Chronography of Clothing and Cosmetics
Page last
modified 24 September 2023
Fashion
is an illusion created by a minority elite to suppress, depress and undress the
lemmings.
For dyes see Chemistry
Sewing
machine � see Appendix below
Hair
and beards � see Appendix below
Shoes,
foowear � see Appendix below
29 December 2022, Dame Vivienne
Westwood, fashion designer, died aged 81.
1/2008, Queen Elizabeth
II of Britain supported the banning of miniskirts and bare midriffs
at Ascot, to �maintain standards�.
7 May 2007, Isabella Blow, fashion magazine
editor, died (born 19 November 1958)
7 April 2006, Helen Barbara Kruger, clothes
designer, died (born 29 July 1913)
14 March 2005, Janet Reger, lingerie designer,
died (born 30 September 1935).
24 April 2004, Estee Lauder, cosmetics
manufacturer, died.
15 June 2000. The clothes retailer C & A announced it was closing all
its stores and making its 4,800 staff redundant.
15 July 1997, Gianni Versace,
clothes designer, was shot dead at the age of 50. The chief suspect was Andrew Cunanan,
a gay serial killer; the FBI beleived Versace was shot in revenge for infecting
other men with HIV. Cunanan was found dead on a houseboat at Miami
Beach, having committed suicide when the police arrived. However there were
rumours of a mafia money-laundering connection, and that Cunanan had been killed to hide
the true killer�s identity.
22 June 1993, Hannah Troy,
fashion designer, died.
29 April 1991. Marks and Spencer announced 850 job losses
in the first redundancy programme since the 1950s.
1987, The first Sock
Shop opened in the UK. The chain was founded by Sophie Mirman (born 1956)
1987, The cosmetic potential of Botox was discovered. Botox was initially
developed by Dr
Edward Schantz in 1946 for use in biological warfare; it is one of
the most potent toxins known; it blocks the transmission of nerve signals to
muscles, causing deadly paralysis. In the 1980s in Canada a patient was being treated with
Botox by Dr
Jean Carruthers for blepharospasm, the excessive blinking of the
eyes, and the patient requested ongoing treatment after the symptoms had
subsided. In 1987 she reported that she had ceaded to frown, her facial
wrinkles had disappeared. The Carruthers then started on working on Botox as
a cosmetic treatment.
1986, Skin creams containing oil
extracted from jojoba (a desert
shrub from the Mexico-US border area) became popular.
17
September 1985, Fashion designer Laura Ashley died after falling downstairs at
her home.
1983, London Fashion Week, held twice a year,
started.
1975, Female fashions were changing
more rapidly, spurred by heavy advertising campaigns which rapidly changed what
was the latest trend. This year flared trousers, hotpants, platform soles and
punk were in fashion. Women�s trouser suits were back, after a brief appearance
around 1939.
Punk
clothes were promoted by the punk music industry. Men grew their hair longer
and �unisex� fashion was promoted. Nudity was also promoted, by shows like Hair and O Calcutta, and �page three girls� in The Sun newspaper.
16 January 1974, Kate Moss,
British model, was born.
1973, British fashion now included flared
trousers and platform shoes.
24 March 1972, Cristobal
Balenciaga, Spanish fashion designer, died in Valencia, Spain.
1971, Hotpants were the current fashion; very short trousers, leg barely
extending below the crotch. The earlier midi-skirt,
calf-length, was a fashion flop and cost the clothing industry considerable
sums in unsold garments.
10 January 1971. Coco Chanel,
French
fashion designer and one of the most influential couturiers of the twentieth
century, died aged 87.
1970, Man-made fabrics increased their share of the US clothing market,
taking 56% against 28% in 1860. In 1970, polyester took 41% against 40% for
cotton (cotton was 65% in 1960).
25 August 1970, Claudia
Schiffer, fashion model, was born.
25 January 1970. Mary Crosby,
inventor of the bra, died in Rome aged 77.
17 March 1969, Alexander
McQueen, fashion designer, was born
1967, The first Laura Ashley shop opened in London (first Laura Ashley shop opened
1953). By 1990 the chain had grown to nearly 500 stores worldwide.
Meanwhile Twiggy
popularised a �waif� boyish type look, her skinny legs accentuated by her
mini-skirt.
26 May 1967, Philip Treacy,
fashion designer, was born
15 April 1966, Time Magazine declared London �the city of the
decade�, for its fashion, and
opportunities for young people.
1966, The Scott Paper Towel Company
tried ti market paper dresses, as disposable clothing that cost just $1. They
sold half a million, but they tore, the colours ran in the rain,they could catch
fire. Despite never requiring washing, the fashion faded almost as quickly as
the colours. Predictions that by 1980 25% of clothing would be made of
disposable paper were never realised.
1960s radicalism; the mini-skirt
1966, The fashion career of �Twiggy� began with a full page
photograph of her in the Daily Express. Born 1949, as Lesley Hornby, she met her
boyfriend and stage manager Johnny Davies (stagename Justin de Villeneuve). He called
her, because she was very thin, Sticks, then Twigs, and finally Twiggy.
See 1967. She began a second career in cniame and TV after acting, in 1971, in
the film The Boyfriend. In 1988 she
married Leigh
Lawson and has performed since then as Twiggy Lawson.
23 September 1966.Mr Joe Kagan,
raincoat maker to Mr Harold Wilson, suggested that by the 1980s
men would be wearing something like a mini skirt
with a toga over it in cold weather. Jean Paul Gaultier also attempted to introduce
mini-skirts
for men in the 1990s.
1965, In London, Carnaby Street and the Kings Road were
now established fashion centres.
5 November 1965, The
current fashion for mini-skirts caused new Customs rules. Women had
been buying children�s clothes to avoid taxes.
1964, The mini-skirt was first exhibited at a fashion show
in Paris. By 1965 it had reached London. Originally 6 inches above the knee, it
subsequently became even shorter. The garment was also promoted by Andre Courreges
(born 1923).
21 August 1964, In London,
three women were found guilty of indecency for wearing �topless� dresses.
1960, Mary Quant (born 1934) popularised the
mini-skirt when she started selling them in her shop in the Kings Road,
Chelsea, London. By 1966 the fashion had caught on.
1959, The Mayor of Benidorm, Pedro Zaragoza Orts was excommunicated
by the local archbishop after he signed an order permitting the wearing of
bikinis on the city�s beaches.
11 February 1934, Mary Quant,
English fashion designer who invented the mini-skirt, was born in Blackheath,
London.
10 May 1965, Linda Evangelista,
Canadian fashion model, was born.
1964, Automated dry cleaning came to the UK.
1963, Brut aftershave for men was introduced, and was very successful. It
fared better than a competitor product, Pub
Cologne for Men, sold in a rum-barrel-shaped bottle, with the
tagline �Pub Cologne for Men Uncorks the Lusty Life�.
8 February 1963, The
Beatles were asked to leave the Carlisle Golf Club because they were wearing
leather jackets.
1962, The first silicone breast implants were carried out in the USA.
1960, Lycra was first produced commercially, for swimwear. Developed by
Du Pont in 1959, it was used for swimwear, being stretchy and clingy.
1959, The tumble drier machine appeared in the UK.
16 August 1959, Helen Storey,
fashion designer, was born.
19 November
1958, Isabella Blow, fashion magazine editor, was
born (died 7 May 2007)
30 January 1958, Yves St Laurent
held his first Paris fashion show, aged 22. He was apprenticed to Christian Dior
at 18 and when Dior
died in 1959 he became head designer of the Dior fashion house.
Emphasis on slimness
1957, Women such as Marilyn Monroe and Jane Russell bega to popularise
the �hourglass� figure for women,
with a small waist and fuller bust. However this required slimness, and women�s
vigorous exercise was seen as �unladylike�. So alternative methods of achieving
this look included corsets and padded bras, also slimming pills, which might
prove to be addictive.
1955, Mary Quant opened a clothes shop
in Chelsea, London.
August 1955, Tight denim jeans were
fashionable in North America and western Europe.
19 September 1949, �Twiggy�, British model, actress, and singer,
was born in Neasden, London, as Lesley Hornby.
1957, The first twin-tub washing
machine was produced.
24 October 1957, Christian Dior,
French fashion designer and
creator of �New Look�, died.
2 August 1955, Velcro
was patented by the Swiss inventor, George de Mestral. Inspired by
the way burs attached to clothes, its name derived from a combination of velour
(velvet) and crochet (hook).
25 July 1955, Iman,
supermodel, was born.
8 November 1953, Rifat Ozbek,
fashion designer, was born,
13 July 1953, Jo Jo Laine
(Joanne
Patri), model, was born (died 29 October 2006)
1952, Acrilan, a synthetic fibre discovered in the 1940s, began to be
used for clothing manufacture.
13 August 1952, Marie Helvin,
model, was born.
8 June 1952, Lindka Clerach,
fashion designer, was born
24 April 1952, JeanPaul
Gaultier, fashion designer, was born.
9 November 1950, ICI
announced its to build a factory at Redcar to manufacture a new fabric, Terylene.
14 July 1950, Bruce Oldfield,
fashion designer, was born.
25 April 1950, First
fashion display by Christian Dior in London.
See Science and Technology for the
plastics inventions of the 1930s and 40s which made new fashions, cosmetics and
clothes possible in the 1950s and 60s.
1 November 1949, Gerald Ratner, jewellery businessman, was born.
24 June 1949, Betty Jackson, fashion designer, was born.
1947, False �eyelash strips�
were first used in movies to enhance the looks of stars such as Elizabeth Taylor and Sophie Loren. Female
moviegoers soon demanded a version for themselves, which was marketed in the
1950s under the name �Eyelure�. From here false
long fingernails were also invented so working women could have short nails
during the day but adopt the elegantly long nails of wealthy (non-working)
women in the evening.
1 December 1947, Samuel Courtauld, silk and nylon manufacturer,
and patron of the arts, died in London.
25 September 1947, Cheryl Tiegs, US fashion designer, was born in Breckenridge, Minnesota.
29 June 1946, Egon� von Fustenberg, fashion designer, was born.
18 November
1945, Dr W N Leek, in Cheshire, claimed that the
falling UK birth-rate was due to people
wearing pyjamas in bed instead of nightshirts.
11 February
1943, Mary Quant, Welsh fashion designer, was boirn.
1942, The US Navy issued specifications
for a new type of undershort, called the �T-shirt�,
made of white cotton with a round neck and short sleeves at right angles to the
body making a �T�. The new garment, eminently suited to bearing printed slogans
or symbols, began to be worn as a shirt on its own by the end of World War Two.
1941, In Switzerland, Velcro was patented
by George de
Mestrel. He returned home from a walk to find burrs stuck to his
clothing. Examining them under the microscope he saw tiny hools, and sought to
improve on zips that were prone to jamming. The name Velcro comes from velours
croche, French for hooked velvet. Commercial manufacturing of Velcro began in
1952.
20 February 1939. The first
washing machine went on show in London at the British Industries Fair.
1938, British women began to wear colourful �turbans� on their
heads, inspired by visits to the UK for the coronation of King George VI by Indian
Maharajahs.
30 August 1938, Max Factor,
cosmetics entrepreneur, died.
18 August 1904, Max
Factor, cosmetics entrepreneur, was born.
1 August 1936. French
designer Yves
St Laurent was born in Oran, Algeria.
Emphasis on figure shape for women
1947, Christian Dior introduced the post War �New
Look�. The female form was exaggerated, with tiny waists and full skirts and
bust. Skirts became longer than in wartime years. This replaced the wartime look,
a more masculine style of softly curved shapes and roundedshoulders with
midicalf skirts.� The �New Look�
unashamedly used large quantities of material, and was a reaction against
wartime austerity. The UK Government appealed for women not to adopt the New
Look, as post-War shortages still prevailed, but many women ignored this plea.
12/1946, Nylon stockings went on sale in London, the first nylon product commercially manufactured
in theb UK
5 July 1946. The
bikini was officially invented by French engineer Louis Reard. �It is a two-piece
bathing suit that reveals everything about a girl except her mother�s maiden
name�,� said the Americans about the
bikini. Two months earlier the French designer Jacques Heim had created the
Atome, another two-piece bathing suit, so Louis Reard was inspired to create an even
smaller bathing suit. Reard knew he had created an explosive item,
so he called it the bikini, as the US military exploded an atom bomb on the
south Pacific island of Bikini atoll. No Parisian model would wear the bikini
at the time as it was considered indecent, but Reard hired a nude dancer, Micheline
Bernardini, to wear it at his presentation. The bikini was banned in
several Catholic countries such as Spain and Italy, but Reard kept promoting the garment,
insisting it was not a real bikini unless �it could be pulled through a wedding
ring�. In the 1950s Brigitte Bardot helped promote the bikini and
by the 1970s it was more or less accepted in most countries.
3 February 1946, The
Hosiery Designers of America chose actress Jane Russell�s legs as the �perfect pair�.
27 October 1938, DuPont
announced that its new synthetic fibre was to be called nylon
29 April 1937, American
chemist Wallace
Hume Carothers committed suicide just two months after he patented
nylon.
16 February 1937. Nylon was patented by the American
chemical company E.I.Du Pont, having been developed under the direction of Dr
Carothers. The material was first produced in Britain in Coventry on 23 January
1941. It was used for military needs only, mainly for parachute fabric; nylon stockings were made from December
1946.
23 January 1941, Nylon was first produced in Britain, at Coventry.
15 May 1940. Nylon stockings went on sale for the
first time, in America. In New York alone, 72,000 pairs were sold in the first
eight hours. The name was reputedly inspired by the cities with the greatest
fashion potential for this new product � New York and London. Rising hemlines
from the 1920s had created a need for some sort of covering to smooth out colour
imperfections and bumps on women�s legs, now exposed for the first time in
centuries.
1939, Cup sizing for brassieres was introduced by Leona Gross Lax,
US clothing designer.
1936, The term �curvaceous�
was first used, in the USA, for woman having a shapely, voluptuous, figure.
1925, The �girdle�,
and other �foundation garments�
(1927) were beoing worn by women to support and enhance the figure. These
garments wree abandoned from the 1970s.
22 January 1936, The
patent was granted for the first modern rucksack, in which the metal frame was
incorporated in the material rather than being external.
30
September 1935, Janet Reger, lingerie designer, was born (died
14 March 2005).
11 July 1934, Giorgio Armani,
fashion designer, was born.
16 May 1934, Officials at Wimbledon first allowed women
competitors to wear shorts.
1933, The term �body odour�, denoting the unpleasant smell of stale sweat, was
first promoted by soap and deodorant manufacturers. In previous times, body
odour or BO was much more tolerated, or even scarcely noticed.
1933, In Britain, ICI (Imperial Chemical
Industries) made the first commercially-produced synthetic detergent.
1932, The so-called �coat shirt� was
introduced to the UK by Cecil Gee (whose first clothes shop opened on London�s
Commercial Road in 1929). It was a shirt that buttoned all the way down and so
could be put on �like a coat� and buttoned up the front. Previously men�s
shirts had a neck opening and had to be passed over the neck, the so-called
�dress shirt�. This made the shirt prone to tearing and the collar had to be
separately attaehcd with studs. The coat shirt was meant to appeal to the East
End working classes of London who could not be bothered with attaching a
separate collar. There was a brief revival of dress shirts, so-called �grandad
shirts�, with no collar, in the 1980s.
1930, It was now socially acceptable
for women to wear trousers when playing golf or riding a horse. This fashion
soon spread to more everyday women�s wear.
20 February
1927, French fashion designer Hubert Taffin de Givenchy was
born.
1925, Coco Chanel, fashion designer,
appeared with a suntan, challenging previous notions that a lily-white skin was
the height of sophistication. This created a demand for suntan oils, and in
1936 L�Oreal began marketing the
first mass-market sun lotion, called Ambre
Solaire.
7 September
1925. Laura Ashley, clothes designer, was born (died
1985).
8 April 1925. Italian Catholic
bishops banned scantily clad or bare legged women from churches.
20 February
1924, Gloria Vanderbilt, clothing designer and
entrepreneur, was born.
1923, The word �zip� (see 1851) was
coined by the US company BF Goodrich, who launched a range of zip-fastening
galoshes in 1932. They wanted an �action word� that would dramatise their product.
1922, Mustafa Kemal (Ataturk) banned
the Fez hat in Turkey as he westernised the
country.
7 July 1922, Pierre Cardin,
fashion designer, was born.
22 May 1921. The US city of
Chicago planned to fine women for
wearing short skirts and exposed arms.
5 May 1921, Coco
Chanel�s Chanel no. 5 Perfume was launched.
1920, Western women�s clothing fashions
were now very different from 12 years ago, see 1908. World War One and the
entry of women into many areas of paid work had produeced a much simpler less
frilly style. Skirts became shorter as more practical, and the dress was now
tubular, with much less enhancement of bust and hips.
1920, Plus-fours, men�s baggy knickerbockers gathered below the kness,
were in fashion. The term referred to the extra four inches of material needed
to make them overhang the knees.
1920, Wristwatches, once seen as effeminate, were now acceptable for men
after their use by soldiers in the trenches of World war One.
1919, The zip fastener was marketed commercially by the Kynoch Company in
Birmingham, UK, as the �Ready Fastener�.
1916, The Liberty Bodice, a vest-like undergarment for women and children
that buttoned up the front, appeared. It remained in use until the 1970s, but
was seen as very old-fashioned by then.
1916, False eyelashes were invented by US film director DW Griffith
for his 1916 film, Intolerance. The
film was� critically acclaimed, but was a
financial failure, however the eyelashes caugh on. Also around this time, nail
polish and bright red lipstick began to be employed by Hollywood for
glamourising its actresses, creating new fashions in the wider world.
1915, Lipstick appeared in its current form of a solid crayon inside a
sliding tube. Althougn women, and men, had been colouring their lips with
various dyes for thousands of years, and solid lipstick crayons had been o the
market since around 1900, this version was much more convenient. Women were now
entering the workforce and had their own earnings, and could afford
small treats for themselves.
The modern cosmetics age begins
________________________________________________________________________________________
20 November
1914, Emilio Pucci, Italian fashion designer, was born in
Naples, Italy.
13 November
1914. The brassiere
was patented in the USA by heiress Mary Phelps Jacob. Her original prototype
consisted of two handkerchiefs knotted together.
4 November 1914. At the Ritz-Carlton hotel, New York, Edna Chase of Vogue magazine organised the first
catwalk fashion show.
27 August 1914, Gideon Sundback
filed a patent for the zip fastener
15 July 1913. In Richmond Park, near London, a woman was arrested for wearing a
split skirt. This was a new fashion at the time.
29 April 1913, The
improved version of the zip fastener,
as we have it today, was patented by a Swedish engineer, Gideon Sundback, from New
Jersey.
29 July 1913, Helen Barbara
Kruger, clothes designer, was born (died 7 April 2006)
9 March 1913, Andre Courreges,
French couturier who invented the mini skirt in 1964, was born.
11
September 1912, The Barbour Clothing
Company, making waterproof clothing, was founded.
23 July 1912,
In the USA,
the �Modesty League� protested against
tight dresses.
1910, The terms
�beauty parlour� and �beauty culture� were coming into
everyday use.
1910, Rayon stockings for women
became available in Germany.
Washing
machines and washing powders
27
May 1909, The first electric washing machine, the Thor was
patented by Alva
Fisher for the Hurley Washing Machine Company.
1907, The first electric washing
machine was produced; the Thor,
designed by Alva J Fisher of the USA.
6 June 1907 The first
clothes washing powder was launched in Dusseldorf, Germany. It was called
Persil, from two of its active ingredients, perborate and silicate.
1908, Western
female clothing narrowed the waist and accentuated the bosom and bottom or
hips. Atheltic women, more muscular and �manly�, with less-accentuated female
child-bearing features, were frowned upon by many men. Pale skin was also
valued (as it meant the woman did not have to work out in the fields), without
cosmetics, so she had to stay out of the sun or carry a parasol. A plump
well-fed look was also preferred, as it showed the woman was healthy and not to
poor to be able to eat well. See 1920.
1908, In the US, electric irons
went on sale.
1906, The first Panama Hat to be so-named was worn by US President
Roosevelt during a tour of the Panama Canal.
29 July 1906, Diana
Vreeland, fashion editor, was born.
1905, Rayon, or artificial silk, was
first produced commercially by Courtaulds of England. Samuel Courtauld bought the
rights to produce rayon in the USA, where commercial production began in 1911.
By 1913, production of rayon stood at 1,400 tonnes annually.
21 January 1904,
Christian
Dior, French fashion designer, was born.
8 January 1904,
Pope Pius X
banned women from wearing low-cut dresses in the presence of Church
dignitaries.
30 September 1902. Rayon, or artificial silk, was
patented by Samuel
Slocum.
5 January 1902, Helena
Rubenstein established the
world�s first �beauty salon� in Melbourne, Australia. Born in Cracow
Poland, around 1870,Ms Rubenstein was the eldest of 8 children; when she moved
to Australia in 1894, possibly to escape an arranged marriage desired by her
father. Here she marketed a cream that allegedly cured everything from warts to
double chins, as well as poor skin; her salon even had an �operating theatre�.
The business boomed, and she went on to market her product in London and Paris,
and then when World War One broke out she moved to New York. She died in 1964,
her estate worth an estimated US$ 60 million.
The Age of artificial fabrics began
3
December 1901. King Camp Gillette
(1855-1932) patented his first safety
razor.
14
November 1901, Aquascutum Ltd
was incorporated. The name means n�water-shield� in Latin, and the origins of
the company lie back in the 1850s, when waterproofing methods for clothes were
being developed. The company produced trench coats for officers in the First World War.
7 July 1900, Austin
Reed, formal and business shirt shop, opened at 167 Fenchurch Street, London.
10
September 1896, Elsa Schiaparelli, sportswear designer, was
born in Rome.
1893, The trade name Viyella was registered by the Hollins
family, owner of a mill near Matlock, Derbyshire. It was named after the mill,
�Via Gelia�. Viyella was a blend of 55% Merino wool and 45% long staple cotton.
1892, The gymslip was invented
by Margaret Tait, a student at the Hampstead Physical Training College. It was
a short dress that permitted girls to compete in team games.
1886, The California Perfume
Company was founded (based in New York) by David McConnell. In 1939 he renamed the
company Avon Products after the town of his favourite playwright, William
Shakespeare. It became famous through the slogan �Avon calling�.
1884, The
first Marks and Spencer�s outlet opened, in Kirkgate Market, Leeds.
19 August 1883, �Coco� Chanel, French fashion designer, was born near Issoire as Gabrielle Chanel.
1881, The Rational Dress
Society weas founded. It promoted clothing for women that �followed, not
contradicted, the lines of the body� and stated that female clothing should
promote, not impede, mobility and action. See Women�s Rights.
1875, Men swimming in the sea from British beaches, who had
previously swum naked, were now expected to wear bathing costumes.
Levi Strauss Jeans
26 September 1902, Levi Strauss, US manufacturer of denim jeans, died aged 73 (born
1829)
1874, Levis began
using copper rivets on jeans. Levi-brand
jeans became a fashion item in the 20th century.
20 May 1873, A tailor, Jacob Davis from Nevada, had been experimenting with
reinforcing miners� denim trousers with rivets in order to improve their
durability, which was a major problem at the time. He was afraid someone would
steal his idea but could not afford the US$ 658 cost of a patent so he
approached Levi Strauss, a migrant from Germany who operated a clothes store
in San Francisco used by Davis, and they appliefd for a patent together. Ths day they were granted US
patent no. 139,121, for their jeans. In 1891 the patent expired, and many
others copied the idea of jeans with rivets.
1853, A Bavarian
migrant called Levi Strauss arrived in the
US, and set up a clothing company to make heavy duty clothing for the miners
digging in the California
Gold Rush. His trousers were first made from tent canvas.� He added copper rivets to the jeans in 1873.
26 February 1829, Levi Strauss, clothes maker, was born
1872, The first Alice Band was named after Alice, main character
in Lewis Carroll�s Through The Looking
Glass.
1865, The first rubber Wellington
boots were made. They were named after a type of riding boot named after
Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington.
1863, Charles Baudelaire, poet, (1821 � 1867) promoted the idea, in his book The Painter of Modern Life, promoted the idea that women, however
naturally beautiful, could always enhance their appearance further through the
use of cosmetics. Nature could be �surpassed� through the use of black
eyeliner, or rouge on the cheeks.
1860, Artificial dyes now made clothes brighter-coloured. See
Chemistry for more on dyes.
1858, English dress-maker Charles Worth opened a fashion house in Paris, on the Rue de la Paix.
1856, The Burberry raincoat was introduced by
English tailor Thomas Burberry of Basingstoke.
31 December 1859, US cotton
production, mostly grown in the South, was 5.4 million bales in 1859, up from
just 171,000 bales in 1810.
5 January
1855, King Camp Gillette, American inventor of the safety razor, was born in Fond du Lac,
Wisconsin.
1851, The first bloomers
were made commercially, see Women�s Rights. As more women took up cycling
in the 1890s, they wore bloomers as being more practical for this pursuit.
1851, In the USA, Elias Howe,
inventor of the sewing machine, patented an early zip or �continuous clothing closure�, but he did not exploit it
commercially. See 1913, 1923.
Origins of the male suit
1963, The Brittannica 1963 Yearbook stated that men�s clothing evolves slowly. Sportswear
becomes informal daywear which then becomes formal daywear and then eveningwear
[and finally�sevrant�s (waiter�s) costume�]. Hence the lounge suit of the 1890s
derived from earlier �country tweeds�.
1901, The �lounge
suit� appeared, a man�s ordinary 2-piece daytime suit; literally, �a suit
for lounging in�.
1900, The Burton
clothing group began as a menswear shop opened in Chesterfield by Montague Burton
(1885-1952). Known as Montague Burton before World War Two, it changed name to
Burton in 1969. It grew rapidly under the chairmanship of Ralph Halpern in the 1980s, but
suffered a reversal of fortunes in the 1990s.
10 October 1886. The dinner jacket made its
first appearance in public when it was worn by its creator at a ball in the
Tuxedo Park Country Club, New York.�
Hence it was later known as the Tuxedo.
15 August 1885, Sir Montague Burton, owner of a multiple chain of clothes shops,
was born to Jewish parents in Lithuania.
1850, Men�s clothing was now much more sombre and less
colourful than in 1750. From the late 1700s, male fashion had shifted
to the blues, browns and blacks worn by the aristocracy for country sports. See 1815 below.
1840, Death of the dandy
and fashion leader Beau Brummell (George Bryan). Born 1778,
he introduced long formal trousers (troiusers were formerly often knee length
with stockings below) as formal day and evening wear for men. He fled to France
in 1816 to avoid gambling debts, and died in an asylum for the insane.
1815, Beau Brummel
introduced formal �evening wear� for men, a tailored black coat and black
pantaloons. Formerly, evening wear for men had been a more elaborate version of
the �day suit�.
7 June 1778. Beau Brummel was born in London, as George
Bryan Brummel. Although he became a leader of fashion and a friend of the
Prince Regent, he died destitute in France, aged 64, through gambling and
extravagance.
1660, The concept of a male�suit� now applied to the
customary male clothing ensemble of a close-fitting jacket, waistcoat and
breeches, especially if all of one
colour.
Male hats
4 October 1950, Three generations of the Bowler family marked the centenary of the bowler hat.
1875, The Panama Hat became fashionable.
4 October 1850, The bowler hat went on
general sale in London.
17 December 1849,
Landowner Edward
Coke tested a new type of hat he had ordered to protect his head
from low-hanging branches whilst out hunting; top hats were too easily knocked
off. This day he visited the Lockes hatters shop in St James, London, to test
the new bowler hat, named after its
designer, by jumping on it twice. It withstood the test and he bought it.
15 January 1797, The top hat first appeared in London, worn by James Hetherington. He was fined �50 for wearing this attire,
and causing a breach of the peace.
10 April 1849. Walter Hunt of New
York patented the safety pin. He made it in only three hours, then sold
the rights for $400 to pay off debts.
1843, In the USA, Charles Atwood was granted a
patent for a new hook and eye system of clothes fastening. Previously people
had used pins laces, clasps buttons and buckles to fasten their clothes.
25 July 1843, Charles MacIntosh, the
chemist who patented waterproof fabric in 1823, died in Glasgow.
18 April 1834. The
world�s first launderette opened in
Fort Worth, Texas.
26 June 1827, Samuel Crompton,
inventor of the spinning mule in
1779, died in Bolton.
8 January
1825, Eli Whitney, American inventor of the cotton gin, which made separating of
fibre and seed easier, died in New Haven, Connecticut.
30
October 1823, Edmund Cartwright, inventor of the power loom in 1785, died at Hastings,
Sussex, aged 80.
17 June 1823, Charles
Macintosh of Scotland patented a waterproof material for clothes. He obtained this by dissolving
rubber in low-boiling naptha and coating fabric with the substance.
1815, After the end of the Napoleonic Wars,
Europe was open again to British trade. Cheap English cotton flooded the European
textiles market, eventually driving out fabrics such as linen.
1812, Women�s fashion in Britain
was now for dresses with very high waists, just under the bust.
15
February 1812, Charles Tiffany, founder of the eponymous US
jewellery shop chain, was born.
11 March 1811, The Luddite Riots began as textile workers
protested against new technology replacing jobs.
1810, Cotton growing took off in the USA. This
year 85 million lbs of cotton was grown in America, up from 1.5 million lbs in
1790. Before 1790 Britain obtained its cotton from the Levant, or ftom the West
Indies; the USA did not grow enough for its own needs. By 1861, when the
American Civil War began, US slave plantations were meeting some 85% of
global cotton demand. The US slave population soared from 70,000 in 1790 to
3,200,000 in 1850, mainly driven by the riusing production of cotton in the
South. In 1810 Britain alone imported 1,000 million lbs from these
plantations. The rest of Euroipe then took some 700 million lbs of US cotton,
and the USA domestically consumed around 300 million lbs of this cotton.
1800, The invention of the smallpox
vaccine caused a decline in �beauty
patches�, stars, moons and hearts made of black velvet and previously worn
by women to hide pock marks. The patches had taken on meaning, e.g. worn at the
corner of the mouth meant willingness to flirt, worn on the right cheek, she
was married.
Men move from knee breeches to trousers
1815, Men now had shifted towards long trousers, away
from knee breeches and stockings. This reflected the dress of the French Revolutionaries, distinguishing
themselves form the nobility.
1808, Male
clothing generally became less extravagant, as the revolutionary spirit swept
Europe. Other influences creating a shift away from ostentatiousness
included the rationality of Voltaire and the simplkicity called for by Rousseau.
�Meanwhile English and American fashion
was alsready becoming more practical and less ornate due t the spread of industrialkisation
and factories. The simpler hunting clothing of the landed gentry became dominant
in fashion.
1807, Tsar Alexander I of Russia
banned trousers,
probably because the French
Revolutionaries had worn them in preference to the hitherto fashionable knee-breeches
worn by men in the 1700s. He ordered Russian troops to stop and inspect
carriages, and any trousers found would be cut off at the knee.
1800, Men started wearing trousers instead of knee-breeches.
1785, Male fashion now included stockings and coat with
vest, and knee
breeches.
1796, William Bundy, British textile
machine inventor, produced a machine with several parallel saws that could
mass-produce combs. Prior to this the teeth on a comb had been cut
individually.
20 July 1793,
Eli Whitney
patented the cotton gin, a machine
for separating cotton fibre from seeds.
3 August 1792, Sir Richard
Arkwright, English inventor who developed a mechanical cotton
spinning process, died.
1789, The first steam-driven cotton factory was opened in Manchester, England.
1783, Chlorine (then known as
oxymuriatic acid, i.e.�oxidised hydrochloric acid�, before it was known to be
an element)
began to be used for bleaching clothes.
1781, Asprey & Co, jewellers, was founded at a shop in Mitcham, south
London, by metalworker William Asprey, whose Huguenot ancestors
migrated to England in the 1600s
9 October
1779. The first Luddite riots began in Manchester
against the introduction of machinery for spinning cotton.
22 April 1778, James Hargreaves, inventor of the �spinning
jenny� in 1764, died in Nottingham.
22 December 1773, Death of Georg Friedrich Strass, the inventor of rhinestone jewellery.
26 May 1769. John Kay,
Sir Richard Arkwright�s assistant,
patented the Flying Shuttle to operate
on Arkwright�s
spinning frame. Arkwright was born at
Preston, Lancashire, on 23 December 1732, the youngest of 13 children to a poor
family. He became a barber in Bolton in around 1750. In 1767 he gave up this
business to build a spinning frame. This was an improvement on Hargreave�s
Spinning Jenny since it could spin
threads of any degree of hardness or fineness, unlike the spinning jenny which
could not spin any but fine thread. Now 20 or 30 threads could be spun with no
more labour than was previously required to spin one thread.
���������������������������29
December 1766, Charles Macintosh,
inventor of waterproof fabrics, was
born in Glasgow.
8
December 1765, Eli Whitney, American inventor of the cotton gin, which made cotton-growing
much more profitable, was born in Westborough, Massachusetts.
1764, James Hargreaves introduced the Spinning Jenny (patented by him in
1770).� His forst model could spin 8
threads at once; later versions could manage 120 threads simultaneously.
1700, Cotton cloth was
first manufactured in Britain. It was light to wear, easy to wash,
and could be dyed in a wide range of colours, in contrast with heavier wools.
Cotton fabric became popular during the 1700s.
The Age of
(Western) Cotton Spinning began � Cotton
fabrics were much cheaper than wool, and also more hygienic, because wool garments were seldom washed, they would shrink and become matted. See 1815.
1756, The first cotton velvets
were made in Bolton, Lancashire, England.
3 December 1753, Samuel Crompton,
inventor of the Spinning Mule which
revolutionised the textiles industry, was born at Firwood, near Bolton.� He was the son of a farmer.
7 July 1752, Joseph Jacquard,
French inventor of an improved loom, was born (died 7 August 1834).
1750, The popularity of the �Grand
Tour� of Europe, for the very wealthy, now introduced more showy European
elements to male fashion. This included gold buttons and buckles, ruffles, and
embroidered waitcoats. Mens� clothing was bright and colourful, leading on to
the era of the �dandy� in the early
1800s.
1747, In France, Francois Fresnau made the first
raincoat.
1745, Jacques de Vaucanson, born in
Grenoble, France,� 24 February 1709,
invented� the self-acting loom for weaving silk.
24 April 1743. Edward Cartwright, inventor of the power loom in
1785, was born at Marnham, Nottinghamshire.
26 May 1733, English inventor John Kay patented his flying shuttle, a loom that used a
third less labour than earlier such machines.
23 December 1732. Sir Richard Arkwright, inventor of the spinning frame,
was born at Preston, the last of 13 children.
28 July 1726, Jedediah Strutt was born in Derbyshire,
England.� In 1758 he invented the ribbing machine
for the manufacture of stockings.
9 September 1718, Thomas Lombe obtained a patent in England for
a machine to make thrown silk.
1716, John Lombe travelled to Italy
and, as an industrial spy, at great risk to himself, made drawings of the Italian silk spinning
machines. Britain already had a silk industry, brought by Hugenots
who had fled religious
persecution in France; however these Hugenots had not brought
the secret of silk spinning with them. Consequently, silk had to be imported
expensively. John�s
brother, Thomas
Lombe, now installed the first silk spinning machine in England in
1718.
4 May 1715, A French manufacturer made the first folding
umbrella.
1711, Hooped petticoats for British women started to appear; by 1750
these were so wide that architects had to design stairways with enough room fot
them to pass.
16 July 1704, John Kay, English inventor, was born in Bury,
Lancashire. In 1733 he invented the Flying
Shuttle loom.
1640, Men now ceased to wear the heavy
gold and silver neck chains, often with pendants, which had earlier been in
fashion in western Europe. See 1390.
1624, Philip IV of Spain
reduced his household staff and banned the wearing of ruffs. This symbol of
extravagance was passing out of fashion across Europe, as austerity replaced
luxury.
1600, The average age of marriage for
women in Japan
had risen to 24, from 21 a century earlier. This was a result of the growth in
the silk industry;
households needed their daughters to stay at home for longer to help with
spinning and weaving.
1589, The stocking frame, the first
knitting machine, was invented by English clergyman William Lee.
1534, Manufacture of woollen cloth began in Worcester.
1521, Silk manufacture began in France; silk had been produced in
Sicily since the 1100s.
1512, In England, Parliament forbade
the import of foreign-made caps.
1503, Pocket handkerchiefs came into use in Europe.
1500, Renaissance men�s clothing featured
the zimarra or chimere, a sleeveless gown of varying length, usually in black
or dark colours.
1499, The first recorded white wedding dress was worn, by Anne of
Brittany when marrying King Louis XII of France.
Post Black Death
period of ostentatiousness.
1480, Upper-class male fashion was now for long hair,� fur-lined garments, short doublets and pointy
shoes. Women wore tight bodices with low-cut necklines, and very elaborate
headresses, often shaped like butterflies or horns. They also wore
long dresses that trailed on the ground behind; ascetic Franciscan monks might
refuse to give absolution to women wearing siuch ostentatious clothes.
1468, A Papal Bull forbade shoemakers from making shoes
with long pointy toes. London shoemakers generally ignored this edict.
1400, The Duchy of Burgundy was the region now leading
fashion in Europe. These fashions were very extravagant. �A short tunic with bells on the belt was fashionable.
However by the later 1500s, Spain, and the Coununter refroamtion, was setting a
more sombre fashion based on black.
1390, Male fashion in England was becoming more extravagant,
with padded shoulders, tight waitbands, close fitting hose and pointy shoes.
Men also started to wear more ostentatious jewellery, large extravagant
neck chains.� See 1640.
1363, Sumptuary legislation (also from 1337) restricted
the more expensive imported furs, squirrel (minever) from Russia, also sable,
to those of higher social rank. The lower social classes could only wear
rabbit, fox, lamb and cat furs, to prevent them from appearing of higher social
standing than they really were.
1356, In France, the Chronicler of Nangis noted that the
increase in popularity of jewelled belts for the aristocracy and their
long robes had greatly increased the price of pearls. This belt, or girdle,
might have a jewelled clasp, and also went with the tight short-skirted coats
of the 1300s, worn by men over leggings or hose, so showing off their legs. The
belt was also useful for hanging keys, a dagger, or a money purse from. By the
1400s some men were wearing �indecently short� such tight coats, not covering
their genitals or buttocks.
1298, The invention of the spinning wheel revolutionised textiles
production.
1233, The practice of staining the teeth black (ohaguro) began to be adopted as a sign
of beauty in Japan
after it was taken up by one of the aristocratic families.
1200, In Europe, engagement rings came into fashion.
1155, Women�s dresses now shifted to a
tight �body� and long trailing gowns. By the 1500-s women wore stiff �bodies�
made of bone or wood, from which the word �bodice� derives. Similarly the
French �cors� (meaning �body�) of the 1600s became the corset.
1095, Wealthy women�s gowns now had
very long sleeves, so long they trailed on the floor, and men were also copying
this in their wide-cut robes. Churchmen critised the effeminate nature of these
male fashions. Men�s clothing was an undergarment and tunic or robe, with a
cloak over
1000, Germanic influence on fashion meant
men wore short tunics with braies, later known as breeches, underneath. However
under Norman influence, the male tunic grew longer and braies worn underneath became
shorter, more like 20c underpants. This meant leg coverings, or hose, grew
longer upwards. The knee length chaussee, male stocking, became the 1340s hose,
covering the entire leg length. By the 1600s men wore the netherstock, covering
the lower leg and later known as stockings.
800, Charlemagne,
peasants were ordered to wear dark and unobtrusive colours, to distinguish them
from the nobility. Wealthy men wore a tunic down to the calves; for poorer men
it wasknee length.
552, Byzantine Emperor Justinian sent
missionaries to China; their real purpose was to smuggle silkworms back to
Europe. In 553 the silk industry became
a State Monopoly in Byzantium.
410, Huns, invading the Roman Empire, introduced trousers which began to replace togas. They also introduced the stirrup, which made horse riding
easier.
Roman era fashion
397, Trousers were banned in Rome.
This effectively banned civilian men, who would have worn tunics for evrryday wear
(and the toga for formal wear) from dressing as soldiers. Soldiers also could
not then wear military clothes, trousers, in the Roman capital. This made Rome
an easier place to police. However see 410 CE.
100, German/Teutonic clothing was simple, mainly a cloak fasterend with
a brooch or a thorn. Animal skins were also worn. Childfren wore little or no
clothing. Women, but not men, wore linen undershirts.
100 BCE, Roman soldiers adopted femoralia,
knee-length drawers, as undergarments below theitr tunic; civilian began
wearing these in the following century. The Roman fascia, a cloth wound around
the leg, was considered effeminate and suitable only for older people. See 397
CE.
215 BCE, The Roman Senate enacted laws (the
Tribiune Oppius) �to rectrict the most
luxurious dress to the upper class elite.
200 BCE, Cretan women wore long skirts, much woder at the bottom than the
top. They left the body above the waist, including the breasts, bare.
600 BCE, Babylonians wore a �cotton
tunic, which for soldiers and oeasants was shorter, ending above the knee. For
women, and for upper class men, it was longer, reaching the ankles.
1500 BCE, Silk was being woven in China.
1800 BCE, Minoan men and women both wore corsets. By 400 BCE the Greeks, both
sexes, sometimes wore the zone, a sort of wide linen belt around the lower body
to flatten the stomach and accentuate the figure. Then, both sexes wore the
same clothes.
2800 BCE, Egyprians of both sexes and all ranks on society wore very little
clotiung apart from a small loincloth held up with a belt. Women did not cover
their breasts. Later, they adopted a sleeveless tunic, with women�s tiunics
longer than men�s, and women�s loincloths were also longer, reaching the knees.
Later still they adopted elaborate robes. These appeared (1500-1000 BCE) as the
kalasiris, a skirt or robe, sometimes sleeveless.
3000 BCE, Cotton fabrics
were first produced in the Indus Valley region.
6500 BE, Early cloth weaving developed in
Anatolia, Turkey.
20,000 BCE, Sewing needles in use in France.
They were initially used to sew clothes from animal skins.
Appendix - Sewing Machines
23 July 1875, Isaac Singer, American inventor of the modern
sewing machine, died in Torquay, Devon.
3 October 1867, Elias Howe, inventor of the first practical
sewing machine in 1846, died. He made US$ 2 million from his invention.
12 August 1851, Isaac Singer of New York, USA
patented his sewing machine.
10 September 1846, Elias Howe received the patent for his sewing
machine. It could sew at 250 stitches per minute, five times faster than any
human could.
1843, The Howe
sewing machine was invented by Elias Howe, aged 27, a machine shop apprentice
in Boston. He was unaware of Walter Hunt�s machine of 1832.
1832, An early
sewing machine was developed by New York inventor Walter Hunt, aged 36. However his
daughter Caroline
refused to utilise the machine in her corset-making factory because it would
put hand-sewers out of work. The machine was not patented.
1829, French
inventor Barthelemy
Thimonnier, aged 36, developed a sewing machine. He obtained a
contract to make uniforms for the French Army, but came under attack by French
tailors who feared for ther livelihoods.
9 July 1819, Elias Howe, inventor of the first practical
sewing machine, was born in Spencer, Massachusetts.
27 October 1811, Isaac Singer, inventor of the sewing machine,
was born in Pittsdown, New York State.
17 July 1790, The sewing machine was patented by Thomas Saint, cabinet maker of
Greenhill Rents, St Sepulchre parish, London.
Appendix - Hair and beards
1966, The Afro hairstyle appeared, for
men, where the hair was shaped into a large frizzy bush. It was a reassertion
of Black identity after an extended period of Europeanised hairstyles. Dreadlocks
also appeared about this time, modelled after Ethiopian warriors.
1959, Hair spray, a fixative sprayed
from a can, became necessary as �large-hair� styles for women like the bouffant
became popular (from 1956).
1949, The first aerosol hairspray for women was marketed. Hair could now be kept �in place� all day
without the need to visit a hairdresser; in 1952 25 million aerosol hairspray
cans were sold.
1940, The crew cut for men�s hair, a
close cut first adopted by boat crews at Harvard and Yale Universities, became
s symbol of �virile American youth�. The related �crew-cropped� appeared in
1938.
17
January 1928, Vidal Sassoon, English hair stylist, was born
in London.
1926, The very short women�s hairstyle known as
the Eton Crop was popular. The hair was cut very close to the head
all around, giving a boyish appearance like an Eton schoolboy. There was also
the shingle
style (1924), where the hair on the head was full, but closely
cropped on the nape of the neck.
6
November 1923, The Schick dry shaver the first practical electric shaver,
was patented. Mass production started in 1930 at Stanford, Connecticut, with
3,000 produced in the first year retailing at US$ 25 each. Sales passed 10,000
a year in 1932 and when Schick died aged 59 in 7/1937 1.85 million of his
shavers had been sold.
1920, Shorter hairstyules for women� like the Bob became fashionable, as they took
less maintenance.
1917, The need for women to cut their hair
short for work in the factories led to the fashion for the �bob� hairstyle.
1909, It was noticed that children who had
undergone X-Ray irradiation for ringworm were then growing curly hair. This led to an intial method of
using X-rays on adult women�s heads to give them wavy hair; a method replaced by
chemical treatment after World War One. By 1925 there were �water waves�,
and by 1927 the term had been shortened to �perm�.
8 October
1906, Karl Nessler demonstrated first 'permanent
wave' for hair in London. This
was the �Marcel Wave�, produced by
heated curling tongs, and named after French hairdresser Francois Marcel Grateau
(1852-1936).
26 June 1901, In
Paris, professional chauffeurs protested at a law prohibiting them from having moustaches.
1900, Beards, fashionable in England
during the 1800s, now began to give way to the clean-shaven look.
1830, Beards in England became
fashionable again, until shortly after 1`900.
End of ostentatious fashion for
men, following the French revolution
1808, Men began abandoning the fashion of
pigtails and large wigs.
1800, European fashion now began to
favour shorter
hair for both men and women.
1794, The fashion for men powdering
their hair, popular for over 100 years in Europe, now ended.
1790, Very elaborate women�s hairstyles now
popular in France, some incorporating flowers and fruit baskets.
1785, Men�s hair was powdered and tied with a
ribbon at the back.
1772, The �Macaroni�
fashion briefly appeared in Europe. Taking their name from the Italian fashions
they sought to copy, they were named after the Italian pasta dish which then
was arriving in England. They adopted extravagant wigs or long hair piled up on the
head into masses of curls, for men and women, also large neck cravattes and tight coat and vest, and ostentatious
red diamond buckled red heeled shoes.� By
1790 women were abandoning this fashion for a more natural look of surls on top
and hanging down to the shoulders.
11
February 1765. English wig-makers petitioned George III for financial relief
as the male fashion of wearing wigs came to an end. However as wigs
went out of fashion, beards came back into fashion, inspired by the
Austrians.
1700, In England, with the reign of
Queen Anne, beards
were seen as strictly for foreigners; Jews and Turks for example.
1660, In England, after the
Restoration, beards
ceased to be fashionable, see 1700.
1530, In England, beards
became fashionable again; King Henry VIII was bearded, in contrast to Henry
VII who had been clean-shaven. Institutions such as Lincoln�s Inn and the
clergy resisted the trend to beards by proscribing them, but these laws were
soon repealed.
1400, Beards began to go out of
fashion in England. They had been common throughout the Middle Ages, and
in� the 1300s a forked style had been common.
9 April
1105, King Henry of England had an immediate
haircut, along with his court, after being castigated for effeminate long hair by Serlo, Bishop
of Seez.
1102, Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury, criticised
the �effeminate� long� curly hair of
male court fashion, along with beards and pointy shoes. Women were
adopting very voluminous dresses.
130, Roman Emperor Hadrian
(117-138) started a fashion for beards amongst Roman citizens when he grew
one. Before then, heavy-handed Roman barbers could flay the skin as they shaved
you.,
200 BCE, Roman
men started to go clean shaven, rather than wear beards
Appendix- Shoes, footwear
2000, The arrival of trainers rapidly
displaced Doc Martin boots (see 1 April 1960).� Sales of Doc Martins crashed from �235
million in 1999 to �90 million in 2003, and profits turned into a �62 million
loss for 2003. The training shoe had appeared back in 1973 as
footwear for athletes, but became fashion wear for teenagers in the 1980s.
1979, Reebok running shoes now
began to challenge the market position of Nike.
1 April 1960, Doc Martin
boots were first produced under licence in the UK by R Griggs
and Co. See trainers,
2000.
1953, Ultra high stiletto heels
were the main thing in fashion.
1907, The plimsoll
shoe, a rubber-soled canvas shoe, appeared. It was named after
the Plimsoll :Line, a safety loading line on ships (itself named
after English
MP Samuel Plimsoll, 1824-98), because the edge of its sole resembled
this line. Plimsolls were displaced by trainers (see 2000).
12
February 1831, J W Goodrich of Boston, USA, invented the rubber galosh.
1817, The
original Wellington
Boot was produced. Named after the Duke of Wellington, it
comprised a leather boot, high and covering the knee in front, but cut away
behind. By the mid 1850s there was a variation, also known as the Wellington
Boot from around 1907, or gumboot from around 1850, a waterproof
boot treaching to just below the knee. In the 1970s Green Wellies became an
icon of the English rural haute
bourgeoisie. Also in the 1970s the term �welly� came to mean the
application of sudden force to something, as in accelerate a car rapidly, �give
it some welly�, as in a� kick from a
wellington boot.
1550, The paving of European city
streets was one factor leading to increased shoe sole padding, leading on to
a fashion, for a while, of very high heels for both men and women.
1463,
The Mayor of London banned excessively long pointy shoes, setting a
limit of 2 inches beyond the toe; some shoes went as far as 5 inches. Worn
mainly by men, they were known as Crakows or Poulaines. The fashion for these
shoes may have originated in Cracow, Poland, around 1430 (but see 1390, 1102). Their impracticality signified that the
wearer was wealthy enough not to have to do manual labour.
1390,
Male fashion in England was becoming more extravagant, with padded shoulders,
tight waitbands, close fitting hose and pointy shoes.
1102, Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury, criticised
the �effeminate� long� curly hair of
male court fashion, along with beards and pointy shoes.