Introduction

The concept of “fashion” does not have a history of thousands of years. What we call “fashion” in fact only emerged with the rapid proliferation of consumer goods following modern industrial technology and economic transformation; it is closely tied to the idea of “trends” (the etymology of “fashion” reveals that it refers to the prevailing style or taste of a given period). Strictly speaking, the concept of the fashion industry only exists in the modern world — and yet when we speak of “fashion,” we generally include ancient “clothing” within its scope (though it is worth noting that a significant difference still exists between the two). “Fashion” is far more than clothing and its changes; it is a vital component of society and culture. In this article, I will briefly summarize the history of fashion/clothing before the 17th century, highlighting the role history and culture play within it. Since pre-17th-century “fashion” is not especially complex, I will keep this overview relatively concise.

Humanity, having moved beyond hunter-gatherer life, made enormous strides in addressing basic needs, and the significance of culture and art gradually grew. In the earliest civilizations, however, clothing was still simply fabric draped over the body.

Ancient Greece and Rome

The sculptural art of ancient Greece and Rome is breathtakingly beautiful: the dynamism of the Discobolus, the poise of the Venus de Milo — both demonstrate a technical mastery far beyond the rigid bronze figures of ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia. Looking closely at the Venus de Milo, we can see the garment draped over her lower body: a long, full-length dress. This type of garment was known as a stola. The corresponding garment for men in ancient Greece was the toga, a long robe. In ancient Greece, women who wore men’s clothing were associated with prostitution and adultery. A range of other garment types also existed, and the dress of slaves differed slightly from that of the nobility — though it is worth noting that sumptuary laws of this period kept the clothing of the wealthy from becoming truly excessive (as it would, say, during the Baroque era); robes were simply a little more elaborately ornamented.

Tang Dynasty China

The Tang Dynasty at its peak is a source of immense Chinese pride. During this period, thanks to a long history of sericulture and highly advanced weaving techniques, China produced the most exquisite garments in the world. The grotesque practice of footbinding had not yet appeared, and Chinese women enjoyed considerable freedom, expressed in their leisure activities (dancing, horse riding, polo) as well as in their clothing and hairstyles. China’s first and only female emperor, Wu Zetian, also lived during this era. Women’s face coverings evolved from the mili (a veil that shielded the face and kept out dust) to the weimao (a hat with a veil — picture Mu Wanqing from Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils), and eventually to going bare-faced; this transformation took roughly a century. Their standard dress was the ruqun (blouse and skirt). During Wu Zetian’s reign, low-neckline garments, dancing girls’ costumes, and cloud-toe shoes also became popular. Tang women wore makeup and facial decorations and paid close attention to fashion. Tang society did not distinguish class through dress, but officials’ ranks might be indicated by the color of their garments. People also wore the hufu — foreign-style clothing suited for horse riding and archery.

Heian Japan

Murasaki Shikibu’s The Tale of Genji and Sei Shōnagon’s The Pillow Book are two great works of Japanese classical literature. Reading the descriptions within them, one notices that the Japanese of this period paid an almost obsessive attention to details of dress — if the color layering of one’s sleeve cuffs failed to impress, it was grounds for social humiliation. Japan initially drew almost entirely from Chinese influence, before gradually developing its own distinctive aesthetic. In the Heian period, women were expected to whiten their faces, blacken their teeth, pluck their eyebrows bare, and redraw them; men were expected to grow fine, narrow mustaches, blacken their teeth, and pin their hair into a topknot. This was a highly opulent sartorial culture.

Women’s bodies were entirely concealed beneath extraordinarily layered garments, and they were also required to arrange their screens with great care even indoors. This was a form of patriarchal control — and yet it was precisely because of this confinement that Heian-era women were able to cultivate refined taste and aesthetic sensibility, and to pursue literary and artistic creation.

The most iconic garment was the jūnihitoe (twelve-layer court robe) worn by aristocratic women, composed of ten to twenty-five separate silk garments. All these layers made complex color combinations not only possible but critically important.

The Middle Ages

The rise of trade and the textile industry made wool tailoring fashionable. Among the more iconic garments was the houppelande and other long robes; hats and headwear also held great importance. In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, the codpiece became a decorative element as well, and it was during this period that the divergence between men’s and women’s clothing grew markedly: broad shoulders for men, narrow for women. The corset, which developed during this period, is an unavoidable element in fashion history. Unlike Asia, fashion in Europe was almost exclusively the domain of men; the garments recorded in medieval artworks are predominantly men’s, and Europeans used dress to mark class distinctions. Even so, sumptuary laws remained in force.

The most iconic depiction of the houppelande is the Arnolfini Portrait, a painting of exceptional beauty and realism, with accomplished perspective and delicate handling of light and shadow. The painting is remarkably harmonious, and the wedding within it carries an air of the sacred. We can see the man wearing a broad-brimmed hat and a houppelande trimmed with ermine, a marker of wealth and rank; the woman’s gown is extremely long, with elaborately pleated hems and absurdly wide sleeves, and the wedding dress is green, symbolizing fertility. The garments carry no patterns.

The Renaissance

Looking across the history before the 17th century, it is difficult to ignore the Renaissance. Clothing of this era became increasingly ornate, driving a gradual rise in luxury consumption, and the silhouette and structure of garments grew in importance. Doublet and hose became the mainstream; a short jacket was worn over the doublet. The codpiece evolved during this period into something of a padded pouch, displaying masculine swagger (?) before gradually falling out of use. People were still expected to wear hats (even indoors), and dress still marked class distinctions. In the 16th century, following Spain’s rise to power, the prevailing style shifted from the ornate to the severe and stately, and breeches became fashionable.

Women still wore skirts, generally long ones (a combination of skirt and fitted bodice). Bodices became increasingly tight and increasingly uncomfortable, and it was during this period that a crucial garment emerged: the farthingale. Through curved front seams, diagonal joins, and curved back seams, a series of hoops — typically of cord, wood, or rush — gave the farthingale its shape.

The Baroque painting Las Meninas (The Maids of Honour) depicts the young Infanta and her attendants wearing farthingales.

This painting, together with da Vinci’s La Gioconda (Mona Lisa) and Rembrandt’s De Nachtwacht (The Night Watch), is considered one of the three greatest paintings in the world — even Picasso and Dalí produced their own variations on it, pondering its mysteries — but I will not go into further detail here.

Conclusion

In this article we have surveyed the various fashions of the pre-17th century world — but even if we were to add the Pre-Columbian American and Indian textiles and garments that I have not covered, this would still be only a small fraction of fashion history. I will follow up with two articles on the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries. Truly modern fashion only begins to show itself in the 20th century. In the articles to come, we will continue to follow China and Japan, but it is clearly Europe — and France in particular — that is most closely synonymous with “fashion” (which is also why, after finishing Japanese, I plan to study French: there is simply too much worth engaging with in French culture).

The above content is based on and compiled from The Complete History of Fashion.