THE APPEARANCE OF SHORT COSTUME AND ITS DEVELOPMENT UNTIL ABOUT 1520.

CAUSES AND CONDITIONS

The great innovation in the development of costume in Europe after the mid-fourteenth century is the abandonment of the long flowing costume common to both sexes; costume then became short for men and long for women, fitted and generally partly or wholly slit, and buttoned or laced. This development led to the disappearance from everyday wear, except for a few special social categories, of ancient forms inherited over several thousand years ; it also represented a first step towards modern costume.

Around 1340-1350, this change was general in the West: it is mentioned in Italy, in England and in Germany as well as in France, though its original starting point cannot be established with certainty. Some attribute it to Spain (particularly to Catalonia), others to Italy, who herself attributed it to France. This geographical area of expansion corresponded to that of long costume, which had previously been worn within the region influenced by the French-inspired international art of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.

THE NEW SPIRIT

We cannot neglect the importance for costume of the appearance of a new spirit, already perceptible at the end of the thirteenth century, and confirmed and developed at the beginning of the fourteenth century, initially in Italy. The first symptoms of Humanism were a leaning towards secular art, an ideal of man at once more independent and more avid for action, an interest no longer applied to the universal, but to the individual and particular.

At the same time we can see considerable social changes: the feudal system was coming to an end, and the seigneurial class was moving towards its future, more limited role in court society, while the trades were organizing themselves into economic groups supported by an already powerful capitalism.

Another factor, more subtle but not less important for that, was the development of the concept of ideal beauty which took precise shape in the visual arts and literature in the thirteenth century in France and, most of all, in Italy where the theme inspired all poets and artists from Dante to Giotto, from Petrarch to Pisanello, from Boccaccio to Raphael. Greater importance was attached to the perfection of the female body, and indeed, to outward appearance in general. In all the Italian states men and women translated this search after formal beauty into costume, thus satisfying their taste for elegance, their passion for colour harmony and their aspirations towards a greater distinction.

It was then that the fashion designer made his appearance, in Italy: artists of the calibre of Pisanello, Pollaiuolo and Jacopo Bellini created costume models and designed textile patterns.

ECONOMIC CONDITIONS

Despite the disruptions caused by wars, the transformation of costume benefited not only from a new psychological and artistic climate, but also from exceptionally favourable economic conditions.

It has justly been remarked that at the beginning of the fourteenth century European trade became stabilized and, instead of noticeably extending its sphere of activity, concentrated on expanding traffic along existing routes. Faced with the insecurity caused by the Hundred Years' War and the occupation of the Eastern Mediterranean by the Turks, traders gradually replaced the great land route from Italy to Flanders with the sea route from the Mediterranean to the North Sea via the Atlantic. But in each country the state of trade depended on the policies of the government.

In the West there followed the beginnings of a move towards developing commercial centres, among them Venice, Genoa, Marseille and Barcelona. In the North the great international ports of Bruges and Antwerp were established, in liaison with the Teutonic Hansa towns which controlled traffic from Novgorod.

We shall probably never know how the fashions brought to France at the time of Charles the Bold came to be in Greenland in the same period, as we know to have been the case from excavations on the sites of old Norman colonies.

At the same time in the Netherlands, in Milan and Florence, and other places besides, industries were set up which were supported by merchant capitalism and profited from technical progress in weaving and dyeing.

This general improvement was demonstrated by the revival of gold coinage in all the states of Europe; the taste for luxury and the increase of buying power were, as always, to have repercussions on costume.

THE INFLUENCE OF MILITARY COSTUME

At this time we see the appearance of short plate armour, which increasingly replaced the old, half-length coat of mail (hauberk) obviously as a consequence of the recent introduction of more powerful cross-bows and of the first firearms, bombards or swivel-guns. The last years of the thirteenth century saw the appearance of the brigandine4, which reached to the upper thighs, and was formed of small plates rivetted together to cover an outer garment of cloth or leather, shaped like the civilian pourpoint or the fitted jaque. It is difficult to say which, of civilian and military costume, influenced the other; we must, however, note their parallel tendency to become shorter.

THE BIRTH OF FASHION

While the development of fashion is a capital change, and of far greater significance than a mere passing change of style, it is nevertheless possible to regard the appearance of the short tunic as the first manifestation of fashion. And indeed, from the fourteenth century onwards we find the appearance in costume of new elements that owe less to function than to caprice. Although costume was still influenced, often gradually, by political, economic and even ethnic factors, its variations became less general, and more directly dictated by the occasion. Styles came to correspond to smaller, more specifically 'national' zones, and to employ more regional products. New influences were more frequent, less lasting, their effects more spectacular.

NATIONAL FEATURES

The development of short costume did, indeed, conform to geographical divisions, and those which expressed new, national distinctions. While spreading gradually across the greater part of Europe, it met with fresh conditions and was modified according to what were already 'national' characteristics. Unlike the more or less uniform long costume, short costume was never exactly the same in France, Germany, England and Italy.

During this period, European costume sometimes bore the impress of Italy, whose role as a precursor is of vital importance, at other times reflected the influence of France and Burgundy. From north and south it gained a splendour and opulence previously unknown, perhaps more noticeable in men's than in women's costume. But these two poles of influence were markedly diff"erent in their nature.

In Italy, divided into a dozen independent states, it was the feeling for form and the creative imagination that transformed costume. And it was the development of silk weaving and the continuous improvement in commercial organization that made possible its spread through the adjacent countries: thus, economic factors played a major part.

In more closely knit France and Burgundy, the dominant influences were the courts. Despite the difficult conditions created by the Hundred Years' War, clothing was sumptuously rich, matching the ambition of the Dukes of Burgundy and their royal power, which the recent vicissitudes had not profoundly affected. The enrichment of the States of Burgundy and the prosperity of Flanders were only accessory factors. Here politics were the mainspring of development in costume.

The transformation ofcostume in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries thus appears as the expression less of a general, common culture, than of groups of nations with equal, but different, development. From being universal, uniform and impersonal, costume was to become particular, personal and national.

By François Boucher in "20,000 Years of Fashion - The History of Costume and Personal Adornment", Harry N. Abrams, Inc, Publishers, New York,USA, excerpts 191-192. Digitized, adapted and illustrated to be posted by Leopoldo Costa.