Leonardo da Vinci. Pioneer of fashion and style

In the 1490s, Milan emerged as a protagonist of proto-industrial development in textiles, clothing and accessories, excelling in silk, fine leather and jewellery production. In short, the city became a leader in the luxury sector. The splendour expressed through garments, perfumes, hairstyles and jewellery became synonymous with political power – a language of prestige for the highest social ranks – and sparked fierce competition among the Renaissance courts. The female figure at court assumed unprecedented importance: women began to liberate themselves from a tradition that had long demonised them, becoming instead the ‘fair sex’. The most refined ladies of the time – Caterina de’ Medici, Lucrezia Borgia, Isabella d’Este – acted as patrons of a new aesthetic, shaping ideals of beauty and uniqueness. In this climate of great fervour and innovation, Leonardo da Vinci, in his codices, reveals a lesser-known facet of his genius: that of precursor to the new Italian style. He reimagined the ‘modern’ city of Milan, anticipating the concept of the industrial district through the mechanisation of textile machinery. He designed costumes for court festivals, introduced the celebrated Vincian knots into the decoration of silk brocades, and created new ornaments such as magette (today’s sequins) and bindelli (ribbons sewn onto the sleeves of dresses). He even devised perfumes, wigs, hair dyes and much more. This text, published on the occasion of the 90th anniversary of Istituto Marangoni, invites readers to reflect on the surprising modernity of Leonardo’s work, evident in domains still central to our lives today: fashion, luxury and beauty. Leonardo is not only a universal symbol of Italian genius, but also a forerunner of an integrated, multidisciplinary approach to education. Centuries ahead of his time, he anticipated the founding principles of the afam method: the fusion of art, science and technology, the centrality of the laboratory as a space of experimentation, and the idea of creativity as a continuous, transformative educational process.