ABSTRACT
Scholars often point to the ideological and practical importance of appearance in the early-modern period. Corporativism, sumptuary laws and limited wealth all contributed to social legibility. Individuals could be ‘read’ by others. Sartorial codes have, in this instance, been compared to language. It can be learnt like an idiom, individuals can be bilingual and have the ability to read several different codes of how others want to portray themselves. Sartorial code can also be switched and manipulated. Codes from one context can be used in another, leading to purposeful or embarrassing misreading. This instrumental view of sign reading presupposes that the signs were legible by others. Two factors that greatly complicated social sign reading in the early-modern period were globalisation and commercialisation. Whether or not we regard early-modern clothing regimes as easily legible or not, by the eighteenth century sartorial idiom was apparently undergoing great change all over the West.
