Late Medieval Fashion Period

For medieval people, clothing and dress has always been a special significance. The symbolic aspects of a particular garment, and not only the utility functions such as protection, played an important role in medieval society. The main changes in the costume of the fourteenth century, which is best achieved through the dissemination of short upper garment for men, and the general trend for tight-fitting dresses, both male and female clothing, can be written, pictures and archaeological sources.

This part of the costume studies, unfortunately, has been neglected for a long time. The first medievalists in this area, the great merit to the registration information on costume standing monuments, ruins, museums, etc. The idea was that the shapes of the costumes came with architectural styles, and it depends on the proper morals. The late-medieval costume styles have been interpreted as "complicated and bizarre, and a close relationship between the vertical and tight-fitting" costumes of the time and the arrows of the cathedrals, in comparison with, for example, "hieratism Romance" and "ornamental Byzantine style".

The trend towards greater expense in dress, in the 11th and 13 century, increased during this period. Several factors were at work high fashion press to a larger and consumption: increasing exports from the East in the wake of the Crusades, higher production and better quality of textiles in the West, the wealth of the rising urban merchant class and the sudden rise in personal assets, by the survivors of the black plague (1350-1400).

In Italy, these factors operated at a peak particle, as the production and imports was the foundation of the Northern Italian economy. With fabric as stock in trade they dressed more luxury than the landed gentry, and has large amounts of private and public art and architecture to achieve social recognition.