Open at pl. 28 in ‘Habitus Variarum Orbis Gentium’, Mechelen: Caspar Rutz Costume books first appeared during the sixteenth century, and were widely circulated and collected. This well-known example contains 67 plates, each showing three figures from various levels of society, and depicts the regions across Europe, Asia and Africa. Such images propagated stereotypical (and not always reliable) views of the dress associated with particular areas, but also provided a wealth of source material for artists and designers.