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Reviewed by:
  • Fashion in Medieval France
  • Marianne Ailes
Fashion in Medieval France. By Sarah-Grace Heller. Boydell & Brewer, 2007. 216 pp. Hb £50.00; $95.00.

Perhaps the most surprising element of Heller’s study of the development of a fashion system in France is the absence of illustrations. Heller herself addresses this in her introduction, making it clear that this is not a book about changing fashions but the one about the development of fashion as a defining part of [End Page 78] culture. She uses textual rather than visual evidence to explore attitudes to clothing and accessories, challenging the idea that fashion did not really come into being until the fourteenth century. Taking what is essentially a sociological model Heller begins by setting out 10 criteria as essential indicators of the existence of a fashion system: rejection of recent past; constant desire for change; consumption as an opportunity for individual expression; consumption being linked to emotional well-being; consumers having a choice over details—so a concentration on the superficial rather than major form and outline; conspicuous consumption and the theatrical logic of excess; words contributing to the economy of the system; criticism of fashionable behaviour; consumption associated with seduction; a movement towards equalization of appearances or fashion as a democratic system. The last criterion is acknowledged as more debatable than the others. The range of texts consulted is impressive, from the extensively used Roman de la Rose to the documents of the métiers guilds. Texts from the twelfth century contrast with those of the thirteenth where the development of a fashion system is discernible. The overall argument is convincing and the conclusion that such a system was in place in urban and courtly circles in the thirteenth century well presented. Within this study the reader can also find fascinating insights into details of medieval life such as the ways in which those from different social backgrounds would actually carry out the process of purchasing, or the implications of a gift culture for the development of a fashion system. She does, however, betray a lack of knowledge of heraldry, surprising in a study of fashion, using the word ‘crests’ for coats of arms and suggesting that ‘permanent familial adoption of crests’ (sic, p. 88) comes after the thirteenth century, though most heraldic authorities would place this much earlier. The study has a extensive bibliography and a reliable index. Overall, it provides an interesting read for any medievalist and will be essential reading for social historians of the period.

Marianne Ailes
University of Bristol
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