This illustrated study displays a detailed gallery of costumes worn in the 11th through the 15th centuries. The 120 full-color plates exhibit apparel worn by nobility, knights, soldiers, the bourgeois, ecclesiastics, and citizens of all classes.

Meticulously researched text and nearly 700 illustrations depict wide range of apparel -- from fur-trimmed cloaks and brocaded robes worn by courtiers and the nobility to simpler mantles, tunics, gowns, and more.

Margaret Scott presents a fascinating narrative of the history of European clothing for roughly 600 years from the tenth century onwards. Illuminated manuscripts are a treasure trove of information on the clothing people wore, or wanted to be seen to wear, in greater or lesser European courts, but she reminds us that written records, like household accounts, are a valuable complement to the pictures.

A comprehensive study of dress in Northern Europe from the early fourteenth century to the beginning of the Renaissance,Illuminating Fashion is the first thorough study of the history of fashion in this period based solely on firmly dated or datable works of art. It draws on illuminated manuscripts, early printed books, tapestries, paintings, and sculpture from museums and libraries around the world. "Symbolism and metaphors are buried in the art of fashion," says Roger Wieck, the editor ofIlluminating Fashion. Examining the role of social customs and politics in influencing dress, at a time of rapid change in fashion, this fully illustrated volume demonstrates the richness of such symbolism in medieval art and how artists used clothing and costume to help viewers interpret an image. At the heart of the work isA Pictorial History of Fashion, 1325 to 1515, an album of over 300 illustrations with commentary. This is followed by a comprehensive glossary of medieval English and French clothing terms and an extensive list of dated and datable works of art. Not only can this fully illustrated volume be used as guide to a fuller understanding of the works of art, it can also help date an undated work; reveal the shape and structure of actual garments; and open up a picture's iconographic and social content. It is invaluable for costume designers, students and scholars of the history of dress and history of art, as well as those who need to date works of art.

The best new research on medieval clothing and textiles, drawing from a range of disciplines. Topics in this volume range widely throughout the European middle ages. Three contributions concern terminology for dress. Two deal with multicultural medieval Apulia: an examination of clothing terms in surviving marriage contracts from the tenth to the fourteenth century, and a close focus on an illuminated document made for a prestigious wedding. Turning to Scandinavia, there is an analysis of clothing materials from Norway and Sweden according to gender and social distribution. Further papers consider the economic uses of cloth and clothing: wool production and the dress of the Cistercian community at Beaulieu Abbey based on its 1269-1270 account book, and the use of clothing as pledge or payment in medieval Ireland. In addition, there is a consideration of the history of dagged clothing and its negative significance to moralists, and of the painted hangings that were common in homes of all classes in the sixteenth century. ROBIN NETHERTON is a professional editor and a researcher/lecturer on the interpretation of medieval European dress; GALE R. OWEN-CROCKER is Emerita Professor of Anglo-Saxon Culture at the University of Manchester. Contributors: Antonietta Amati, Eva I. Andersson, John Block Friedman, Susan James, John Oldland, Lucia Sinisi, Mark Zumbuhl

This captivating book reproduces arguably the most extraordinary primary source documents in fashion history. Providing a revealing window onto the Renaissance, they chronicle how style-conscious accountant Matthäus Schwarz and his son Veit Konrad experienced life through clothes, and climbed the social ladder through fastidious management of self-image. These bourgeois dandies' agenda resonates as powerfully today as it did in the sixteenth century: one has to dress to impress, and dress to impress they did. The Schwarzes recorded their sartorial triumphs as well as failures in life in a series of portraits by illuminists over 60 years, which have been comprehensively reproduced in full color for the first time. These exquisite illustrations are accompanied by the Schwarzes' fashion-focussed yet at times deeply personal captions, which render the pair the world's first fashion bloggers and pioneers of everyday portraiture. The First Book of Fashion demonstrates how dress – seemingly both ephemeral and trivial – is a potent tool in the right hands. Beyond this, it colorfully recaptures the experience of Renaissance life and reveals the importance of clothing to the aesthetics and every day culture of the period. Historians Ulinka Rublack's and Maria Hayward's insightful commentaries create an unparalleled portrait of sixteenth-century dress that is both strikingly modern and thorough in its description of a true Renaissance fashionista's wardrobe. This first English translation also includes a bespoke pattern by TONY award-winning costume designer and dress historian Jenny Tiramani, from which readers can recreate one of Schwarz's most elaborate and politically significant outfits.

Essays on costume, fabric and clothing in the Middle Ages and beyond.