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Fashion

NMAH director John Gray, designer Hervé Pierre, First Lady Melania Trump and Smithsonian secretary David Skorton pose with the silk crepe gown.

Melania Trump Donates Her Inaugural Ball Gown to the Smithsonian

Mrs. Trump, who confesses a passion for design, had a precise idea of what she wanted to wear on that historic evening

A Coco Chanel Little Black Dress, released in 1926.

Why Coco Chanel Created the Little Black Dress

The style icon created a… well…. style icon in 1926

Josephine Peary, wife of the legendary Arctic explorer Robert Peary, wears a parka in 1892

Family Travel

Explore the High Fashion of Exploration

From the Arctic to the Moon, a new exhibit shows how the outfits of exploration have impacted the outfits of the runway

Petit Pli

The Innovative Spirit fy17

These Origami Clothes Grow With Your Child

Designer Ryan Yasin is creating pleated garments that could save on money and waste

In the dress (now in the Smithsonian collections), on September 20, 1973, Billie Jean King crushed Bobby Riggs with her serve and volley game, winning the match 6-4, 6-3, 6-3.

How Billie Jean King Picked Her Outfit for the Battle of the Sexes Match

King beat self-proclaimed male chauvinist Bobby Riggs and her victory still stands as an accomplishment for feminism

The Titan Who Founded L’Oréal Prospered Under the Nazis

How the head of the world’s top cosmetic firm fell in with the Nazi-sympathizers of German-occupied France and emerged from the war as successful as ever

Carefree, reckless, flappers seemed to enjoy living on the edge, like these atop Chicago’s Sherman Hotel.

History of Now

Flappers Took the Country by Storm, But Did They Ever Truly Go Away

Women of the Roaring Twenties had a lot in common with today’s millennials

Monty Claw with a section of his jewelry works.

Meet the Artists Displaying at This Year’s Santa Fe Indian Market, the Largest Juried Native Art Show in the World

The annual show brings together some of the country’s best traditional and contemporary artists

Customers shop during at the AIDS Healthcare Foundation’s Out of the Closet thrift store in Columbus, Ohio.

How Artists and the LGBTQ Community Made Wearing Trash Cool

Before hipsters descended on your local thrift store, repurposing discarded goods was a subversive art form

Jackie Kennedy Was the Undisputed Style Icon of her Era

To Jackie Kennedy, appearance was everything

The White House's

How a Groundbreaking Interior Designer Helped Jackie O. Change the White House

Sister Parish is credited with creating American country style, a recognizable and quirky mix of old and new

The July 14, 1868 patent for a tape measure included these two drawings.

How Hoop Skirts Led to Tape Measures

Eighteenth-century ladies would recognize some things about the modern contractor’s tool

Lash Lure: pretty packaging, but bad news for makeup wearers.

Three Horrifying Pre-FDA Cosmetics

From mercury-loaded face cream to mascara that left you blind

1937 Elsa Schiaparelli art-deco evening coat

Cool Finds

Google Digitizes 3,000 Years of Fashion History

The massive “We Wear Culture Project” includes 30,000 online artifacts from over 180 institutions

Cool Finds

These Sustainable Sneakers Are Made Using Algae

The shoes’ manufacturers harvest harmful algal blooms and turn the goo into footwear

The burial chamber containing the model looms

New Research

Model Looms Are Missing Link in China’s Textile History

Four miniature pattern looms found in a burial in Chengdu show how the Han Dynasty produced cloth to trade on the Silk Road

Clothes from several decades of the show are on display at The George Washington University Museum.

Reliving the Ebony Fashion Fair Off the Runway, One Couture Dress at a Time

An exhibition on the traveling fashion show memorializes the cultural phenomenon that shook up an industry

This dress is made with the power of cow manure.

Cool Finds

Fashion Made From Cow Poo Wins Innovation Award

Mestic looks to manure to produce bioplastic, paper and fashion-forward textiles

What’s the Environmental Footprint of a T-Shirt?

In-depth life cycle analyses are teaching us more about the environmental costs of the things we wear

Before World War II, almost every Dutch village had a wooden shoe maker.

Trending Today

Only 30 Dutch Wooden Shoe Makers Remain

The traditional trade is in trouble

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