ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that in the early modern period ‘instances’ of fashion were present in places as different as Japan, the rich cities of China and Latin America, as well as Europe. The appropriation of fashion by Europeans was not invented by historians: most of the primary sources used by European historians deny the existence of fashion outside the borders of Europe. Fashion is often described as a self-sustaining force: once unleashed, it becomes a perpetual motor of change, first material and second sociocultural. Fashion is always characterized by specific spaces and social dynamics in which it articulates itself. The development of fashion as a way of presenting and representing society was not the prerogative of Europe. Fashion spread also through the display of textiles, clothing and modes of behaviour of a small but important ‘fashion elite’ that in Europe was defined as the beau monde or ‘fashion leaders’.
