#world building history
If your fantasy world has historical connotations then having a grasp on historical fashion is really important. Talking about clothes can add layers of depth to your world, like the keftas in Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo. In this post, I will mostly be focusing on historical fashion from Europe as this is what I know most about.
Class Hierarchy
If you want to show class and wealth differences, fashion can be key to doing so. However, this isn’t in the same way as we would see in modern times unless your world has the capacity for fast fashion. Being rich didn’t mean you had a closet the size of a barn with lots of floofy fabrics like in Bridgerton, it meant having a few garments in the latest fashion that you wore frequently. The less wealthy you were the more out of fashion your gowns or coats would be, however, gowns would often be altered where possible to fit the new style.
The poor would still wear imitations of high fashion, but in simpler ways with simpler fabrics. Second hand or homemade was the norm. Contrary to popular belief, being poor didn’t mean ceased to care about fashion and well get onto why later.
Regional Fashion
Just because something was the height of fashion in Moscow, doesn’t mean it was the heigh of fashioning Paris. On a smaller scale, fashions would take time to reach rural area’s and smaller cities, so fashion would differ from region to region within a country. If you want your world to feel vast, including differences in clothing preference from country to country and region to region could really help with this. Other characters can then identify more about a new character just by looking at them.
The Importance of Fashion
Historically, fashion held a much greater significance than it does today. This is because of what fashion meant in society. Through most of history in Europe, there have been very strict social rules that everyone had to abide by. Dressing in line with the fashion was a way of showing that you were in line with these social rules. This meant being fashionable wasn’t about setting trends and breaking out of the norm, it was about keeping to the norm as much as possible. Breaking out from the confirmative fashion could risk your place in society, affecting your relationships, marriage prospects and ultimately your livelihood.
Of course there were people who took risks that paid off and subsequently moved fashion onward, but fashion moved at a much slower pace due to the amount of time and expense required to make completely new garments and so these were relatively small changes.
Hope this was helpful!
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