Origin & History of

clothing and Evolution of

clothing
CONTENTS :
 Introduction
 Origin and History of clothing
 Basic reason for wearing of clothes
• Body decoration
• Modesty
• Protection
 Conclusion
 References
 INTRODUCTION
• Clothing in India varies from region to region
depending on the
 ethnicity,
 geography,
 climate and cultural traditions of the peoples of
that region.
• Historically, men and women's clothing has
evolved from loin cloths to cover the body to
elaborate costumes not only used in daily wear
but also on festive occasions as well as rituals and
dance performances.
 ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF
CLOTHING
• Clothing along with food and shelter is one of the
primary needs of mankind.
• According to archaeologists and anthropologists, the
earliest clothing probably consisted of fur, leather,
leaves or grass, draped, wrapped or tied about the
body for protection from the elements.
 Knowledge of such clothing remains presumed,
since clothing materials deteriorate quickly
compared to stone, bone, shell and metal objects.
• The earliest depictions of dress are found in
prehistoric cave painting from Old Stone Age or early
Paleolithic period some 30,000 years ago.
clothing probably
consisted of fur,
leather, leaves or
grass, draped,
wrapped or tied
Clothing of grass
• Clothing appears to have taken from the draped
skirts, cut and sewn trousers and cape like
garments, probably all of which were made from
animal’s skins.
• Different cultures have evolved various ways of creating clothes
out of cloth. One approach simply involves draping the cloth.
 Examples of garments consisting of rectangles of cloth wrapped
to fit include the dhoti for men and the sari for women in
the Indian subcontinent. The clothes may simply be tied up, as
is the case of the first two garments; or pins or belts are used to
hold the garments in place, as in the case of the latter two. The
cloth remains uncut, and people of various sizes can wear the
garment by draped on their body or a person can wear the
single cloth by draped in different shape.
 In ancient times, there were no textile industries or clothing
stores. Cavemen wore animal leathers and furs. Evidently, this
first fashion trend had a lot of success, since it is trendy still to
this day, with some differences.
• BONE NEEDLES
• The earliest evidence of textile fabrics dates from about
27,000 years ago and consists of imprints of woven
material in clay pots. The oldest actual textile yet
discovered by archeologists dates from about 7000 B.C.
• Making fabric by hand is a tedious and labor-intensive
process. The textile industry was the first to be
mechanized – with the powered loom – during
the Industrial Revolution. Looms appeared seven thousand
years ago, and knitted fabric began to be produced during
the Middle Ages.
• Natural elements such as silk, wool and cotton were very
important until the 19th century. Synthetic fibers appeared
in the last decades. With the coming of the great industrial
production, clothes, in a high percentage, were no longer
hand-made products.
• Since the end of the 20th century, there was a
massive interest towards clothes made with
artificial fibers, and this was mostly due to the
fact that women started working outdoors,
and no longer had time to home tailoring or to
devote time to garments that needed special
care.
• Costume history serves as a source of
inspiration to current fashion designers, as well
as a topic of professional interest to costumers
constructing for plays, films, television
and historical reenactment.
 At this point we can mention the birth of different
garments that are current in use to this day:

• The shirt was created by the Greeks in the 5th century B.C.
and it was, for a long time, identified with the working class
peoples.
• The blouse dates from the 15th century, when women
started using a type of tight blouse with a belt. For
centuries, it was the garment of peasant women, and then
it was replaced by a lighter one that matched feminine suits.
• The skirt was at first made of fur, 600,000 years ago. Since
then, and until now, women never neglected it. In 1915,
skirts began to expose the ankles, and the great revolution
took place in 1965 with the miniskirt.
• Trousers (Pantalones in Spanish) owe their name to
the victim medical doctor of the 4th century, San
Pantaleón. Four thousand years ago, men from nomad
tribes of Central Europe wore a type of loose trousers
tied up to the waist
• Unisex clothing appeared in the forties and enjoyed
great popularity among young people. There are more
clothes to be mentioned here, and accessories as well,
but that will be dealt with another time. The positive
thing to this is that we should recognize that every
garment we or others wear has a history of its own,
and that the effort and creativity of others allow us,
through their work, to enjoy all those things that
make our lives better and more comfortable.
 BASIC REASON SUGGESTED FOR
WEARING OF CLOTHES
• There are some fundamental reasons/motives
for wearing clothes, namely
• Body decoration
• Modesty
• Protection
• Adornment
 Body decoration
• This theory refers to the
 decorative nature of clothes and other forms
of appearances,
 modifications for purposes of display,
 attraction or aesthetic expression.
 Adornment theory

 Perhaps the most universal function of clothing

and accessories is adornment, personal decoration.
 Adornment shows status, identity and also
raises one’s self-esteem.
 Adornment is achieved through clothing
(external adornment for example shawls wrapped
around the body) or through making permanent
changes to the body (bodily adornment such as
tattooing, piercing).
 Red clay paste called Ochre
•
 Modesty
• This theory suggests that people wore clothing to cover
the private parts of their bodies.
• Modesty means that certain parts of the body are
indecent and shameful and should be covered.
• This can change from culture to culture since the connection
between clothing and modesty changes in every society and
has its own perception of modest dress, behavior, modesty or
shame and between religions.
• In Muslim cultures, for example, both men and women cover
most of the body in public, as do people in many other times
and places. However, in other times and places exposure of
various parts of the body may not be a concern.
 Protection
• Protective clothing is clothing designed
to protect either the wearer's body or other
items of clothing from hazards such as heat,
chemicals and infection.
 In some regions of the world, clothes are also
used to keep evil spirits away.
 Some people also believe in protection theory
of clothing because certain clothes help you in
staying positive.
Clothes are worn for two major reasons:
1. Physical protection
2. Psychological protection.
 Physical protection
• Physical protection involves making body covering and
items to facilitate individual’s survival in an friendly
environment or for harsh weather conditions.
• Clothes are worn to protect the skin from hot weather
and keep it warm in cold weather, clothes are worn to
protect the body from physical harms such as
 Thorns
 insect bite
 sun burn.
 Psychological protection
• Psychological protection such as security also involve
the need for individuals to defend themselves from
harmful spiritual powers, that was viewed as the origin
and primary function of clothing of early individuals.
• Their belief in the spiritual forces to cause floods.
 Illness and death prompt individuals to adorn the body
for protection.
• Superstition, fear of the unseen, belief in evil spirits
and demon as well as luck have all been responsible
for the use of certain garment, jewelry and other body
clothing.
 Basic forms of clothing construction
• Draped garments: length of fabric wrapped or tied about the body; no
sewing is done. Ex: Indian sari
• Semifitted garments: are assembled from simple shapes, usually rectangles,
and seamed.
• There is no real attempt to shape the garment to the contours of a specific
body; seams and edges are mostly straight.
• However, the garment may be belted or laced to the body to achieve a close
fit.
• Semifitted garments have been worn since prehistory, particularly in cooler
climates where draped garments could not supply needed protection from
cold.
• The kimono is a well known example of a semifitted garment; but semifitted
garments are certainly also part of the repertoire of modern fashion.
• Garments tailored to fit: first appeared in Europe in the 14th
century.
• A garment tailored to fit the individual body was needed
because semifitted garments would wrinkle, bunch and chafe
under the armor.
• Tailored garments have curved seams, round armsceyes, and
darts that shape the garment to the exact contours of the body.
• Tailoring has been a major feature of Euro-American dress
since the 15th century.
• Garments tailored to exaggerate: first appeared in the 15th
and 16th century.
• Padding and/or constriction of the body were combined with
the techniques of tailoring to restructure the body silhouette.
• This portrait of Queen Elizabeth I shows dress that narrows
and elongates the waist through corseting, exaggerates
shoulders through the use of padded sleeves and stiffened
collar, and distorts the lower body form and proportions by the
use of a hooped petticoat (known as the farthingale) and a
relatively short hemline.
• Corseting, shoulder pads, and even hip pads have all been used
in this century to accentuate body features deemed beautiful
according to current fashion.
 REFERENCES

• Suvasas: The Beautiful Costumes by Vishu Arora

• Medieval Indian Costumes by Roshan Alkazi
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clothing_in_the_anci
ent_world
• https://www.uark.edu/campus-
resources/archinfo/clothing.pdf
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clothing
• http://infoclothing.blogspot.in/2008/11/origin-
and-history-of-clothing.html