Clothing, Fashion, Dress, anD Costume in VeniCe
(c.1450–1650)margaret F. rosenthalIntroductionClothing evolved into a system of fashionable dress in early modern Ven-
ice because frequent changes in taste, novelty in designs, and innovative
methods in the manufacturing of textiles were supported by an unprec-
edented institutional flexibility.1 in addition, increased social mobility, a
broader knowledge of distant customs and ways of dressing, and diver-
sification in industrial manufacturing of textiles transformed how Vene-
tians, regardless of social rank and wealth, could express themselves in
clothing.2
Fashion and dress in this long period reflect the financial means, social
status, ethnicity, and gender of the wearer and attest to how Venice
thrived, despite a few dips in its economy in the period from 1630–60, as
one of the strongest industrialized bases in europe. textiles were a very
important commodity, involving a large segment of the Venetian popu-
lation. the many foreign peoples who flourished in Venice took part in
a thriving crafts industry which reflected the textiles, designs, dyes, and
patterns from asia, europe, and north africa. as historian Joanne Ferraro
notes, upper-class Venetians’ fashion aesthetics were made up of what
1 Carlo marco Belfanti, “the Civilization of Fashion: at the origins of a Western social
institution,” Journal of Social History 43.2 (2000), 261–83; liz hodorowich, “the new Venice:
historians and historiography in the 21st Century lagoon,” History compass 2 (2004), 1–27;
luca molà, The Silk Industry of Renaissance Venice (Baltimore/london, 2000), pp. 300–01;
and Blake de maria, Becoming Venetian: Immigrants and the Arts in Early Modern Venice
(new haven/london, 2010), pp. 33–49.
2 see, by Patricia allerston: “Consuming Problems: Worldly goods in renaissance
Venice,” in michelle o’malley and evelyn s. Welch, eds., The Material Renaissance: costs and
consumption in Italy, 1400–1650 (manchester/new York, 2007), pp. 11–46; “meeting Demand
retailing strategies in early modern Venice,” in Bruno Blondé, et al., eds., Retailers and
consumer changes in Early Modern Europe: England, France, Italy and the Low countries
(tours, 2005), pp. 169–88; “l’abito usato,” in Carlo marco Belfanti and Fabio giusberti, eds.,
La moda (turin, 2003), pp. 561–81; “reconstructing the second-hand Clothes trade
in sixteenth- and seventeenth-Century Venice,” costume 33 (1999), pp. 46–56; and “l’abito
come articolo di scambio nella società dell’età moderna: alcune implicazioni,” in anna
giulia Cavagna and grazietta Butazzi, eds., Le trame della moda (rome, 1995), pp. 111–24.