The relative isolation of Brittany into the early twentieth century allowed its regional costumes and certain other aspects of local culture to endure longer there than such traditions did else where in France, though historical and ethnographic accounts of Breton costume have robustly challenged many outsiders' assumptions that there was a timeless Breton traditionalism in dress. Although it would come to be seen as the distinctive marker of Breton cultural continuity, the region's costume was in fact a modem and evolving phenomenon. It bad been the relaxation of sumptuary laws (regulations restricting people from wearing clothing considered above their station) during the late-eighteenth-century French revolutionary period that first allowed rural populations to be more expressive in their dress. They did this by incorporating formerly restricted items, such as silks, ribbons, and lace, into peasant dress that had formerly been fairly uniform across France. Moreover, nineteenth-century mechanization of fabric production made cloth available more cheaply in Brittany, and expanded commerce brought at least the larger Breton towns into contact with styles from Paris. Innovation and even fashion thus shaped the forms of Brittany's purportedly traditional costume, which in fact varied by locality within Brittany. Nevertheless, tourists tended to view Breton costumes as a legible marker of cultural cohesion and continuity.