Style History
Rivets are the reason work trousers turned into jeans
The garment was defined by a small piece of metal patented to solve a specific failure, and almost…
· 3 min read
Style History
Where a garment came from, usually somewhere far less glamorous.
Style History
The trench coat was a military specification before it was a silhouette
Almost every detail on a classic raincoat was there to solve a problem in a field uniform, and the garment kept them long after the problems went away.
Style History
The T-shirt spent decades as underwear before anyone wore it outside
A knitted cotton undergarment issued for hygiene and comfort became an outer garment through military…
· 3 min read
Style History
Khaki began as a camouflage problem and ended as an office trouser
The colour was adopted because white uniforms were dangerously visible, and the cloth that carried it…
· 3 min read
Style History
Pockets were separate objects long before they were sewn into clothes
For centuries a pocket was a bag you carried or tied on, and how it eventually got stitched into a garment…
· 4 min read
Style History
Clothing sizes began as a manufacturing convenience and never became more
The numbers on labels were invented so that garments could be made before anyone had ordered them, and…
· 4 min read
Style History
Buttons sit on opposite sides and nobody can prove why
Men's garments fasten left over right and women's the other way, a convention several centuries old for…
· 3 min read
Style History
The modern suit is a riding outfit that kept getting more formal
Everything now worn as business or formal dress started life as country clothing or informal wear, and each…
· 3 min read
Style History
Nearly everything casual in your wardrobe came out of sport
The garments people now wear on ordinary days were almost all designed for a specific athletic activity…
· 4 min read
Style History
Synthetic dye decided which colours ordinary people could wear
For most of history colour was an agricultural product with a price attached, and the arrival of dyes made…
· 4 min read
Style History
The zip took forty years to be trusted with a garment
A fastener invented in the nineteenth century spent decades on boots and bags before clothing makers would…
· 3 min read
Style History
Knitting was mechanised before weaving and nobody wanted it
A machine for making stockings existed in the sixteenth century, was refused protection, and then spent two…
· 3 min read