Abstract
In introducing the concept of self–fashioning, Stephen Greenblatt appealed to the idea of fashion and costume being able to turn the aristocrats of Renaissance England into a work of art. It is easy enough to draw parallels between fashion and self–fashioning when by "fashionable" we mean a type of costume and lifestyle that can become prestigious and popular for some period of time, which can be adopted and then abandoned in favour of a new one, thereby creating a certain public image for oneself. Early modern fashion is associated primarily with the court society. How could an official be fashionable when year after year he was dressed in a plain dark, usually black suit, which was appropriate for a townsman in the second half of the 17th century? This article explores how fashion and men's costume are represented in the diary of Samuel Pepys, a Navy official, who is called a man of fashion, and how, for him, costume could be a tool for shaping his identity.
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