Leda and the Swan is a story and subject in art from Greek mythology in which the god Zeus, in the form of a swan, seduces or rapes Leda. According to later Greek mythology, Leda bore Helen and Polydeuces, children of Zeus, while at the same time bearing Castor and Clytemnestra, children of her husband Tyndareus, the King of Sparta. In the W. B. Yeats version, it is subtly suggested that Clytemnestra, although being the daughter of Tyndareus, has somehow been traumatized by what the swan has done to her mother. According to many versions of the story, Zeus took the form of a swan and raped Leda on the same night she slept with her husband King Tyndareus. In some versions, she laid two eggs from which the children hatched. In other versions, Helen is a daughter of Nemesis, the goddess who personified the disaster that awaited those suffering from the pride of Hubris.
Rococo, less commonly Roccoco or Late Baroque, is an exceptionally ornamental and theatrical style of architecture, art and decoration which combines asymmetry, scrolling curves, gilding, white and pastel colors, sculpted molding, and trompe-l'œil frescoes to create surprise and the illusion of motion and drama. It is often described as the final expression of the Baroque movement.
A nightgown, nightie or nightdress is a loosely hanging item of nightwear, today almost exclusively worn by women. A nightgown is made from cotton, silk, satin, or nylon and may be decorated with lace appliqués or embroidery at the bust and hem.
The hanbok or Chosŏn-ot is the traditional Korean clothes. The term "hanbok" literally means "Korean clothing".
The study of the history of clothing and textiles traces the development, use, and availability of clothing and textiles over human history. Clothing and textiles reflect the materials and technologies available in different civilizations at different times. The variety and distribution of clothing and textiles within a society reveal social customs and culture.
Fashion in 15th-century Europe was characterized by a series of extremes and extravagances, from the voluminous robes called houppelandes with their sweeping floor-length sleeves to the revealing doublets and hose of Renaissance Italy. Hats, hoods, and other headdresses assumed increasing importance, and were draped, jewelled, and feathered.
Fashion from 1910–1919 in the Western world was characterized by a rich and exotic opulence in the first half of the decade in contrast with the somber practicality of garments worn during the Great War. Men's trousers were worn cuffed to ankle-length and creased. Skirts rose from floor length to well above the ankle, women began to bob their hair, and the stage was set for the radical new fashions associated with the Jazz Age of the 1920s.
Costume during the thirteenth century in Europe was very simple for both men and women, and quite uniform across the continent. Male and female clothing was relatively similar, and changed very slowly, if at all. Most clothing, especially outside the wealthier classes, remained little changed from three or four centuries earlier. The century saw great progress in the dyeing and working of wool, which was by far the most important material for outerwear. For the rich, colour and rare fabrics such as silk from the silkworm was very important. Blue was introduced and became very fashionable, being adopted by the Kings of France as their heraldic colour.
Twelfth century European fashion was simple and differed only in details from the clothing of the preceding centuries. Men wore knee-length tunics for most activities, and men of the upper classes wore long tunics, with hose and mantle or cloaks. Women wore long tunics or dresses. A close fit to the body, full skirts, and long flaring sleeves were characteristic of upper-class fashion for both men and women.
A peascod belly is a type of exaggeratedly padded stomach that was very popular in men's dress in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. The term is thought to have come from "peacock," or from the form of contemporary plate armour. Sometimes it was called a 'goose belly.'
A bergère hat is a flat-brimmed straw hat with a shallow crown, usually trimmed with ribbon and flowers. It could be worn in various ways with the brim folded back or turned up or down at whim. It is also sometimes called a milkmaid hat. It was widely worn in the mid-18th century, and versions may be seen in many British and French paintings of the period, such as The Swing by Fragonard, and in portraits by Thomas Gainsborough and Johann Zoffany, amongst others. It has been suggested that the hat was named after Madame Bergeret, who is holding a shepherdess-style hat in a Boucher portrait painted c.1766.
James Laver, CBE, FRSA was an English author, critic, art historian, and museum curator who acted as Keeper of Prints, Drawings and Paintings for the Victoria and Albert Museum between 1938 and 1959. He was also an important and pioneering fashion historian described as "the man in England who made the study of costume respectable".
Lola Prusac was a Polish-born French fashion designer noted for her inventive and original way of dressing, who worked for Hermès in Paris between 1925 and 1935. She was first "with the unusual position of counselor for colors", then as a modéliste (designer). At Hermès she designed in 1929 their first women collection, silk squares,. and in the early 1930s bags with geometric inlays inspired by the Dutch painter Mondrian. In 1936, she founded her own fashion house, specialising in "sport-tricot" clothes. For this reason, though she had been a member since 1942, the Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture denied her in 1952 the "Couture-Création" status.
A ferreruolo is a form of a cape, which was popular among Spanish men during the 16th century.
Yvonne Deslandres (1923–1986) was a French writer, curator, archivist, and art historian. She specialized in costume and adornment.
François Leon Louis Boucher (1885–1966) was a French museum curator and writer.
Portrait of Margarete Brömsen is a painting by the German Baroque painter Michael Conrad Hirt, painted in 1642 and now in St. Anne's Museum. It is considered a wedding portrait, but a pendant of her husband, Diedrich von Brömsen, is unknown.
A vlieger is a type of sleeveless over-gown or cape worn by women in the late 16th and early 17th-centuries. Variations with short sleeves or high shoulder rolls are known. Sometimes sleeves were attached with aiglets, and often slits were made to allow belts or the hands to pass through.
Camp: Notes on Fashion was the 2019 high fashion art exhibition of the Anna Wintour Costume Center, a wing of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York that houses the collection of the Costume Institute.
Portrait of a Noble Young Lady is considered by many art historians, such as Paul Huvenne, former Director of the Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp, to be one of the best examples of Pieter Pourbus' portraiture.
