The world's wardrobe

Starting point

The first clothing was symbolic, rather than utilitarian.
A Venus figure carved of bone in 20000 B.C. wears a fringe of twisted fiber strings suspended from a hip band. An array of later clay figures found in the Ukraine, Serbia and Macedonia are likewise clad. Bronze Age women were buried in similar string skirts.
Because they offer neither warmth nor modesty, researchers believe the garments announced a woman's reproductive readiness.
String skirts still exist. Women in northern Albania wear them. In Greece, they are not worn, but passed down from mother to daughter as a talisman of good childbearing fortune.

National Museum of Denmark Wool string skirt from 1300 B.C. was worn wrapped around twice and slung low on the hips. From the peat
Our best knowledge about early Celt textiles comes from the bog people who were preserved in Great Britain and northern European peat.
Peat preserves not only the skeleton, but also the skin, hair, internal organs and – sometimes – the clothing. The Netherlands grave of Emmer-Erfscheidenveen Man, dated to 1310 B.C., included woolen underwear decorated with embroidery, sheepskin cap, calfskin

cape and deerskin shoes.
Huldremose Woman was accompanied by two skin capes, a woolen skirt, scarf and hair band. A large woolen garment, or peplos, was later discovered near the grave. Leg wrappings from another bog body were made of wool, originally dyed blue with woad – a scarce and valuable commodity.

Tollund Man, buried in a pieced leather cap worn fur-side in, was found in a Danish bog in 1950. He is dated to 50 B.C.
In Egypt
When wool and silk became widely available around 4000 B.C., the use of color exploded because animal fibers accept dye so much better than flax.
Only in Egypt, where wool was never much used, did clothing remain white and simple. All Egyptians, regardless of class, wore linen. Differences in status were shown by the fineness of the cloth, which, for royalty, could be almost transparent.
Egyptian men wore knee-length kilts that were often pleated. Women wore slim, tubular shoulder-strap jumpers reaching either above or below the breasts to the ankles. For decoration and color, women wore skirts and even entire dresses of beaded nets, put on over the linen jumpers.
Egyptian weavers also made linens for towels, bedsheets, blankets and mummy wrappings, and to barter. Some are as long as 75 feet long and 9 feet wide. At a hundred threads an inch, that's more than 153 miles of yarn.

Egyptian men favored short, pleated kilts, made of linen.

Ancient Peru
Textiles were valued more than silver by the ancient Andeans. To weave their intricate patterns required extraordinary skill and patience: a single tunic might take nine miles of colored thread.
Textiles uncovered on mummies dating to 500 B.C. on the Paracas Peninsula of Peru are some of the most astonishing ever made. Woven on huge looms, they are vividly colored and often depict strange animals. These textiles were grave goods, meant to accompany the dead to the next life. One mummy, of 429 discovered there, was buried with 56 items of clothing, including 13 turbans.

Incan mummies were bundled in cloth and buried with tools for making textiles.

The clothing of the Iceman

Reconstruction of the Iceman with Clothing and Equipment
A few fragments of the Iceman's upper garment, mainly consisting of hide from a domesticated goat, have survived. The shirt was made of long, rectangular strips of skin that were joined by over-sewing on the inside, with animal sinews used as thread. The different colored vertical strips of skin may have been intended as a pattern.

Iceman's Upper Garment - Made from Strips of Goat Hide
No pieces of the shoulders of the garment were recovered, so there is some speculation as to whether the Iceman's shirt had sleeves. The upper garment likely reached down to the Iceman's knees.

Left: Vertical Strips Were Neatly SewnRight: Iceman's Garment Had Been Mended with Rough Stitching

Since there are no sign of fasteners, it is assumed that the Iceman's upper garment was closed with a belt. Fragments of the Iceman's belt, made of calf leather, show that his belt was originally about six feet long, therefore reaching around his hips twice.

The Iceman's Belt
A piece of sewn-on leather formed a small pouch that contained five items including a drill, scraper, and a flint flake. A black mass of tinder fungus filled most of the bag. Traces of pyrites were found indicating that lumps of pyrite were used by the Iceman to create sparks.

The Iceman wore a grass cape to protect himself from rain; Detail of woven grass

The Iceman's cloak was made of long stalks of Alpine grass and was open at the front. The original length is thought to have been about 90 cm and would have covered the Iceman's entire torso and his thighs. Some Alpine shepherds wore grass and straw cloaks for rain protection into the 20th century.
Bearskin headgear was discovered during the second examination of the site. The Iceman's cap was made of the pelt of a brown bear and had two leather thongs attached to the lower rim for the purpose of tying it under the chin.

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Iceman's Bearskin Cap

Originally about three feet long, the Iceman's loincloth consisted of long, narrow strips of goat hide joined by over-sewing with animal sinews. The loincloth would have been drawn between the Iceman's legs and fastened at the front and back with a belt.
The Iceman wore leg protection that covered the thighs and lower legs, therefore not really a pair of trousers. The leggings were made of goat hide with a deerskin strap sewn onto one end that could be tied down when doing up the shoes, preventing the leggings from riding up. Similar loincloths and leggings were also worn by North American Indians well into the 19th century.

When Iceman was recovered, the right shoe was still on the mummy's foot. The shoe consists of an oval leather sole with turned up edges that were held in place using a leather thong. A woven net of grass was attached on the inside to hold hay in place acting as protection against the cold.

The Iceman's Shoes
The Iceman's shoe was closed with a leather upper that was attached to the sole using another leather thong. The shaft around the ankle was bound with grass filaments to prevent moisture from getting into his shoes. The soles of the shoes were made of brown bear skin. The uppers were make of deerskin and were closed using shoe laces.

Chronology of the Development of Boys' Clothing Styles: Pre-history

Anthropologists have debated at what stage in human evolution did people begin to wear clothes. Almost certainly the first clothes were animal skins. More contentious is when people started wearing animal furs, presumably initially for warmth. There is little evidence that anthropolgists have been able to develop about clothing worn in prehistory. One aspect that is difficult to determine is the extent of body hair of early men like Neanderthals. Man's transition from hairy to hairless and the development of clothing are critical stages in both biological and cuktural evolution. While anthropolgists can sudy focilized bones to assess physical evolution, the fact that fur and fabric rot mean that there is not physical evidence available to provide insights as to when people first began to wear clothes. Some fascinating finds in the Middle Eastern desserts or the Ice man in the alps provide fascinating information about the clothing of erly man, but not about when man began wearing clothes. Interesting DNA evidence from lice are providing some possible insights.
Body Hair (1 million years ago)
One aspect that is difficult to determine is the extent of body hair of early men like Neanderthals. Man's transition from hairy to hairless and the development of clothing are critical stages in both biological and cultural evolution. A new report based on Human DNA suggests that peope became hareless about 1 million years ago. [Rodgers]
Neanderthals (130,000-30,000 years ago)
Neanderthals dominated Europe fot 100,000 years. They inhabited most of Europe an western Asia. Beanderthals developed a culture similar to that of early man. They wore clothes and used fire. They were nomadic hunters. I am not sure to what extentb if any they developed agriculture. They made stone, but no metal tools. Their principal weapons were spears and clubs. Neanderthals disappeared after the arrival of modern man. Neanderthals were heavy built and squat, more powerful, but apparently less intelligent than modern man and were unable to successfully compete with modern man. The last Neaderthal traces date back to about 30,000 BC. One enduring debate in anthropology is whether is how Neanderthals are related to modern men. We know that the two groups coexisted before Neanderthals seemingly disappeaed. Some believe that modern man outcompeted and displaced Neanderthals. Others that Neanderthals merged with and interbread with modern man. A recent study based on an assessment of sculls have found substantial differences which suggest that the two were different species rather than related sub-species. [Harvati] Teeth studies suggest that Neanderthal children grew faster than human children. Some anthropologists believe that Neandethals may have been anatomically adult by about age 15, but not all anthropologists accept this theory.
Stages
Anthropolgists have studied a variety of stages in pre-history. Technological developments are of great importance, including fire, tools, pottery, and metal working. Clothing is one of the important developments. Anthropologists have debated at what stage in human evolution people begin to wear clothes. Many of these developments occurred before the Holocene (past 10,000 years.) Other major developments in pre-history include religion, writing, and kingship.
Economic Organization
The primary ecomic organization for much of pre-history was hunter-gathering including fishing. This by its very nature was small tribal activity. Gradually pastoralism and primitive agriculte developed. Agriculture was limited by the technology of the day.
Early Clothes (40,000-25,000 years ago)
Almost certainly the first clothes were animal skins. More contentious is when people started wearing animal furs, presumably initially for warmth. There is little evidence that anthropolgists have been able to develop about clothing worn in prehistory, primarily because clothing deteriorates over time. Some fascinating finds in the Middle Eastern deserts or the Ice man in the alps provide fascinating information about the clothing of erly man, but not about when man began wearing clothes. Anthropolgists believe that needles and other artifacts suggest that people were sewing clothes at least 25,000 years ago and possibly as much as 40,000 years ago. Some anthropolgists speculate that man first using animal skins about 100,000 years ago, but these are only rough estimates with no real evidence to support them. Also unknown us precisely when people first took the step from just draping animal skins on them to actually fashioning crude garments.

Clothing was a major step in the human experience. Clothing was an enormous step in the expansion of human inhabitation and the appearance of culture. The key activity to early humans became food production, but the production of clothing became the second most important activity. Determining when people began fashioning clothes is of interest to antrhropolgusts because it represents a cultural step of huge importance. Once people began creating clothing it expanded the environments which they could exploit. It also meant the fise of fashion, affording people to convey information about tribal identity, social status, fertility, and other mnatters--all imprtat cultural matters.
Research Difficulties
While anthropolgists can sudy focilized bones to assess physical evolution, the fact that fur and fabric rot mean that there is not physical evidence available to provide insights as to when people first began to wear clothes. As such any evidence from this era is extremely tantilizing. One fascinating glimse is the preserved impressions seen here of pre-historic foot steps . This is an actual piece of pre-historic evidence. This is an actual adult and child foot print. The story seems to be that a mother and child probably went to a river to collect water. They leave their foot prints behind and the sun bakes them. Hundreds of thousands of years later the Leaky family find them. Actually there is even more to the footprint story. The Leaky's believe that there are three sets of footprints. The third set is inside the larger adult one. The scene from thousands odf years ago comes to life. A child, laughing as the little one plays a game of walking inside the footprints of mum while the other child walks in the water by mum's side.
DNA Evidence

The birthday of fashion

Humans only started wearing clothes as little as 40,000 years ago, according to a new genetic study which has calculated when the human body louse evolved - a creature which needs clothes to lay its eggs on.According to the research, by Professor Mark Stoneking and colleagues at the Max Planck Insitute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany and published in the latest issue of the journal Current Biology, humans might have first worn clothes around 42,000 to 72,000 years ago.Anthropologists have long wondered when clothes began to appear. Since fur and fabrics do not fossilise, no evidence has been left, apart from some fabrics more than a few thousand years old. The new approach focused on the subtle genetic differences between the head louse (Pediculus humanus capitis) and the body louse (P. humanus corporis or P. h. humanus). These human ectoparasites differ mainly in their habitat on the host: head lice live in the hair and scalp, while body lice feed on hairless parts of the body but lay their eggs only in clothes. "This ecological differentiation probably arose when humans adopted frequent use of clothing," write the researchers. Thus, an indirect measure of when our ancestors first wore clothes would have emerged by figuring out when body lice first appeared, the researchers concluded.Stoneking's team used a molecular clock approach - a dating method based on the rate that specific types of mutations accumulate in DNA."Sequences were obtained from two mtDNA [mitochondrial DNA] and two nuclear DNA segments from a global sample of 40 head and body lice. ... We also included a chimpanzee louse (Pediculus schaeffi), assuming that human and chimpanzee lice co-speciated with their hosts," the researchers reported. "The divergence time of 5.5 million years between humans and chimpanzees also corresponds to the P. humanus-P. schaeffi divergence, and hence was used as a calibration point for molecular clocks."DNA analysis of the 40 human head lice and body lice sent from around the world revealed the modern genetic variation in the parasites.Assuming that mutations occur at a given rate, Stoneking's team came to the estimate that "body lice originated not more than about 72,000 to 42,000 years ago." The date fits with fossil and archaeological evidence: the only tools that can be definitely associated with clothing, such as needles, are about 40,000 years old.The genetic results also indicate greater diversity in African than non-African lice, suggesting an African origin of human lice which matches human origins."It is a clever study and their results makes sense to me," evolutionary biologist Blair Hedges of Pennsylvania State University, told Discovery News."Molecular clocks are not perfect chronometers - they need a lot of sequence data for precision. In this case, the estimate of 72,000 years has a large statistical error associated with it. With more genes, that error can be reduced considerably," Hedges said. "Nonetheless, the ballpark time - 50[,000] to 100,000 years ago - makes a lot of sense because that is when modern humans were leaving Africa for the cooler northern latitudes and would have needed clothing."

What is Fashion?

Fashion is something we deal with everyday. Even people who say they don't care what they wear choose clothes every morning that say a lot about them and how they feel that day.
One certain thing in the fashion world is change. We are constantly being bombarded with new fashion ideas from music, videos, books, and television. Movies also have a big impact on what people wear. Ray-Ban sold more sunglasses after the movie Men In Black. Sometimes a trend is world-wide. Back in the 1950s, teenagers everywhere dressed like Elvis Presley.

Who dictates fashion?
Musicians and other cultural icons have always influenced what we're wearing, but so have political figures and royalty. Newspapers and magazines report on what Hillary Clinton wears. The recent death of Diana, the Princess of Wales, was a severe blow to the high fashion world, where her clothes were daily news.
Even folks in the 1700s pored over fashion magazines to see the latest styles. Women and dressmakers outside the French court relied on sketches to see what was going on. The famous French King Louis XIV said that fashion is a mirror. Louis himself was renowned for his style, which tended towards extravagant laces and velvets.

Clothes separate people into groups.
Fashion is revealing. Clothes reveal what groups people are in. In high school, groups have names: "goths, skaters, preps, herbs." Styles show who you are, but they also create stereotypes and distance between groups. For instance, a businessman might look at a boy with green hair and multiple piercings as a freak and outsider. But to another person, the boy is a strict conformist. He dresses a certain way to deliver the message of rebellion and separation, but within that group, the look is uniform. Acceptance or rejection of a style is a reaction to the society we live in.

Fashion is a language which tells a story about the person who wears it. "Clothes create a wordless means of communication that we all understand," according to Katherine Hamnett, a top British fashion designer. Hamnett became popular when her t-shirts withlarge messages like "Choose Life" were worn by several rock bands.