Women denied agency compensate through extravagant dress.

Evidence

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. — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 731

Categorization

• ADDENDUM: Direct supporting evidence for the immodesty/dress article: Simmel explicitly ties extravagant female dress in 14th-15th c. Germany to the denial of other outlets for individuality — a causal driver of dress as compensation, not mere moral panic.
• SHARE: For someone interested in dress history: the Germany/Italy Renaissance contrast is a neat empirical case where individualism suppressed ornamental fashion.
• XREF: connects to: In the anonymous city, wearing high-status dress could grant assumed rights; Women alter dress to escape the citizen gaze, not male oppression — , Selod, Saher - Forever Suspect_…, 521; Emancipated women signal status through indifference to fashion. — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 731 (+2 more)

Related

• In the anonymous city, wearing high-status dress could grant assumed rights (similarity 0.90)
• Emancipated women signal status through indifference to fashion. (similarity 0.86)
• Women believe dress grants access to both the world and an idealized self (similarity 0.81)

Broader Connections

• Women alter dress to escape the citizen gaze, not male oppression #expands (0.75) — , Selod, Saher - Forever Suspect_…, 521
• Emancipated women signal status through indifference to fashion. #contradicts (0.60) — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 731