For the past few months, I have been doing a Fashion History course from Homemade Education. My teacher was called Kate, and she was really nice. I have learnt loads from it and have had lots of fun. The course was spread across six weeks, with assignments being set for certain lessons. You can choose whether you want to do the live course or the recorded session; I do the recorded version. Thank you so much Kate for helping me learn about this fascinating subject.
Here are some fascinating facts I’ve learned about fashion history on this course:
- In Medieval times, the longest shoes that have been found were 61cm (2 foot) long.
- They used to use a whale bone to strap the tip of the shoe to their knees so that they could walk.
- In the 1920’s, women used to have their bathing suits measured and, if they were too short, they were sometimes arrested.
- When Queen Elizabeth I was on the throne, it was illegal not to wear a hat on Sundays.
- In France in the 1780’s, women wore their hair in the shape of ships after they won a naval battle against the British.
- Also in the 1700’s, men had wigs made which were inspired by the pasta, macaroni. It showed they had travelled Europe.
- In the Victorian times, boys had to wear dresses until they were five years old! They also wore bonnets like the girls.
- The idea of girls wearing pink and boys wearing blue wasn’t invented until the 1950’s. That was only 70 years ago!
- In the early 1900’s, some people thought it would be a great idea to add radium to cosmetics as it made your skin glow (do not try this at home). Tragically many women died from radiation poisoning doing this.
- In the 1940’s, women used to paint their legs with gravy and draw lines at the back of their legs to imitate the look of tights.
I’ve absolutely loved this course. I could write another ten fascinating facts!
Picture credits
- “1920s-bathing-suit” by Arsenic and Old Lace is licensed under CC PDM 1.0
- “Medieval Shoe” by rahook2000 is licensed under CC BY 2.0
