The Emperor's new clothes: Sericulture, silk trade, and sartorial exchange along the Silk Road prior to the First Crusade.

摘要

The Silk Road was a conduit for trade, the transmission of weaving technology, and the translation of fashion for thousands of years. Sericulture began prior to 2500 BCE in China. Over many centuries the silk worm and silk production spread west. Silk was a valuable commodity throughout Eurasia, Its rarity in the west made silk a potent symbol of wealth and power.;Silk clothing was exchanged via trade, diplomacy, and as the spoils of war. This exchange resulted in a loosely homogenous elite clothing style that developed throughout Eurasia by the sixth-century CE. Clothing did vary between regions, cultures, and time periods. The differing details of the elite clothing style, however, identified the wearers with their respective cultures and as upper class.