Fashion

Blue jeans gained popularity in the late 19th-century American West due to their durability.

Cache of 19th-Century Blue Jeans Discovered in Abandoned Arizona Mineshaft

The seven pairs of pants open a portal into life in the Castle Dome mining district

This year's Craft2Wear Show features over 60 premier jewelry, leather and wearables artisans from across the country.

The Art of Wearing Works of Art

From Japanese kimono silks to Navajo jewelry, Smithsonian’s 2022 Craft2Wear brings shoppers into a world of wearable craft and design

Cotton fields

It's Time for the Fashion Industry to Launch a Farm-to-Closet Movement

For fiber and textile producers, the path to growing sustainable cotton, hemp and flax is complicated

“The Great Divide” explores how ideas that came to the fore during the Enlightenment at once blurred social hierarchies and reinforced them, particularly along lines of gender and race. 

These 18th-Century Shoes Underscore the Contradictions of the Age of Enlightenment

An exhibition at Toronto's Bata Shoe Museum examines fashion's role in supporting social hierarchies that emerged during the landmark intellectual movement

The Guna, an Indigenous group residing in Panama and parts of neighboring Colombia, have been creating colorfully embroidered clothing for centuries.

The Colorful History Behind Panama's Mola

Made by hand, this clothing staple is an important piece of the country's rich culture

The pinta’o originated in the province of Coclé southwest of Panama City, where the hats are still made today.

The Real Panama Hat

For centuries, Panamanian artists have been weaving "pinta'o" from natural fibers

A still from “Squid Game”

How Korean Pop Culture Took the World by Storm

A new exhibition will explore the rise of South Korean fashion, movies, music and more

Models holding hands in Lagos, Nigeria, in 2019

How Fashion Helped Shape Africa's Cultural Renaissance

A new exhibition at the V&A in London explores historic and contemporary African designers, photographers, models, makeup artists and illustrators

One reader wonders: Since purple dye was scarce, why didn’t people just combine blue and red?

Why Was Purple the Color of Royalty? And More Questions From Our Readers

You've got questions. We've got experts.

Left: Photo of the dress from a Bonhams auction listing. Right: Father Gilbert Hartke with the gifted garment

There’s No Place Like Home—but What’s the Right Place for Dorothy's Dress From 'The Wizard of Oz'?

Donated to the head of Catholic University’s drama department in 1973, the garment's ownership is now at the center of a legal dispute

Tiara, Cartier London, special order, 1936. Platinum, diamonds, turquoise. Sold to The Honorable Robert Henry Brand. Cartier Collection.

How Islamic Art Influenced One of Fashion’s Most Famous Jewelers

A new exhibition traces how Middle Eastern patterns and motifs inspired—and fueled—Cartier

Actress Blake Lively wore a Statue of Liberty–inspired gown whose copper bow unfurled into a blue-green train.

Gilded Age Excess Lived on at the 2022 Met Gala

Celebrities paid tribute to the era of extravagance through gold-adorned ensembles, splashy headdresses and more

Karen Nyberg, a retired NASA astronaut, is launching a new fabric line inspired by her time in space. 

Retired Astronaut Launches a Fabric Line Inspired by Her Views of Earth From Space

Karen Nyberg's two missions to the International Space Station over her 30-year career with NASA fueled her creativity as an artist

A western-style performance outfit worn by Patsy Cline and sewed by her mother. The suit features record-shaped patches stitched with the titles of some of Cline's records.  

When Patsy Cline Broke Through as a Country Music Phenom

The recording star sported a homemade suit as spectacular as her voice

Dried cochineal insects — shown here in the center of the photo — can be processed to create several natural dyes such as carmine and cochineal extract. These products get their red hue from carminic acid, a chemical found within the insect.

Scientists Are Making Cochineal, a Red Dye From Bugs, in the Lab

Used to color foods and cosmetics, carminic acid is traditionally 'farmed' from an insect. But researchers are moving to engineer it in microbes

While the material is mushroom-based, MycoWorks creates its rigid patented material by engineering mycelium cells as they grow into 3-D structures that intertwine themselves so densely, it makes a tough material, dubbed Fine Mycelium. The material has the strength, durability, and performance as traditional leather.    

This Mushroom-Based Leather Could Be the Next Sustainable Fashion Material

Currently marketed as a luxury fabric, Fine Mycelium is carbon-neutral and can be grown to order

LifeLab Design's WarmLife vests are 30 percent warmer than clothing of comparable weight and bulk.

This Apparel Company Wants to Have a Profound Effect on Your Energy Use

LifeLabs Design was founded by a pair of Stanford professors who have developed fabrics capable of cooling and warming the wearer

Studded with gems and carvings of classical figures, the two tiaras and accompanying jewelry are expected to sell for between $410,000 and $690,000.

Two Tiaras Once Owned by Josephine Bonaparte Are Up for Auction

Napoleon's empress was an early 19th-century style icon. Now, two of her diadems are on sale at Sotheby's

Tinker Hatfield’s game-changing design for the Air Jordan XIII in pen and crayon, dated 1996.

What Made the Air Jordan a Slam-Dunk Design

The world is bonkers for sneakers. This pivotal 1996 concept for basketball superstar Michael Jordan is a big reason why

Believed to be the world's oldest jewelry, the perforated shells date to about 142,000 years ago.

Are These Snail Shells the World's Oldest Known Beads?

Found in a Moroccan cave, the prehistoric jewelry dates to between 142,000 and 150,000 years ago

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