ABSTRACT

Until relatively recently the study of dress in the past confined itself to explorations of changing styles and material composition, and histories of production and consumption. Examination of clothing’s social and cultural meanings in historical context, and in particular their significance in the formation of embodied identities, emerged in the wake of sociological studies from the 1980s on, but are still relatively under-explored compared to other histories of the body and sexual identities. This chapter briefly examines the approaches to the subject taken by other scholars to date, and then turns to map some of the relationships between clothing and the body in early modernity: the importance of garments to good health, the intimate involvement of cloth and clothing in the experience of maturation and bodily transition, and the role of dress in the understanding and performance of gender. While the examples used here are primarily English, the map may equally be employed to navigate the conceptual terrain of other early modern societies in Europe, for while the specifics of fashion varied across borders, underlying dress practices and ways of conceptualizing the clothed – and unclothed – body reached over regional, political and religious divides. The relatively recent appearance of dress within History belies an intellectual tradition

that in Europe stretches back to the latter part of the sixteenth century and the appearance of illustrated costume books.1 The discovery of the New World, a growing impulse towards the encyclopedic categorization of knowledge, and a fascination with the ancient, the unusual and the exotic, all combined to fuel the popularity of this new genre: costume books ‘took their place in the gallery of marvels of nature and prodigies of human creation’.2 Beginning with Cesare Vecellio’s Habiti Antichi, et Moderni di Tutto il Mondo of 1598, some of these texts also included examples of historical dress.3 Right from the start then, an antiquarian impulse established itself in relation to costume studies, and would prove to be of major importance.4 From the seventeenth century onwards the researches of individual antiquaries not only constituted the field of knowledge, but the methodological approaches of future generations. Thanks to antiquaries who worked as engravers and painters, in time a link was also forged between costume studies and art. In the nineteenth century history painters in particular turned to published surveys of dress, evidencing a new desire for authenticity in historical recreation that was apparent also on the stage and which created an enduring association between costume studies, the theatre, and, more latterly, film and television. Interest in dress carried through into the twentieth century

with unabated vigour,5 and in the new millennium the republication of Cesare Vecellio’s sixteenth-century costume book that over 400 years ago started the whole ball rolling, illustrates the field’s astonishing longevity and continuing appeal. Costume study thus forms an unbroken tradition, remarkable for its consistency of con-

tent and form. It was not a tradition, however, that found any favour within the newly developing profession of History, and in Anglophone scholarship particularly it was many years before the study of clothing found its way into History departments in any capacity at all. Under the influence of the Annales school, French historians were open earlier to the idea of dress forming an area of valid research, Fernand Braudel being one of the first to urge its significance, and Daniel Roche following with his masterful treatment of the clothing practices of the Ancien Régime.6 Meanwhile in England, understandably given its long-held links with drawing and painting, the study of fashion within the academy instead developed with traditional art history. There were two strands to this intellectual programme: the first dealing with repre-

sentations of dress and concerned, often, with the dating of paintings; and the second, based on the study of artefacts in a museum context, dedicated to an understanding of the technological aspects of surviving garments.7 In both strands of endeavour, dress has been presented as a decorative art and with little overt interpretation. The contribution of these object-based studies, in either the form of graphic representation or as material remains, is typified by the articles in the periodical Costume, the journal of the Costume Society. Most usually these are short, descriptive discussions of specific artefacts or presentations of archival documents (transcriptions of inventories, accounts and so on), which have put valuable source material into the public domain. Although the journal deals with a wide chronology, there is much that is relevant to the early modern period, and although primarily English, does include material of a wider European reach. Mention must be made at this point of the exemplary work by Janet Arnold, to whose knowledge of costume artefacts and their textual remains scholars are deeply indebted.8 This approach to dress in history has therefore tended to produce scholarship of a detailed and descriptive nature.9

As the discipline has moved away from connoisseurship and aesthetics, however, more analytical studies relating to dress have also emerged.10 In line with this, Costume’s recent change of editor seems also to be shifting the tenor of this periodical towards more analysis and a greater consideration of dress artefacts within their cultural context. While anthropology, sociology and psychology had meanwhile all turned their attention

to costume and fashion, dress first made its appearance in history departments in economic analyses of textile production, and then later discussions of consumption.11 Textile History, the journal of the Pasold Foundation, is a valuable site for studies of this nature. One aspect of clothing consumption of particular relevance to the period concerns the legal restraints on display and expenditure, known collectively as sumptuary laws, on which there is a substantial literature.12 Studies of the cultural meanings attached to clothing, its role in the formation of identities and relationships, and its value as a window on society in general have, however, been much slower to come forth. Only in the last decade or so has a sudden flowering of scholarship in this area occurred, and even so the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries – with some notable exceptions13 – remain a period of relative neglect when compared to the main focus on modernity. This concentration on the post1700 period is reinforced by the curricula of institutions that teach fashion/dress studies, which seldom stray into an earlier chronology. The most significant journal in the area, Fashion Theory: The Journal of Dress, Body and Culture, has a very wide ethnic and

geographical reach, but only infrequently ventures into early modernity. This is not a reflection of editorial policy, but of the nature of the majority of articles submitted. Even as recently as 2010 this oversight in cultural history has led to the dress and appearances of early modernity being described as a ‘hitherto neglected subject’.14 The future however looks more promising thanks to the recent upswing in the scholarship of material culture – a nexus of interest for historians, art historians, archaeologists and museum conservators alike. Although concerned with a wider field of study, clothes and the varying practices surrounding their making, (re)use and disposal occupy a significant position.15 However, to date the biggest contribution to the discussion of the cultural significance of dress in the Renaissance, especially the relationship of clothes to embodied identity, has come from literary history. From the 1990s onwards, the politics and performance of gender and sexuality as expressed through the medium of clothing has proved a fertile ground for literary studies, with challenging and transgressive practices providing a particular lure for scholarly interest. Concentrating on textual representations of dress, primarily as expressed through dramatic writing and the theatre, this scholarship has approached the topic with a relish that matches the energy of much contemporary discussion.16