The Fashion Police in 16th-century Italy
Patrolling the streets and squares of the bustling city as arbiters of the level of ostentation that was deemed appropriate, the sumptuary magistrates were quite simply the Fashion Police.
Medieval Shoes
What set the trends for medieval shoe styles? The Politics, power, economics and climate behind medieval shoes.
Chaucer’s costume rhetoric in his portrait of the Prioress
No critic has ever discussed costume signs in order to reveal to what extent the Prioress does or does not conform in her costume to the fourteenth century norm, with consideration given, simultaneously, to the historical records, literature and visual arts of the period that form and inform the signs from the many traditions Chaucer in corporates in his portrait of the Prioress.