ORIGIN OF FASHIONS

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXI, 24 April 1937, Page 22 (Supplement)

ORIGIN OF FASHIONS

DESIRE TO DO AS OTHERS DO Imitation is one of the most marked characteristics of human nature, and in nothing is this more noticeable than in the matter of dress. To the desire to do as others do may be attributed the prevalence of almost all the fashions that have existed since the days when our primitive ancestors donned their unpretentious fig-leaves. The origin ofmany fashions is, however, somewhat curious.

Alexander the Great had a twist in his neck. It therefore became fashionable for everyone in that monarch’s court to carry the neck in the same way.' The peruke was said to*be due to a misfortune of Philip, Duke of Burgundy. His hair fell away, and he was advised by his physician to cover his head with artificial hair. Doing so, he originated a fashion which soon became prevalent.

Francis I of France was struck on the chin by a sharp missile. The wounded part could not be shaved. Following the monarch’s suit, beards became the fashion, after having been out for nearly a century. The use of powder originated in the fancy of a French mountebank, who dredged his head with flour in order to emphasise his idiotcy. Charles VII of France had a pair of ill-shaped legs, and he wore a long coat in order to conceal them, with the result that in a short time everybody else wore long coats.

In the reign of George 111 the. Duke of York fought a duel with Colonel Lennox. The colonel succeeded in shooting away one of the duke’s curls. Hence it became the “correct thing” to' wear a curl on one side of the temple only. When Fox, the first of Quakers, was sitting in church, and the preacher said anything he disliked, he moved solemnly, put on his hat, and kept it- on until the disagreeable remarks were concluded. Hence arose the Quaker custom of wearing hats in church. •' ’ '