What impact did fashion have in the first two centuries of its appearance? This volume answers the question by exploring the economic, political, social and cultural values that the phenomenon assumed in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. Through a comparative investigation involving the cities of central-northern Italy, the Kingdom of Naples, Normandy and the kingdoms of the Iberian Peninsula, the essays collected here demonstrate how fashion represents a lens for interpreting late medieval society. The analysis of a rich corpus of documentary sources reveals its pervasiveness, opening new research perspectives on the examination of prices, wages, consumption, innovations, production and commercial dynamics in the textile and leather sectors. Thanks to an original study approach, this volume contributes to enriching the knowledge of phenomena crucial to European economic and social development, revealing the role and values that fabrics, clothing and footwear occupied in people's lives and in the economy of cities.