Materials

People have used armor, which includes any protective clothing that can absorb the impact of weapons, since before recorded history. This suit of armor, which is made mostly of steel, belonged to a man named George Clifford. He wore it both on the battlefield and in tournaments. Craftsmen made it in the royal workshops in Greenwich, England, under the direction of master armorer Jacob Halder. Though intricately designed, the style seems impossibly rigid, hot, and restrictive compared with today’s combat and athletic gear.

Twentieth-century fashion designer Coco Chanel famously said, “Before you leave the house, look in the mirror and take one thing off.” This was clearly not a rule Queen Elizabeth I lived by four centuries earlier. This painting shows the monarch laden with accessories, including pearl necklaces, jewels in her hair, and a large ruff—or lace collar. The queen wore garments she believed would convey an image of wealth and power. There was even a law in place during her reign that forbade people outside of the noble class from wearing certain fabrics and styles.

Platform sneakers, sandals, and boots are in style today, but did you know they’re not new? Known as chopines, these platform shoes came into vogue in Venice, Italy, in the 16th century. Their symbolism was quite literal: Their height signified a person’s high social status, with some pairs of chopines lifting wearers as high as 20 inches off the ground. These precarious shoes also had a practical element. They protected women’s feet from getting wet or dirty, which was especially important in a damp city like Venice, known for its canals.

Have you ever heard the traditional American song “Yankee Doodle” and wondered whether the line, “stuck a feather in his cap and called it macaroni” was about your favorite cheesy pasta? What it actually refers to is a British men’s fashion fad from the 18th century. A macaroni was a young man who’d spent time abroad and, upon returning home to England, dressed in high fashion. At the time, that meant tight trousers, elaborate powdered wigs, oversized swords or decorated walking sticks, and delicate shoes. How many of those styles do you spot in this caricature drawing?

The artist Eduard Josef Wimmer-Wisgrill was born in Vienna, Austria, in 1882. Throughout his career, he worked in many media, designing furniture, jewelry, textiles, clothing, and accessories. This fashion postcard is one of 10 that Wimmer-Wisgrill designed for the 1912 Wiener Werkstätte fashion exhibition in Berlin. In this drawing, he presents an innovative take on a few styles that were in fashion at the time, most notably the empire waist (high waistline) and tapered skirt (narrowing toward the bottom). Stacked patterns emphasize the tubelike form. Can you imagine what it would be like to walk wearing this garment?

Remember those Italian platform shoes from the 17th century? In the late 1930s, platform shoes made a comeback, setting the stage for the version we still wear today. Salvatore Ferragamo designed this rainbow pair in 1938. The soles are made of cork, making them light-weight and comfortable. Born in Bonito, Italy, in 1898, it’s said that Ferragamo made his first pair of shoes at the age of 9. In the 1920s, he moved his business to Los Angeles, where his designs gained popularity with Hollywood stars. Though he died in 1960, the Ferragamo brand is still thriving.

Today Yves Saint Laurent is a high-fashion brand known around the world. But in 1959, its founder, Yves Mathieu-Saint-Laurent, was working for another famous fashion house: Dior. That’s where Saint Laurent designed this sky-blue satin gown. The unusual dress, with a skirt cinching just above the knee, is a modernized example of the hobble skirt. The hobble skirt first became trendy in the 1910s. These impractical garments featured tight hems around the legs, limiting the length of the wearer’s stride. This gown’s skirt, combined with the loose, unfitted top, is a departure from the tight-waisted, full-skirted silhouette that had been popular until the mid-1950s.

In the year 2024, we take for granted that men’s fashion can be just as imaginative, colorful, and adventurous as women’s fashion. But for a time, that wasn’t the case. We owe some thanks to British designer Michael Fish, who liked to be called Mr. Fish, for bringing personality back to menswear. He opened a store in London in 1966 with signature looks like velour; high-button collars; broad, patterned neckwear known as kipper ties; and most important, suits in every color of the rainbow, like this one featuring vertical stripes. Rock stars David Bowie and Mick Jagger and painter Pablo Picasso were just a few of Fish’s most famous customers.

This dress by Yves Saint Laurent comes a decade after his hobble-skirt creation for Dior. The wispy design is constructed from silk covered in bird-of-paradise feathers. This family of colorful birds are primarily found in New Guinea and Australia, and the male birds boast unique-looking plumage. Saint Laurent was known for finding inspiration in exotic places. This dress is an example of the sense of theatricality that made Saint Laurent so influential. Though he died in 2008, his brand, Saint Laurent—commonly known as YSL—carries on.

When French designer Christian Lacroix’s pouf dresses first hit the scene in the mid-1980s, a fashion critic wrote, “The effect is of a costume party where everyone has a good time.” It’s hard to imagine a dress like this one not turning heads. Lacroix made it while working for the House of Patou. The bold color, large bow on one hip, and of course giant, crinkled skirt all make a big

We’ve seen art as fashion—but what about furniture as fashion? The designer Hussein Chalayan, who was born in Cyprus in 1970, is known as one of fashion’s most intellectual designers. In 2000, the stage at his fashion show was set with four chairs and a circular coffee table. During the show’s finale, one model approached the table and removed the middle, revealing a hole in the center. She then stepped into the hole and transformed the table into a skirt.

Zaha Hadid, who designed these shoes, was an Iraqi-British architect. She’s known for designing organic buildings with unexpected forms composed of sleek materials. For these shoes, Hadid designed a sculptural cantilever system that allows the shoes’ 16 cm-tall heel to be suspended off the ground. The wearer’s foot slides into an internal slipper resting on a hidden fiberglass platform. The outer shell of the shoe is made from rubber. These shoes look fit for a museum, but they’re available for purchase in a range of colors—for $5,000!