We don't need to be too narrow and only care about the things around us. It's just the little things in life that deserve attention. In other countries, small, everyday, relevant pleasures are rapidly declining, but Italy has become a haven for them. Craftsmanship brings a more personal pleasure, and the attention to this pleasure is in fact part of the aesthetic concept. The interaction between craftsmanship and aesthetics is one of the products of Italian culture. It has been said that culturally we are all children of Italy, and that the country, the people and the culture of Italy have had a profound impact on all of Europe and the world. This influence is reflected in dozens of university courses, thousands of art lectures, and countless books (academic, leisure, and both). From the humanities and arts to science and music, from business, exploration, politics, philosophy and a host of life's little pleasures, Italy is at the heart of everything. And fashion is a kind of personal enjoyment.
Historically, Italy has always had a keen ear for what is going on around it: from France, Germany, Scandinavia and Britain, to Greece, Turkey and even the distant countries of Asia, it is a great bridge between Northern Europe and the Middle East, and a skillful balance between the two. Italy is also sensitive to the tensions surrounding it. As early as the 13th century, in the bustling port of Venice you could see merchant ships from every trading nation in the known world. At the same time, London was a closed medieval town with dark narrow alleys, while Venice, with its ornate palaces, gold-encrusted churches, and wide squares full of sculptures, had grown to a height of prosperity. The Nordic countries built their cities of stone and brick, while the Italians used marble.
Small towns in Florence
Even in the Middle Ages, the Italians had geographical advantages, political influence and wealth. In Europe, they were successful businessmen, bankers, traders - similarly, the Italian fashion industry grew up with them. After the 15th century, silk became a luxury fabric sought after by the nobility of European countries, and the Italians began to produce silk in the Palermo region from 1148. By the 15th century, Italy had developed sophisticated silk and wool production, an international trading network, and a modern banking system. The great commercial wealth of Genoa, Venice, Florence and Milan is proof of this. The Barberis Canonico family, now known as Vitale Barberis Canonico, today Italy's largest wool textile factory has been engaged in textile production since the mid-17th century. As we all know, the garment manufacturing industry originated in the Renaissance, and its development history is inextricably linked with the history of Italy. In fact, cutting and sewing - the two basic processes of garment manufacturing - were developed gradually in the 11th century. The scholar Carole Collier Frick, in his book The Dressmaking Revival in Florence, Family, Wealth, and Fine Dress, notes that "the first recorded appearance of a tailor in Florence is in 1032" and also records the address of the tailor's shop, which is called "Florenti's Tailor's Shop." In Milan, a new type of workshop appeared from 1102, in which weavers, tailors and dyeers worked together. The Oxford English Dictionary dates the first appearance of the word "tailor" to 1297. And the Geneva Bible Village - its notoriously funny translation of part of Genesis 3:7 (" They sewed FIG leaves into little shorts ") - was not published until 1560. At that time, the various ideas of clothing manufacturing had been widely spread throughout Europe.
Fundamentally, clothing manufacturing is a product of humanism: humanism is not concerned with the spiritual life of the afterlife, but with a broad and deep concern for the individual, including the personal life and social activities of the present world. The medieval people focused on living beyond the secular spirit, while the Renaissance people were more concerned with the secular life, 'the difference is clearly reflected in the way the two different periods dressed. Comparing Gothic miniatures with portraits of the 15th century, Giotto di Bondone (1266? -1337) "Mourning Christ" (circa 1305) and Jan Van Eyck's "Portrait of the Arnolfini Couple" (circa 1434) are separated by just over 100 years, but very different. The medieval paintings of people and objects are like those painted in Mourning Christ, wearing heavy robes, and the outline of the body is completely invisible. Renaissance implant portraits, such as Jan van Eyck's Portrait of the Arnolfini Couple, emphasize individuality and physical presence.
