During the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries Germany exhibits an unusually strong development of individuality. Great inroads were made upon the collectivistic regulations of the Middle Ages by the freedom of the individual. Woman, however, took no part in this individualistic development: the freedom of personal action and self-improvement were still denied her. She sought redress by adopting the most extravagant and hypertrophic styles in dress. On the other hand, in Italy during the same epoch woman was given full play for the exercise of individuality. The woman of the Renaissance possessed opportunities of culture, of external activity, of personal differentiation such as were not offered her for many centuries thereafter. In the upper classes of society, especially, education and freedom of action were almost identical for both sexes. It is not astonishing, therefore, that no particularly extravagant Italian female fashions should have come down to us from that period. The need of exercising individuality in this field was absent, because the tendency embodied therein found sufficient vent in other spheres.

XREF: Connects to compensatory psychology and theories of fashion as social expression, contrasting German vs Italian contexts.

XREF: This connects to theories of conspicuous consumption and fashion-as-compensation, echoing Veblen's work on dress. QUESTION: Does this claim hold across other eras and cultures, or is it specific to late-medieval Europe?

Georg Simmel, on individuality and social…, loc. 731