Early modern dress : a declaration of political allegiance? : a case study on dress alla Romana

Abstract

According to Janet Cox-Rearick, «At the courts of sixteenth-century Europe foreign styles of clothing –or even just a specific item of foreign clothing– were often worn to declare the wearer’s political allegiance, and the issue of foreign styles assumed a high profile on the broader political stage of Europe» (Cox-Rearick, 2009: 39). This article focuses on the concept of a national character in dress, and how important this was in forming nationality in early modern Italy. It highlights the Spanish influences on early modern Italian dress as a declaration of political allegiance, with particular focus on the clothes worn in Rome and on how they seem to have differed from those worn in other urban centres on the Italian peninsula.