DID YOU KNOW?

Everyone knows that Coco Chanel invented the little black dress, but did you know that it was Mark Twain who invented the clasp at the back of your bra? It’s true! The man that brought you Huckleberry Finn was the same guy who invented and patented the hook-and-eye fastener for “vests, pantaloons, or other garments requiring straps”. If that little fact took you by surprise, read on, because we’ve got ten more fascinating facts about fashion that you probably didn’t know.

Table Of Content:

Levi Strauss had a very different name for jeans
Eyebrows on fleek
Skirts are an ancient fashion
Denim fact
The first sneakers
Wearing black
British hat
Here’s how much you will spend on clothes in a lifetime
The thong was invented by the Mayor of New York
Men wore high heels before women did
Longest wedding dress
Fashion weeks
High heels
NY fashion week to beat French fashion
Oldest cloth ever dug down

Levi Strauss had a very different name for jeans

The word “jeans” comes from the word “Genes”, which was a word used to describe the sailors of Genoa in Italy, who wore blue denim trousers. When Levi Strauss, however, patented his design for what we now called jeans, he called them “waist-high overalls”. Not quite as catchy as “blue jeans”, is it?

Eyebrows on fleek

Nowadays, any self-respecting fashionista will never leave her house without just the right makeup done. And when we talk about the right makeup, we mean flawless eyebrows. While bushy eyebrows are a trend today, fashionistas during the Renaissance period used to shave them off. Take Mona Lisa for example.

Skirts are an ancient fashion

Although still widely used today, skirts are the second oldest garment in history, predated only by the loincloth. Plus, skirts were not intended only for women. In fact, during 1600 to 1700s, both men and women wore them. You can even wear a bodyshaper under your skirt to look fit.

Denim fact

For over 7,000 years, cotton fabric was used for clothing. For one bale of cotton, 215 pairs of jeans can be made. The word “jeans” came from the cotton pants worn by the “Genes,” a local term used to describe sailors from Genoa. Meanwhile, the word “denim” most likely originated from a French material called serge de Nimes, meaning serge from the French seaside town of Nimes.

The first sneakers

During the late 1800s, people wore shoes with rubber soles called plimsolls, but they were crude. The US Rubber Company came up with more comfortable rubber shoes with canvas tops during 1892 and called it Keds. The shoes were named sneakers because the soles were so smooth that they allow the wearer to sneak around silently. By 1917, the sneakers began to be mass-produced.

The Marquis Converse also produced its first sneaker on the same year and called it Converse All-Stars, a shoe made just for basketball. It was endorsed by basketball superstar named Chuck Taylor, and the shoes became known as Chuck Taylor All-Stars.

Wearing black

During the 19th century, if you wear black and you weren’t mourning for the death of someone, you will be considered dangerously eccentric. The women of the Victorian era were expected to dress in black mourning clothes for two years after their husbands’ deaths, and that started the tradition of wearing black at funerals in the West.

British Hat

The most remarkable item in British fashion is the hat, which they usually wear on formal occasions. It may be odd to see weddings and garden parties in the UK having guests with no hats. Ever wondered why? This fashion tradition started when Queen Elizabeth I mandated a law in 1571 that required anyone over the age of 7 to wear hats on Sundays and holidays. The queen must have loved hats so much that anyone who refused to follow her law would be fined.

Here’s how much you will spend on clothes in a lifetime

If your boyfriend complains that you spend too much on clothes, he could have a point! The average American woman will spend around $125,000 on clothes and buy more than 3,000 individual items. Mind you, if he does moan too much about your spending on fashion, you could point out to him that the cost of clothes has been falling, year after year, since 1992.

The thong was invented by the Mayor of New York

Well, he didn’t actually invent it, because there is evidence of thongs being worn by the tribal people of Southern Africa centuries ago. It was, however, New York Mayor Fiorello Henry La Guardia, who could take the credit for making the thong popular in the modern world. He made the news in 1939 when he demanded that the exotic dancers of New York wear something to keep themselves decent, and they then started wearing tiny panties, or thongs.

Men wore high heels before women did

The high heel wasn’t invented to make the ladies look sexy; it was invented to stop men falling off their horses! History shows that the first high heels were worn by men and they were designed to keep a man’s feet in the stirrups when he was shooting at his foes with a bow and arrow. It wasn’t until much later that high heels became fashion item for women.

Longest wedding dress

Princess Diana walked down the aisle in a royal bridal gown with a 25-foot train in 1981? If you think her dress was outrageously long, a bride from China topped it off with a dress that had a 2 km train behind her. It took her 200 guests three hours to unroll it. It required 18 feet of lace and three miles of taffeta to produce, and it was adorned with 9,999 silk red roses. The gown was designed by a Romanian wedding salon, and they currently hold the Guinness World Record for the longest wedding train.

Fashion Weeks

There are around 40 fashion weeks and 100 official events. The most prominent ones are held in the fashion capitals of the world: Paris, London, New York, Milan and Berlin. The first fashion week started in New York during 1943 to distract the public from French fashion in the World War II.

High heels

High-heeled footwear has been present since the 16th century, but it used to be worn as a status symbol by both men and women. By the 1580s, men started to wear high heels for extra stability in riding horses, as it keeps the foot from slipping in stirrups. During the French Revolution, the trend was stopped to avoid the appearance of wealth.

NY fashion week to beat French fashion

The first official fashion week started in 1943 in New York, Amazingly it was in order to distract the attention away from the French fashion during World War II.

Oldest cloth ever dug down

Researchers have confirmed that a 5,000-year-old linen shirt is the world’s oldest known woven garment ever found. The dress was excavated at Tarkhan, an ancient Egyptian cemetery dating back to about 3,000 B.C