Was medieval and Renaissance fashion influenced by events of the day, such as the Hundred Years’ War and the bubonic plague? Soldiers dressed to the nines in The Way to Calvary (detail) in a French book of hours, Spitz Master, about 1420 The most fashionable people in medieval art are often the bad guys. For women’s clothing, look to what the temptresses and prostitutes are wearing. For the men, look at the teenage boys and executioners. The tormentors of Christ are usually dressed to the nines.
Yes, but you have to be careful in interpreting each picture. Artists did depict actual clothing, but they also included fantastic and old-fashioned garments. You also have to keep in mind artistic license. People in real life were hardly as thin, with waistlines as narrow, as those seen in medieval art.Īnd manuscript illuminators used fashion not only to set a scene, but also to comment on the characters they depicted. It was this “fashion revolution” that forever distinguished men’s and women’s clothing.ĭo the lavish ensembles we see in illuminated manuscripts-such as the gowns and hats in the illumination shown above-reflect what people actually wore? What was the “fashion revolution” of the late Middle Ages?Īround 1330, due to the invention of the set-in sleeve and the use of multiple buttons, tight clothing for both men and women became available.
Just as art was changing with the dawn of the Renaissance, so, too, was clothing. A “fashion revolution” in the Middle Ages? Yes, says art historian Roger Wieck, curator of Illuminating Fashion: Dress in the Art of Medieval France and the Netherlands at the Morgan Library.
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