History of Costume and Fashion II: From the Sixteenth Century to the French Revolution

Instructor: Alessio Francesco Palmieri Marinoni – Individual course from the "Historical and Stage Costume Tailoring" programme.

This course traces the evolution of European dress from the sixteenth century through to the end of the French Revolution. Participants will examine paintings and documentary sources to identify and analyse garments and their distinguishing features within their historical contexts. Through the comparison of a wide range of artistic sources, students will develop the knowledge needed to understand the historical and stylistic evolution of fashion. Students will also complete practical exercises designed to assess and reinforce the knowledge acquired throughout the course.

Course topics by lesson:

The aim of this seminar is to highlight the relationships and influences shaped by the major European powers in sixteenth-century fashion. After an initial analysis of the specific characteristics of each context, the course will focus on identifying the key elements that contributed to the evolution of dress in the Italian peninsula. In particular, special attention will be given to the fundamental role of the Reformation and the Counter-Reformation in defining the “value” of clothing.

Imagination, frivolity, and hybridity are three terms that offer a plausible understanding of fashion during the reign of Louis XVI. Innovation coexisted, paradoxically, with a strong adherence to clothing forms closely tied to power; a power and allure deeply interconnected which, despite the aims of the French Revolution, continued to captivate and influence the political sphere. This final seminar will analyse how, in the last decade of the eighteenth century, the link between fashion and politics, and between fashion and authority, became inseparable, laying the foundations for both the Napoleonic monarchy and the Restoration.