Cultures

1,516 cards. Each one is a 40-second story with a five-minute read behind it. Page 26 of 26.

Moustache rode into English through French and GreekFacial hair grown above the upper lip defines a moustache, or mustache in the US. Styles have cycled for millennia, from Old Kingdom Egypt to Victorian soldiers, and the word itse…
Sleep clothes track seasons from onesies to babydollsNightwear, also called sleepwear or nightclothes, is made to be slept in and shifts warmer or cooler with the weather. Yet a 2004 American survey found only 13 percent of men wore…
Humans spent most of prehistory without tailored clothesNudity means a human body without clothing. Estimates vary, yet anatomically modern people probably lived unclothed for roughly their first 90,000 years, having lost their body ha…
Perfume means to smoke through—then chemistry took overPerfume mixes scented oils or manufactured aroma molecules with a fixative and a solvent to make bodies, objects, or air smell good. Ancient texts and digs show early use, and one…
Buttons began as jewellery, not shirt fastenersShell discs at Mohenjo-daro may be five thousand years old, yet they ornamented cloth long before anyone punched a buttonhole. Medieval Europeans still relied on toggles and lacin…
The word cloak shares roots with clockMedieval Latin called a traveler's cape a bell-shaped garment—and that bell gave us both cloak and clock. From Roman citizenship togas to Aztec elite capes and Aboriginal possum-s…
Body lice may—or may not—date our first clothesEvery human society wears something, yet when we started is surprisingly contested. Archaeologists found possible garments 120,000 years ago in Morocco while louse genetics once s…
Coats outlasted capes when cloth got cheaperEnglish has called outer upper-body garments coats since about 1300, yet the fitted, front-fastening cut may be millennia older, turning up with the Tarim mummies and with Ötzi th…
Cosmetics once poisoned wearers for pale skinThe Greek root kosmos meant order and ornament—technique of dress, not just lipstick. Renaissance ceruse and white lead rouge could swell eyes, rot teeth, and kill. A safer indust…
A shower curtain launched the disposable diaper eraMarion Donovan stitched army-surplus nylon into the Boater cover and sold waterproof diapers at Saks in 1949—then sold her patent for one million dollars. Her paper disposable des…
Medieval dresses once had sleeves wider than doorsEleventh-century European women wore loose ankle-length tunics over chemises, then laced slits tight at waist and arm. By century's end cuffs ballooned to several feet around. Fiv…
Gloves leave fingerprints as unique as skinCriminals don gloves to hide prints—yet the gloves themselves can identify them just as precisely. From Egyptian tomb paintings to Elizabeth I flaunting jewelled hands at court, t…
Beards grow when dihydrotestosterone wakes facial folliclesA beard is hair on the jaw, chin, lips, cheeks and neck, grown mostly by adult men, though some women develop one through a condition called hirsutism. Societies have prized it as…
Belts hold trousers up and once doubled as weaponsA belt is a flexible strap of leather, plastic, or cloth worn at or near the waist to secure clothes, carry tools, or shape a silhouette. Loops on garments guide it; a keeper loop…
Early boots were separate pieces strapped into ankle armorBoots cover the foot and ankle, sometimes rising to the knee or even the hip, for weather, work or style, and most have a heel distinct from the sole. The first ones were separate…
A nineteen-year-old patented the modern brassiere in 1914Ancient Greek and Roman women already bound their breasts for support, yet the modern bra is credited to nineteen-year-old Mary Phelps Jacob, who stitched one from two handkerchie…