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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
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Chester Weinberg Publicity Scrapbook and Sketch. All images ... The Day AIDS Hit the Fashion Industry
Thirty years ago, Seventh Avenue lost its first designer to the disease during a time when people were afraid to even say its name.
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United Artists A Brief History of Unisex Fashion
Gender-neutral clothing is back in vogue, but the craze in many ways has mirrored broader social changes throughout the 20th century.
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Wikimedia/Flickr Cinderella: The Ultimate (Postwar) Makeover Story
Disney's 1950 animated classic signaled a return to high-end fashion after the austere wartime years—a spirit abandoned by the 2015 live-action remake.
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Wikimedia How Fashion Helped Defeat 18th-Century Anti-Vaxxers
In the late 1700s, trend-setters helped normalize the distrusted process of inoculation. Today, a similar movement could encourage parents to vaccinate their kids.
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Courtesy of the London Museum Sherlock Holmes, Unlikely Style Icon
The detective's iconic tweeds, robes, and deerstalker hat came from the imaginations of illustrators and filmmakers far more than from Arthur Conan Doyle himself.
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Jim Kerlin/AP The Midi Skirt, Divider of Nations
The demure look returning to runways this year once sparked a cultural uprising as it edged out the mini and angered feminists.
