Field Guide: How to be a Fashion Designer

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THE WORLD OF FASHION

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tance, found itself obliged to change

its appearance to distinguish itself

from its imitator. To make things

easier, throughout Europe laws began

to be passed, called sumptuary laws,

that codified the dress of each class,

reserving the distinction of luxury for

the aristocratic classes. From this

double movement of imitation and

distinction emerged the mutability

of fashion. A periodic and constant

movement that would only accelerate

over the centuries.

The French philosopher and sociolo-

gist Gilles Lipovetsky attests that the

appearance of fashion also repre-

sented the beginning of the end of

the power of the aristocracy. In order

to continue occupying a place of pres-

tige, this class was obliged to trans-

form itself into a spectacular class,

whose primary obligation was the

ostentatious display of waste. In this

sense, the nobles of the court com-

peted for attention, as much through

image as though the refinement of

customs. The cultural factors that

influenced the birth of fashion were

the values of gentlemanly culture.

Until then, men won women’s love

thanks to the virtues of virility. As a

result of this new culture, a woman’s

love was now obtained through gal-

lantry, thus initiating a process of

seduction based on appearance and

language.

During the second half of the Middle

Ages, new social valuations emerged.

The concept of the individual assumed

another dimension, declaring the affir-

mation of a distinct personality among

the dominant classes, which would

later culminate in the uomo singolare

of the Renaissance, to which was

added the hedonism typical of aristo-

cratic mores of the period.

CENTENNIAL FASHION

Throughout the second half of the

nineteenth century, a system of

production and communication of

women’s fashion—haute couture—

appeared, unheard of until then. With

the advent of the democratic era,

ushered in by the French Revolution,

bourgeois men renounced fashion,

standardizing their dress in the form

of the masculine suit—dark, austere,

discreet—reminiscent of Protestant-

ism, in order to clearly differentiate

themselves from the toppled aristoc-

racy. From then on women, by means

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