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2 results

  • 5 - Distinguishing Oneself

  • from Part I - Multiple Origins of Fashion
  • Edited by Christopher Breward, National Museums of Scotland, Beverly Lemire, University of Alberta, Giorgio Riello, European University Institute, Florence
  • Book:
    The Cambridge Global History of Fashion
    Published online:
    04 August 2023
    Print publication:
    17 August 2023, pp 109-147

  • Summary

    A garment covers, decorates, and renders its wearer distinct. This chapter focuses on this last function of clothing: distinction. I reflect on this characteristic by analysing changes in wardrobes of men and women during the European middle ages and the early modern period. I concentrate on the fourteenth to sixteenth centuries, a period in which some sort of ‘philosophy’ of distinction – based on garments and accessories – affirmed itself. Yet this chapter highlights the existence of at least four different types of distinction: it starts with social distinction, perhaps the best-known meaning of the term; it continues with a consideration of distinction as applied to the body; and follows with a consideration of geographical distinction; the final part reflects on another well-known meaning of distinction that is still with us today – dress as a form of economic distinction.1