The Stories Behind Your Favorite Fashions

Have Bikinis Always Been So Popular?

Hardly! Named for the nuclear-testing site Bikini Atoll, the suits first appeared in 1946, but American women thought them immodest. Not until the 1960s were they accepted, possibly helped by the hit song “Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini.”
 
 

Were French Cuffs Really Created for the Battlefield?

It is said that the cuffs were designed to be used as handkerchiefs in combat. But, in fact, French royalty invented the style in the 1500s, when flowing sleeves were the rage; nobles would tie their sleeves back with fasteners. Amusingly, the competitive English tried to take credit for the fashion, which to this day they refer to as “double cuffs.”