In the 1950s and 1960s, families planning for the apocalypse often took a homespun approach.

Betty Boop was literally designed to be a bombshell, but around 1935, her creators decided to change her appearance.

When plastics were first invented, they seemed to promise a utopian future.

How a company that started off selling cuticle remover convinced American woman to paint their nails.

In the age before plastic surgery, masks were the best option for veterans with faces scarred by war. The end results, however, were somewhat uncanny.

According to one historian, the year 1900 was “the zenith of glove-wearing,” when any self-respecting Victorian (British or American) wouldn’t be caught dead without covered hands.

Are you wearing seaweed? People have been for hundreds of years, in sizing, patterns and fibers, although they might not have known it.

In the 18th century, whether a person drank punch or tea revealed a lot about gender, stereotypes, sociability, and domesticity.

Chairs were a subject of much debate as far back as the nineteenth century, pitting health and technology against propriety and aesthetics.

The Men’s Dress Reform Party (MDRP) called for liberation from dark, tightly-knit textiles...and had some ties to the eugenics movement.