Clothing, garments or dress worn by people of all cultures since prehistoric times. Clothing probably developed primarily as a protection against climate. In hot climates, the traditional dress is loose-fitting, draped garments. Traditional in cold climates are fitted and sewn garments, which contain body heat. In Western culture, interaction between these two styles has led to a more varied fashion history than elsewhere in the world. In the non-Western world, ancient tradition prevailed until the expansion of Western industrialized civilization and, with it, dress. 

Clothing of the Ancient World 
The warm climate of the eastern Mediterranean basin made it important that ancient peoples wear free-flowing, loose-robed, and minimal garments. The basic dress of the ancient Egyptians was a loincloth wrapped around the hips. Later, a long garment called a kalasiris was introduced. Worn with a cape, it became the standard dress for all ancient Egyptians. The Hebrews, Assyrians, and Babylonians all wore a long, sleeved garment similar to a nightshirt. 

The long dominance of Egyptian and Middle Eastern dress was eliminated by the style of the Greeks and Romans, who wore extremely simple clothing. The chiton, worn short by the men and ankle length by the women, was a long rectangle of cloth pinned at the shoulders and belted. The early Romans wore a shirtlike tunica and the toga, an oval of cloth draped in complicated folds. During the Roman Empire, hose and trousers were adopted from the conquered northern European tribes. 

History of Western Clothing 
After the fall of the Western Roman Empire in AD 476, invasions from the north introduced fitted tunics and hoods. In the 500s the Byzantine Empire adopted Oriental traditions of dress. Byzantine clothing appears unique in the Western tradition as having developed with no apparent concession to sexual attraction or to utility. After Charlemagne became Holy Roman emperor in 800, a relatively uniform style of dress appeared in Europe. Charlemagne's everyday attire consisted of an undertunic and an overtunic, with breeches cross-gartered to the knee. Records show other European monarchs wearing similar styles. Court ladies wore long tunics, under supertunics hitched up to show the tunics beneath. A cloth veil concealed the hair. These garments made up the basic wardrobe of the European aristocracy throughout the Middle Ages (5th century to 15th century). 

In the 1100s the Crusades had a startling effect on fashion, as crusaders brought back luxurious Oriental fabrics and new styles. The Oriental bliaut, a long, trailing garment, was introduced. The tunic was increasingly tailored in the 1300s and evolved into the doublet, which survived into the 1600s as the basic male outer garment. Its modern derivation is the waistcoat or vest. The period also produced an early form of the corset for women. Throughout the Middle Ages, long skirts reached to the floor to hide women's ankles. 

The richness of Renaissance (14th century to 17th century) attire was made possible by the development of a whole range of new fabrics and materials. By the 1620s, simplicity had vanished. A craze developed for slashing, which involved cutting slits in the outer fabric and pulling the lining fabric through the hole to create a contrast. Lace edges and frills at the neck and sleeves developed into the starched and elaborate ruffs worn for another hundred years. These collars eventually became the cravat and then, finally, the necktie. A basic change in men's clothing during the Renaissance was the lengthening of breeches. Women endured increasingly restrictive garments with the introduction of a long, rigid corset. The relatively natural look of the Middle Ages was replaced with elaborate shapes and rigidity. 

During the 1600s, men's clothes underwent radical change with the introduction of the casaque, a modified cape that evolved into the coat worn today. This period also saw the introduction of the wig by the balding Louis XIV. 

Light colors and fabrics characterized the 1700s, typified by the loose gown, or mantua. Soft lace replaced the starched, formal ruffs of the previous century. With the French Revolution (1789-1799) came radical changes, as men began wearing trousers for the first time in 600 years. No basic change in men's clothing has taken place since then. Women's fashion reverted to what was deemed the classical style, a natural look featuring thin fabrics and bare arms. The restoration of the French monarchy in 1814 led to a reaction in women's fashion—a return to corsets and hoops for women. The Industrial Revolution made possible the manufacture of fashionable clothes, resulting in more rapid changes in women's attire. 

Wars and social upheavals brought the last radical changes in the history of Western costume. After World War I (1914-1918), the natural shape of women reappeared in clothing, as did the practice of revealing the legs. By the 1930s women were wearing trousers. 

The Non-Western World 
Outside the Western European sphere of influence, clothing tends to be traditional. Where non-Western cultures have come into conflict with Western ideas, traditional garments have often been displaced. In Africa, the Middle East, and the Far East, however, many aspects of traditional dress have survived. 

Traditional clothing in Africa falls generally into the draped tradition, and it varies from the loincloth to the elaborately patterned robe. A Middle Eastern influence can be detected in parts of Africa. The clothing of the Middle East shows a mixture of influences from ancient times. Until oil became important to the industrial West, little change had occurred in the ancient traditional dress. In recent decades, Western manufactured dress has rapidly displaced much of traditional handmade dress. 

Before the Muslim conquests of the 1500s, the people of India seem to have worn only variations of the draped clothing of the hot-climate ancient world, including the loincloth and the sari. During the Mughal Empire, Middle Eastern influences came to India. Clothing in Southeast Asia presents an unusual extension of draped clothing—trousers, combined with an open-sleeved coat or sleeveless waistcoat. The aristocracy and royal families have developed ceremonial dress of impressive elaboration. In China, Japan, and Korea, silk and a light cloth made of finely woven fibers have been used in square-cut, open-robe garments that can be layered against cold weather. After the Chinese revolution of the early 1900s, the dress of the old empire largely disappeared. The post-World War II industrialization of Japan has Westernized the nation's customary dress. 

DECORATIVE ARTS 
Jewelry 
Jewelry, ornaments of precious metal, sometimes set with gems. Jewelery has been worn since ancient times by people of all cultures for personal adornment; as badges of rank; and as emblems of religious, social, and political affiliation. The term properly refers to mounted precious or semiprecious stones and objects made of valuable metals such as gold, silver, platinum, copper, and brass. 

Egyptian Adornments 
The ancient Egyptians worked in gold and silver and inlaid these metals with semiprecious stones, enamel, and glass. Jewelry motifs were derived from religious symbols. Vast quantities of Egyptian jewelry, which included crowns, necklaces, bracelets, and rings, have been found in tombs. 

Middle Eastern Jewelry 
Sumerian, Babylonian, and Assyrian tombs of the 3rd and 2nd millennia BC also yielded jewelry in gold, silver, and gems. Fine gold and silver jewelry also was made in ancient Anatolia, Persia, and Phoenicia. Techniques included granulation (in which surfaces are decorated with clusters of tiny grains of gold), filigree, and inlay. 

Greek and Roman Jewelry 
Trojan and Cretan artisans of the Minoan period produced jewelry of a common type from about 2500 BC to the beginning of the Classical period of Greek art (479-323 BC). Typical work consisted of thin coils and chains of linked and plaited wire. Stamping and enameling were common, and motifs included spirals and naturalistic patterns. 

Archaic Greek jewelry and Etruscan and other Italian jewelry made in the period between 700 and 500 BC was almost entirely inspired by Egyptian and Assyrian examples. In the Greek Classical period, granulation fell out of use, enamel reappeared, and filigree was widely employed. In the succeeding Hellenistic period (323-31 BC) large garnets and other colored stones, placed at the center of designs, were introduced. This innovation was elaborated on in Rome, where cameo cutting reached its peak. 

Byzantine, Medieval, and Renaissance Jewelry 
Byzantine nobility wore jewelry in profusion. Rings and pendants often took the form of religious symbols. Byzantine enamel work had a strong influence on European jewelry of succeeding periods. 

After the fall of Rome, barbarian tribes from eastern Europe, who were skilled at metalwork, combined Roman and Byzantine skills in jewelry making and also introduced their own regional variations. Principal motifs were stylized animals and intricate interlacing. An important technique in medieval jewelry was the use of garnet slices set, like enamel, into metal cells. In the 11th century brooches, rings, and pendants were popular types of jewelry, often in the form of religious emblems. By the 14th and 15th centuries jewelry increasingly became an integral part of dress. 

Renaissance (14th century to 17th century) jewelry is characterized by rich color and sculptural or architectural design. Classical and naturalistic themes replaced religious subjects, and jewelry incorporating miniature portraiture was popular. Designs for jewels were printed and circulated throughout Europe, creating an international style. Among the best-known Renaissance artisans is Benvenuto Cellini. 

Jewelry in the 17th and 18th Centuries 
In the 17th century the introduction of new methods of faceting gems to give them greater brilliance made the diamond the preferred stone for precious jewelry. In the 18th and 19th centuries, industrial development brought more popular, less costly jewelry. Common materials came to include base-metal alloys, paste (for imitation gemstones), steel, and cast iron. 

Opulent jewelry was made during the reign of Napoleon III of France. However, with the emphasis on extravagant display and the intrinsic appeal of precious stones, metalwork was neglected and became inferior. At the end of the 19th century Russian goldsmith Peter Carl Fabergé reintroduced exacting craftsmanship in jewelry. 

20th-Century Jewelry 
About 1900 in Paris, jewelers of the art nouveau movement, led by René Lalique, continued the revival of the goldsmith's art. The art nouveau style was introduced in the United States by Louis Comfort Tiffany, one of the first important American jewelry designers. After World War I (1914-1918) strong, lightweight metals such as platinum permitted unconventional settings, and new casting methods resulted in more sculptural designs. 

Asian Jewelry 
In Asia ancient techniques and styles of jewelry remain in existence. Indian jewelry was produced in the Indus Valley before 1500 BC. Medieval Indian sculpture depicts heavy necklaces, bracelets, girdles, and earrings. Today Indian goldsmiths produce work of great refinement. 

Silver was used in traditional Chinese jewelry more often than gold; jade was the most valued precious stone. Under the Chinese Empire, jeweled emblems indicated rank, and elaborate silver and gold filigree headdresses were worn by women of high position. Buddhist symbols often were used as decoration. The gold and silver jewelry of Nepal, Myanmar (formerly known as Burma), and Thailand is related to Indian and Chinese work and is greatly admired. The Japanese have excelled in lacquer and ivory ornaments, such as combs and buttons. See Lacquer Work; Ivory Carving. 

Pre-Columbian and African Jewelry 
A large amount of gold jewelry was made in South America and Mexico before the Spanish conquest of 1532. Personal and ceremonial ornaments featured themes that were almost exclusively religious. Mosaic inlays of turquoise originated in Peru before 700 AD and were common in Mexican jewelry by the 14th century. 

Africa has produced fine jewelry since prehistoric times. Northern Africa is noted for its silverwork, both plain and enameled. South of the Sahara, artisans in the great medieval kingdoms of Africa made ornaments out of gold, amber, ivory and brass, and bronze. Beads of shell and glass have long been important elements of African jewelry. African jewelry has been used as a vehicle for religious symbols, and to indicate social or economic status. 

INDUSTRY, MINING, & FUELS 
Sewing and Tailoring 

Sewing and Tailoring, process of joining together, by needle and thread, pieces of fabric or other materials to make clothing, household furnishings, and other items. The material is cut to the desired shape and size, often by means of an overlaid pattern, and then sewn together by hand or by machine. Today industry relies heavily on computers to aid in patternmaking. Sewing is used in constructing items such as vehicle seat coverings, sails, tents, and sleeping bags. Tailoring is a highly skilled handcraft that requires knowing how to measure, cut, and fit garments to conform to a person's body. 

The sewing machine, developed in the 18th century, is today capable of making thousands of stitches per hour, with hundreds of stitch designs possible. The basic principle of the sewing machine is relatively simple. It feeds cloth under a needle at a regulated rate, pushes the needle through the cloth, joins two separate pieces of thread together to make a stitch, and then tightens the stitch. In addition to sewing straight or curved seams, most modern machines also make buttonholes, sew on buttons, make gathered or pleated seams, and do decorative embroidery. 

Home sewers need assorted needles, thread in a variety of colors, and a selection of buttons. Fabric shops carry patterns and materials. Patterns, sold according to size, are available for everything from T-shirts to stuffed toys. A steam iron, an ironing board with a well-padded covering, and tailor's chalk are essential for home tailoring. Clothes forms adjustable to individual body configurations are also available to the home tailor. 

MACHINES & TOOLS 
Sewing Machine 

Sewing Machine, machine designed to join pieces of fabric or leather by means of either a lockstitch or a chain stitch. The lockstitch, which is used in most modern machines, is formed from two threads, and the chain stitch from a single thread. 

The first sewing machine was patented in 1790 by British inventor Thomas Saint. Saint's machine used an awl to pierce a hole through the material, and a needlelike rod with a forked point carried the thread through to the underside of the work, where a hook caught the thread and moved it forward for the next stitch. The cycle was repeated on the underside of the cloth, forming a chain and locking the stitch. The first practical sewing machine was built in 1829 by a French tailor, Barthélemy Thimonnier; it employed a hook-tipped needle and produced a chain stitch. 

The first lockstitch machine was devised about 1834 by American inventor Walter Hunt. Working independently, American inventor Elias Howe patented a similar machine in 1846. American inventor Isaac Merrit Singer pooled various patents in the sewing machine field and laid the groundwork for the mass production of the machines. Other important inventions in the field during the 19th century included the rotary bobbin, the intermittent four-motion feed for advancing the material between stitches, and the presser foot, a spring-tension device for holding the material firmly against the worktable. 

Home sewers use either a straight-stitch or a zigzag sewing machine. Most modern sewing machines produce a lockstitch in which the needle moves downward through the material and the thread is engaged above the eye of the needle by a hook on the rim of the bobbin. As the bobbin turns, the upper thread is pulled out to form a loop through which the under thread feeds to form a stitch. 

INVERTEBRATE ANIMALS 
Clothes Moth 

Clothes Moth, common name for any of several related species of moths that, as larvae, eat wool and other natural fibers, damaging clothing, carpets, and furs. Adults have a wingspread of 12 to 26 mm (0.5 to 1.0 in). Larvae usually spin silken cases over their food, sometimes incorporating bits of food material. Because clothes moth damage is easily avoided with the use of modern chemical repellents, these pests are now relatively uncommon. 
Scientific classification: Clothes moths belong to the family Tineidae. 

INDUSTRY, MINING, & FUELS 
Fur Industry 

Fur Industry, area of commerce that includes farming or trapping furbearing animals, processing their skins for sale to manufacturers of fur garments, and marketing finished garments to retail outlets. The term fur refers to any animal skin or part that has hair, fleece, or fur fibers attached, either in a raw or processed state. Skins of furbearing animals are also called peltries or pelts. 

From earliest times, fur has been a prized commodity. Exploration in the Americas made furs more readily available. The beaver, trapped by Native Americans, was a main source of barter at trading posts that later grew into major cities. Foreign competition has placed increasing pressure on North American fur trappers and farmers. The industry has also been hurt by protests from animal rights activists and the increasing popularity of artificial fur. 

Fur Farming 
Fur farming, raising animals in captivity under controlled conditions, started in Canada in 1887. Fur farmers customarily breed animals to produce furs with desirable characteristics. Farmed animals provide a steady supply of fine-quality, well-cared-for peltries. 

Marketing Channels for Furs 
Trappers send peltries to local collecting stations or to dealers who send them on to receiving houses, where they are prepared for auction. Often fur farmers are part of a farming cooperative, whose representatives supervise the assembling and sale of peltries. At fur auction houses, the furs are sold through brokerage firms. 

Processing Furs 
Furs bought at auction need to be preserved and beautified by firms specializing in dressing and dyeing. Dressing involves carefully scraping the skins to remove fat, washing them, and treating them with chemicals that soften and preserve the skin. Less attractive furs may have their color changed by dyeing or bleaching. 

Fur Garment Manufacture 
Large skins may have the garment pattern cut from the skin. Most animals, however, have smaller skins that must be joined in various ways to create a garment. Garment parts are then stitched together, linings are inserted, and the garment is tailored for fit and drape. Waste parts of the fur are later cut to make less costly garments. 

Fur Products Labeling Act 
After processing, dyeing, shearing, and construction, furs are often difficult to identify. To protect sellers from others who may falsify their products and to protect consumers, the Fur Products Labeling Act was passed in the United States in 1952. Under this law, furs must be invoiced, advertised, labeled, and sold under their accepted English names. Waste fur and used articles must be so labeled. 

Endangered Species Conservation Act 
Several groups of people, concerned that certain animal species are threatened with extinction or that using furs as apparel represents cruelty to animals, have sought to protect them. Under the Endangered Species Conservation Act of 1973 and its added convention in 1977, the United States and nearly 80 other nations control and monitor the import and export of imperiled species covered by treaty. The act and convention define as endangered any species that is in danger of extinction, and as threatened any species that is likely to become endangered within the foreseeable future. 

DECORATIVE ARTS 
Needlework 

Needlework, term applied to two classes of handcraft involving fabrics. The first, embroidery, is the embellishment of a fabric by designs worked in thread with a needle. The second includes methods of forming a single thread or strand of threads into a fabric. The best known of these methods are knitting and crochet. 

Embroidery 
The term embroidery was first applied to decoratively stitched borders on medieval church vestments, although the style of stitching had been done long before that. Although mass production of embroidery by machine became possible in 1828, it continued to be practiced as a handcraft. 

Embroidery stitches can be functional or purely decorative. Each decorative stitch has a name, and the thread used is typically silk, wool, cotton, or linen. Some embroidery techniques produce a basically flat surface; others produce designs in relief. Some types of embroidery are referred to by the kind of thread used; others are referred to by the type of background material used. 

Fine embroidery was done in ancient Egypt, Persia, Babylon, Israel, Phoenicia, and Syria. However, the history of the craft is difficult to trace until about the 6th century. In medieval Byzantium, court and religious items were embroidered in rich colors and ornate designs often copied from Persian models. The most famous British embroidery is the 11th-century Bayeux tapestry. With a movement to produce embroidered pictures that would achieve the luminous quality of paintings, the use of gold led to the Burgundian technique called or nué (shaded gold) embroidery, which dominated 14th-century and 15th-century pictorial embroidery. By the mid-16th century embroidery guilds had formed. 

The most striking Spanish embroidery was stitched on white linen with black sheep's wool. Taken to England in the 16th century, this style developed into Elizabethan blackwork. During the 17th and 18th centuries samplers came into use as a means of recording stitches and patterns. After the French Revolution (1789-1799), simpler styles became popular. The most widespread technique of the 19th century was Berlin work, a variety of pictorial needlepoint executed in silk. The Royal School of Needlework was founded in England in 1872. 

Early settlers in the American colonies brought their crafts from Europe. Although American embroidery designs generally were derived from English designs, they tended to be simpler. Over time, the appliqué quilt became popular, with decorative embroidery stitches used to apply the pieces of colored cloth that formed the designs. An older type of embroidery traditional in the American Southwest was wool-on-wool and cotton-on-wool colcha embroidery. 

Embroidery was also known in Asia from early times. Although no examples of Persian embroidery survive from before the 16th century, accounts of Persian embroidery date to the 13th century. Embroidery was known in India probably from prehistoric times, but in the 16th century it was greatly encouraged by the Mughal emperors. The earliest surviving examples of Chinese embroidery are Tang (T’ang) dynasty (618-907) garments from eastern Turkistan. Chinese embroidery was principally used to decorate garments such as emperors' robes, profusely adorned with traditional motifs. In Japan embroidery on women's kimonos flourished in the 17th and 18th centuries. 

Knitting and Crochet 
Both knitted and crocheted fabrics are made most often from a single strand of thread; the fabric is composed of loops chained together to form a continuous textile. In knitting, the loops of thread are usually formed by means of a pair of rods called needles, but knitting is also done by machine. The oldest form of knitting is crossed knitting, in which the stitches are rotated a half turn instead of aligning vertically. This method was used for the fringes of cloths woven in pre-Columbian Peru by the Nazca culture (100 BC-AD 700). Other early examples of knitting include pieces found in Egyptian burials, the earliest possibly dating from the 4th or 5th century BC. Knitting apparently was introduced into Europe by the Arabs, probably in the 5th century. The craft flourished in England and Scotland in the 14th and 15th centuries. By 1589 a knitting machine had been perfected in England. As a handcraft, knitting developed both as a folk craft with traditional regional designs and as a popular craft with designs circulating in printed handbooks. 

Crochet is a method of working interlocking loops of thread into a chain by means of a slender rod hooked at one end. Various stitches are possible, and a variety of textures and patterns can be created. Little is known of the early history of crocheting. During the Renaissance (14th century to 17th century) both peasant women and ladies of the court produced crochet work and also knotted work using several strands of thread. Much early crochet was made with fine, thin thread, producing imitations of European lace. Although crochet can be made by machine, it has traditionally been, and continues to be, a home handcraft. 

DECORATIVE ARTS 
Quilting 

Quilting, process of stitching together two layers of fabric with some soft substance (usually cotton) in between. This quilted fabric is often used for a bed covering called a quilt, but is also used for clothing, upholstery, and decoration. 

Technique 
The top layer of a quilt bears a design generally produced in one of three ways: The top layer may be left plain so that the quilting stitches form the design; it may be appliquéd with smaller pieces cut from different fabrics, creating pictures and patterns; or it may be formed out of pieces of different fabrics in a process called patchwork. The term quilting actually refers to the final stage of assembly, when the quilt's three layers are sewn together with short running stitches, called quilting stitches. 

History 
Originating in ancient times, quilted garments were worn by the Chinese, the Russians, and the Native Americans of Mesoamerica. Crusaders brought the idea to Europe. Written records of quilts date from the 12th century; however, the earliest surviving example is from the 15th century. 

The first quilts in America were brought by Dutch and English colonists. The patchwork quilt reached its highest artistic development in the United States. However, with the advent of inexpensive machine-made bed coverings in the early 20th century, quiltmaking declined. In the 1960s interest in quilting—both as a handicraft and an art form—revived.