1 – Welcome to #ThreadTalk, #Linen edition! And we're all about contrast. Humble yet durable, whimsical yet dainty, seen yet unseen–linen reinforces the world's most ostentatious gowns & yet stands on its own, full of holes. All from a plant 🌱 you beat with a stick. 2 – Linen is a material that comes courtesy of the flax plant, also known as linseed or Linum usitatissimum. And it's been with humanity for a long, long time. See this painted linen shroud of an Egyptian woman during the Roman period (A.D. 170–200). She's prob wearing it, too. 3 – But Egypt is not even that far back in flax history. Dyed…

1 – Welcome to #ThreadTalk! Ah, mawwiage. We're going nuptial. 💕If you're hoping for whimsy & romance, well… you probably haven't been here before.💕 For most of history, marriage has been about money & power, just like the fashion it's inspired. (Below, 1841, satin) 2 – Though anthropologists don't know exactly when marriage began, it seems to be universal. For most of history, marriage was not about love, butensuring legitimacy of offspring, cementing family alliances, & consolidating wealth. See our ladies preparing: Greece, 5th C BCE. 3 – As with so much, we begin in Mesopotamia. Mostly because they wrote things down. Yay, cuneiform! On this Sumerian relief, the marriage…

1 – It's time for #ThreadTalk & today we're swathing ourselves in the history of the kaftan! Don't know your kaftan from your muumuu, dashiki, or Banyan? That's okay. We'll get there. This ancient garment became a Regency staple🎩, a 1960s essential ☮️ & a modern must-have.🧥 2 – The word itself is Persian: خفتان khaftān. In simple terms, it's a tunic or a robe, often open down the front & tied with a sash. This kind of garment goes back as far as Mesopotamia, but rose to prominence during the Abbasid Caliphate. This bowl dates from the 10thC. 3 – That said, the garment itself emerged all over antiquity,…

Stripes are everywhere. But where did they start? And what do they mean?

1 – Welcome to #threadtalk, the first in my icon series. Yup. It's gonna be ruff. It’s fitting that we begin with the very monarch who signed the East India Company into being: Queen Elizabeth I. Join me as we travel back to the 16thC to one truly warped family. 👑🧵🪡 2 – No one expected the daughter of Henry VIII & Anne Boleyn would ascend the throne–but she did. Her coronation (1558) portrait shows her swathed in cloth of gold–the very same her deceased sister Mary had worn (bit creepy). Oh, that cloth of gold? £2170 a yard in today's $$. 3 – Every line of her dress is…

1 – Welcome to #ThreadTalk & gird your loins! We're talking skivvies, undies, unmentionables, lingerie🩲– that's right: underwear. Tonight we'll part the veil & to find what lies beneath. We've got witchcraft, weird myths & plenty of spice. 🔥 🔥 🔥 But first, mummies! 2 – Tradition says Adam & Eve used fig leaves, but the most likely first "underwear" was woven of plant materials or leather. Hence, it's hard to find extant remains. Ötzi the Iceman, though, who's about 3500 years old, had a very well preserved one. So did the Aztecs, pictured. 3 – Loincloths were kind of a global sensation for a while. Got a belt and…

1 – Greetings, everyone. It's time for #ThreadTalk! By popular demand, everything's coming up paisley. #Paisley is an ancient motif with a Scottish name–to learn more about it, we'll be traveling the globe🌍, visit goats 🐐 & talk shit about the East India Company 🤬. 2 – Paisley's proper name is boteh or buta, but it's also been called "persian pickles," "Welsh pears," "ham hock" pattern, or "mango" just to name a few. Persian pickles?🥒 Right. And it's old. You can see it on architecture in Balkh, Afghanistan dating to the 9th C. 3 – "Boteh" is a Persian word that means "shrub" or "bush." Whatever it is, it's leafy.…

Beadwork is one of the most ancient forms of self-ornamentation. From the plains of North America to the deserts of Africa and beyond.

1 – Welcome to #ThreadTalk, muslin edition. Muslin has been all over my feed, so let me cut to the chase: The finest fabric in human history was perfected by the Bengali people but tragically lost in the wake of imperialism & economic ruin at the hands of the English. 🤬🤬 2 – Muslin was once called "The vapor of dawn" by a Chinese trader named Yuan Chwang. Other names were "woven wind" & "wonder gossamer" – yet it's now synomymous with Regency period dramas. There's no way around this: it is not a happy story. But it's one people need to hear. 3 – In many ways, this is…