Useless Facts in Fashion Trends
In the late nineteenth century, it was the fashion among many English women to wear gold rings through their nipples. In an 1899 edition of the British Journal Society, fascinating details are given about this peculiar fad. The woman who wished to wear such ornaments, the magazine said, had holes board through her nipples and thin golden rings threaded through the holes. It was believed that wearing such rings were a stimulating sight for men when exposed. The operation was performed not by doctors, but by jewelers, much the way ear piercing is done today.
Before King George IV of England ordered a set of boots made to fit each of his feet, shoes were designed to be worn on either foot.
Fashionable women in medieval Japan gilded or blackened their teeth. Today many Hindu women in India stain their teeth bright red to enhance their appearance.
The Maya Indians filed their front teeth to points and drilled holes in them so that they could be embellished with precious gems. They filled cavities in their teeth with pieces of jade.
In the eighteenth-century England eyeglasses were often worn purely as fashionable accessories, not as aids to vision. Such glasses were frequently set in gold frames decorated with precious jewels. Sometimes the lenses were removed completely, leaving only the decorative frame to ornament the face.
The buttons on the back of a dress coat once served a purpose other than a decoration. In seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Europe, the skirts of such coats were very long and the tails flapped about, interfering with movement. An ingenious gentleman had buttons sewn on the back so that when the wearer was in a hurry he could simply button up his skirts.
The pigtail worn for so many years by Chinese men was originally a symbol of abject humiliation. The Manchus, a tribe of Tartars, conquered China in 1644. To emphasize their suzerainty, they ordered each Chinese male to shave the forepart of his head and to permit the hair on the back of his head to grow long. This extended length of hair was then to be braided and tasseled, and in the presence of superiors always hung over the back. The pigtail, however, gradually became so popular among its wearers that in 1912 when the Manchus were defeated and dethroned, most Chinese men were loath to give it up.
Kilts are not native to Scotland. They originated in France.
The shoestring was invented in England in 1790. Prior to this time all shoes were fastened with buckles.
The natives of Kandahar, Afghanistan, wear turbans which when unwrapped are 20 feet long.