U.S. enters WWI and women donate their steel corsets to the effort; the 28,000 tons of steel they save are enough to build two battleships.
Bobbed hair waves across the nation, but snooty Chicago department-store Marshall Field refuses to employ women with hair cut above the shoulder.
Paris police chief sees Marlene Dietrich walking by the Seine in man’s jacket and pants; orders her to leave. Soon after, Katharine Hepburn popularizes trousers on screen.
Baggy zoot suits, hip among teenage “hepcats,” ignite parental protests, even race riots. Government bans zoots under wartime fabric-conservation standards.
Marlon Brando bares chest in ripped T shirt; “Streetcar Named Desire” look later embraced by beer-swilling, belly-bulging football addicts. Stella!
Witty Brothers, a men’s clothier, turns out first polyester suit. To advertise it, model showers in it, wears it for 67 days. Granddaddy of ’70s leisure suit.
Disneyland opens. Look, Martha! Now we have somewhere to wear Aloha shirts and Bermuda shorts!
JFK doffs inaugural top hat; men’s hat sales plummet. (Jackie dons pillbox; hat sales skyrocket.)
Shaggy-haired Beatles land in U.S.; barbers panic.
Paper clothes add new wrinkle.
Performance artist and cellist Charlotte Moormon arrested for indecent exposure while playing “Opera Sextronique” nude from the waist up.
Woodstock I: long hair, bell- bottoms and love beads. Hippies in mud.
Hot pants heat up; nowhere to hide.
Rosemary Casals breaks the color barrier – appears at Wimbledon in dress trimmed in purple; loses to Billie Jean King, dressed in regulation whites.
Punk look peaks. Spike haircuts, slam-dancing and safety pins. Ouch!
Gloria Vanderbilt launches designer-jeans craze; a logo on every backside.
NYC transit strike. Forced to walk, women pair sneakers with dress-for-success suits. Style takes a hike.
Nancy Reagan sports flashy knickers at Big Seven confab in Versailles.
Madonna wiggles into nation’s psyche in bra tops, tight skirts and fingerless gloves. Material Girl wanna-bes stampede malls; Papa, don’t preach.
Don Johnson dudes up “Miami Vice” in pastel-tinted linen jackets, T shirts and sockless loafers. Hey, Sonny, real men don’t wear pink.
Nirvana’s “Nevermind” album released; grunge band is way cool; grunge flannel shirts are not.
Karl Kani designs first pair of baggy, hang-off-your-butt jeans, inspiring homeboys and homeboy wanna-bes (like Marky Mark) to bare their boxer tops.
Bill Clinton jogs D.C. in too-short shorts. Um . . . Mr. President, some legs are better left under wraps.
Woodstock II: Long hair and nose rings. Slackers, unite!
PHOTOS: Katharine Hepburn, Marlon Brando, Beatles, Charlotte Moormon, muddy feet at Woodstock 1969, spike haircuts, Madonna, Nirvana and Marky Mark
