---
node: fashion_early_modern_italy
type: fashion
slug: early_modern_italy_fashion
title: "Fashion in Early Modern Italy"
lead: "Early modern Italian dress followed first stiff, dark Spanish style and then French-led Baroque and Rococo; the Renaissance lead was lost, but Venice kept its name for luxury textiles and carnival dress."
published: 2026-07-28
updated: 2026-07-28
image_file: early_modern_italy_fashion.jpg
image_source: "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ca%27_Rezzonico_-_La_Polenta_-_Pietro_Longhi.jpg"
image_author: "Pietro Longhi"
image_license: "Public domain"
change: "Created as a fashion sub-page under the history section, with a period image (italy region)"
requester: internal
reason: "Per the owner's decision, fashion lives under each history era"
---

## Overview

Politically divided and often under foreign rule, Italy took its fashion from the Spanish and later the French court.

## Key garments and style

The 16th–17th centuries brought the Spanish ruff and heavy dark dress; the 18th, the lighter French Rococo. Venice remained a maker of silk and lace, and at carnival the white bauta mask and the tabarro cloak were worn as dress.

## Transition

In the 19th century, with the Risorgimento, a new national symbol appeared in dress.