---
node: fashion_medieval_italy
type: fashion
slug: medieval_italy_fashion
title: "Fashion in Medieval Italy"
lead: "Medieval Italian dress mixed Byzantine and medieval European styles while the silk-weaving cities rose: Lucca, and later Venice and Florence, became centres of silk."
published: 2026-07-28
updated: 2026-07-28
image_file: medieval_italy_fashion.jpg
image_source: "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ambrogio_Lorenzetti_-_Effects_of_Good_Government_in_the_city_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg"
image_author: "Ambrogio Lorenzetti"
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

Each of the divided city-states had its own dress, and the trading cities handled Eastern silk and dyes.

## Key garments and style

Men and women layered a tunic-like undergarment (the cotta) with a mantle. From the 12th century Lucca, and later Venice and Florence, rose as makers of fine silk that underwrote the cities' wealth and dress, and the communes often passed sumptuary laws.

## Transition

From the late 14th century the courts and silk cities gave rise to the sumptuous dress of the Renaissance.