clothing, fashion, dress, and costume in venice 891
were more and more producers of textiles for sale, particularly silk, in
the 18th century, when most manufacturing shifted to the mainland state.
they were involved in reeling, spinning, throwing, and boiling silk fila-
ment. in and around Brescia in northern italy, they made silk thread and
buttons and bleached and dyed fabrics such as linen.
a widening of the number and variety of crafts governed by the Vene-
tian guilds along with a faster movement of goods in and out of the Vene-
tian republic influenced how Venetian merchants, diplomats, humanists,
artists, mendicants, pilgrims, itinerant artisans, and laborers interacted
with their city as a hub of trade, textile production, and mercantile entre-
preneurship.8 global networks involved newly widening commercial mar-
kets for individual consumption, from localized shops to international
fairs and overseas depots.9
Fashion trends and technological innovations in the production of
textiles increasingly brought makers and consumers together in a collab-
orative design process. this collaboration involved an expansive and var-
ied social and trade network that included mercers, artisans, and tailors
who designed clothing and responded swiftly to highly discerning private
clients.10 From the late 15th through the 16th century, italian tailors
increasingly shaped garments to the body and were central to the pro-
cess of dressing; they chose and collected textiles for their clients directly
from merchants and mercers.11 tailors also introduced new styles with
8 For the conception of the unprecedented speed and movement of goods in this
period, see John Jeffries martin, “the renaissance: a World in motion,” in martin, The
Renaissance World (london, 2007), pp. 8–11, 17–20, 23.
9 on the increasingly important role of early modern retailers, see John Brewer and
roy Porter, eds., consumption and the World of Goods (london, 1993); Frank trentmann
and John Brewer, eds., consuming cultures, Global Perspectives: Historical Trajectories,
Transnational Exchanges (oxford/new York, 2006); and for early modern retail networks,
see evelyn Welch, Shopping in the Renaissance: consumer cultures in Italy, 1400–1600 (new
haven/london, 2005), pp. 127–29, 191–93, 203–08, 240–41; Donatella Calabi, “renewal of
the shop system: italy in the early modern Period,” in Blondé, et al., eds., Buyers and
Sellers: Retail circuits and Practices in Medieval and Early Modern Europe (turnhout,
2006), pp. 51–62; de maria, Becoming Venetian, pp. 35–36; and roberta orsi landini,
“Da vanità a virtù: l’innovazione come valore aggiunto all’origine della produzione tessile
per l’abbigliamento,” in eugenia Paulicelli, ed., Moda e moderno (rome, 2006), pp. 69–70.
10 molà, The Silk Industry, pp. 102–03, 262, 296–97. although elizabeth Currie in “Fashion
networks: Consumer Demand and the Clothing trade in Florence from the mid-sixteenth
to early seventeenth Centuries,” JMEMS 39.3 (Fall 2009), 483–509, examines the role of the
tailor in relation to the Florentine context, many of her findings are applicable to Venice;
alessandra mottola molfino, Il libro del sarto della Fondazione Querini-Stampalia di Venezia
(Venice, 1987).
11 Currie, “Fashion networks,” pp. 496–502.