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Dress Codes and Etiquette, Part 3: The Death of the Dinner Jacket on Open Water
Dining aboard the RMS Caronia, from a 1950s World Cruise brochure. As the sun dips below the ocean’s horizon on a cruise ship, swimsuits and flip-flops give way to the evening’s dictated dress code....
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The Best in Fashion History: Penny Loafers, Forgotten Suitcases and Hermès...
Bass Weejun loafers for Christmas (c. 1960). The Bass Weejun loafer is not named after a Native American tribe. Suitcases sometimes are time capsules. And a postal worker can design high-end scarves....
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Your Guide to Selecting the Best (or Is It Worst?) Ugly Christmas Sweater
Matching mother/daughter candy cane sweaters from Leisure Arts, 1989. Knitting pattern via Etsy. Spending quality time with family, drinking cider by the fire and playing Secret Santa all encourage...
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A History of Sequins from King Tut to the King of Pop
What do Michael Jackson, King Tut and Leonardo da Vinci have in common? A penchant for sequins. At some point between 1480 and 1482, Leonardo whipped together a sketch for a machine that, using levers...
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Why Hypercolor T-Shirts Were Just a One-Hit Wonder
It was 1991: “Roseanne was on TV, Terminator 2 was on the big screen, Color Me Badd was on the radio and Hypercolor t-shirts were on the backs of millions of middle- and high school-age kids across...
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The History of the Flapper, Part 2: Makeup Makes a Bold Entrance
Clara Bow with compact, 1920s. Let us take a look at the young person as she strolls across the lawn of her parents’ suburban home, having just put the car away after driving sixty miles in two hours....
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The Origins of Wearing Your Heart on Your Sleeve
Actress Raquel Torres, by Ruth Harriet Louis, 1920s. Courtesy VintageGal It was during the Roman Empire that St. Valentine is said to have left a note to his jailer’s daughter, “From your Valentine”...
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The History of the Flapper, Part 4: Emboldened by the Bob
Actress Louise Brooks with bob and bee-stung lips, 1920s. On May 1, 1920, the Saturday Evening Post published F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “Bernice Bobs Her Hair,” a short story about a sweet yet socially...
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The Aughts: When People Wore Their Causes on Their Sleeves, Literally
John Kerry at a campaign rally, showing off his wristbands. AP Photo/Gerald Herbert At every stump speech, meet and greet, and town hall gathering during the 2004 presidential campaign, John Kerry...
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The Perils of Wearing Clothes
High, high heels. Courtesy of Wikicommons Last month, Chinese school uniforms made the news. Studies had shown that possibly as many as 25,000 children in Shanghai, China, were wearing mandated...
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A Refreshing Take on Fashion Television: A Q&A with L.A. Frock Stars’ Star...
The Way We Wore team, from left, Jascmeen Bush, Shelly Lyn, owner Doris Raymond, Sarah Bergman, Kyle Blackmon (c) NHNZ If your wardrobe is seriously lacking the next time you have a red carpet event...
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Sagging Pants Butt Up Against the Law
Super low-slung pants. A campaign in Massachusetts is determined to put an end to wearing saggy pants by enforcing a law enacted back in 1784 and amended in 1987. According to Section 16, “Open and...
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‘I Remember’: An Artist’s Chronicle of What We Wore
A fashion spread, Hollywood movie or advertisement usually doesn’t reflect with accuracy what everyday people actually wore at a given time. Historically speaking, to really get a sense of the...
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Where’d You Get Those Creepers?
Typical creepers. In modern slang, a “creeper” is that odd, socially awkward guy you know from the office, dorm, neighborhood, local restaurant. You can also call him a creep. A couple of years ago,...
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The Story Behind the Lacoste Crocodile Shirt
When French tennis players Henri Cochet and René Lacoste met at the net in this undated photo, Lacoste was sporting his signature crocodile on his blazer.© Underwood & Underwood/Corbis Frenchman...
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