
The habit of people continually changing the style of clothing worn, which is now worldwide, at least among urban populations, is generally held by historians to be a distinctively Western one.[
dubious – 
discuss] At other periods in 
Ancient Rome and other cultures changes in costume occurred, often at times of economic or social change, but then a long period without large changes followed. In 8th century 
Cordoba, 
Spain, 
Ziryab, a famous musician - a star in modern terms - is said to have introduced sophisticated clothing styles based on seasonal and daily timings from his native 
Baghdad and his own inspiration.
English 
caricature of Tippies of 1796
The beginnings of the habit in Europe of continual and increasingly rapid change in styles can be fairly clearly dated to the middle of the 
14th century, to which historians including James Laver and 
Fernand Braudel date the start of Western fashion in clothing.The most dramatic manifestation was a sudden drastic shortening and tightening of the male over-garment, from 
calf-length to barely covering the 
buttocks, sometimes accompanied with stuffing on the chest to look bigger. This created the distinctive Western male outline of a tailored top worn over leggings or trousers which is still with us today.
The pace of change accelerated considerably in the following century, and women and men's fashion, especially in the dressing and adorning of the hair, became equally complex and changing. 
Art historians are therefore able to use fashion in dating images with increasing confidence and precision, often within five years in the case of 15th century images. Initially changes in fashion led to a fragmentation of what had previously been very similar styles of dressing across the upper classes of Europe, and the development of distinctive national styles, which remained very different until a counter-movement in the 17th to 18th centuries imposed similar styles once again, finally those from 
Ancien Régime in 
France.
[4] Though fashion was always led by the rich, the increasing affluence of 
early modern Europe led to the 
bourgeoisie and even 
peasants following trends at a distance sometimes uncomfortably close for the elites - a factor Braudel regards as one of the main motors of changing fashion.
[5]The fashions of the West are generally unparalleled either in antiquity or in the other great civilizations of the world. Early Western travellers, whether to 
Persia, 
Turkey, 
Japan or 
China frequently remark on the absence of changes in fashion there, and observers from these other cultures comment on the unseemly pace of Western fashion, which many felt suggested an instability and lack of order in Western culture. The Japanese 
Shogun's secretary boasted (not completely accurately) to a Spanish visitor in 1609 that 
Japanese clothing had not changed in over a thousand years.
[6] However in 
Ming China, for example, there is considerable evidence for rapidly changing fashions in 
Chinese clothing,
[7]Albrecht Dürer's drawing contrasts a well turned out bourgeoise from 
Nuremberg (left) with her counterpart from 
Venice, in. The Venetian lady's high 
chopines make her taller.
Ten 16th century portraits of 
German or 
Italian gentlemen may show ten entirely different hats, and at this period national differences were at their most pronounced, as 
Albrecht Dürer recorded in his actual or composite contrast of 
Nuremberg and 
Venetian fashions at the close of the 15th century (illustration, right). The "Spanish style" of the end of the century began the move back to synchronicity among upper-class Europeans, and after a struggle in the mid 17th century, French styles decisively took over leadership, a process completed in the 18th century.
[8]Though colors and patterns of textiles changed from year to year,
[9] the cut of a gentleman's coat and the length of his waistcoat, or the pattern to which a lady's dress was cut changed more slowly. Men's fashions largely derived from 
military models, and changes in a European male silhouette are galvanized in theatres of European war, where gentleman officers had opportunities to make notes of foreign styles: an example is the "Steinkirk" 
cravat or 
necktie.
The pace of change picked up in the 1780s with the increased publication of French engravings that showed the latest Paris styles; though there had been distribution of dressed dolls from France as patterns since the 16th century, and 
Abraham Bosse had produced engravings of fashion from the 1620s. By 1800, all 
Western Europeans were dressing alike (or thought they were): local variation became first a sign of provincial culture, and then a badge of the conservative peasant.
[10]Although tailors and dressmakers were no doubt responsible for many innovations before, and the 
textile industry certainly led many trends, the 
history of fashion design is normally taken to date from 1858, when the English-born 
Charles Frederick Worth opened the first true 
haute couture house in Paris. Since then the professional designer has become a progressively more dominant figure, despite the origins of many fashions in street fashion.
Modern 
Westerners have a wide choice available in the selection of their clothes. What a person chooses to wear can reflect that person's 
personality or likes. When people who have cultural 
status start to wear new or different clothes a fashion trend may start. People who like or respect them may start to wear clothes of a similar style.
Fashions may vary considerably within a 
society according to 
age, 
social class, 
generation, 
occupation sexual orientation, and 
geography as well as over time. If, for example, an older person dresses according to the fashion of young people, he or she may look ridiculous in the eyes of both young and older people. The terms "fashionista" or "
fashion victim" refer to someone who slavishly follows the current fashions
One can regard the system of sporting various fashions as a fashion 
language incorporating various fashion statements using a 
grammar of fashion. (Compare some of the work of 
Roland Barthes.)