Detail from a French print from 1793that uses the Liberty Cap as a motif of the First Republic.

The Rise and Fall of the Liberty Cap

What happened to the revolutionary headgear that symbolized freedom from enslavement? Meet the sectional politics of the early republic.
A young girl in a fairy costume

A Very JSTOR Daily Costume Guide

Get inspired for Halloween with these hand-curated historical images from JSTOR's Open Community Collections!
"The Big Ones of '68" a paper dress by Universal Studios, 1968

When Paper Was Fashion’s Favorite Material

It's hip, it's happening, it's wow, it's now, it's gone: RIP the paper dress, 1966–1968.
Victims of the Zoot Suit Riots

The Zoot Suit Riots Were Race Riots

In 1943, white servicemen attacked young people of color for wearing the ultimate in street style—on the pretext that they were shirking wartime duty.
A person wearing a denim jacket

Could Our Love of Clothing Promote Sustainable Fashion?

There are some clothes you hang on to, year after year, because they're durable and amazing.
: A woman adjusting her dress, London, c. 1865

How to Dress for Dystopia

Some nineteenth-century novelists predicted horrible futures, with perfectly horrible clothing to match.
Photograph: Gloria Reynolds, a shop assistant in London's King's Road. 

Source: Graham Wood/Getty

Why Black Women Activists Started Wearing Denim

Members of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee adopted denim clothing for activist work. This had special significance for Black women.
Marilyn Monroe at Hollywood agent Johnny Hyde's backyard, 1950

How Hollywood Sold Glamour

The complicated notion of glamour in classic Hollywood, suggesting that stars were aloof and unknowable, was also a means to sell products.
Lady Duff Gordon

World War I Austerity Couldn’t Stop the Fashion Show

To the designer Lucile, luxury consumerism was a virtue as wartime economies struggled.
A live window display to celebrate UK Plus Size Fashion Week on September 3, 2015 in London, England.

How Body Positivity Coexists with Fat Shaming

Retail workers at a plus-size clothing store had to promote the contradictory messages that every body is beautiful and that being fat is bad.