Pockets were once considered an exclusively male part of a wardrobe. Coco Chanel "gave" this element of clothing to women.
The better the quality of the leather, the nicer it smells. But a sharp and "punching" smell indicates that the chemical industry has worked hard on the tanning of the skin.
Those who angered Ivan the Terrible had to wear their clothes inside out. And commoners punished thieves in the same way, after giving them a good beating. That's when the sign arose: accidentally putting your clothes on inside out means you'll soon be beaten.
The ancient Romans had a limited choice of clothing. In the heat they wore one light tunic, and when it got cold, several at once.
The inventors of trousers are considered to be the ancient nomads – the Scythians. At first, they managed perfectly well without extra clothing, but many hours of horse riding rubbed the most sensitive places. This is how the first semblance of trousers appeared – trousers made of thick leather or fur.
There was a time when trousers were not a single piece of clothing, but were two separate legs that were pulled over the legs and tied to other elements of the outfit with ropes.
Everyone knows that jeans as a garment came to us from the West. But the word "jeans" is not from the English language at all. It also borrowed it - from Italian, in its own way transforming the word "januas", that is, "Genoese".
Jeans remained "working man's clothing" for a long time - until the mid-1950s, when a youth protest movement began in the United States, which then spread to Europe. Young people wore jeans, and soon everyone from politicians to pensioners and children began buying today's most popular pants.
Paul I hated vests, as he considered them to be the clothing of revolutionaries and rebels. Wearing them was prohibited, and anyone who risked wearing a vest was immediately arrested.
One of the richest men in world history, John D. Rockefeller, was extremely stingy. His younger children wore out the clothes of their elders. The worst was for the billionaire's only youngest son, who got his sisters' hand-me-downs, including dresses.
The inventor of the sewing machine also invented the zipper. Six years after the invention of the modern sewing machine, Elias Howe patented an "automatic, continuous fastener for clothing" in 1851. Metal zippers first appeared in 1918, but did not enter general use until the 1930s.
The first socks were worn with sandals (that's what they were invented for), so this is the original way to wear socks.
Briefs and boxer shorts were invented less than 100 years ago. The first "boxers" were invented in 1925, and the first briefs were sold in Chicago in 1935.
Buttons were used as decorations many centuries before holes were invented for them. The first "real" buttons appeared in Germany in the 13th century.
Sunglasses were originally prescribed for people with syphilis. Syphilis causes sensitivity to light, so in the 19th and early 20th centuries, doctors prescribed tinted glasses for people with syphilis.
T-shirts exist thanks to American soldiers. The US Army began ordering T-shirts for soldiers during the Spanish-American War in 1898. After World War II, veterans began wearing T-shirts in their daily lives.
The word "pyjama" in Persian means "clothing for the legs". In the East, only loose, light pants were called pajamas. They were brought to Europe from India by the English in the 18th century, and many decades later, a set of pants and a shirt began to be called pajamas.
A popular myth says that the name of the synthetic material nylon (in English "nylon") was formed from the abbreviations of the names of two cities - New York and London. In fact, the source of this word was the expression "no-run", which in this context can be translated as "without snags", since one of the first commercial uses of nylon was stockings. And so that buyers would not accuse the DuPont company of unfair advertising, since snags in stockings did happen, "no-run" was transformed into "nylon".
In the 15th century, under the influence of Renaissance ideas, a fashion for women's dresses with completely open chests arose in Europe. Some researchers believe that the direct culprit of this fashion was the mistress of the French king Charles VII, Agnes Sorel. The open chest cut was preserved to one degree or another until the 19th century.
On July 1, 1946, the Americans conducted the first test of an atomic bomb on the Bikini Atoll in the Pacific Ocean. Four days later, French engineer Louis Réard presented his invention to the public - a two-piece women's swimsuit, which he named after the atoll.
Polo shirts first appeared among tennis players - namely, ten-time Grand Slam winner Frenchman René Lacoste in 1926. A year later, Lacoste placed an image of a crocodile on the chest of his shirts, and after finishing his tennis career, he founded his own clothing brand, Lacoste, under the same emblem.
Today, the generally accepted colors for girls and boys are pink and blue, respectively. However, this division was formed in the United States and European countries only in the 1940s. Before that time, recommendations to parents on the choice of clothing color were rarely based on the child's gender.
In the early days of aviation, pilots did not have many devices to track enemies, so they had to constantly turn their heads, looking for enemy aircraft. To prevent the neck from rubbing against the collar, silk scarves were introduced into the pilots' uniform.
The Icelandic Museum of Witchcraft and Magic has on display so-called "necropants" made from the flayed skin of a dead man's lower body.
As the average weight of the world's population increases, clothing manufacturers are increasing the physical sizes of their clothes while keeping the size on the tag the same. For example, in the UK, a size 14 women's trouser today is 10 centimetres larger at the waist and 7 centimetres larger at the hip than a size 14 was in the 1970s. This approach ensures that women are satisfied with their purchases, making them feel like they fit into the same size they did years ago.
During the Crimean War, in battles near the city of Balaklava, English troops encountered unusually severe cold. To solve this problem, knitted hats with slits for the eyes and mouth were made for the soldiers. Subsequently, these hats were called balaclavas, or balaclavas in English.
The knitted wool sweater as we know it appeared in Europe in the 19th century. It was initially recommended by doctors as clothing for weight loss, as it promoted sweating during exercise. The name of the sweater comes from the English verb "to sweat".
In the 1630s, Croatian mercenaries appeared in the French army, whose uniform included special scarves around the neck - the forerunner of the modern tie. The novelty became popular among French fashionistas, and they called it a derivative of the word "Croatian" - "cravate". Later, the fashion for the tie spread further across Europe, and with it, many European languages borrowed its name. For example, in Ukrainian, a tie is called "kravatka".
The creators of the Star Trek TV series once faced the fact that in order to maintain viewer interest, they had to constantly show the risk and death of characters. But since killing the main characters was too expensive, they decided to sacrifice the secondary ones, who were constantly changing. Soon viewers noticed a trend - the heroes in yellow and blue shirts always overcame the trials, and the characters in red shirts invariably died.
A Japanese kimono should be worn with the left side higher than the right side. The kimono is only wrapped around when burying a person.