1.Which fashion magazine has been the longest-lasting and most successful in the world? Give the details of the history of the magazine.
A:
Vogue, founded in the US in 1892, has been the longest-lasting and most successful of the hundreds of fashion magazines that have come and gone.
Vogue was founded as a weekly publication by Arthur Baldwin Turnure in 1892. When he died in 1909, Condé Nast picked it up and slowly began growing the publication. The first change Nast made was that Vogue appeared every two weeks instead of weekly. Nast also went overseas in the early 1910s. He first went to Britain, and started a Vogue there, and it went well. Then he went to Spain, however that was a failure. Lastly, Nast took Vogue to France, and that was a huge success. The magazines number of publications and profit increased dramatically under Nast.
In 1973, Vogue became a monthly publication. Under editor-in-chief Grace Mirabella, the magazine underwent extensive editorial and stylistic changes to respond to changes in the lifestyles of its target audience.
The current editor-in-chief of American Vogue is Anna Wintour.
Sources: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vogue_%28magazine%29#History
http://fashionista.com/2009/12/14/rachel%20mcadams%20vogue%20cover%20january%202010.jpg
2. Why is the name of the British fashion designer Mary Quant relevant in the history of fashion? Illustrate.
A:
Mary Quant is relevant in the history of fashion, because she invented and named miniskirt.
Sources: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Quant
http://www.maindustrialdesign.com/archives/lookalikes/lookimage/vasso_asfi.jpg
3.What does the term 'haute couture' refer to? Who was the first fashion designer to introduce the term? Which French fashion designer is considered to be one of the most chic in haute couture?
A: Haute couture refers to the creation of exclusive custom-fitted clothing. Haute couture is made to order for a specific customer, and it is usually made from high-quality, expensive fabric and sewn with extreme attention to detail and finish, often using time-consuming, hand-executed techniques. The first fashion designer who intruced the term was Charles Frederick Worth in Paris in the mid-nineteenth century. Christian Lacroix is considered to be one of the most chic in haute couture.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haute_couture
4.What is the function of buttons on jacket sleeves and where has this custom come from? Illustrate.
A:
According to information passed down through the ages, none other than Napoleon Bonaparte dictated that buttons be attached to jacket sleeves to stop the annoying habit soldiers had of wiping their runny noses on their jacket sleeves.
Sources: http://fashionworld14.files.wordpress.com/2009/04/buttons-on-jacket-sleeves.jpeg
5.How did the women's wigs look like in the eighteenth-century England? Illustrate.
A:
In eighteenth-century England, women's wigs were sometimes 4 feet high. These remarkable headdresses were dusted with flour and decorated with Stuffed birds, replicas of gardens, plates of fruit, or even model ships. Sometimes the wigs were so elaborate they were worn continuously for several months. They were matted with lard to keep them from coming apart, which made mice and insects a constant hazard. Special pillows had to be constructed to hold these giant creations, and rat-resistant caps made of gilt wire were common items. Mercifully, the wig craze died out quite suddenly in England in 1795, when a hair-powder tax made their upkeep too expensive.
Sources: http://www.skygaze.com/content/facts/fashion.shtml
6.What makes an item vintage? Examples.
Vintage clothing is a generic term for new or second hand garments originating from a previous era. For example, daughter is wearing her mother’s clothing.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vintage_clothing
7.What is a 'brassiere '? What is a 'negligee'? History? Illustrate.
A:
A brassiere is an article of clothing that covers, supports, and elevates the breasts. Since the late 19th century, it has replaced the corset as the most widely accepted method for supporting a woman's breasts. Now people use bras.
Brassiere or bikini-like garments are depicted on some female athletes in the 1400s BC during the Minoan civilization era.
From the 1500s onwards, the undergarments of wealthier women were dominated by the corset, which pushed the breasts upwards. In the latter part of the 1800s, clothing designers began experimenting with various alternatives to the corset, trying things like splitting the corset into multiple parts: a girdle-like restraining device for the lower torso, and devices that suspended the breasts from the shoulder for the upper torso.
By the early 1900s, garments more closely resembling contemporary bras had emerged, although large-scale commercial production did not occur until the 1930s. Since then, bras have replaced corsets and bra manufacture and sale has become a multi-billion-dollar industry. Over time, the emphasis on bras has largely shifted from functionality to fashion.
The negligee is a form of womenswear intended for wear at night and in the bedroom. It is a form of nightgown; first introduced in France in the 18th-century, where it mimicked the heavy head-to-toe style of women's day dresses of the time.
By the 1920s it began to mimic women's satin single-layer evening dresses of the period. The term "negligee" was used of a Royal Doulton run of ceramic figurines in 1927, showing women wearing what appears to be a one-piece knee-length silk or rayon slip, trimmed with lace.
From the 1940s to the 1970s, the trend was for negligees to become shorter in length (e.g. the babydoll of the 1970s). Negligees made from the 1940s to the 1970s are now collectible vintage items.
Sources: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Negligee
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brassiere#History
http://www.classyoption.com/images/lingerie/71113PeignoirCahillIvory2.jpg
8. Describe the history of perfumes. When and where were the perfumes first used?
A:
The first form of perfume was incense. Incense was first discovered by the Mesopotamians about 4,000 years ago. Ancient cultures burned many kinds of resins, bums and woods at their religious ceremonies. They often soaked the fragrant woods and resins in water and oil, and rubbed their bodies with the liquid. They also embalmed the dead with these perfumes.
Although perfume and perfumery also existed in India, much of its fragrances are incense based. The earliest distillation of Attar was mentioned in the Hindu Ayurvedic text Charaka Samhita. The Harshacharita, written in 7th century A.D. in Northern India mentions use of fragrant agarwood oil.
The world's first recorded chemist is considered to be a woman named Tapputi, a perfume maker who was mentioned in a cuneiform tablet from the second millennium BC in Mesopotamia. She distilled flowers, oil, and calamus with other aromatics then filtered and put them back in the still several times
France quickly became the European center of perfume and cosmetic manufacture. Cultivation of flowers for their perfume essence, which had begun in the 14th century, grew into a major industry in the south of France. During the Renaissance period, perfumes were used primarily by the wealthy to mask body odors resulting from infrequent bathing. Partly due to this patronage, the western perfumery industry was created. By the 18th century, aromatic plants were being grown in the Grasse region of France to provide the growing perfume industry with raw materials. Even today, France remains the centre of the European perfume design and trade.
Sources: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perfume#History
http://www.perfumes.com/eng/history.htm
http://cdn-write.demandstudios.com/upload//0000/600/20/6/30626.jpg
9.Who is the top model ranked 15 among Top Icon models? Give a short biography of the model.
A:
The top model ranked 15 among Top Icon models is Carmen Kass. She grew up in the Estonian city of Paide. At the age of fourteen, she was discovered in a Tallinn supermarket by an Italian modeling scout. Four years later, she moved to Milan and later Paris to pursue modeling quickly appearing in fashion shows for many top designer. She has appeared on a variety of magazine covers and in advertisements for brands as diverse as Calvin Klein, Chanel, Donna Karan, Givenchy, Fendi, Michael Kors, the Gap, Sephora. She has a noted interest in business, as part owner of her mother agency Baltic Models. As an actress, she appeared in the Estonian film Set Point. She loves to play chess in her off time.
Sources: http://models.com/icons/icons.html?fnumber=15&lnumber=11
http://models.com/models/Carmen-Kass
10.What is the name of the company, which first started to produce denim jeans? When and where?
A: The first company, which first started to produce denim jeans is Levi Strauss & Co. It was founded in 1853 when Levi Strauss came from Buttenheim, Franconia, to San Francisco, California to open a west coast branch of his brothers' New York dry goods business. Although the company began producing denim overalls in the 1870s, modern jeans were not produced until the 1920s.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Levi%27s
