Fashion History and Trends Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Fashion History and Trends - Essay Example The essay "Fashion History and Trends" concerns the changes in the fashion history. Our early ancestors didn’t own all the clothes that we do own. Cavemen wore animal hides to fight the winter cold. In warm weather, they wore loincloths. As time passed, new discoveries made it possible to create new fashions. Thousands of years ago, the Chinese created silk from cocoons of silkworm moths. In 1972, Eli Whitney invented the cotton gin, which removed seed from cotton. By hand, it took several hours to produce one pound of cotton. The cotton gin allowed workers to clean up to 50 pounds of cotton daily. Today silk and cotton are still used for many fashionable styles. The Europeans in the 1700s witnessed a time of great thought and social change. Historians call that time the â€Å"Age of Enlightenment.† The machines of that era changed the way people earned a living. Many people left their jobs on the farm to become factory workers. Throughout the 1700s and 1800s, several b reakthroughs paved the way for mass production of clothes. In 1733, John Kay invented the flying shuttles for the loom. This machine sped up the weaving process. Perhaps the most exciting invention was Edmund Cartwright’s power loom. His loom used water as a power source. Made in 1785, it was the first loom to produce large amounts of cloth. Following in its footsteps were modern sewing machines. Elias Howe and Isaac Singer made these time-saving machines in the mid 1800’s. Some of the world’s greatest fashion pioneers created styles.