Clothing and Fashion

Flannel is a light to heavyweight fabric woven as a plain or twill weave that originated in Wales. Some sources claim the name is derived from the Welsh word “gwalen,” which means literally a piece of clothing or material made of wool. Another possible etymological origin of the word is from the Old French “flaine,” which refers to a blanket or coverlet. Flannel is finished with napping to increase its insulating properties. After the fabric is woven, it is brushed so that the staple fiber ends are loosened from the weave to form a fuzzy surface. Napping also contributes to the soft hand of the fabric. Flannel may be made from wool, cotton, synthetic fibers, or blends that incorporate a synthetic fiber with a natural fiber to add to the overall strength of the fabric and increase resistance to abrasion. Flannel-back satin refers to a type of silk satin that has spun yarns in the weft (crosswise yarn) and is brushed or napped on the back. (more…)

For over one hundred years, one of the Smithsonian Institution’s most visited exhibitions has been a display of gowns worn by the First Ladies of the United States. An unofficial title, “first lady” has been in popular use since the 1860s to refer to the president’s official hostess who is usually, but not always, the president’s wife. (more…)

The couturier and designer of surreal hats, Elsa Schiaparelli once declared, “The film fashions of today are your fashions of tomorrow” (Prichard 1981, p. 370). Besides planning haute couture collections, Schiaparelli also designed costumes for such stars as Mae West (Every Day’s a Holiday [1937]) and the British stars Margaret Lockwood and Anna Neagle (The Beloved Vagabond [1936], Limelight [1936]). Since then, the interrelationship between film and fashion has become more complex. Schiaparelli’s belief in the direct influence of the “dream factory” on what ordinary people wore is borne out by a number of examples from the classical Hollywood period: one of Adrian’s robes for Joan Crawford in Letty Lynton (1932) was widely copied, as was Edith Head’s white party dress for Elizabeth Taylor in A Place in the Sun (1951). However, since then various factors have enriched and diversified fashion’s interaction with film. First, there was—in the wake of Audrey Hepburn’s successful collaboration with the then young and relatively unknown Paris couturier Hubert de Givenchy from Sabrina (1954) onward—the growing use of fashion as opposed to costume design on a number of key movies. Second, alongside this industrial shift and commensurate with the expansion within the couture industry into prêt-à-porter, there was an escalation of fashion’s influence over film as well as the other way round. Third (and a far more contemporary factor) is the rise in celebrity culture and a burgeoning interest in movie stars, what they wear both on and off the screen. (more…)

According to the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM), a fiber is a unit of matter that has a length of at least 100 times its diameter. If fibers are to be used in textile products, they must have characteristics of fineness, strength, cohesiveness, and flexibility appropriate to the projected end use. Chemically, fibers are composed of long chains of molecules called polymers. (more…)

Fetishism is a term with a long and complicated history, encompassing religious, anthropological, economic, and sexual meanings. Missionary tracts with titles such as Fetishism and Fetish Worshippers denounced the “barbarous” religions of “primitive” people who worshiped “idols of wood or clay.” The term fetish was then extended to refer not only to objects allegedly possessing magic powers, but also to anything that was irrationally worshiped. Karl Marx famously coined the term “commodity fetishism” to describe the way objects produced through human labor acquired an exaggerated exchange value. Sexologists and psychiatrists traditionally described fetishism as a sexual “perversion.” Today, fetishism is usually characterized as a type of variant sexuality, in which arousal is associated with a (nongenital) part of the body, such as hair, or an inanimate object, such as a shoe. (more…)

Salvatore Ferragamo (1898-1960) was an artisan and an innovator during his fifty-year career in footwear design. His family name evokes beauty, traditional craftsmanship, and an assurance of quality and comfort. Born in Bonito, Italy, a remote hill town not far from Naples, Ferragamo was the eleventh in an agricultural family of fourteen children. Since poverty limited the resources needed to sustain a family, many Italians made their own shoes. Young Salvatore was determined to be a shoemaker and served an apprenticeship in a shop where each step was accomplished by hand. Intent on refining his knowledge and craftsmanship, he moved to Naples—at that time a hub for dressmakers, milliners, and shoemakers—in 1909, with the goal of learning accurate methods of measuring, fitting, and aesthetics. While still an adolescent, the imaginative and entrepreneurial Ferragamo returned to Bonito and set up a workshop with six assistants; under his leadership they produced custom-fitted, distinctively designed shoes. (more…)

Fendi is a synonym of fur and revolution, two apparently contradictory concepts. Having accepted the idea of mass consumption, Fendi attempted to provide furs for women of every social position, or nearly so, demystifying the luxury connotations that have always characterized this type of garment. (more…)

Felt is a fabric with a long history. It is a wonderfully versatile material. Felt with precise technical specifications is created in factories for industrial use, and yet the same material can be made by hand into beautiful clothing and exquisite works of art. (more…)

Feathers are the horny outgrowth of skin found on birds. They serve a protective function for birds similar to the scales for fish and hair for mammals. Protecting birds from temperature extremes, feathers also help them fly and differentiate between the sexes. (more…)

A key figure in the revival of the Paris fashion industry after World War II, Jacques Fath (1912-1954) created colorful and inventive designs catering to a young and sophisticated international clientele who identified with the vitality of his label. Though Fath was regarded as one of the “big three” Paris designers in the early 1950s—along with Christian Dior and Pierre Balmain—his untimely death at the age of forty-two meant that the impact and importance of his work was often overlooked in comparison to that of his contemporaries. While Fath’s designs were right on the mark of the glamorous postwar look, it was his attitude toward business and his understanding of the power of publicity and marketing that helped to place this charismatic and flamboyant designer apart from his peers. (more…)