This lecture synthesises the best of  recent research to provide a broad sweeping survey of key changes in English dress and fashion from the medieval period to the end of the nineteenth century. A strong chronological approach is taken, covering the clothing of both men and women. Along with developments in style and construction, the lecture traces the emergence of an organised fashion system within medieval society, the use of fashion as a symbol of wealth and status in the Renaissance and as symbol of political and religious allegiance in the seventeenth century, through to the introduction of new technologies and ranges of clothing in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.