impeccable style isn't something you'd necessarily associate with someone who crunches numbers for a living   let alone a man living in 16th century northern europe however, long before kim kardashian turned selfie taking into an art form, german accountant matthaeus schwarz was busy piecing together the world's first fashion book in an incredible project that appears to be unique, style obsessed matthaeus   who was born in augsburg, germany, in 1497   commissioned 137 watercolour paintings of himself over a 40 year period scroll down for video  matthaeus schwartz commissioned pictures of his flamboyant outfits over a 40 year period from the 1520s  the german accountant kept a note of when he wore each look   just as today's bloggers do  fascinated by clothes, the flamboyant dresser began recording his appearance on parchment paper in 1520, during a time when strict laws governed the kinds of fabrics each social rank and station could wear he initially commissioned 35 images to document his sartorial choices from childhood up to his early 20s but ended up with 101 more pictures the extraordinary undertaking ended up spanning over 40 years and only ceased when matthaeus reached the age of 63 as no other pictorial record like this exists, historians believe matthaeus created the first ever fashion tome   similar to 21st century online blogs unlike today's fashion bloggers, matthaeus, who spent a large part of his income on clothing, didn't have instagram filters and photoshop to rely on he opted for surprisingly elaborate outfits which were an example of cutting edge fashion of the time and used his clothes to make a political statement he bound all his outfit paintings into a volume called the book of clothes  he boldly combined patterns, colours and decoration in a variety outfits in a unique lifetime project  matthaeus, who was born in 1497, is now regarded as the first fashion blogger  matthaeus donned a red and yellow outfit (echoing the colours of the holy roman emperor’s flag) when charles v returned to germany, as a show of his allegiance to catholicism after amassing an extensive collection of paintings, the fashion innovator had the pages bound and made into the ultimate vanity project, a volume titled book of clothes among the portraits are pictures of him  in festive clothing for the emperor maximilian i's visit to augsburg in 1518, dressed up for a rich banker's wedding in 1527, and in mourning garb for his father's death in 1519 he added comments to each of the images explaining when the outfit was worn along with his latin motto omne quare suum quiam   every because has a why now the tome has inspired a new set of photographs of fictional male dandies by artist and photographer maisie broadhead maisie, alongside her fashion designer sister bella newell and professor ulinka rublack, has created five modern photographic recreations   printed to large scale   telling the fictional story of matthew smith, a young man from north london, who is obsessed with clothes the modern photographs are based upon images commissioned between 1520 and 1560 by matthaeus a young man's progress is a free exhibition held at the fitzwilliam museum in cambridge it runs from tuesday 24 march until sunday 6 september artist maisie broadhead was inspired by matthaeus schwarz's life work to create a series of pictures portraying a modern dandy for an exhibition called a young man's progress  some of the illustrations captured matthaeus in everyday activities, like opening a door  matthaeus combined different coloured stripes, yellow stockings and a voluminous coat in this look 
matthaeus schwarz germany book of clothes cambridge
style obsessed matthaeus schwarz was born in germany in 1497 . he commissioned 137 watercolour paintings of his outfits over 40 years . his book of clothes is believed to be the first ever fashion tome . the images have provided inspiration for a new exhibition in cambridge 