Facts From Fashion History

Fashion industry has a lot of secrets we don’t know. Here are just 10 of those. Some are funny, others are simply interesting.

1. Everyone has seen buttons on sleeves of jackets but few people know that it was Napoleon Bonaparte who introduced this idea. He ordered his tailors to sew buttons to sleeves so that soldiers didn’t mop their running noses using sleeves.

2. Kids’ fashion now is as important as women’s or men’s one because every mother wants her child to look beautiful and trendy. But did you know that kids’ fashion was first started only around 200 years ago? Before that happened children had had to wear the smaller copies of men’s and women’s designs.

3. Up to the 19th century there were no models, and designers had to use little dolls to demonstrate their creations to customers. It was a good idea because designers didn’t have to spend a lot of money for runway shows and little fabric was necessary to make those garments.

4. Many celebrity men wear beards now (Robert Pattinson, Brad Pitt, George Clooney, etc.). However, if they had lived in Russia when Peter the Great was the tsar they would have paid a special tax for their beards. This tax was introduced to make Russian men shave their beards and look in a more European way.

5. Modern tanga and thong were first made in New York by order of mayor Fiorello Henry La Guardia. The mayor felt outraged when saw that dancers performed without underwear and ordered to sew tiny panties for them to cover the nudity.



6. Hand-made items are considered very fashionable and valuable now because these are absolutely excusive. But up to 1850 70% of people used to make clothing for themselves. Fashion was not important, comfort was what mattered.

7. Modern women can’t live without jewelry. But it was men who started wearing jewelry in the first place to demonstrate their social status.

8. Short haircuts are pretty ordinary nowadays and no one gets surprised when a girl with short hair passes him by. Nevertheless, it hasn’t been always like this. Some time ago only unfaithful wives used to wear short hair. The hair was cut short to mark the stamp of infamy.

9. You might have noticed that being pregnant is very popular in Hollywood now. (Miranda Kerr, Doutzen Kroes, Kelly Preston, Christina Applegate, etc.) However, this trend is not new actually. In the 15th century pregnancy was so fashionable that girls who didn’t expect babies used to put small pillows under their clothing to create the illusion of baby-bumps.

10. Today natural bushy eye brows are in vogue, but during the Renaissance period fashionistas used to shave their brows off. A good example of this trend is Mona Lisa picture.