History of Fashion Timeline

Historians including James Laver and Fernand Braudel date the start of Western fashion in clothing to the middle of the 14th century, though they tend to rely heavily on contemporary imagery, as illuminated manuscripts were not common before this time.

Image source: History of Western fashion

The pace of change accelerated considerably in the century following the mid-14th century, and women's and men's fashion, especially in the dressing and adorning of the hair, became equally complex.

Art historians are able to use fashion with confidence and precision to date images, often to within five years, particularly in the case of images from the 15th century.

Albrecht Dürer illustrated the differences in his actual (or composite) contrast of Nuremberg and Venetian fashions at the close of the 15th century.

Image source: Albrecht Dürer

In the 16th century, national differences in fashion were at their most pronounced; ten 16th century portraits of German or Italian gentlemen may show ten entirely different hats.

Image source: 1550–1600 in European fashion

The 'Spanish style' of the late 16th century began the move back to synchronicity among upper-class Europeans, and after a struggle in the mid-17th century, French styles decisively took over leadership, a process completed in the 18th century.

Image source: Fashion design

National styles remained very different until a counter-movement in the 17th to 18th centuries imposed similar styles once again, mostly originating from Ancien Régime France.

Image source: 1700–1750 in Western fashion

By 1800, all Western Europeans were dressing alike (or thought they were); local variation became first a sign of provincial culture and later a badge of the conservative peasant.

The looks of the French court were disseminated through prints from the 16th century on, but gained cohesive design with the development of a centralized court under King Louis XIV, which produced an identifiable style that took his name.

Image source: Louis XIV

Though there had been distribution of dressed dolls from France since the 16th century, Abraham Bosse had produced engravings of fashion in the 1620s, helping spread awareness of Parisian styles.

Image source: Abraham Bosse

The pace of change picked up in the 1780s with increased publication of French engravings illustrating the latest Paris styles, accelerating the spread of fashion trends across Europe.

Image source: History of fashion design

Although tailors and dressmakers were responsible for many innovations, the history of fashion design is generally understood to date from 1858 when the English-born Charles Frederick Worth opened the first authentic haute couture house in Paris.

Image source: Charles Frederick Worth

Vogue, founded in Manhattan in 1892, has been the longest-lasting and most successful of the hundreds of fashion magazines that have come and gone.

Image source: Vogue (magazine)

By the beginning of the 20th century, with the rise of new technologies such as the sewing machine, global trade, factory production, and department stores, clothing became increasingly mass-produced in standard sizes and sold at fixed prices, ending the era when most clothing was custom-made.

Image source: Ready-to-wear

At the beginning of the 20th century, fashion magazines began to include photographs of various fashion designs. Perhaps the most famous was La Gazette du Bon Ton, founded in 1912 by Lucien Vogel and regularly published until 1925, with the exception of the war years.

Image source: Gazette du Bon Ton

In 2005, the World Intellectual Property Organization held a conference calling for stricter intellectual property enforcement within the fashion industry to better protect small and medium businesses and promote competitiveness within the textile and clothing industries.

Image source: World Intellectual Property Organization

Although the fashion industry developed first in Europe and America, as of 2017 it is an international and highly globalized industry, with clothing often designed in one country, manufactured in another, and sold worldwide. It has long been one of the largest employers in the United States.

In the 19th century, Europeans described China as 'lacking in fashion' among many other things, deliberately placing themselves in a superior position when comparing themselves to China and other Asian countries; this myth was tied to Western imperialism and Orientalism at its height.

Image source: Orientalism

In 1964, the leg-baring mini-skirt was introduced and became a white-hot trend, symbolizing a dramatic shift in modern fashion and youth culture.

Image source: Miniskirt

A few days after the 2010 Fall Fashion Week in New York City came to a close, The New Islander's Fashion Editor Genevieve Tax criticized the fashion industry for running on a seasonal schedule of its own, largely at the expense of real-world consumers.

Image source: New York Fashion Week

Considering the U.S.'s political climate around the 2016 presidential election, during 2017 fashion weeks in London, Milan, New York, Paris and São Paulo amongst others, many designers took political stances leveraging their platforms and influence to reach their customers.

Image source: Fashion week

Continuing on from the maximalist and 1980s influences of the early 2020s, vibrant coloured clothing made a comeback for women in America, France, China, Korea, and Ukraine by the spring of 2023. In 2023, the predominant colors in the United States, Britain, and France were red, white, and blue.

Image source: 2020s in fashion