Fashion Trends From History That Could Easily Become Popular Again

Cloaks, or capes as they’re sometimes called, go way back — at least as far as Roman times. At its simplest, the garment’s just a large piece of cloth with a hole that you put your head through. It’s really a kind of coat but without the bother of buttons or sleeves. Famous cloak-wearers have included the likes of Dracula, Napoleon, and Superman.

The choker is of course a type of necklace that’s worn tight around the neck — hence the name. Back in the days of Ancient Egypt, the high and mighty sported chokers made from gold and studded with precious stones. Much later chokers were very popular with the fashionable elite during the 19th century. And the trend had several other revivals in the 20th and 21st centuries. Time for another comeback, then?

Walking sticks obviously aren’t always a matter of fashion — for some people with mobility issues they’re an essential aid. But they can be nothing more than a matter of style. Victorian gents would often walk out with a cane, usually one that had an elegantly fashioned silver head. Upper-class women also got in on the act, carrying canes that sometimes featured elaborate decorations.

Evening gloves, sometimes known as opera gloves, stretched right up to the elbows and were worn by elegant ladies from the late 18th century right on through to the 1900s. They were often made from fine kidskin leather and came with buttons. Conventionally fashionable colors for this formal evening wear included ivory and taupe, though those of a more daring nature might favor black or red.

Monocles presumably made sense if only one eye was weak but they seem to have been mostly a matter of fashion rather than practicality. It’s said that they were preferable to spectacles because the later indicated old age and infirmity. First seen in the early part of the 18th century, they were much favored by Victorian gentlemen. Yet many turned against them during WWI because the archetypal German officer sported a monocle.

The Italian city of Venice is said to have been the birthplace of the straw boater. It was gondoliers propelling their boats through the Venetian canals who first wore these round straw hats with a ribbon tied above the brim. For reasons that remain unclear, the boater’s now also the summer wear of students attending many of Britain’s most expensive private schools.

Dating back to the 16th century, the chatelaine was a bit like an early fanny pack. It was actually a chain worn around the waist on which women would hang things they needed easy access to during a typical day. Keys, notebooks, pencils, and small purses might all have dangled from a lady’s chatelaine.

The cravat was an early forerunner of the modern necktie. The Britannica website tells us that cravats were first worn by Croatian mercenaries fighting for the French in the late 17th century. These neckerchiefs became increasing elaborate and were regarded as fashionable for any man, not just military types.

The toga was what the well-dressed Roman citizen was wearing a couple of thousand years ago. In fact, it seems they adopted the garment from an earlier people, the Etruscans. This was a unisex item worn by everyone from the lowliest slave to the emperor. And the color of the toga was crucial, with different classes entitled to wear different hues.

We have the mid-19th-century Italian revolutionary Giuseppe Garibaldi to thank for the stylized shirt that bears his name. Yet despite the fact that it was a man who first sported this garment, with its markedly flounced sleeves, it was to end up being a staple of the female wardrobe. Yes, this top was the originator of today’s blouses.

Sugar first came to England during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, though it’d be a luxury enjoyed only by the wealthy for many years. Elizabeth, of course, could afford sugar — and that probably contributed to the fact that her teeth are said to have been a decaying mess. Royalty often led fashion back in the 16th century and apparently some women even mimicked the Queen’s rotting molars by painting their teeth black.

If you want to stop a horse or any four-legged beast of burden from running away, you hobble it by tying its legs together with a short length of rope. Shockingly, the hobble skirt had pretty much the same effect on women early in the 20th century. Tapering down to a narrow hem, this garment effectively prevented women from proceeding at more than a stilted walking pace. A strange and disturbing fashion indeed.

Louis XIV, who occupied the French throne for 72 years from 1643, was an enthusiastic high heel wearer. That might well have had something to do with the fact that as an absolute monarch he felt that towering above his subjects was essential. In fact, he actually passed a law forbidding high heels to all but the French nobility.

Bloomers date back to the 19th century and in their day became a highly politicized garment. They were wide-legged women’s pants cut quite long and worn with short skirts. The name comes from their originator, Amelia Jenks Bloomer, who adopted them in the early 1850s. Bloomer suits became political as a symbol of early feminism since the garment gave women more freedom of movement, especially compared to the sprawling crinolines.

Cloche hats were very much a fashion phenomenon of the 1920s though they first appeared in 1908. They were the creation of a Frenchwoman called Caroline Reboux, who New York’s Metropolitan Museum says “is one of the most renowned millinery designers in the history of fashion.” Cloche means bell in French and that was the basic shape of this headgear.

Two French designers take the credit for the birth of the bubble skirt in the 1950s, Christian Dior and Pierre Cardin, each of whom launched their own versions. The Joy of Clothes website gives a helpfully succinct description of this garment, explaining that “the hem of the skirt is folded back on itself to create a ‘Bubble’ effect at the hemline.” It adds that the hemline sits just above the knee or around mid-thigh.

Forget about the cheesy pasta staple — back in the 18th century macaroni referred to an entire way of dressing. It came from Italy, spread through France, and involved garments and styling of outlandish ostentation. Think of gaudy stockings, garish waistcoats, and elaborately buckled shoes and you’ve got the picture. But the most bizarre aspect of the look was the gigantic wig topped by a tiny hat or a feather that these dedicated followers of fashion wore.

Crinolines, a truly bizarre fashion, were widespread during the Victorian era. These implausibly spread skirts must’ve been a real handicap to the wearer. The original crinolines were supported by a structure made from whalebone and horsehair. Later this was superseded by an extraordinary cage-like frame fashioned from metal hoops.

Originating from Harlem jazz and dance clubs, the zoot suit really took off in the 1940s. The genuine artifact featured improbably large shoulder pads and extravagantly spreading lapels. But it wasn’t all just for show. Those pegged pant legs allowed wearers to fling themselves into the jitterbug without fear of tripping over flapping material.

J.M. Barrie’s classic 1904 play gave us Peter Pan. But it was the actress Maude Adam who gave us the Peter Pan collar from the costume she wore playing the lead in a 1905 production of the drama. The collar’s a floppy affair, quite wide and featuring rounded edges. They caused much press comment at the time, with opinions being distinctly divided.

This strange headgear was apparently all the rage among kids and students back in the 1920s. Whoopee caps were often made from a recycled fedora with the brim cut into jagged edges. You mightn’t remember the Roaring Twenties bands Harry Reser’s Syncopators or the Six Jumping Jacks but both recorded versions of a ditty titled “The Whoopee Hat Brigade.”

Ruffs, extravagantly extended collars, were favored by both men and women during the 16th and 17th centuries. From modest beginnings, the ruff expanded until it looked rather like something a clown might wear. But it wasn’t intended as a joke at all. In fact, the bigger your ruff, the higher your social standing was.

This fashion, which was popular among Venetian women in the 16th and 17th centuries, was both decorative and practical. The exaggeratedly high double platforms under heel and sole kept the wearer well clear of the muck that lined the unpaved streets. And the chopines also raised the lady wearing them above the throng, showing that she was a person of wealth and distinction.

It’s said that Louis XIII, French king during the first half of the 17th century, started the fashion of wearing powdered wigs. Because despite being lord of all he surveyed poor old Louis had started to go bald, hence the wig. But the wigmakers used horse and goat hair, which had a pungent odor plus an unfortunate tendency to attract bugs. So, perfumed powder was applied to make them smell sweeter.

Flapper dresses were, of course, worn by flappers. But who were they? The flappers were young women in the 1920s intent on escaping conventional society’s stifling shackles. So the fashions they adopted, such as the flapper dress, went against the staid conventions of the day. Shockingly for the times, the dress itself revealed ankles and calves and was cut to hang more or less straight down.

In the 19th century bowler hats were worn by the laboring classes. Yet for some reason, during the early part of the 20th century businessmen and stockbrokers took to the black, rounded headgear. Indeed, the bowler hat became an almost compulsory accessory for those who worked in London’s financial district, the City. But in a notable act of subversion, Charlie Chaplin adopted the bowler for his famous tramp character.

The cummerbund, or kamarband as it originally was, came from ancient Persia and spread through Asia. This band worn tightly around the waist was adopted by military types at the time when India was part of the sprawling British Empire. Later, the cummerbund made its way into civilian society as an accessory to be worn with formal evening dress.

The tartan Scottish kilt’s familiar enough to our eyes but it derives from an older garment called the plaid. This was actually a large blanket traditionally worn in the Highlands before it was banned as culturally subversive after the defeat of the 1745 Bonnie Prince Charlie rebellion. The plaid consisted of as much as 18 feet of cloth that was loosely wrapped about the body and secured by a belt.

Nowadays panniers are bags you attach to your bike and the French word panier does indeed mean basket. But back in the 17th and 18th centuries panniers were something else entirely. They were large extensions worn on both sides a of a wealthy lady’s dress. These structures of whalebone and other materials protruded bizarrely, greatly exaggerating the width of a woman from the waist downwards.

It was in 1947 that French designer Christian Dior unveiled a fashion revolution with his New Look. It was seen as a reaction to the austerity of the war years when clothing had been rationed in Europe. The A-line skirt was a flowing affair using generous amounts of fabric but featuring a tight waistline. As Google Arts & Culture puts it, “the ‘New Look’ celebrated ultra-femininity and opulence in women’s fashion.”

The main thing to know about starched collars is that they were stiff and sharp. Seen widely during the 19th-century these collars were hardly a recipe for comfort. In fact, they were liable to be actively dangerous. These things were so heavily starched that you could actually do yourself an injury if you accidentally stabbed yourself in the neck with one of the wings. Not something we’re in a hurry to revive.

Originally a woolen jacket specifically designed in the 19th century for mariners and especially favored by Britain’s Royal Navy, the peacoat eventually made its way into civilian fashion. That happened during the 1960s when men and women alike began wearing these utilitarian garments. Beatniks and hippies in particular took to the coats even though joining the navy was hardly on their minds.

We aren’t talking about meat from a sheep here but instead luxuriant facial foliage. And we can thank General Ambrose Burnside of the Union Army for the mutton chop style. He had the full version with sideburns stretching down the cheeks and joining a moustache. But the key element of the style was to have a clean-shaven chin.

Never heard of a bycocket? Neither had we. But it turns out to be just the sort of hat that Robin Hood of Sherwood Forest might’ve worn if he’d ever existed in real life. It’s a cocked hat running to a point at the front with a feather attached at a jaunty angle. And it should, of course, be green. So it’s what you’d wear if you were planning to rob from the rich to give to the poor.

Winklepickers were a fashion shoe with pointed toes worn by members of British youth cult the “Teddy Boys” in the 1950s. Teddy Boys, or simply Teds, were so called because their dress mimicked clothes worn in the early 20th century when Edward VII was on the throne. The extremely pointed shoes got their name because a sharp implement such as a pin was used to a pick winkle, a sea snail that’s a British delicacy, out of its shell.

This was a lady’s hat perched on the back of the head with the shape of an elongated cone or column and a variety of different adornments. The hennin hat first appeared during medieval times in the French province of Burgundy and was the preserve of the nobility. This towering headwear later became a luxury item worn by the wealthy in many Northern European countries. Probably ill-advised if you lived in a house with low ceilings.

The bliaut was popular among well-off folks during the 12th century. It was essentially a long gown worn by men and women but its most striking features were the elongated sleeves, which sometimes actually trailed along the ground. While most bliauts were probably made from linen or wool, if you really wanted to roll the boat out you could have had one made up in silk.

The wimple came to Western Europe from the Middle East, brought home by Crusaders in the Middle Ages. It was basically a kind of headscarf worn by wealthy women. The wimple was draped over the head and around the neck and was often decorated with accessories. In modern times, Catholic nuns wear something that looks very much like a medieval wimple, as do some Muslim women.

The bustle was a kind of padded underskirt worn by women to accentuate their rears. Bustles were garments of high fashion in both Europe and America during the 1870s and 1880s, though they’d appeared as early as the 16th century. But some of the nicknames for these items seem less than respectful. How about cork rump or bum roll?

Crakowes were shoes so elongated that they almost seem to be a parody of practical footwear. They were a popular fashion with European men in the 14th century and got their name from the Polish city of Krákow where they originated. The pointed fronts of the shoes were sometimes so long that the wearer had to tie them to their knees to make walking possible.