BEING “in”, being “cool”, being respectable, staying young, becoming adult.

The impression we make on the world is, to a large extent, dictated by the way we look and the way we dress, and this was just as true 400 or 500 years ago as it is now.

Image was big business then – it is worth £21bn to the British economy now – and people rushed to dress up once medieval restrictions were lifted.

Merchants were quick to respond to the demand from rich and poor alike and supplied not just the clothes but also the indispensable accessories such as hats, bags, gloves and hairpieces.

It all sounds so frivolous in the context of history, but just remember how most people define the Cavaliers and Roundheads during the English Civil War, or more recently how mods and rockers defined themselves in the Seventies, or how the meaning of the word “anorak” has changed over the last decade or so.

Rublack’s original take on the role and importance of dressing up is bound to irritate conventional historians, but she really does seem to show that clothes do really make the man, and explains why.