The History Of Clothes
Clothing is non-living objects usually worn by humans for the purpose of covering their bodies. In most cases, clothing is composed of textiles or natural fabrics, but over the years it has also included clothing made of animal skins and other man-made materials found in the surroundings, cut together. Clothing has served many purposes in human history: it has been used to keep warm; to stay cool during summer and winter; to display rank and social position; and as a method of adornment. Clothes are no longer just clothes. They have become objects with different functions.
The word ‘clothing’ comes from the Latin ‘claud,’ meaning the handkerchief, and ‘sella,’ a garment. Based on the etymology, clothing means a handkerchief worn by an elderly woman to wipe away her tears. However, by the 12th century, the term clothing had already come to imply wearing of clothes and the related accessories. By the seventeenth century, clothing was no longer restricted to elderly women but was widely used by both males and females all over Europe. During the nineteenth century, industrialization and modernization caused the decline of local textile industries, making cloth production more profitable in industrialized nations, and the manufacturing of clothing became less localized. Industrialists saw the tremendous profit in machine-made clothes and quickly developed the process of machine-made clothing.
Clothing today is not as utilitarian as it was before. Clothes are no longer made according to how they will keep us warm, but according to how they look on us. Clothes are not made only for our appearance anymore, but now clothes are made to fit our bodies. Our bodies shape and size change as we age, so manufacturers create clothing for everyone by closely modeling real human body shapes. This makes clothing one of the few art forms that are continuously receiving new attention from designers all over the world. A good example of this is the rise of urban fashion; more young people are expressing themselves through clothing.