The course presents a documentary-methodological introduction of historical and social studies, then an articulation of European civilizations from the Enlightenment, to the Revolutions and "Risorgimento", until XX century, with particular attention to the décalage realized during the Modern Age in the Eastern regions of Europe face to Western ones. It is underlined the perspective on costumes and fashion elements, by gender and tied to identity symbols, and on the modern factors that characterize Europe and Western regions of Asia, from the late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth century (as the processes of societies modernization: urbanization, centralization, cultural and linguistic standardization, empowerment of women etc.). With a special attention to the social structures, are studied the characteristics of multinational Empires and nation-States before and after the Great War, the "modernism" in art and culture until the belle époque in the society and in the fashion of the Early Twentieth century.