Dressed in meaning
Mannequins were real people once? The origin of 10 fashion item names
Published on November 1, 2024
Image: Yasamine June
Fédora was a Princess, Cardigan was an Earl. Even though all of these garments have evolved over time, their unusual names remain. Sometimes we can’t even pinpoint the language from which they derive. Have you ever asked yourself why we call bikinis, tuxedos, and galoshes exactly that? Where do the words "denim" and "cashmere" come from? In this article, we uncover the origins of 10 items from the fashion industry.
Denim
Image: Suzy Hazelwood
A couple of centuries before Levi Strauss popularized denim jeans, two cities in Europe were already developing the textile that would become an icon of the future.
In the late 17th century, weavers in Nîmes, France set out to design a sturdy cotton fabric similar to the one that was being produced in Genoa, Italy, which had a distinctive diagonal weave. Laborers and sailors would benefit from using strong, durable clothes. The serge fabric they elaborated came to be known as serge de Nimes, a phrase that time shortened to simply "denim."
What happened to the original textile from Genoa? It was an ancestor of the modern denim, too. In France, people would refer to the foreign fabric as coming from Gênes, as they called the city. When English speakers heard about these clothes from "Gênes", they annotated the textiles as "jeans."
Fedora
Image: Rasheeque Ahnaf (Piash)
Fedora, the soft-brim hat that was an icon of American culture in the early 20th century, has an unexpected origin: it was the name of a princess.
A fictional princess, at least. Fédora (1882) was a very successful play by French author Victorien Sardou. In it, the protagonist Princess Fédora Romazoff wore an iconic felt hat that soon women in Paris picked up. At first, this center-creased hat became a symbol for the women's rights movement. Eventually, Edward, Prince of Wales, started wearing a similar one in the 1920s, and the fashion spread among men.
In American society, the hat became an accessory for public courtesy and a symbol of status. History went full circle when, again, the garment became an emblem of cultural icons such as Indiana Jones or Michael Jackson.
Mannequin
Image: Diana ✨
Did you know that, before the fashion industry developed these real-life-sized dolls, women’s clothing was displayed in young male boys?
The first mannequins originated in the 15th century. But before that, in the Middle Ages, young pages were made to wear female clothes to expose the fit for potential buyers. Eventually, the need for dolls was understood, and when these figures were developed, the Flemish called them manneken, meaning "little men."
When the device arrived in Paris, it was written as "mannequen." It wasn’t until the 19th century that female mannequins were introduced.
Bikini
Image: Jess Loiterton
Yes, the modern two-piece swimsuit was named after a beach –but the story is more perplexing than one would imagine.
Louis Réard was the French designer who introduced this disruptive garment in 1946. He dressed a young French dancer in it to debut the invention in a Parisian piscine. When asked about the name of the design, he said it was "Bikini." He didn’t add much. Four days prior to this fashion launch, an event had occurred in the South Pacific grabbing the world’s attention: a nuclear warhead had been tried in a small coral reef from the Marshall Islands, called the "Bikini Atoll."
A theory says that this label was a pun he played at Jacques Heim, a fellow French designer who had shortly before introduced a similar small bathing suit he had called the "Atome."
Spandex
Image: Divazus Fabric Store
"Spandex" is the preferred name in the U.S. for the material that in the rest of the world is known as "lycra".
This notably elastic fabric had been developed in 1958 by Joseph Shivers while working for an American company named "DuPont Textiles and Interiors." DuPont decided to launch a sub-brand that would only sell synthetic fiber products. They picked the trade name "Lycra" to market their inventions.
Why "spandex," then? That is the name that was chosen for the fabric without attaching it to any brand. If you pay attention, you’ll notice that "spandex" is an anagram (an alteration of the letter order) of the word "expands."
Bandana
Image: Steve Johnson
One of the most versatile pieces of clothing, bandanas have their origin in the Middle East and South Asia.
The word derives from the Hindi and Urdu word bandhana, "a bond," also related to bāndhnū, which means "tie-dyeing" in Hindi. The most traditional pattern used in the cloth was the Paisley, of Persian origin, which looks like a motif made of curved "tear" shapes.
Another word for the accessory is "kerchief," which derives from the Old French couvre-chef, or "cover head."
Galoshes
Image: No-longer-here
They are not exactly rain boots, and they are not to be confused with Wellington boots. Galoshes are overshoes, usually made of rubber, meant to protect your actual shoes in muddy or wet weather.
A distant relative of this invention is the calopedes. These were wooden clogs or heals used even before the Middle Ages. The word came from the Greek kalopódion, which roughly meant "feet wood". In French, footwear derived from these devices came to be called galoche, which translated in English to "galosh" or "golosh."
Cardigan
Image: Jovan Vasiljević
The knitted jacket that is now associated with a cozy, homely look, had its origin in military apparel. Cardigans were named after the waistcoats used by British officers under the command of James Brudenell, 7th Earl of Cardigan, known by history as Lord Cardigan. He commanded a brigade during the Crimean War in the early 19th century.
Cardigans were sleeveless vests at first, but they evolved over time to include all the versions we know today. Cardigans are characterized by having an open front, as opposed to pullovers which are of similar materials but must be "pulled over" the head of the wearer.
Tuxedo
Image: kevin Clonee
Back in the 1880s, when white collars and tailcoats were the norm for extremely formal evening wear, the introduction of jackets without tails was considered rebellious.
Originally known as "dinner jackets," these less formal substitutes were an option picked up in the United Kingdom, and popularized after Edward VII, then Prince of Wales, wore one with matching trousers. In the U.S., the tailless coat was quickly adopted in the New York area of Tuxedo Park. For a few years, "Tuxedo" referred only to the jacket, but then its pairing with trousers also caught on, and the term came to name the whole suit. More recently, the piece also became known as "tux."
Cashmere
Image: Skylar Kang
One of the rarest and most expensive fibers in the world, cashmere is made from wool sheared from goats. Kashmir, in the high plateaus of the Himalayas, was the region where the wool was originally produced. The soft and luxurious fabric was first spun as early as the 3rd century BC. Kashmiri weavers became known for their high-quality shawls made from this wool.
"Pashmene" is sometimes used interchangeably, although it is a variant of fiber, sometimes mixed with silk. Pashm means "wool" in Persian, and around the 15th century, this fabric was already a sign of wealth for cultures in India, Pakistan, and Nepal.
