165 Fun Facts About Fashion

Vogue's first overseas edition, launched in 1916, was published in which country?

Britain got its own Vogue in 1916 because wartime limits on shipping and a paper shortage in America made it hard to send copies across the Atlantic; a French edition followed in 1920.

What does the French term 'haute couture' literally translate to in English?

High sewing is the literal meaning, and in France the label is protected by law: only fashion houses on an official list drawn up each year may call their work haute couture.

Whose jersey wrap dress, launched in 1974, became a symbol of 1970s women's liberation?

Diane von Fürstenberg sold a million of her jersey wrap dresses within two years of the 1974 launch, and Newsweek put her on its cover in 1976.

Who was appointed the creative director of Louis Vuitton's menswear collection in 2023?

Pharrell Williams was named Louis Vuitton's men's creative director on 14 February 2023, filling the post left vacant by Virgil Abloh's death in 2021.

Which of these cities is NOT one of the 'Big Four' fashion capitals?

The 'Big Four' fashion capitals, renowned for hosting the most prominent fashion weeks, are New York, London, Milan, and Paris. While Tokyo hosts an important fashion week, it is not part of this specific group.

What was the theme for the 2024 Met Gala?

'Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion' took its title from the garments themselves: the most fragile had to be shown lying flat in glass cases, like the fairy-tale princess.

Which British designer has refused to use leather or fur since launching her own label in 2001?

Stella McCartney, a lifelong vegetarian and vocal animal-rights campaigner, has kept leather and fur out of her designs since opening her own house in 2001.

Mary Quant said she named the miniskirt after what?

Her favourite make of car, the Mini, gave Mary Quant the name; she said the car and the skirt went together, both 'optimistic, exuberant, young, flirty'.

Which actress married a prince in 1956 wearing a Helen Rose gown that her studio, MGM, gave as a wedding present?

Grace Kelly retired from acting at 26 to marry Prince Rainier of Monaco; the lace-and-silk gown her studio gave her now belongs to the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

How must a house make its garments to earn the legal label 'haute couture'?

Made-to-order for private clients, with fittings, is the first rule; the rulebook grew out of a trade body founded in 1868 to protect Paris dressmakers from copyists.

Whose plunging green tropical-print dress at the 2000 Grammy Awards led Google to build its image search?

Jennifer Lopez in the dress became the most popular search Google had ever seen, but the site could return only text links, so its engineers built Google Images, launched in 2001.

Which iconic French designer is widely credited with popularizing the 'little black dress'?

Coco Chanel's short, plain black dress ran in American Vogue in 1926; the magazine likened it to a Ford car because, like the Model T, it was simple and within reach of women of every class.

What term describes a suit cut from a pattern drafted from scratch for a single client?

Bespoke is the old past participle of 'bespeak', to order something in advance; its pattern is drafted from scratch, where made-to-measure only adjusts a standard one.

What is the 1960s fashion movement of miniskirts, bold patterns and youthful style called?

Mod style began with London teenagers in sharp suits on Italian scooters; their seaside brawls with leather-clad rockers in 1964 set off a national panic about British youth.

Which British firm's founder invented gabardine in 1879 and later designed a weatherproof coat for army officers?

Burberry's Thomas Burberry waterproofed the yarn before weaving, so gabardine breathed where rubberised raincoats did not; Amundsen and Shackleton wore it to the Antarctic.

What soft, breathable natural fiber is the world's most widely used for textiles?

Cotton was slow and costly to clean by hand until the mechanical cotton gin of the 1790s stripped out its seeds, making the fibre cheap enough to become the world's everyday cloth.

Which designer is credited with introducing 'Le Smoking,' the iconic tuxedo suit for women, in 1966?

Yves Saint Laurent launched it when smart restaurants still barred women in trousers; stopped at the door of Manhattan's La Côte Basque in a trouser suit, socialite Nan Kempner simply took the trousers off.

Which actress was the famous muse of designer Hubert de Givenchy, on and off screen?

Audrey Hepburn first wore Givenchy in Sabrina (1954) and kept him for films including Breakfast at Tiffany's; his first perfume, L'Interdit, was created for her.

Which queen's white satin-and-lace wedding gown is widely credited with popularising white for brides?

Queen Victoria married Prince Albert in 1840 in white satin trimmed with Honiton lace, a boost for Devon's lace makers; royal brides before her had typically worn heavy brocade stitched with silver.

Which 1980s women's corporate fashion trend featured oversized silhouettes and broad shoulders?

Power Dressing borrowed the tailored jacket and padded shoulders of men's suits, so that the growing number of women in management could project authority at work.

Which supermodel told Vogue in 1990, 'We don't wake up for less than $10,000 a day'?

Linda Evangelista was speaking for herself and Christy Turlington, at the moment a handful of models became as famous and as well paid as film stars; it is often called modelling's most famous quote.

What fine, net-like fabric is used in bridal wear and to add volume to garments?

Tulle takes its name from the French town of Tulle, where the net is thought to have first been made; layers of it give ballet tutus and wedding gowns their volume.

Which British designer dragged punk fashion into the mainstream in the 1970s?

Vivienne Westwood and Malcolm McLaren ran the King's Road boutique SEX from 1974, selling rubber and fetish wear; its customers included the Sex Pistols, the band McLaren went on to manage.

Which Harper's Bazaar editor coined the phrase 'The New Look' for Dior's 1947 debut collection?

Carmel Snow told Dior after the February 1947 show that his dresses had 'such a new look'; his own name for the full-skirted line was Corolle, after a flower's ring of petals.

What term describes a small set of clothes chosen so that its few pieces combine into outfits for many occasions?

Capsule wardrobe was revived as a term in the 1970s by London boutique owner Susie Faux; Donna Karan popularised the idea in 1985 with seven easy pieces that all mixed and matched.

Which luxury brand, founded in 1837, began with equestrian accessories before leather goods and fashion?

Hermès began in 1837 as Thierry Hermès's Paris harness workshop; when the motor car began to replace the carriage, his grandsons turned its saddle stitching to luggage and handbags.

Which garment did French engineer Louis Réard name in 1946 after the site of a nuclear test?

Bikini Atoll, where the US had tested an atomic bomb days earlier, gave Réard the name; no fashion model would wear his tiny two-piece, so he hired a Casino de Paris dancer, Micheline Bernardini, to show it.

Which celebrity wore Marilyn Monroe's 1962 'Happy Birthday, Mr President' gown to the 2022 Met Gala?

Kim Kardashian wore the original for only a few minutes on the red carpet, then changed into a replica to spare the 60-year-old gown.

Which sturdy twill fabric takes its name from the French city of Nîmes?

Denim is short for 'serge de Nîmes', the twill once made in that southern French city; 'jeans' has a similar origin, in the old French name for Genoa.

Which Italian designer dressed Richard Gere in American Gigolo (1980)?

Giorgio Armani dressed Gere's character in his soft, unstructured suits; he had quit medical school and started out dressing windows at Milan's La Rinascente department store.

Which French shoe designer, along with André Perugia, popularized the stiletto heel in the 1950s?

Roger Vivier designed shoes for Dior from 1953 and made the needle-thin heel his signature; it borrowed its name from the stiletto, a slender Italian dagger.

Which French fashion house, founded in 1910, is famous for tweed suits and the No. 5 perfume?

The house was founded in Paris in 1910 and its No. 5 perfume, launched in 1921, remains one of the best-known fragrances in the world.

Which designer was dismissed by Perry Ellis after showing his 1992 'grunge' collection?

Marc Jacobs lost the Perry Ellis job in 1993 over the grunge collection; in 2018 Nirvana sued him for putting a look-alike smiley face on his 'Bootleg Redux Grunge' line.

What type of sleeve extends in one piece to the collar, with a diagonal seam from the underarm?

A raglan sleeve runs in one piece to the neckline, with no shoulder seam; it is named for Lord Raglan, the Crimean War commander, who is said to have favoured the cut after losing an arm at Waterloo.

Which English-born designer, called the 'father of haute couture', opened his Paris salon in 1858?

Charles Frederick Worth opened Worth et Bobergh at 7 rue de la Paix in 1858; a ball gown he made for Princess Pauline von Metternich caught Empress Eugénie's eye, and the court followed.

What is the lightweight, breathable fabric made from flax fibres called?

Linen is spun from the fibres of the flax plant, and it gave us the word 'lingerie': French linge means linen, the cloth underclothes were once made from.

Which Milan fashion house, founded in 1913, sold leather goods and luggage before expanding into ready-to-wear?

Prada began as Mario Prada's leather-goods shop in Milan's Galleria; his sons took no interest, so it passed to his daughter and then to a granddaughter, who made plain black backpacks its signature.

What aesthetic featured low-rise jeans, crop tops and velour tracksuits?

Y2K is shorthand for the year 2000, borrowed from the 'millennium bug' computer scare; the look matched the moment with shiny metallics and futuristic, sci-fi styling.

What is the term for a high neckline that does not fold over, similar to a short turtleneck?

A mock neck stands up like a turtleneck but is shorter, with no fold-over; Steve Jobs made a black one his daily uniform after Apple staff rejected his idea of a company-wide outfit.

Which strong, elastic, water-resistant synthetic fibre is often used in swimwear and activewear?

Nylon went into parachutes instead of stockings during the Second World War; when sales resumed in 1945, shoppers queued in their thousands in what the papers called 'nylon riots'.

Which San Francisco wholesaler shared an 1873 patent for copper-riveted work trousers with Reno tailor Jacob Davis?

Levi Strauss was the wholesaler who supplied Davis's cloth; the tailor had hit on riveting pocket corners but needed a backer to file the patent, so he offered his supplier a share.

What is a skirt or dress shape called that fits at the top and widens gradually towards the hem?

The A-line is named for its likeness to a capital letter A; Christian Dior coined the term as the title of his spring 1955 collection.

Which teenage London model did the Daily Express name 'The Face of 1966'?

Twiggy, born Lesley Hornby, was 16 when the paper ran her cropped-hair portrait; her stage name came from 'Twigs', a childhood nickname for her thin frame.

What name was given to the young women of the 1920s who bobbed their hair and wore short, drop-waisted dresses?

Flappers rebelled against ladylike convention by smoking and drinking in public, driving cars and dancing to jazz.

The term 'prêt-à-porter' in fashion refers to what?

Mass-produced, ready-to-wear clothing is the meaning, and the French phrase is the copy: it was coined around 1950 as a translation of the American term 'ready-to-wear'.

Which American designer started his company in 1967 selling wide men's neckties?

Ralph Lauren was a tie salesman who talked his employer into letting him launch his own wide ties in 1967; he worked from a single drawer in an Empire State Building showroom and delivered orders himself.

Which Italian fashion house, founded in Rome in 1925, is known for fur and leather goods?

Fendi opened in Rome in 1925 as Adele and Edoardo Fendi's fur and leather shop; Karl Lagerfeld, hired in 1965 to modernise its furs, drew the double-F logo and stayed until his death in 2019.

Who bought Vogue in 1909, after founder Arthur Turnure's death, and turned the society weekly into a women's fashion magazine?

Condé Nast turned Vogue toward women's fashion and built a publishing house around it that still carries his name; the magazine went fortnightly in 1910 and monthly only in 1973.

Which French couturier dropped the corset from his gowns in 1906 and later claimed credit for the 'hobble' skirt?

Paul Poiret opened his house in 1903 and made his name with loose, high-waisted gowns worn without a corset, then narrowed skirts so far at the ankle that they shortened a woman's stride.

In fashion, what is an 'atelier'?

A designer's workshop or studio is what atelier means in fashion; the French word grew from an old word for a splinter or chip of wood.

Which semi-synthetic fabric, made from wood pulp, is a soft-draping affordable alternative to silk?

Rayon was sold as 'artificial silk' until the 1920s, when the trade adopted the name rayon, probably from the French for a ray of light, for its sheen.

Which actress gave her name to a famous 1984 handbag from a French luxury house?

Jane Birkin sat beside the house's chief, Jean-Louis Dumas, on a Paris–London flight and told him she wanted a roomier bag; in 1984 the house made one and named it after her.

What is the term for a finished garment opening that holds buttons, snaps or zippers?

A placket is a finished opening in a garment that holds closures such as buttons, snaps, or zippers, providing both function and a clean look, especially in shirts and dresses.

Which two designers won the International Woolmark Prize, launched in 1953, as unknowns?

Yves Saint Laurent and Karl Lagerfeld both won the International Wool Secretariat design contest in 1954 as unknowns, Saint Laurent in the dress category aged 18 and Lagerfeld in the coat category aged 21.

In what year did Louis Vuitton launch its signature Monogram canvas, later patented worldwide?

Georges Vuitton created the Monogram canvas in 1896 to deter counterfeiters; its quatrefoils and flowers drew on the late-Victorian vogue for Japanese family crests, and the canvas was made suppler in 1959 for handbags.

Jeans became casual fashion after 1950s films with James Dean and which other actor?

Marlon Brando in The Wild One (1953) and James Dean in Rebel Without a Cause (1955) made jeans a badge of youthful rebellion, turning miners' riveted work trousers into everyday casual wear.

What is a fold sewn into fabric to add shape, often at the bust, waist, or hips, called?

A dart takes a wedge out of flat cloth and tapers to a point, so the fabric curves over the bust or hips instead of hanging straight.

The CFDA Fashion Awards celebrate the fashion industry of which country?

The United States is home to the CFDA, the Council of Fashion Designers of America; its prizes, sometimes called the 'Oscars of fashion', outlasted the older Coty Awards, which were dropped in 1985.

Which avant-garde designer was chief designer at Givenchy from 1996 to 2001 while running his own label?

Alexander McQueen took over from John Galliano at Givenchy in 1996 and called his own first couture show there 'crap'; he left in 2001, saying the house had begun to constrain his creativity.

What is the term for the overall shape or outline of an item of clothing?

In fashion terms, the word 'silhouette' refers to the basic shape or outline of an item of clothing, defining its overall form and visual impact.

Which Italian designer was murdered outside his Miami Beach mansion in July 1997?

Gianni Versace was shot on the steps of Casa Casuarina as he came home from buying his morning magazines; his killer, Andrew Cunanan, shot himself on a houseboat eight days later.

Which mythological figure appears in the Versace logo?

Medusa's head nods to the ancient Greek past of Calabria, the southern Italian region where the house's founder grew up, once part of Magna Graecia.

Gucci was founded in 1921 in which Italian city?

Guccio Gucci opened his leather-goods shop in Florence in 1921 after working as a bellhop at London's Savoy Hotel, where he studied wealthy travellers' luggage.

Which luxury conglomerate has owned Gucci as a subsidiary since 1999?

Kering, then called PPR, bought a controlling stake in Gucci in 1999 after a takeover fight with LVMH; the Gucci family had been fully ousted from the company by 1993.

Which designer was named creative director of Gucci in 1994 and went on to revive it?

Tom Ford joined an almost bankrupt Gucci in 1990 and became creative director four years later; by 1999 the house he had made desirable again was valued at more than $4 billion.

Which Spanish couturier did Christian Dior call 'the master of us all'?

Cristóbal Balenciaga was introduced to dressmaking by his seamstress mother in a Basque fishing village; when he shut his house in 1968, one loyal client is said to have kept to her room for three days.

Valentino Garavani opened his first fashion house on which Rome street at the foot of the Spanish Steps?

Via Condotti was where Valentino Garavani set up with his father's backing after training in Paris; within a year his lavish spending had brought the house close to bankruptcy, and he moved to smaller premises.

Which Paris house did Karl Lagerfeld design for in the 1970s and again 1992–97?

Chloé hired Karl Lagerfeld as a freelancer in the 1960s; he left in the 1980s to design for a rival Paris house, then came back for a second spell without giving up the rival job.

Karl Lagerfeld's famous cat Choupette was of which breed?

Choupette, a blue-eyed Birman, came to Lagerfeld in 2011 and became a celebrity in her own right; he said in 2013 that he would marry her if it were legal.

Which house hired Marc Jacobs in 1997 to launch its first ready-to-wear line?

Louis Vuitton, a luggage maker until then, hired Marc Jacobs in 1997; he launched its first clothes and had artists Stephen Sprouse and Takashi Murakami rework its monogram in graffiti and bright colours.

Which Bronx-born designer founded his label with childhood friend Barry Schwartz in 1968?

Calvin Klein launched the company in 1968 with $10,000 from Barry Schwartz, who ran the business side; his break came when a Bonwit Teller buyer saw his coats and placed an order.

Donna Karan headed the design team of which label before launching her own in 1984?

Anne Klein gave Donna Karan her first job; when Klein died in 1974, Karan, still in her mid-twenties, was made chief designer and had to finish that season's collection.

Who made the pillbox hat the new First Lady wore to the 1961 US presidential inauguration?

Halston was head milliner at Bergdorf Goodman when he made the hat; as women gave up wearing hats in the 1960s he turned to clothes, launching his first collection in 1966.

Which couturier, famous for Surrealist designs and 'shocking pink', opened her Paris house in 1927?

Elsa Schiaparelli and Salvador Dalí created a 1937 dress printed with a giant lobster; Wallis Simpson wore it for Cecil Beaton's photographs shortly before she married the former Edward VIII.

Which French designer created Madonna's cone bra for the 1990 Blond Ambition tour?

Jean Paul Gaultier never trained formally: he posted his sketches to couture houses as a teenager, and Pierre Cardin took him on as an assistant at 18; he later costumed The Fifth Element.

Which Japanese designer was known for the technology-driven 'Pleats, Please' line?

Issey Miyake, a Hiroshima-born survivor of the 1945 atomic bombing, also made the black turtlenecks that became Steve Jobs's uniform; Jobs said he was sent about a hundred of them.

Rei Kawakubo is the founder of which fashion label?

Comme des Garçons takes its name, 'like the boys', from the words of a Françoise Hardy pop song; Rei Kawakubo, who never went to fashion school, began selling clothes under it in 1969.

Whose jewelled top met jeans on Wintour's first Vogue cover?

Christian Lacroix's couture top came with a skirt that didn't fit model Michaela Bercu, so jeans were swapped in; the printers rang Vogue to ask whether the cover was a mistake.

Anna Wintour's father Charles edited which British newspaper?

Charles Wintour edited the London Evening Standard for most of the years between 1959 and 1980; as its deputy editor he had talked the owner, Lord Beaverbrook, into launching the paper's theatre awards.

Shoe designer Manolo Blahnik grew up on his family's banana plantation in which island group?

Manolo Blahnik was born on La Palma in the Canary Islands to a Czech father and a Spanish mother; he took up shoes after Vogue's Diana Vreeland looked at his sketches and told him to make them.

Christian Louboutin's trademark red soles were first created using what?

Christian Louboutin painted the black sole of a prototype with an assistant's red nail polish to make the shoe pop; the red sole later became a registered trademark.

Shoe designer Jimmy Choo was born in 1948 in which then-British colony?

Jimmy Choo was born in 1948 in Penang, Malaya, to a family of Hakka shoemakers, and made his first pair of shoes aged 11 before training at Cordwainers in London.

Which model became the first Black cover star of Vogue Paris in August 1988?

Naomi Campbell's August 1988 cover was French Vogue's first with a Black model; in 1966 the magazine's editor is said to have lost her job for wanting a Black model on the cover.

Which English model rose to fame as the face of the 'heroin chic' look?

Kate Moss, scouted at 14 at JFK airport, became the face of 'heroin chic' through her waifish advertising campaigns, including a 1992 one with Mark Wahlberg.

Which Brazilian model led Forbes' list of the highest-paid models for over a decade until 2017?

Gisele Bündchen led the highest-paid models list for more than a decade until Kendall Jenner overtook her in 2017; Vogue's 1999 'return of the sexy model' cover had cast her as the end of heroin chic.

The Met Gala was established in 1948 by which fashion publicist?

Publicist Eleanor Lambert, who also created the International Best Dressed List, started the Met Gala in 1948 as a midnight supper raising funds for the Metropolitan Museum's newly absorbed Costume Institute.

Who wrote the 2003 novel on which the film The Devil Wears Prada is based?

Lauren Weisberger, a former Vogue assistant, wrote The Devil Wears Prada (2003); the 2006 film stars Meryl Streep as the demanding editor Miranda Priestly.

Which Chicago inventor's 'clasp locker' of the 1890s evolved into the modern zipper?

Whitcomb L. Judson patented his 'clasp locker' hook-and-eye fastener in 1893 and showed it at that year's Chicago World's Fair; Gideon Sundback's 1913 redesign turned it into the modern zipper.

The zipper got its name from which product of tyre maker Goodrich?

Galoshes that Goodrich sold from 1923 could be fastened with a single zip of the hand, so the company called the boots Zippers; the name soon passed to the fastener itself.

What clinging to George de Mestral's dog after a day in the Alps gave him the idea for Velcro?

Burdock burrs clung to his dog's fur and his own clothes after a 1941 outing; under a microscope he saw tiny hooks catching on anything looped, and spent years working out how to copy them.

Converse was founded in 1908 in which US state?

Marquis Mills Converse opened the Converse Rubber Shoe Company in Malden, Massachusetts, in 1908; its All Star took off after salesman Chuck Taylor toured the country promoting it and his signature was added to the ankle patch.

Which sportswear giant acquired Converse in 2003?

Nike bought Converse in 2003, two years after it went bankrupt; its Chuck Taylor All Star had dominated American basketball until rivals overtook it in the 1970s.

Dr. Martens' original 1460 boot takes its number from what?

Its launch date: the first pair came off the line in Wollaston, Northamptonshire, on 1 April 1960, written 1/4/60; first worn by postmen and factory workers, the boot was later adopted by skinheads and punks.

Klaus Märtens, whose boots became Dr. Martens, was a WWII doctor for which country's forces?

Germany's Klaus Märtens, a young army doctor, injured himself skiing in 1945 and designed an air-cushioned sole to ease the pain; his first buyers were mostly older women.

Birkenstock's contoured footbeds are made with cork and layers of which materials?

Suede and jute sandwich the cork-latex core of a Birkenstock footbed; the family traces its shoemaking to 1774, and after Margot Fraser took the sandals to California in 1966 they became a hippie staple.

Ugg boots originated in which country?

Ugg boots originated in Australia, where sheepskin boots were worn by surfers from the 1960s; the Deckers-owned UGG brand turned them into a worldwide trend in the mid-2000s.

Cashmere fibre is obtained from which animal?

Cashmere is the soft winter undercoat of cashmere goats; the name is another spelling of Kashmir, whose shawls made the wool famous in Europe.

In Scotland, tweed manufacturing is most associated with which island?

Harris Tweed, hand-woven in the Outer Hebrides and protected by the Harris Tweed Act 1993, made the Isle of Harris synonymous with the cloth; 'tweed' reportedly began as a misreading of 'tweel', Scots for twill.

Spandex, invented at DuPont in 1958, has a name that is an anagram of which word?

Expands, rearranged, gives spandex, the fibre DuPont chemist Joseph Shivers developed to replace the rubber then used in girdles; DuPont sold it as Lycra.

H&M was founded in 1947 in Sweden under what name?

Hennes is Swedish for 'hers'; the shop sold only women's clothing until Mauritz Widforss was acquired in 1968.

Nike was founded in 1964 under what name?

Blue Ribbon Sports began in 1964 as Bill Bowerman and Phil Knight's importer of Japan's Onitsuka Tiger shoes, sold mostly from Knight's car at track meets; the Nike name arrived in 1971.

Adidas founder Adolf Dassler's brother Rudolf went on to found which rival sportswear brand?

Puma was founded in 1948 by Rudolf Dassler after the brothers' feud split the family shoe firm; he first registered it as Ruda, and for decades Puma and Adidas workers in Herzogenaurach would not mix.

Uniqlo's name is a contraction of which phrase?

Unique clothing was the idea behind the Unique Clothing Warehouse, opened in Hiroshima in 1984; a Q reportedly replaced the C by mistake when the brand was registered in Hong Kong in 1988, and it stuck.

Crinoline began as a stiff petticoat fabric woven partly from which material?

Horsehair gave crinoline its name, from crin, French for horsehair; in the 1850s the steel-hooped cage crinoline replaced the layers of heavy petticoats women had worn to fill out their skirts.

Which 19th-century undergarment added fullness at the back of women's dresses?

The bustle, a pad or wire frame worn below the waist at the back, replaced the full crinoline in the 1870s; its padded forerunners went by names like 'bum rolls' and 'cork rumps'.

Ray-Ban sunglasses were created in 1936 by which company?

Bausch & Lomb created Ray-Ban in 1936, developing anti-glare Aviator lenses for US Army Air Corps pilots, and put the glasses on public sale a year later.

What is the pouch worn at the front of a kilt called?

Sporran is Gaelic for 'purse'; it hangs from a chain or leather strap because the kilt itself has no pockets.

What is the fitted bodice worn with a sari called in northern India?

The choli is the short, fitted blouse worn under a sari; under colonial rule the elites of Bombay and Bengal adopted puff-sleeved European versions of it, along with the petticoat.

What is the stiff front panel of a traditional corset called?

The busk is the rigid strip of wood, bone or steel slipped into the front of a corset to keep it straight; early ones were often carved or inscribed and given by men as courtship gifts.

Which younger, more playful label did Prada launch as its sister line?

Miu Miu takes its name from Miuccia Prada's family nickname; she had taken over the family luxury-goods firm in 1978 and added the line as its younger sister.

Bridal designer Vera Wang initially pursued a career in which sport?

Vera Wang competed in figure skating, placing fifth in junior pairs at the 1968 US championships; when she missed the Olympic team she turned to fashion, joining Vogue and opening her bridal boutique in 1990.

Which fashion designer was born in Santo Domingo and went on to dress several American first ladies?

Oscar de la Renta left Santo Domingo at 18 to study painting in Madrid, where his fashion sketches won him an apprenticeship at a leading couture house; he launched his own label in 1965.

Which preppy American label launched in 1985 with a bold Times Square billboard?

Tommy Hilfiger's Times Square billboard was the work of adman George Lois; Apax Partners bought the company in 2006 for about $1.6 billion and sold on four years later to Phillips-Van Heusen for about $3 billion.

Which original Project Runway judge was born Karl Anderson Jr.?

Michael Kors took his stepfather's surname at five, when his mother married Bill Kors, and she let him pick a new first name to go with it; he chose Michael.

Which Italian house, founded in Gallarate in 1953, is famous for zigzag knitwear?

Missoni's founders met at the 1948 London Olympics, where Ottavio Missoni ran the hurdles and 16-year-old Rosita was a student in the crowd; they married in 1953 and set up their knitwear workshop in Gallarate.

Which Italian shoemaker devised the cork wedge heel in the 1930s?

Salvatore Ferragamo turned to Sardinian cork when shortages in 1930s Italy left him without steel to support the arch, gluing and trimming it into a solid wedge; Hollywood knew him as 'shoemaker to the stars'.

Zara is the flagship brand of which Spanish retail group?

Inditex was built by Amancio Ortega, a railway worker's son who left school at 14 and started as a shop hand for a shirtmaker; it grew from the first Zara shop, opened in A Coruña in 1975.

Who designed the Swoosh logo while still a graphic-design student?

Carolyn Davidson, a Portland State graphic-design student, drew the Swoosh in 1971 and was paid $35; the company gave her stock and a diamond Swoosh ring in 1983.

Which Italian eyewear group has owned the Ray-Ban brand since 1999?

Luxottica paid a reported $640 million for Ray-Ban in 1999, then bought Sunglass Hut in 2001 and Oakley in 2007, so the group owns the big sunglasses names and many of the shops that sell them.

Which Regency dandy died penniless in a French asylum?

Beau Brummell fled his debts to France after quarrelling with his old friend the Prince Regent, whom he is said to have snubbed with 'Who's your fat friend?'; he died in Caen in 1840.

René Lacoste's 'Crocodile' nickname is said to come from a bet with his Davis Cup captain over what reptile-skin prize?

A suitcase he had spotted in a Boston shop was the stake, in the best-known account; the American press then nicknamed Lacoste after the reptile, and a friend's crocodile design was later embroidered on his blazer.

Which raincoat takes its name from the Scottish chemist who bonded two layers of cloth with rubber in the 1820s?

Mackintosh coats are named for Charles Macintosh, who dissolved rubber in naphtha, a coal-tar by-product, to cement two cloths into one waterproof sheet; the garment later gained a 'k' its inventor never had.

Which German fashion house made uniforms for the Nazi Party in the 1930s?

Hugo Boss opened his Metzingen clothing factory in 1924 and joined the Nazi Party in 1931; the firm moved into men's suits after the war and in 2011 apologised for its use of forced labour.

Which fashion editor became Alexander McQueen's patron after seeing his MA graduation collection?

Isabella Blow bought Alexander McQueen's entire 1992 Central Saint Martins MA collection and championed him; his low-cut 'bumster' trousers soon made him British fashion's enfant terrible.

Which Italian label did a Sicilian tailor's son help found?

Dolce & Gabbana began after Domenico Dolce, raised around his father's tailoring shop in Sicily, met Stefano Gabbana while both worked for the same designer; their first womenswear collection was shown in 1985.

The Panama hat got its name from its shipping route but is traditionally woven in which country?

Ecuador weaves the toquilla-straw hats, which took the name of the isthmus they were shipped through. Theodore Roosevelt was photographed in one at the canal works in 1906, which made them more popular still.

Which knitted garment is named after the British earl who led the Charge of the Light Brigade?

Cardigan comes from James Brudenell, 7th Earl of Cardigan, a Crimean War general. The style copies the knitted wool waistcoats that British officers are said to have worn on that campaign.

Which everyday fastener did mechanic Walter Hunt invent in 1849 to pay off a $15 debt?

Safety pin inventor Walter Hunt twisted his prototype from one length of brass wire. He sold the patent for $400, paid the friend he owed and kept the change.

The small extra pocket on the front of Levi's jeans was originally added to protect what?

A watch rode there, which is why Levi's calls it the watch pocket. The first blue jeans had four pockets, with only one at the back, until a second back pocket arrived in 1901.

Which supermodel hosted Project Runway from 2004, sending designers home with 'Auf Wiedersehen'?

Heidi Klum hosted its first 16 seasons alongside mentor Tim Gunn. The pair left together to front a rival show, Making the Cut, and Klum returned as host in 2025.

Which film stars Ben Stiller as a male model tricked into assassinating Malaysia's Prime Minister?

Zoolander grew out of a sketch Ben Stiller made for the 1996 VH1 Fashion Awards. Will Ferrell plays Mugatu, the fashion mogul whose businesses the minister's reforms would hurt.

Which shoe brand unveiled its first model, the Beach, at a Florida boat show in 2002?

Crocs sold out all 200 pairs made for that Fort Lauderdale show. By 2017 the brand had sold 300 million pairs of its Croslite foam shoes.

Which jeweller's robin's-egg blue gift boxes take their shade from the cover of its 1845 Blue Book?

Tiffany & Co. registered the blue as a colour trademark in 1998. Pantone mixes it as a private custom colour numbered 1837, after the year the firm was founded.

The thin stiletto heel, popular since the 1950s, borrows the Italian name of which slender weapon?

A dagger with a slender, needle-pointed blade gave the shoe its name. The Italian word is a diminutive of 'stilo', which goes back to the Latin stilus, a pointed tool for writing.

Which Converse salesman had his signature added to the ankle patch of the All Star basketball shoe?

Chuck Taylor joined Converse in 1921 and sold the shoe by running basketball clinics in school gyms. His name on the patch made it the first celebrity-endorsed athletic shoe.

The tuxedo takes its name from an enclave for the wealthy, Tuxedo Park, in which US state?

New York's Hudson Valley is home to Tuxedo Park, where the short dinner jacket was introduced in 1886. In Britain the same garment is simply called a dinner jacket.

Sportswear brand Reebok takes its name from the Afrikaans spelling of which kind of African animal?

An antelope, the grey rhebok, gave the brand its name: co-founder Joe Foster found the word in a dictionary he had won in a sprint race as a boy. The firm grew out of J.W. Foster and Sons, a Bolton maker of early spiked running shoes.

The word 'jeans' comes from the old French name for which Italian port, an early maker of the cloth?

Genoa was Gênes to the French, and its mid-priced fustian cloth was used for work clothes in general. The riveted American trousers that borrowed the name came three centuries later.

The cravat, ancestor of the necktie, was named after hired soldiers of which nationality in France?

Croatian mercenaries serving France in the Thirty Years' War wore knotted neckcloths that Parisians copied. Croatia celebrates Cravat Day every 18 October.

Which teardrop motif of Persian origin takes its English name from a weaving town in Scotland?

Paisley, a textile town in the west of Scotland, wove copies of Kashmir shawls on Jacquard looms. In Persian the motif is called boteh.

Which soft felt hat takes its name from an 1882 French play written for Sarah Bernhardt?

Fedora was the title of Victorien Sardou's drama, in which Bernhardt played a princess and wore a soft, centre-creased hat. Women wore the style before men took it up.

Which Hollywood costume designer won a record eight Academy Awards, the last for The Sting?

Edith Head also collected a record 35 nominations for costume design. She dressed plainly herself, favouring thick-framed glasses and conservative two-piece suits.

The costly Tyrian purple dye reserved for Roman emperors was extracted from which animals?

Sea snails of the murex family secrete the dye as mucus, and it took tens of thousands of them to colour a garment. By the fourth century only the emperor was allowed to wear it.

Which puckered striped summer fabric takes its name from Persian words meaning 'milk and sugar'?

Seersucker pairs smooth stripes, the milk, with bumpy ones, the sugar. The cloth and its name reached English from colonial India.

The plimsoll shoe is named after a mark Samuel Plimsoll devised to stop the overloading of what?

Ships carry the Plimsoll line on the hull to show how deeply they may legally be loaded. The band joining the shoe's canvas upper to its rubber sole was thought to resemble it.

Roy Raymond founded which lingerie chain in 1977 after an awkward trip to buy his wife underwear?

Victoria's Secret opened at the Stanford Shopping Center in Palo Alto, California. Raymond sold his five stores to Les Wexner in 1982, who built them into the country's largest lingerie retailer.

Which singer launched the lingerie label Savage X Fenty in 2018 with a pop-up shop in Brooklyn?

Rihanna built the label as a joint venture with TechStyle Fashion Group. All of its pre-launch marketing ran on her own Instagram account.

Sara Blakely, who once sold fax machines door-to-door, founded which shapewear brand in 2000?

Spanx began with $5,000 of her savings and two years of development in Atlanta. She kept her day job at an office supply company the whole time.

Which shapewear label did Kim Kardashian rename in 2019 after Kyoto's mayor objected to 'Kimono'?

Skims replaced the name Kimono Intimates after critics said it disrespected Japan's traditional dress. Kardashian co-founded the company with Swedish businessman Jens Grede.

A pioneering sports bra, made in a Vermont theatre costume shop in 1977, was two of what sewn together?

Jockstraps gave the prototype its first nickname, the jockbra, later changed to Jogbra. One of the originals is bronzed and on display near the University of Vermont costume shop.

The 1914 'Backless Brassiere' patent went to a socialite who made hers from ribbon and two what?

Handkerchiefs and pink ribbon replaced a stiff corset that poked out from under Mary Phelps Jacob's gown before a debutante ball. She later sold the patent to a corset company for $1,500.

Which piece of bridal lingerie shares its name with Britain's most senior order of knighthood?

Garter legend has a countess losing hers at a court ball, prompting Edward III to found the order in 1348. Its motto, Honi soit qui mal y pense, shames anyone who thinks evil of it.

Which film producer designed a cantilevered underwire bra for Jane Russell to wear in The Outlaw?

Howard Hughes had curved metal supports sewn under each cup and joined to the shoulder straps. Russell later wrote that it hurt so much she secretly wore her own bra instead.

The company behind which bra and girdle brand also developed spacesuits for the Apollo programme?

Playtex was the consumer arm of the International Latex Corporation of Dover, Delaware. Its industrial division won the Apollo work and was spun off as ILC Dover in 1967.

Protesters at which 1968 pageant tossed bras into a 'Freedom Trash Can' in Atlantic City?

Miss America drew the protest, where girdles, corsets and false eyelashes went into the can too. A reporter's comparison with burning draft cards turned 'bra-burning' into a catch-phrase.

Which editor of the women's paper The Lily gave her name to loose trousers gathered at the ankle?

Amelia Bloomer championed the outfit in print but did not invent it: she took it up in 1851 after activist Libby Miller. The name later passed to baggy women's underpants fastened near the knee.

The 'whalebone' that stiffened corsets is not bone but which material from a whale's mouth?

Baleen is keratin, the stuff of human fingernails, and hangs in plates that filter a whale's food. Its strength and flex also suited parasol ribs, collar stiffeners and buggy whips.

Which lace, a lingerie and bridal favourite, shares its name with a French town and a whipped cream?

Chantilly lace was at its best in black silk, which made it a favourite for mourning wear. Much of the 19th-century supply was really made in Bayeux, in Normandy.

Which short, loose nightgown had its name popularised by a 1956 film starring Carroll Baker?

Babydoll nighties took off after Baker played the title role in Baby Doll. Short daywear dresses cut in the same style are called babydoll dresses too.

The push-up Wonderbra of 'Hello Boys' fame was designed in the 1960s by a company in which country?

Canada's Canadian Lady Corset Company licensed the name in 1939 and developed its plunge push-up Model 1300 in the early 1960s. The bra only became a British craze in the early 1990s.

Which unit for the thickness of tights and stockings takes its name from a medieval French coin?

Denier counts the grams in 9,000 metres of yarn. Sheer hosiery runs from about 5 to 15, while anything from 40 up is dense and lets little light through.

Which Los Angeles designer created the topless monokini, the thong swimsuit and the 'No Bra'?

Rudi Gernreich reached Los Angeles at 16 as a Jewish refugee from Vienna. He also designed the first swimsuit without a built-in bra and championed unisex clothing.

Which Frenchwoman split the corset in two in 1889, creating a forerunner of the modern bra?

Herminie Cadolle called her invention the corselet-gorge and showed it at the 1900 Exposition Universelle. By 1905 its upper half was being sold on its own.

Four 15th-century bras were found in 2008 in a hidden vault at Lengberg Castle in which country?

Austria's Lengberg find surprised historians, who had long believed working bras were only about a century old. One had traces of lace-making round its edges and looked much like a modern bra.

Which wide sash, often costing more than the Japanese kimono it is worn with, ties at the waist?

Obi sashes began as thin cords in Japan's Heian period and widened as kimono sleeves grew. Many are now too stiff to hold the robe shut, so hidden ties do that job.