History & culture

French tailor who patented an early chainstitch sewing machine in 1830 to make army uniforms; rioting tailors, fearing job losses, destroyed his workshop in 1831.

A Japanese tradition of patching and mending indigo cotton textiles with layered scraps, born of necessity among rural families from the Edo period into the 20th century and later admired as folk art.

A jacket-making method in which a layer of horsehair or wool canvas is hand- or machine-stitched inside the front panels to shape the chest, distinct from cheaper fused interfacing.

A tailoring style developed on Savile Row in the 1920s-30s that adds fullness across the chest and back for ease of movement while maintaining a structured silhouette.

A hooped or padded understructure worn beneath skirts from the 15th to early 17th centuries to create a rigid conical or wheel-shaped silhouette, first developed in Spain.

A suit-jacket construction in which a floating canvas interlining is sewn, not glued, throughout the front, allowing the jacket to mold to the wearer's body over time.

A narrow ankle-length skirt so tight at the hem that it restricted the wearer's stride, a controversial fashion of the early 1910s associated with designer Paul Poiret.

A loose, sleeveless tunic woven and embroidered by Indigenous Maya women of Mexico and Central America, with patterns that traditionally signal the wearer's home village and community.

A resist-dyeing technique in which yarns are bound and dyed in patterns before weaving, so the design emerges from the woven cloth itself; practiced across Southeast Asia, Central Asia, and Latin America.

French couturier, born Germaine Krebs, known from the 1930s onward for intricately hand-pleated silk jersey gowns draped directly on the body in a technique resembling classical Greek sculpture.

A hand-stitched reverse-appliqué textile made by Guna women of Panama and Colombia, formed by layering and cutting through colored cotton fabrics to reveal patterns beneath, traditionally worn as a blouse panel.

A tailoring tradition from Naples, Italy, known for soft, lightly padded shoulders, minimal internal structure, and a relaxed, body-skimming fit suited to warm Mediterranean climates.

Side hoops or pads worn at the hips under 18th-century skirts to extend width sideways while remaining flat front and back, especially fashionable in French court dress.

The technique of scaling a garment pattern up or down across a range of sizes while preserving proportion and fit, historically done by hand and now largely computer-assisted.

French designer active from the early 1900s who freed women from the corseted silhouette with looser, high-waisted dresses influenced by Orientalist style, though his own hobble skirts still restricted movement.

A patchwork and appliqué quilt made by women in Pakistan, northwest India, and Sindh from recycled cotton and silk fabric scraps, hand-stitched in geometric patterns across generations.

The line along a jacket lapel where the fabric naturally folds back; tailors shape it through pad stitching and pressing so the lapel rolls softly rather than lying flat.

A network of trade routes connecting China to the Mediterranean from around the 2nd century BCE, through which silk, dyes, and weaving techniques spread across Asia, the Middle East, and Europe.

American inventor who built a working lockstitch sewing machine around 1834 but never patented it, later inventing the safety pin in 1849 among many other devices.

A pattern-design method that arranges garment pieces to use an entire fabric width with no offcuts discarded, a technique with historical roots in traditional garment shapes like the kimono and sari.