the items listed here, there are more exhibition catalogues listed under various subject headings. Gender in portraiture is emphasized in Pearson 2008, Goodman 2008, and Brown 2001. Works by individual artists are examined in Foister 2005 and Barnes, et al. 2004. The Medici family may be the most painted in early modern Europe (Langedijk 1981–1987), and their portraits illustrate change in costume over the centuries. Renaissance Hispanic costume (Anderson 1979) and Italian costume (Birbari 1975) may also be explored through illustrated monographs.

Anderson, Ruth Matila. Hispanic Costume 1480–1530. New York: Hispanic Society of America, 1979.
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Folio edition with illustrations covering both Spain and Portugal in their Golden Age.
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Barnes, Susan J., Nora De Poorer, Oliver Millar, and Horst Vey, eds. Van Dyck: A Complete Catalogue of the Paintings. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2004.
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Includes every known authenticated portrait by Van Dyck, who was known for his excellent renditions of costume.
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Birbari, Elizabeth. Dress in Italian Painting, 1460–1500. London: J. Murray, 1975.
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With only a half century under review, Birbari examines an enormous variety of styles and fashion in clothing and accessories. This work also serves as a reminder that men were the fashionable sex in Italy in the Renaissance.
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Brown, David Alan, ed. Virtue and Beauty: Leonardo’s Ginevra de’ Benci and Renaissance Portraits of Women. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2001.
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Catalogue for an exhibit at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC. Contains excellent illustrations of 15th-century and later Florentine costume and jewelry. See in particular Roberta Orso Landini and Mary Westerman Bulgarella’s “Costume in Fifteenth-Century Florentine Portraits of Women” (pp. 89–99).
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Foister, Susan. Holbein and England. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2005.
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Holbein’s portraiture for Tudor England, as well as his designs for goldsmiths, are featured in this book, based on an exhibit organized at the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art at Yale University.
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Goodman, Elise. The Cultivated Woman: Portraiture in Seventeenth-Century France. Tubingen, Germany: Gunter Narr Verlag, 2008.
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Includes painted and printed images of bourgeois and court women.
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Langedijk, Karla. The Portraits of the Medici, 15th–18th Centuries. 3 vols. Florence: Studio per Edizioni Scelte, 1981–1987.
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An opportunity to observe change over centuries within the Medici family, arguably the best-dressed family in Europe.
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Pearson, Andrea, ed. Women and Portraits in Early Modern Europe: Gender, Agency, Identity. Aldershot, UK: Ashgate, 2008.
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Argues that clothing and accessories can convey identity and agency in portraiture.
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Sumptuary Laws

Working against the tide of consumption, sumptuary laws attempted to maintain social distinctions by orders (in cities) and by rank and office (in courts), while the church endorsed both views and expressed displeasure at vanity and needless expenses. These laws were based on the assumption that one should dress according to one’s “estate.” They were also at times an attempt to distinguish Jews from their Christian neighbors.

In Cities

A general history of sumptuary law in Italy, 1200–1500, is provided by Killerby 2002. The best approach to understanding sumptuary legislation is to investigate it city by city. Studies of Bologna (Muzzarelli 2002), Venice (Newett 1902), Florence (Rainey 1985), and Basel (Vincent 1969) are included in this section, as is a work on Italy in general (Killerby 1994). Gender distinctions in Italian sumptuary laws are investigated in Hughes 1992 and Hughes 1984.

Hughes, Diane Owen. “Sumptuary Law and Social Relations in Renaissance Cities.” In Disputes and Settlements: Law and Human Relations in the West. Edited by John Bossy, 69–100. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1984.
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A detailed study of Italian sumptuary laws promulgated in city statutes in Italy. Hughes demonstrates how sumptuary laws affected women’s and children’s status in families and society.
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Hughes, Diane Owen. “Regulating Women’s Fashion.” In A History of Women in the West. Vol. 2, Silences of the Middle Ages. Edited by Christiane Klapisch-Zuber, 136–158. Cambridge, MA: Belknap, 1992.
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A consequential article that stresses gender and age as the determinants of sumptuary legislation in cities.
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Killerby, Catherine Kovesi. “Practical Problems in the Enforcement of Italian Sumptuary Law, 1200–1500.” In Crime, Society and the Law in Renaissance Italy. Edited by Trevor Dean and K. J. P. Lowe, 99–129. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1994.
DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511523410Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
This study notes how difficult it was to enforce sumptuary laws in cities, where laws were often observed in the breach rather than in practice.
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Killerby, Catherine Kovesi. Sumptuary Law in Italy, 1200–1500. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002.
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This is Killerby’s general study of Italian sumptuary laws, with an emphasis on Tuscan cities.
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Muzzarelli, Maria Giuseppina. La legislazione suntuaria, secoli XIII–XVI: Emilia Romagna. Rome: Ministero per i Beni e le Attività Culturali, Direzione Generale per Gli Archivi, 2002.
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Sumptuary laws from northern Italy are investigated in detail, particularly from the wealthy city of Bologna.
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Newett, Mary Margaret. “The Sumptuary Laws of Venice in the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries.” In Historical Essays. Edited by Thomas Frederick Tout and James Tait, 145–177. London: Longmans Green, 1902.
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One would think this article from 1902 would have been superseded for Venetian sumptuary law, but it remains a major resource on this topic. Newett discusses Venetian laws through to the Renaissance and provides valuable information on the terms employed to define new Venetian fashions.
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Rainey, Ronald Eugene. “Sumptuary Legislation in Renaissance Florence.” PhD diss., Columbia University, 1985.
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A consequential study of sumptuary law and its enforcement that should have been published as a monograph. It contains appendices of sumptuary legislation.
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Vincent, John Martin. Costume and Conduct in the Laws of Basel, Bern and Zurich, 1370–1800. New York: Greenwood, 1969.
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The reprint of laws from the Swiss cantons takes a longitudinal approach, which allows analysis of changes in regulation from the Renaissance through the Reformation era. Originally published in 1935 (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press).
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In Royal Courts

Court legislation was often aimed at curtailing consumption (Heller 2004, Hunt 1996, Moyer 1996, Statute Concerning Diet and Apparel). The Spanish courts set numerous fashion trends in the Renaissance (Butazzi 1995), and they warrant special attention for that reason. Montaigne’s Essays provide one thoughtful man’s contemplation of the meaning of luxurious court costume (Montaigne 1993).

Butazzi, Grazietta. “Il modello spagnolo nella moda europea.” In Le trame della modo. Edited by Anna Giulia Cavagna and Grazietta Butazzi, 89–94. Rome: Butzoni, 1995.
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In Spain there was a Renaissance-era clampdown on consumption; this study is also important for understanding the role of fashionable black clothing.
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Heller, Sarah-Grace. “Limiting Yardage and Changes of Clothes: Sumptuary Legislation in Thirteenth-Century France, Languedoc, and Italy.” In Medieval Fabrications: Dress, Textiles, Clothwork, and Other Cultural Imaginings. Edited by E. Jane Burns, 121–136. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004.
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Some of the earliest French sumptuary laws are discussed here. The other essays in the volume are also relevant to study of sumptuary laws and clothing.
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Hunt, Alan. Governance of the Consuming Passions: A History of Sumptuary Law. New York: St. Martin’s, 1996.
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This general treatment of sumptuary legislation could be placed just as well under the rubric sumptuary law in cities. It deals with the intentions behind the laws and reasons for their failures.
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Montaigne, Michel de. The Complete Essays of Michel de Montaigne. Translated by M. A. Screech. London: Penguin, 1993.
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As a member of the anti-courtier faction among the French nobility, Montaigne wrote frequently about attempts to curb costume and consumption in royal sumptuary laws.
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Moyer, Johanna B. “Sumptuary Law in Ancien Régime France, 1229–1806.” PhD diss., Syracuse University, 1996.
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This is a useful overview of sumptuary legislation in France. An appendix provides a guide by subject to the royal laws and ordinances of France from the 13th century until 1806.
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“Statute Concerning Diet and Apparel 37 Edward III (1363).” In Statutes of the Realm. Vol. 2, 1377–1503/4. London: Dawsons, 1963.
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The Statutes of the Realm are searchable for sumptuary codes, which began early in England. The laws are excellent indicators of what was worn, particularly when prohibitions provide detail of costumes.
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Ecclesiastical Sumptuary Law

Some of the earliest sumptuary legislation in Italy was promulgated by bishops (Trexler 1971), and the church continued to censure luxury consumption (Luzio 1912). Women’s clothing was frequently the focus of the church’s censure (Izbicki 2009), and prostitutes drew the harshest condemnations (Brundage 1987).

Brundage, James. “Sumptuary Laws and Prostitution in Late Medieval Italy.” Journal of Medieval History 13.4 (1987): 343–355.
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Sumptuary laws worked hard to differentiate the clothing of prostitutes from the clothing of “honest” women, but to little avail. The issue is complicated by courtesans, particularly in Venice, where courtesans dressed as well as or better than patrician women, according to Vecellio 2008 (cited under Essential Primary Sources on Costume). Covers church and civil law.
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Izbicki, Thomas. “Failed Censures: Ecclesiastical Regulation of Women’s Clothing in Late Medieval Italy.” Medieval Clothing and Textiles 5 (2009): 37–53.
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Clothing and its regulation have been most carefully studied in regard to Italy during the Renaissance and Reformation. The theme here, as with royal and civil sumptuary law, is a failure on the part of the law to curb what was perceived as excess. Partly reprinted in The Fashion Reader, edited by Linda Welters and Abby Lillethun (2d ed., Oxford: Berg, 2011), pp. 295–297.
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Luzio, Alessandro. “La prammatica dei Cardinal Ercole Gonzaga contro il lusso (1551).” In Scritti vari di erudizione e di critica in onore di Rodolfo Renier. Edited by Matteo Giulio Bartoli, 128–136. Turin, Italy: Fratelli Bocca, 1912.
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A new sumptuary law that drew protest from the nobility.
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Trexler, Richard, ed. and trans. Synodal Law in Florence and Fiesole, 1306–1400. Vatican City: Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, 1971.
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Some of the earliest and most complete collections of sumptuary law issued by a bishop. Covers clerical dress and the clothing and accessories of lay people.
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Accessories

Costume became more embellished in the Renaissance and Reformation, encouraging and sometimes creating new luxury industries and products in the process (see Mirabella 2011, Dupre and Griffo 1992, Lightbown 1992). Badges of a religious or secular nature became popular (Mitchiner 1986), and styles became more elaborate, particularly women’s hair styles (Welch 2008). The many ornaments dredged up from the bottom of the Thames provide examples of ornaments and trinkets favored by Londoners (Forsyth 2003).

Dupre, Maria Grazia Ciardi, and Griffo, Giuliana Chesne Dauphine, eds. Con gli occhi di Piero: Abiti e gioielli nelle opere di Piero Della Francesca. Arezzo, Italy: Basilica inferiore di San Francesco, 1992.
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While this volume covers clothing as well as jewelry, it is one of the few well-illustrated compendia of Renaissance jewelry available.
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Forsyth, Hazel. The Cheapside Hoard. London: Museum of London, 2003.
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A trove of trinkets and accessories dredged up from the Thames. Silver items did not often survive in this tidal river, while baser metals did, Thus, the collection does not include many luxury accessories.
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Lightbown, Ronald W. Mediaeval European Jewellery, with a Catalogue of the Collection in the Victoria and Albert Museum. London: Victoria and Albert Museum, 1992.
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Seven hundred years of jewelry are covered, with information on production and references to England’s goldsmiths. This work enumerates the great variety of accessories worn by both men and women in the Renaissance and Reformation centuries.
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Mirabella, Bella, ed. Ornamentalism: The Art of Renaissance Accessories. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2011.
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This volume considers the art of ornamenting oneself and investigates the philosophy of ornamenting oneself for both men and women.
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Mitchiner, Michael. Medieval Pilgrim and Secular Badges. London: Hawkins, 1986.
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A useful, well-illustrated introduction to the badges people pinned or sewed on their clothes. Badges became increasingly important as the Renaissance progressed.
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Welch, Evelyn. “Art on the Edge: Hair and Hands in Renaissance Italy.” Renaissance Studies 23.3 (2008): 241–268.
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A specific study on the lengths to which affluent people went to embellish their hands and dress their hair.
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Armor

Armor, especially the new plate armor produced after 1350, was inspiration for masculine dress (Kelley and Schwabe 1931). Circular influences resulted, with civilian dress in turn suggesting designs for armor (Wagner 1962, Pyhrr 2003, Tarassuk 1986). Armor became an article of ostentatious display over the decades of the Renaissance (Pyhrr and Godoy 1998, Patterson 2009).

Kelley, Francis M., and Randolph Schwabe. A Short History of Costume and Armour, Chiefly in England, 1066–1800. London: B. T. Batsford, 1931.
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This often-cited early work on armor is still considered authoritative for England.
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Patterson, Angus, ed. Fashion and Armour in Renaissance Europe: Proud Lookes and Brave Attire. London: Victoria and Albert Museum, 2009.
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Examples of fashions in armor that influenced civilian fashions for men. The work contains 116 illustrations, 103 of them in color. Masculine costume accessories have been preserved in many armor collections, particularly ornamental daggers and sheaths, belts, and chains, all of which might be gilded.
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Pyhrr, Stuart W. Arms and Armor: Notable Acquisitions, 1991–2002. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2003.
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A useful general introduction to armor and its evolution from the medieval era through the Renaissance. Celebrates the acquisitions of the Metropolitan Museum of Art following the reinstallation of the Arms and Armor galleries in 1991.
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Pyhrr Stuart W., and José-A. Godoy, eds. Heroic Armor of the Italian Renaissance: Filippo Negroli and His Contemporaries. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1998.
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Embellished suits of armor of enormous expense are discussed and illustrated in this catalogue, from a 1998–1999 exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
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Tarassuk, Leonid. Italian Armor for Princely Courts: Renaissance Armor from the Trupin Family Trust and the George F. Harding Collection. Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 1986.
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A detailed study of suits of armor and accessories where ornamental armor reached a high level of embellishment. From a 1986–1987 exhibition.
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Wagner, Eduard, ed. Medieval Costume, Armour and Weapons, 1350–1450. London: Hamlyn, 1962.
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Plate armor was first produced about 1350, first in Milan, Venice, and Florence. It then spread in popularity to other centers of production.
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Textiles

The European market economy owes much to the production of and trade in textiles. With an emphasis on fashion in cities and more stylish court dress, textiles became increasingly important in the early modern era (Jenkins 2003, Ciatti 1994, Molà 2000, Munro 1983). Women spinners played a significant role in cloth production (Wiesner 1986). The most luxurious textiles were shot with gold and imported from the East (Wardwell and Watt 1997, Wardwell 1988–1989). The production of textiles promoted fashion and luxury consumption throughout the era (Zanni and Rosina 1999).

Ciatti, Marco, ed. “Drappi, velluti, taffetta et altre cose”: Antichi tessuti a Siena e nel suo territorio. Siena, Italy: Chiesa di Sant’Agostino, 1994.
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Contains 375 illustrations of a remarkable surviving collection of fabrics from Siena, 1400 to 1800.
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Jenkins, David, ed. Cambridge History of Western Textiles. 2 vols. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2003.
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General overview of Western textiles, including their production, importation, and trade from earliest times to the present.
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Molà, Luca. The Silk Industry in Renaissance Venice. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2000.
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A case study on the increasing consequence of the production of silk for luxury consumption and export that helped build the economy of Venice.
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Munro, John. “The Medieval Scarlet and the Economics of Sartorial Splendour.” In Cloth and Clothing in Medieval Europe: Essays in Memory of Prof. E. M. Carus-Wilson. Edited by Negley B. Harte and K. G. Ponting, 13–70. London: Heineman, 1983.
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Munro explains that modern readers often confuse the textile named “scarlet” with the color scarlet. He discusses the origin of the term, and explains the manufacture and distribution of the cloth.
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Wardwell, Anne E. “Panni tartarici: Eastern Islamic Silks Woven with Gold and Silver.” Islamic Art 3 (1988–1989): 95–173.
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Stresses the consequence of imported luxury fabrics for fashion and clothing in Europe in the Renaissance.
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Wardwell, Anne E., and James C. Y. Watt. When Silk Was Gold: Central Asian and Chinese Textiles. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1997.
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An illustrated study of imported fabrics, which were literally as valuable as gold in trade. Inventories from the Vatican describe fabrics that are still extant in ecclesiastical treasuries. From a 1997–1998 exhibition.
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Wiesner, Merry E. “Spinsters and Seamstresses: Women in Cloth and Clothing Production.” In Rewriting the Renaissance: The Discourses of Sexual Difference in Early Modern Europe. Edited by Margaret Ferguson, Maureen Quilligan, and Nancy Vickers, 191–205. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1986.
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A useful introduction to the workers in the textile industries of Renaissance Europe. They were largely women, who were underpaid.
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Zanni, Annalisa, and Margherita Bellezza Rosina, eds. Velluti e moda tra XV e XVII secolo. Milan: Skira Editore, 1999.
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Eleven essays on the role of velvet in promoting fashion and consumption from the fifteenth through the eighteenth centuries. From a 1999 exhibition at the Museo Poldi Pezzoli.
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Fashion and Taste in Cities

An increase in consumption of material goods and luxuries marked the Renaissance era (Jardine 1996, Newton 1980, Vincent 2003). From simple straight garments, largely similar for men and women, clothing became increasingly differentiated and elaborate in cities during the early Renaissance (Frick 2002, Barioli, et al. 1973, Muzzarelli 1996, Muzzarelli 1999, Stuard 2006).

Barioli, Gino, et al. Il Gusto e la moda nel cinquecento Vicentino e Veneto. Vicenza, Italy: Palazzo Chiericati, 1973.
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This study of Italian dress in 16th-century Vicenza and Venice contains 114 illustrations on 75 loose leaves illustrating northern Italian styles and taste.
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Frick, Carole. Dressing Renaissance Florence: Families, Fortunes, and Fine Clothing. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2002.
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Studies of clothing in Italian cities like Florence dominate the literature on costume because Italy often set trends in consumption and frequently set fashions in clothing for Western Europe in the Renaissance and Reformation eras.
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Jardine, Lisa. Worldly Goods: A New History of the Renaissance. New York: Doubleday, 1996.
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Makes the case for the Renaissance as a turn toward the consumption of material goods, including clothing and other luxury goods.
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Muzzarelli, Maria Giuseppina. Gli inganni delle apparenze: Disciplina di vesti e ornamenti alla fine del Medioevo. Turin, Italy: Scriptorium, 1996.
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Muzzarelli traces the increasing consequence of appearance in Italian urban culture in the Late Middle Ages and the Renaissance.
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Muzzarelli, Maria Giuseppina. Guardaroba medievale: Vesti e società dal XIII al XVI secolo. Bologna, Italy: Il Mulino, 1999.
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A detailed study of clothing and accessories in Bologna, based upon inventories of goods and sumptuary laws that sought to limit new fashions and expense.
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Newton, Stella Mary. Fashion in the Age of the Black Prince: A Study of the Years 1340–1365. Woodbridge, UK: Boydell, 1980.
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A detailed study of a brief period in English history of consumption and costume when foreign styles became consequential.
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Stuard, Susan Mosher. Gilding the Market: Luxury and Fashion in Fourteenth-Century Italy. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2006.
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This study places the origin of fashion in Italian cities of the 14th century, when luxury goods stimulated consumption. Stresses men as the fashionable sex.
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Vincent, Susan. Dressing the Elite: Clothes in Early Modern England. Oxford: Berg, 2003.
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Covers a range of clothing from wealthy burgers to members of the court.
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Medieval Origins of Urban Fashion

Most modern studies place the origin of fashion in late 13th- and 14th-century cities, particularly cities in northern Italy and capitols elsewhere in Europe (Scott 2007, Scott 2011). The heavy dancers of the late medieval era show how differentiated dress became transgressive on occasion (Friedman 2010).

Friedman, John Block. Brueghel’s Heavy Dancers: Transgressive Clothing, Class, and Culture in the Late Middle Ages. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 2010.
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This study of Brueghel’s paintings goes beyond urban culture to examine fashions and their meaning in peasant culture.
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Scott Margaret. Medieval Dress and Fashion. London: British Library, 2007.
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Based upon manuscripts and books in the British Library, with 121 illustrations, 103 of them in color. It covers the centuries to 1600.
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Scott, Margaret. Fashion in the Middle Ages. Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 2011.
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Based upon manuscripts and books in the J. Paul Getty collection, the work covers 300 CE to 1600 CE. From a 2011 exhibition at the J. Paul Getty Museum.
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Regional and Working Costuming

In towns and cities, working men’s and women’s dress was substantially different from the luxurious dress of the wealthy and royalty (De Marly 1986). Regional variation in costume remained important throughout the era (Sekatcheva 2004), and certain regional styles emerged, such as high headdresses in northern Europe (Song and Sibley 1990). Perhaps the most detailed investigation of new urban styles may be found in Levi Pisetzky 1964, a four-volume study of Italian costume.

De Marly, Diana. Working Dress. New York: Holmes & Meier, 1986.
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An exploration of the clothing of the working classes in cities and the countryside.
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Levi Pisetzky, Rosita. Storia del costume in Italia. 4 vols. Milan: Istituto Editoriale Italiano, 1964.
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See Volumes 2 and 3 on the Renaissance and Reformation eras. These volumes present highly detailed analyses of clothing that grew in luxury as fashion grew in consequence.
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Sekatcheva, Oksana. “The Formation of Russian Women’s Costume at the Time before the Reforms of Peter the Great.” In Clothing Culture, 1350–1600. Edited by Catherine Richardson, 77–91. Aldershot, UK: Ashgate, 2004.
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Costume studies reach as far as Russian courts in the Renaissance.
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Song, Cheunsoon, and Lucy Roy Sibley. “The Vertical Headdress of Fifteenth Century Northern Europe.” Dress: Annual Journal of the Costume Society of America 16 1990: 4–15.
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A highly detailed study of innovative fashions in Renaissance clothing.
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Court Taste and Style

Medieval and Renaissance courts set styles and were imitated by other courts and by those wealthy enough to follow the lead of royalty and the nobility (Hayward 2007, Gibbons 2000, Mikhaila and Davies 2006, van Buren and Wieck 2011). Within Renaissance court styles are traces of extreme fashions reflecting hypermasculinity (Bailey 2007). Courtly love literature is also revealing of costume and fashion (Burns 2009), and court painting reflected court style from Italy to Russia (Degl’Innocenti 2009). Royal mercenaries were a conduit for spreading fashion (de Venette 1953).

Bailey, Amanda. Flaunting: Style and the Subversive Male Body in Renaissance England. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2007.
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Sixteenth-century masculine dress in court society is interpreted as hypermasculine in this monograph.
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Burns, E. Jane. Sea of Silk. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2009.
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This work covers courtly literature and the role of women workers in silk, including how they were depicted in the literature of the courts.
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Degl’Innocenti, Daniela. Lo stile dello Zar: arte e moda tra Italian e Russia dal XIV al XV secolo. Milan: Skira, 2009.
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This exhibition was organized in association with the State Hermitage Museum of St. Petersburg, and the catalogue provides intriguing style comparisons between Eastern and Western court styles.
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de Venette, Jean. The Chronicle of Jean de Venette. Edited and translated by Jean Birdsell. New York: Columbia University Press, 1953.
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De Venette (b. c. 1308–d. c. 1369) wrote of the events of the Hundred Years’ War. His chronicle makes a good case for mercenaries hired by kings as fashion setters. Mercenaries received high pay, if sporadically, and moved with the war, spreading ideas about fashion.
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Gibbons, Rachel C. “Queen as ‘Social Mannequin’ Consumerism and Expenditure at the Court of Isabeau of Bavaria, 1393–1422.” Journal of Medieval History 26.4 (December 2000): 371–395.
DOI: 10.1016/S0304-4181(00)00010-5Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
A useful illustration of a queen as a style setter.
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Hayward, Maria, ed. Dress at the Court of King Henry VIII: The Wardrobe Book of the Robes. Leeds, UK: Maney, 2007.
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Publication and commentary on British Library manuscripts, namely Harley MS 4217 and Harley MS 2284. Inventories from James Worsley for 1516 and 1521 provide detailed information on court dress and fashion.
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Mikhaila, Ninya, and Jane Malcolm Davies. The Tudor Tailor: Reconstructing Sixteenth-Century Dress. London: Batsford, 2006.
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Among other matters, discusses hypermasculinity in the Renaissance, particularly padded doublets and codpieces.
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van Buren, Anne H., and Roger S. Wieck, eds. Illuminating Fashion: Dress in the Art of Medieval France and the Netherlands, 1325–1515. New York: Morgan Library and Museum, 2011.
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Argues that French and Flemish art of the Late Middle Ages used clothing as a code that reflected wearers’ identities and character. A lavishly illustrated volume celebrating the Morgan Library and Museum’s 2011 exhibition on fashion. Features art from the court of the Duchy of Burgundy.
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Medici Courts as Trendsetters

The most important trendsetters in Renaissance Europe were the Medici and their brilliant courts. Examples of Medici fashions are featured in Capitani and Ricci 1992, Landini and Niccoli 2005, and Landini 1993). Techniques for tailoring at the Medici court are discussed in Currie 2007. The Medici Archive Project provides further references in the family letters.

Capitani, Aurora Fiorentini, and Stefania Ricci, eds. Il costume al tempo di Lorenzo Il Magnifico: Prato e il suo territorio. Milan: Edizioni Charta, 1992.
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Makes the case for Lorenzo the Magnificent as a trendsetter in Florence and Italy. Catalog of an exhibition held in 1992 at the Palazzo Pretorio.
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Currie, Elizabeth. “Diversity and Design in the Florentine Tailoring Trade, 1550–1620.” In The Material Renaissance. Edited by Michelle O’Malley and Evelyn Welch, 154–193. Manchester, UK: University of Manchester Press, 2007.
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Discusses how Medici fashions influenced the craft of tailoring in Italy and at other royal and ducal courts.
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Landini, Roberta Orsi. Moda alla Corte dei Medici: Gli abiti restaurati di Cosimo, Eleonora e Don Garzia. Florence. Florence: Centro Di, 1993.
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In Italian with one essay in English, argues that generally speaking court styles influenced fashion in Renaissance Florence. From an exhibition at the Palazzo Pitti, Galleria del Costume.
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Landini, Roberta Orsi, and Bruna Niccoli, eds. Moda a Firenze, 1540–1580: Lo stile di Eleonora di Toledo e la sua influenza. Florence: Edizioni Polistampa Pagliai, 2005.
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This is an individual study of the taste of one royal woman who set style for Florence and Italy.
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Medici Archive Project.
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At present contains 977 documents, mostly letters, that may be searched online. Sections of particular interest include Luxury and Sexuality.
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Cross-Dressing

Most of the literature on cross-dressing discusses women dressing like men for empowerment (Crane 2002, Dekker and van de Pol 1989, Hotchkiss 1996, Naessens 2004). Men cross-dressed for a number of reasons, some of them playful (Stallybrass 1996).

Crane, Susan. The Performance of Self: Ritual Clothing and Identity during the Hundred Years War. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2002.
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Emphasis is on France and England in the 14th and 15th centuries; among other issues, discusses Joan of Arc as a cross-dresser.
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Dekker, Rudolf M., and Lotte C. van de Pol. The Tradition of Female Transvestism in Early Modern Europe. New York: St. Martin’s, 1989.
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Views female transvestism as emerging in the Low Countries and other areas of northern Europe in the 16th century.
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Hotchkiss, Valerie R. Clothes Make the Man: Female Cross Dressing in Medieval Europe. New York: Garland, 1996.
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This volume affirms the transgressive nature of women dressing like men, and it discusses the myth of the female pope as well as Joan of Arc’s trial.
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Naessens, Mariann. “Judicial Authorities’ Views of Women’s Roles in Late Medieval Flanders.” In The Texture of Society. Edited by Ellen E. Kittell and May A. Suydam, 51–78. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004.
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Argues that legal courts regarded the public spectacle of women in men’s clothes as disturbing the social order.
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Stallybrass, Peter. “Worn Worlds: Clothes and Identity on the Renaissance Stage.” In Subject and Object in Renaissance Culture. Edited by Margreta de Grazia, Maureen Quilligan, and Peter Stallybrass, 289–320. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1996.
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Discusses guild livery and its impact on Renaissance theater, with some attention given to the narrower meaning of “transvestisim.”
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Clerical Costume

There was a time when clergy dressed pretty much as lay people did, but regulations changed that situation over the course of the Late Middle Ages and the Renaissance (Izbicki 2005, Warr 2010).

Izbicki, Thomas. “Forbidden Colors in the Regulation of Clerical Dress from the Fourth Lateran Council (1215) to the Time of Nicholas of Cusa (d. 1464).” Medieval Clothing and Textiles 1 (2005): 105–114.
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This is a valuable general review of the regulation of clerical costume over three centuries.
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Warr, Cordelia. Dressing for Heaven: Religious Clothing in Italy, 1215–1545. Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press, 2010.
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This monograph provides an overview of clerical dress in the Late Medieval and Renaissance eras, when fashion became increasingly important in Italian cities and affected the dress of the clergy. Religious habits and required garb for church men and women are discussed.
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Conduct Literature and Preaching on Costume

One of the frequent topics for sermons (Izbicki 1989, Rusconi 1996, Savonarola 2003, Seward 2006) and for treatises on conduct (St. Clair and Maassen 2000, Johnston 2009, Ashley and Clark 2001), was costume that was prominently displayed in public venues.

Ashley, Kathleen, and Robert L. A. Clark, eds. Medieval Conduct. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2001.
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While the genre of conduct literature emerged in the medieval era, it became increasingly important in the Renaissance and Reformation. These essays cover conduct books from western Europe through the early Renaissance.
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Izbicki, Thomas. “Pyres of Vanities: Mendicant Preaching on the Vanity of Women and Its Lay Audience.” In De Ore Domini: Preacher and Word in the Middle Ages. Edited by Thomas Leslie Amos, Eugene A. Green, and Beverly Mayne Kienzle, 211–234. Kalamazoo, MI: Medieval Institute, 1989.
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Excesses and vanity in lay costume were roundly criticized but increased in popularity as costume became more consequential in the Renaissance centuries.
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Johnston, Mark D. ed. Medieval Conduct Literature: An Anthology of Vernacular Guides to Behaviour for Youth, with English Translations. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2009.
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An excellent anthology of conduct literature as it relates to clothing and manners, with facing-page translations from the sources. Covers Spanish, German, Provencal, French, and English conduct books through the 14th century.
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Pouncy, Carolyn Johnston, ed. and trans. The “Domostroi”: Rules for Russian Households in the Time of Ivan the Terrible. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1994.
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This guide for noble households and the urban elite of Russia places emphasis on the regulation of dress.
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Rusconi, Roberto. “St. Bernardino of Siena, the Wife, and Possessions.” In Women and Religion in Medieval and Renaissance Italy. Edited by Daniel Bornstein and Roberto Rusconi. Translated by Margary J. Schneider, 182–196. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996.
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Examines one of the most prominent critics of fashion and fine clothes when worn by women.
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Savonarola, Girolamo. A Guide to Righteous Living and Other Works. Translated by Konrad Eisenbichler. Toronto: Centre for Reformation and Renaissance Studies, 2003.
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There is a large literature on Savonarola’s (b. 1452–d. 1498) preaching against vanity, which led to public burnings in Florence of luxury goods, but there is no substitute for Savonarola’s own sermons to the Florentine public, like those collected here.
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Seward, Desmond. The Burning of the Vanities: Savonarola and the Borgia Pope. Stroud, UK: Sutton, 2006.
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Places Savonarola’s preaching in a larger context and emphasizes his political purposes.
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St. Clair, William, and Irmgard Maassen, eds. Conduct Literature for Women, 1500–1640. 6 vols. London: Pickering & Chatto, 2000.
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Most Renaissance and Reformation commentaries on women’s conduct directed attention to women’s costume and its propriety and modesty.
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Marketing Fashion

This section examines ways that information and advice about costume were brought to the public (Croizat 2007, Early 1955, Freudenberger 1963). It also examines second-hand markets, the existence of which are a reliable sign that costume had increased in importance (Frick 2005, Sartini 1940).

Croizat, Yassana C. “‘Living Dolls’: François 1er Dresses his Women.” Renaissance Quarterly 60 (2007): 94–130.
DOI: 10.1353/ren.2007.0027Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Female dolls dressed in the latest court fashions were circulated among royal and ducal courts and encouraged consumption in clothing and other luxuries.
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Early, Alice. English Dolls, Effigies and Puppets. London: Batsford, 1955.
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Another example of how dolls and other plastic figures in contemporary dress could influence trends in costume.
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Freudenberger, Herman. “Fashion, Sumptuary Laws, and Business.” Business History Review 37.1–2 (1963): 37–48.
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Raises the question of whether sumptuary laws intended to limit consumption and the spread of new fashions may actually have encouraged those processes.
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Frick, Carole Collier. “The Florentine ‘Rigattieri’: Second Hand Clothing Dealers and the Circulation of Goods in the Renaissance.” In Old Clothes, New Looks: Second Hand Fashion. Edited by Alexandra Palmer and Hazel Clark, 13–28. New York, Berg, 2005.
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The emergence of second-hand markets is an important indicator that fashion in clothing had taken hold. Second-hand markets for clothing and finery became increasingly important in the Renaissance.
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Sartini, Ferdinando, ed. Statuti dell’arte dei rigattieri e linaioli di Firenze (1296–1340). Florence: Le Monnier, 1940.
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The careful regulation of second-hand markets indicates how brisk the trade in second-hand clothing had grown in Florence by the 14th century.