Many people associate fashionable dress with “modern” Western culture and industrialization, but this course examines how fashions have long existed in cultural dialogue across ancient, medieval, and early modern societies.Trade, warfare, colonialism and ceremonial exchange ensured that raw materials, techniques, and dress forms literally traveled the world on our backs. Networks for the circulation, assimilation and representation of fashions forged in these periods still impact the operation of our global fashion system today.