History of Western Fashion

To say that Western wardrobe fashion, which has cut across multiple cultural styles and eras since the twelfth century, appears to have shown a tremendous resiliency and adaptability as opposed to clothing associated with individual ethnic, national, or tribal cultures, is to make a statement about the West as an encasing culture and an encasing history. Western dress in its most general form has changed in ways that non-Western dress or the dress of Western subcultures has not. To the degree Western dress can be interpreted as a social construction, the role of the elites cannot be overestimated: Shakespeare has Henry V explain that monarchy "cannot be confined within the weak list of a country's fashion: we are the makers of manners, Kate; and the liberty that follows our places stops the mouth of all find-faults" (Henry V, V.ii).

Until the fourteenth century, European elites retained many attributes of ancient dress, notably loose-fitting robes, and cloaks, although sleeves had appeared by the time of the Norman Conquest in 1066. The "complex

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sing a woman at the turn of the century: a long chemise, a tight corset, drawers, up to four petticoats and, finally, a dress, generally to the ankles." In various ways, fashion has been an instrument of social control throughout Western history, particularly for women. Sumptuary laws enacted by Edward III of England, which prohibited all persons not of the nobility from wearing certain garments, were matched in the 1920s in Utah and Ohio by attempts to legally restrict skirt length. If it is true that in "following fashion a woman can proclaim and maintain her social position, her rank and her sexual attractiveness to her husband (and other), and if unmarried, to her admirers," it is also true that as a practical matter fashion appeals to what might be called the "inner" self, which is somehow more "real" to the (generally female) fashion consumer--who will never look like a model but whose social experience is a function of fashion experience. In this regard, Barthes sees the fashion industry as a prescriptive agent of received wisdom. [T]he Fashion magazine does not always present this sign in a declared manner; it does not necessarily say: The accessory is the signifier of the signified spring. This year, short dresses are
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 2790
Approximate Pages = 11 (250 words per page)

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