Kimberly Chrisman-Campbell
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JP Yim / Getty Isabel Toledo: Beyond the Michelle Obama Dress
The late fashion designer, best known for creating the first lady’s 2009 inauguration-ceremony look, imbued her work with a love of diversity.
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Popperfoto / Getty Wimbledon’s First Fashion Scandal
One hundred years ago, a player shocked spectators with her “indecent” dress—not the last time attire has distracted from athleticism in tennis.
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Hulton Archive / Getty When American Suffragists Tried to ‘Wear the Pants’
Starting in the 1850s, proponents of the movement for women’s rights traded their long dresses for bloomers—and paid a heavy social price for it.
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Reuters There Was No One Like Karl Lagerfeld
Chanel’s creative director, who died at 85, winkingly played into the stereotypes of a great couturier. But he also refused to be pigeonholed.
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Eric Thayer / Reuters / Jon Flobrant / ... Kate Spade’s Unforgettable Designs
A pioneer who followed her own path rather than chasing fads, Spade infused her work with a singular blend of optimism and nostalgia.
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Kirn Vintage Stock / Corbis / Getty Images The Curious History of Mommy-and-Me Fashion
This matching-outfit trend has cycled in and out of popularity for more than a century, reflecting changing views about motherhood and femininity.
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Greg Smith / AP Down the Rabbit Hole: The Surprising Tale of the Bunny Suit
Like Hugh Hefner himself, Playboy’s iconic costume was a blend of provocative and old-fashioned.
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Katie Posner Saving One of Western Art’s Most Iconic Paintings
Inside the massive, two-year museum effort to conserve The Blue Boy, Thomas Gainsborough’s famed 18th-century portrait
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Katie Posner Confessions of a Costume Curator
As a fashion historian, my job is to learn from other people’s clothes—a task that is challenging, messy, and often spooky.
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Scala / Art Resource, NY ‘Instagram’ for 18th-Century Tourists
In the 1700s, highly realistic landscape paintings called vedute gave European visitors proof of their trips to exotic destinations.
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Ron Wood / American Federation of Arts / ... Sneakers Have Always Been Political Shoes
Since its invention in the 19th century, the footwear has been about much more than athletics—conveying ideas about national identity, class, race, and other forms of social meaning.
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Bibliothèque National de France How Gold Went From Godly to Gaudy
For centuries, the metal was a respected symbol of royalty and immortality. In more recent history it has come to be associated with dictators, pop stars, and a lack of refinement.
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Brendan McDermid / Reuters How Jewish Designers Helped Invent Preppy Fashion
Isaac Mizrahi, Marc Jacobs, and Ralph Lauren all lent their talents to developing classic WASP style.
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Thibault Camus / AP Is This the End for Fashion Week?
Traditional, seasonal fashion shows are exhausting, expensive, and increasingly irrelevant—and many designers are opting out.
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Dolce & Gabbana Why Western Designers Are Embracing the Hijab
Dolce & Gabbana’s new collection for Muslim women combines inclusiveness with good business.
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Katy Perry The Revolution Will Be Advertised
Why so many modern commercials are referencing Marie Antoinette and the Reign of Terror
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The Getty Research Institute The 16th-Century Origins of Food Porn
For several hundred years humans have treated food not just as sustenance, but as spectacle.
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Andy Kropa / Invision / AP Balmain: The Reinvention of a Fashion House
The storied French label's new collaboration with H&M reveals how efficiently the brand has adapted itself to the 21st century.
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Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum The First Book of Selfies
A 16th-century German accountant compiled a book of personal fashion that rivals today’s Instagrammers in detail and dedication.
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Claude Lefèbvre / Isaac Delgado Museum of Art The King of Couture
How Louis XIV invented fashion as we know it
