What is Fashion in the 15th century?
[[Image:Les Tres Riches Heures du duc de Berry avril detail.jpg|right|thumb|300px|Full-bodied houppelandes with voluminous sleeves worn with elaborate headdresses are characteristic of the earlier 15th century. Detail from ''[[Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry]]''.]] '''Fashion in the 15th century''', in [[Europe]] was characterized by a series of extremes and extravagances, from the voluminous gowns called houppelandes with their sweeping floor-length sleeves to the revealing doublets and hose of [[Renaissance]] [[Italy]]. Hats, hoods, and other headdresses assumed increasing importance, and were swagged, draped, jewelled, and feathered. Full-bodied houppelandes with voluminous sleeves worn with elaborate headdresses are characteristic of the earlier 15th century. As [[Europe]] continued to grow more prosperous, the urban middle classes, skilled workers, began to wear more complex clothes that followed, at a distance, the fashions set by the elites. National variations in clothing seem on the whole to have increased over the century. Wool was the most popular fabric for all classes by far, followed by linen and hemp. Wool fabrics were available in a wide range of qualities, from rough undyed cloth to fine, dense broadcloth with a velvety nap; high-value broadcloth was a backbone of the English economy and was exported throughout [[Europe]]. Wool fabrics were dyed in rich colours, notably reds, greens, golds, and blues, although the actual blue colour achievable with dyeing with woad (and less frequently indigo) could not match the characteristic rich [[lapis lazuli]] pigment blues depicted in contemporary illuminated manuscripts such as the Très Riches Heures du duc de Berry. Silk-weaving was well-established around the Mediterranean by the beginning of the century, and figured silks, often silk velvets with silver-gilt wefts, are increasingly seen in [[Italy|Italian]] dress and in the dress of the rich throughout [[Europe]]. Stately floral designs featuring a pomegranate or artichoke [[motif]] had reached