Here are some interesting factoids I’ve been learning this semester. Anything in quotes came directly from one of my professors.
-Unless you are riding horses, there isn’t actually any reason to need pants.
-Many historical red dyes came from the bodies of bugs. One is called kermes. It is fun to say.
-Historical dyes also came from wood, flowers, lichen, and ooze secreted by snail glands. The snail ooze was the most valuable.
-“Cleaning is not reversible”
-“A Charles James dress is built like a tank. It is less like wearing a dress and more like inhabiting a car.”
-Dry cleaning is not, in fact, dry. Instead of water, a chemical solvent is used. This solvent is a liquid and the clothing gets tumbled around in it like in a washing machine. Contrary to popular belief, it is not good for very delicate items. Also, they don’t change the solvent vats every time, so your stuff is probably rolling around in other people’s dirt.
-When you talk to people about Prussian blue, first clarify that you are referring to the historical dyestuff invented in the 18th century, and not the white supremacist pop duo.
-When light hits an object, certain electrons get all excited and the energy comes back to our eyes as color. When the light goes out, the electrons settle down. So when you turn off the lights, it isn’t just that you can’t perceive color around you, the color is actually gone.
-Don’t be too excited about leaving the corset behind in the 19th century. Without a corset, you just have to have the perfect body all on your own.
-Indigo dyeing is a complex chemical process. When the dye is in the vat it is a sickly green color, but when you pull the fabric out, the air turns it blue.
-Brazilwood was a very important historic dye. How important? The dye was not named after the country. The country was named after the dye.
-When designer Paul Poiret worked for Doucet (another designer), Doucet thought that Poiret lacked polish. He advised him to take an elegant woman as a lover and go to more museums.
-In order to market his perfume, Paul Poiret sprayed the perfume on fans that he handed out at his fashion shows. Then he made sure to keep the room uncomfortably hot.
-Some natural dyes fluoresce under UV light. So if you bring your 18th century gown to the club, those demure pink flowers will suddenly become ELECRIC SALMON.
-The ancient Andean cultures of South America prized textiles above all other art forms. Some complex weave structures they used still baffle scholars today.
-When Chanel showed her comeback collection in 1954 (her house had been closed since 1939) “It was like a dinosaur returning from a prehistoric era.”
-“No matter how you spell it, never use the word ‘dye’ in the title of an exhibition. It is like ‘welcome to our exhibition…death.’”
-One of the weaving techniques used by Northwest Coast Native Americans is shared only by the Maori of New Zealand. Considering how strong NW coast shipbuilding skills were, there is some question as to weather there was contact between the two places.
-The costumes in Mad Men actually aren’t as accurate as everybody thinks.
-Vionnet did not invent the bias cut. Chanel did not invent pants for women. STOP SAYING THEY DID.
-In the Paris collections shown just before the outbreak of WWII, several designers showed “poppy dresses,” which was an allusion to WWI and the flowers that grew in Flander’s fields. A few months later Hitler’s army rolled straight through Flanders (Belgium) and into France. Many were expecting war, but no one knew the invasion would come from the northeast. “Fashion knows.”
-The first thing designers thought of when they thought of war was pockets. The 1940s were a time of pocket mania.
-“The 1960s were an entire century.”
