Chapter Unlikely followers of fashion? Dressing the poor in late medieval Bruges

Surprisingly little is known about the way the poor strata of urban society in the late medieval period used dress to express social identities. Systematic empirical data have not been available, and sources tend to illustrate the opinion of the elites about poverty. Through the analysis of cloth di...

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প্রধান লেখক: Stabel, Peter
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ভাষা:ইংরেজি
প্রকাশিত: Firenze University Press 2022
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অনলাইন ব্যবহার করুন:ONIX_20220601_9788855185653_803
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author Stabel, Peter
author_browse Stabel, Peter
author_facet Stabel, Peter
author_sort Stabel, Peter
collection Directory of Open Access Books
description Surprisingly little is known about the way the poor strata of urban society in the late medieval period used dress to express social identities. Systematic empirical data have not been available, and sources tend to illustrate the opinion of the elites about poverty. Through the analysis of cloth distribution by charitable institutions and, above all, of a unique set of inventories for fifteenth-century Bruges, it becomes clear that dress was not only an important element in the material culture and the construction of social identity of the poor, but that instead of being a passive player depending on charity and alternative commercial circuits, the poor used dress to conform to fashion cycles set by the wealthier groups in urban society. In late medieval Bruges, they were wearing the same typology of dress, the same colours and the same fabrics, displaying in this way a willingness to participate and invest in fashion cycles. In assessing both urban economies and social dialogue, scholars should therefore not focus on elite demand alone.
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spelling doab-20.500.12854ir-838242022-06-02T04:39:20Z Chapter Unlikely followers of fashion? Dressing the poor in late medieval Bruges Stabel, Peter Social relations late medieval city dress and material culture poverty Surprisingly little is known about the way the poor strata of urban society in the late medieval period used dress to express social identities. Systematic empirical data have not been available, and sources tend to illustrate the opinion of the elites about poverty. Through the analysis of cloth distribution by charitable institutions and, above all, of a unique set of inventories for fifteenth-century Bruges, it becomes clear that dress was not only an important element in the material culture and the construction of social identity of the poor, but that instead of being a passive player depending on charity and alternative commercial circuits, the poor used dress to conform to fashion cycles set by the wealthier groups in urban society. In late medieval Bruges, they were wearing the same typology of dress, the same colours and the same fabrics, displaying in this way a willingness to participate and invest in fashion cycles. In assessing both urban economies and social dialogue, scholars should therefore not focus on elite demand alone. 2022-06-02T04:39:19Z 2022-06-02T04:39:19Z 2022-06-01T12:30:13Z 2022 chapter ONIX_20220601_9788855185653_803 https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/56619 9788855185653 https://directory.doabooks.org/handle/20.500.12854/83824 eng Datini Studies in Economic History open access image/jpeg Attribution 4.0 International https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/20.500.12657/56619/1/29757.pdf Firenze University Press 10.36253/978-88-5518-565-3.17 10.36253/978-88-5518-565-3.17 2ec4474d-93b1-4cfa-b313-9c6019b51b1a 9788855185653 26 Florence open access
spellingShingle Social relations
late medieval city
dress and material culture
poverty
Stabel, Peter
Chapter Unlikely followers of fashion? Dressing the poor in late medieval Bruges
title Chapter Unlikely followers of fashion? Dressing the poor in late medieval Bruges
title_full Chapter Unlikely followers of fashion? Dressing the poor in late medieval Bruges
title_fullStr Chapter Unlikely followers of fashion? Dressing the poor in late medieval Bruges
title_full_unstemmed Chapter Unlikely followers of fashion? Dressing the poor in late medieval Bruges
title_short Chapter Unlikely followers of fashion? Dressing the poor in late medieval Bruges
title_sort chapter unlikely followers of fashion dressing the poor in late medieval bruges
topic Social relations
late medieval city
dress and material culture
poverty
topic_facet Social relations
late medieval city
dress and material culture
poverty
url ONIX_20220601_9788855185653_803
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