Fashion in Credo Reference: History of Fashion

John Jacob Astor founded the American Fur Company in 1808 in an attempt to compete with other large fur trading companies, such as the North West Company and the Hudson’s Bay Company.

In The Classical Tradition
Throughout history, fashion has turned to the ancient world and utilized Greek and Roman sources for inspiration.

In Late Antiquity: A Guide to the Postclassical World
There are very few original garments preserved from antiquity. Those that are conserved are mostly from dry regions such as Egypt and the Syrian desert. Very little is known about late antique clothing in Spain, France, and Germany, and there are almost no examples of Roman garments. Hints about clothing in late antiquity have to be taken from depictions in art and written sources.

In Encyclopedia of the United States in the Nineteenth Century
What people wore in the nineteenth-century United States reflects that era's aesthetic tastes and attitudes toward modesty, gender roles, and individualism versus uniformity.

In The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia
Late BC–early centuries AD: Tunics and togas are worn around the Mediterranean and Europe, woven to shape.

In The Reader's Companion to American History
During America's first three centuries, women's fashions in physical appearance and in dress followed European models.

In Encyclopedia of American Studies
Until well into the twentieth century, the fashionable dress worn by Americans consisted of slightly altered versions of prevailing European fashions, although they were often tempered to reflect distinct American lifestyles. In the twentieth century, however, American popular culture (for example, music, dance, sports, entertainment, movies, and the growing youth culture) began to influence what people wore.

In Encyclopedia of American Cultural and Intellectual History
Fashion, in a broad sense of the word, has always been part of American life.

In The Value of a Dollar: 1860-2014
Brooks Brothers White Button Down Shirt; Men's Dress (Overcoat/Trench) Coat; Men's Black Leather Dress Shoes...

The North American fur trade began before the arrival of the Europeans when, for millennia, Native peoples trapped and hunted the plentiful fur-bearing animals of the continent, trading surplus furs to other tribes in return for those their own tribe needed.

In 1001 Inventions: The Enduring Legacy of Muslim Civilization
Fashions come and go, but good taste never goes out of style. So it may not be surprising to find out that many present European styles and ideas of dressing arrived 1,200 years ago when Spain was part of the Islamic world.

Sweatshops are one of the most paradoxical organizational and production forms of industrial capitalism.

In The Princeton Encyclopedia of the World Economy
The textiles and clothing supply chain consists of production of raw materials; spinning, weaving, or knitting; finishing; design; sewing; distribution; and marketing. The production of textiles was the first economic activity to be industrialized, starting in the United Kingdom around 1765 with the invention of the spinning jenny, a machine for spinning wool or cotton.

In Miller's Antiques Encyclopedia
In the early 20th century, fashion was still dictated by French haute couture. The move toward comfort began in 1911 with high-waisted gowns by the French designer Paul Poiret (1870-1914).

In The Welsh Academy Encyclopaedia of Wales
For much of the last 2000 years, woollen manufacture has been one of Wales’s most important activities. In the 20th century, however, the industry declined drastically, and by the early 21st century there were fewer centres of production than at any time in the preceding six centuries.

Term for that general field of applied design in which hand fabrication is dominant. The term was coined in England in the late 19th cent. as a label for the then-current movement directed toward the revivifying of the decorative arts.

In 100 Ideas that Changed Street Style
Bohemianism, or ‘boho’ as it was abbreviated in the late twentieth century, was generally worn no less by the well-off but became a simple cherry-picking of geographically broad, earthy, free-flowing nomadic looks and colourful national dress styles.

International nihilistic movement among European artists and writers that lasted from 1916 to 1922.

In 100 Ideas that Changed Fashion
In the 1980s a vibrant new street culture emerged from the African-American, Caribbean-American and Latino youth of New York's South Bronx. It centred around breakdancing, rap music and graffiti art. Spreading swiftly from the States to Europe, hip hop was to dominate the 1980s as a leading subcultural movement.

Punk rock emerged in the UK and the USA in the 1970s. The music was played mainly on the guitar, to accompany loud, often provocative lyrics dealing with emotive and political issues. Punk rock was seen as both shocking and inspiring, influencing much subsequent pop music.

Movement in art, literature, and film that developed out of Dada around 1922. Led by André Breton, who produced the Surrealist Manifesto (1924), the surrealists were inspired by the thoughts and visions of the subconscious mind.

In Encyclopedia of the Romantic Era, 1760-1850
Derived from the Scottish diminutive for Andrew, the word dandy rose to popularity throughout the American colonies in the 1770s when English soldiers used the song “Yankee Doodle Dandy” to ridicule the shabby dress worn by American troops.

In 100 Ideas that Changed Fashion
Grunge evolved in Seattle, a subgenre of American rock made famous by such bands as Pearl Jam and Nirvana. The word ‘grunge’ originated in the 1960s, when grungy meant dirty.

In 100 Ideas that Changed Street Style
It was in the city's Haight-Ashbury district in the mid-1960s that the early hipsters - from which the ‘hippie’ name comes - and beatniks came together in a community of shared values, including independence from mainstream society and opposition to war (the Vietnam War in particular).

In 100 Ideas that Changed Street Style
Lolita, the style, is based more around the Japanese cultural appreciation of the cute that saw the global reach of character merchandise such as Hello Kitty.

In 100 Ideas that Changed Street Style
Until the 1980s, manliness - as defined by the movie and advertising industries at least - was hairy-chested and testosterone-fuelled; yet by the mid-90s a new archetype had been established.

In 100 Ideas That Changed Street Style
The Teddy boys’ style, comprising a long jacket with narrow lapels, fancy waistcoat and narrow trousers, had actually been first adopted in the 1950s by upperclass men - and especially officers of the Guards, one of the more prestigious regiments of the British Army.

In World of Art: The Thames & Hudson Dictionary of Fashion and Fashion Designers

Street in the West End of London which became famous in the 1960s for its many boutiques selling fashionable, inexpensive clothes, such as T-shirts, mini-skirts, bell bottoms, and hipsters, as well as trendy accessories.

In World of Art: The Thames & Hudson Dictionary of Fashion and Fashion Designers
Area of London which has been synonymous with fashion since the 19th century, when it became a popular habitat for artists.

In The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia
Second-largest city in Italy, sitauted in Lombardy, 120 km/75 mi northeast of Genoa; population (2001) 1,256,200. Industries include printing, engineering, and the manufacture of aircraft, cars, locomotives, chemicals, clothing, and textiles.

The largest city in the United States and one of the largest in the world, on New York Bay at the mouth of the Hudson River.

N central France, capital of the country, on the Seine River. It is the commercial and industrial focus of France and a cultural and intellectual center of international renown.

In World of Art: The Thames & Hudson Dictionary of Fashion and Fashion Designers
A street in central London that is synonymous with men’s bespoke tailoring.

In Encyclopedia of African-American Writing
Ebony ‘s large, photo-rich pages highlighted African-Americans and an African-American perspective on the news.

In The Thames & Hudson Dictionary of Graphic Design and Designers
Quality monthly magazine for women, founded in 1867 by Harper and Brothers, New York, and sold to the Hearst Corporation in 1913. Gained a reputation for innovative editorial design by employing the most gifted designers and photographers.

In 100 Ideas that Changed Fashion
Fashion magazines have always been illustrated - but until the latter part of the nineteenth century these illustrations were drawings. It took the introduction of photographs to bring the pages to life.

In 100 Ideas that Changed Fashion
Arthur Baldwin Turnure founded Vogue as a small New York society weekly in 1892. But it was a young lawyer and publisher Condé Nast who turned the magazine around when he bought it on Turnure's death in 1909, adding more colour, advertisements and articles on society and fashion.