a German accountant, best known for compiling his Klaidungsbüchlein or Trachtenbuch (usually translated as "Book of Clothes"), a book cataloguing the clothing that he wore between 1520 to 1560. The book has been described as "the world's first fashion book". Schwarz was fascinated by clothing, spent a large part of his income on clothes, and documented his appearance and outfits throughout his adult life. He would have needed a servant to enable him to dress. This was from a time in history when it was in recent times generally thought that interest in fashion and sumptuous dressing was for the high ranks of society and aristocracy only, and when sumptuary laws stipulated the dress and jewellery appropriate for a person's social rank and station; Schwarz dressed carefully not to break the law, for example wearing fancy sleeves if fancy hose were forbidden.
