It ain't fashion, if it ain't sustainable

Fashion History

Design History / Christian Dior

19 February 2024

5 minutes

Emmy Award winner Ben Mendelsohn stars in “The New Look,” a new, 10-episode Apple Original series, which premiered globally on 14 February 2024 on Apple TV+.

Apple TV Drama Shows How Dior Brought Optimism to a War-Weary World

After a riotous welcome from an audience of fashion students in 1947, Christian Dior remarked: “For those who lived through the chaos of war, creation was survival.” This is the theme of the new Apple TV series, revealed in flashback: how the destruction and horror of war affected the world-renowned Parisian fashion market.

Elizabeth Kealy-Morris

Commentary

Fashion History / Mantua

3 January 2024

4 minutes

The mantua or manteau was a new fashion that arose in the 1670s. Instead of a bodice and skirt cut separately, the mantua hung from the shoulders to the floor (like dresses of earlier periods). It started as the female version of the men's banyan, worn for "undress" wear.

How a 17th Century Gown Ushered in Financial Freedom for Women in Europe

The 'mantua', a gown worn over a corset and an often contrasting petticoat, besides altering the look of western fashions, radically changed women’s involvement in the fashion industry, representing also a ticket to financial freedom.

Sarah Bendall

Feature

Footwear History / First Person

13 September 2023

4 minutes

Possible shod hominin tracks in the Garden Route National Park, South Africa.

Oldest Evidence of Human Footwear Found on South African Beach

Ichnological evidence from three palaeosurfaces on South Africa’s Cape coast, in conjunction with neoichnological study, suggests that humans may indeed have worn footwear while traversing dune surfaces during the Middle Stone Age.

Charles Helm

Feature

PRESS RELEASE / Event

28 June 2022

2 minutes

First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy envisioned a restored White House that conveyed a sense of history through its decorative and fine arts. In 1961, the White House Historical Association was established to support her vision to preserve and share the Executive Mansion's legacy for generations to come

First-Ever Virtual Fashion Exhibit Explores Eight Influential Designers and Seamstresses For First Ladies

WASHINGTON, U.S.: The White House Historical Association has announced a new virtual fashion exhibit exploring overlooked designers and seamstresses for first ladies: "Glamour and Innovation: The Women Behind the Seams of Fashion at the White House." The exhibit is the result of an inaugural academic partnership with New York University's...