Dressed: The History of Fashion · Dressed Media

Imperio de la Moda: Spain's Empire of Fashion with Laura Beltrán-Rubio, Part II (Dressed Classic)

February 28, 2026·44 min·4 clips

Why did a Spanish-American noblewoman wear two identical watches, defying European fashion norms?

Part two brings Laura Beltrán-Rubio back into the archive frame. The conversation picks up after the earlier pass through Spain's sartorial beginnings in the 16th and 17th centuries, then tightens around 18th-century Spanish American colonial dress in New Granada, especially the Audiencia de Quito, with Peru left as a possible related setting. One garment does a lot of work here. The faldellín is A-shaped, calf- or ankle-length, possibly pleated, and bold enough to unsettle European expectations. Its length is not a decorative detail. For European men in the 18th century, that much visible lower leg could read as scandalous. Beltrán-Rubio does not treat the skirt as a neat colonial oddity. She connects it, carefully, to Spanish at-home dress and the Inca Anacu, a wrapped skirt changed during the colonial period. The episode is strongest when it slows down around hybridity. The hosts let the guest sit with the violence, adaptation, and daily wearing behind hybrid garments. Caroline Dean and Dana Lifeson come up as a path into the philosophical debate for listeners who want the tougher version of the question. It is still Dressed, though: warm, curious, and comfortable with unresolved evidence. The closer shifts back to housekeeping, with notes on the show's fashion history bookshelf, ad-free listening, and more episodes.

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