Style History
The paper pattern turned dressmaking into an instruction manual
Before graded tissue patterns were sold by post, making a garment at home required knowing how to draft…
· 3 min read
Style History
Where a garment came from, usually somewhere far less glamorous.
Style History
Everyone wore a hat and then, quite suddenly, nobody did
Headwear was near-universal in public for centuries and largely vanished from everyday dress within a…
· 3 min read
Style History
Domestic laundry technology decided which fabrics won
How clothes were washed at home shaped what people were willing to buy, and every major change in…
· 3 min read
Style History
The sewing machine needed a stitch no hand could make
Mechanising sewing was not a matter of speeding up hand stitching but of inventing a different kind of…
· 4 min read
Style History
The detachable collar existed because laundry was harder than sewing
For most of a century the dirtiest part of a shirt was made removable, and the arrangement tells you…
· 3 min read
Style History
Black was the hardest colour to dye and that is why it meant something
A deep, even black was for centuries an expensive technical achievement, and the meanings the colour…
· 3 min read
Style History
For a long stretch of history shoes were made without a left or a right
Footwear was produced on symmetrical lasts for generations, and the return of shaped pairs had more to do…
· 3 min read
Style History
The buttonhole is what made close-fitting clothing possible
Buttons existed as ornament for a very long time before anyone cut a slit for them to pass through, and the…
· 3 min read