This course takes a serious look at clothing, exploring fashion as both a philosophical concept and a global industry that expanded significantly during the early modern period (the 15th to 18th centuries), shaping the world as we know it. Led by a former Vogue journalist and consultant to several top fashion brands, the course consists of eight lectures examining the evolution of clothing from the Middle Ages—when innovations like buttons, pockets, and spectacles were introduced—to the rise of fashion designers in the early 20th century and the brands of today.

The course delves into how clothing communicates and challenges ideas of social distinction and how it has transformed urban environments. Special emphasis is placed on the often overlooked relationship between fashion, wars, and other geopolitical upheavals. It is impossible, for instance, to understand the success of Christian Dior’s sumptuous fashion in 1947 without recalling the rationing of World War II. And many scholars have identified the birth of Western fashion in the plague of 1348, which killed a third of Europe’s population and transformed the continent’s economy for good. The course argues that such disasters provide the essential ground zero for narratives of change, which are fundamental to fashion's perpetual reinvention.