Fashion and Armour in Renaissance Europe

Of all the riches of the sixteenth-century European nobleman, none spoke more powerfully of his heroism, wealth and taste than his armour, clothing and weapons. Drawing on the V&A's popular arms and armour collection, Angus Patterson looks at the suits designed to kill, protect and impress. From parade suits, lavishly embossed and gilded,decorated with plumes of ostrich feathers and draped with colourful silk sashes to swords, daggers, pistols and gunpowder flasks slung from elaborate belts, detailed new photography alongside paintings and sculpture bring medieval and renaissance fashion to life.

Angus Patterson is Curator of European Arms and Armour and Base Metals at the V&A, responsible for collections of armour, weapons, pewter, brass, cutlery, cut steel, Sheffield Plate and electrotypes. He publishes and lectures regularly, and is editor of the Journal of the Antique Metalware Society.