Fashion is such a weird thing! It changes fast, sometimes even the craziest things can become fashionable, and only real experts of it can predict what is going to be fashionable the next season. On the other hand, the borders of what is fashion and stylish and what is not very unclear (remember Lady Gaga’s meat dress?) and the history of human kind and dressing is the best example of that for sure.
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So today, let’s get acquainted with five crazy, but thankfully ancient fashion trends that were very popular in the old days. Some of them made people harm themselves, some of them even led to death, but all of them are very considered the most fashionable and stylish thing no matter the consequences.
Hoop skirts
It might sound like not such a big deal, but it is hard to think of the reason why women for more than 300 years choose to wear such gigantic undergarments. With the help of such hoop skirts, women tried to achieve the fashionable look of very tiny waist and enormous buttocks (which sounds awfully similar to what women try to look nowadays as well!). However, the cost of such beauty was terrible – hoop skirts were horribly heavy, which lead to damage to the tops of the hips. And let’s not forget the disability to sit down, walk through a door and just be a normal and functional human being.
But the most terrifying story about hoop skirts and inconvenience it leads to happened in 1863, in Santiago, Chile when a church was getting on fire. Women who were there tried to escape the flames, but their hoop skirts blocked the exit and that lead to around 3000 people’s death. All thanks to this crazy and uncomfortable fashion trend.
Enormous wigs
If you have ever watched a movie which is set in the early 17th century, you might notice another stupid fashion trend people used to love back them – huge, cumbersome and curly wigs. It all began because of Louis XIII of France who started wearing fake hair to hide this baldness, and as it was usually back then, aristocrats began to copycat the king and started wearing wigs for no apparent reason.
Such wigs not only look odd for us but as it is believed, were extremely hard to carry and sometimes even lead to many incidents. For instance, it was easy to get on fire with them, since fake wigs catch flames pretty quickly. However, for more than 100 years wigs were the number one fashion trend popular both among men and women, just until the French revolution which ended it all for good.
Crakows
Let's spend some more time talking about men's fashion here. Crakows there super popular among aristocracy during medieval times, so these 14th-15th centuries pointy shoes just have to be on this list. Despite the fact that these shoes were made to be worn by both sexes, men loved it the most and created some really extravagant shoe wear.
It was possible to walk down with these, but it still was super impractical and harmful not only for a fashionista wearing it but people around him. That led to specific restrictions, which were legit for everyone wanting to wear it. For instance, nobles were allowed to wear shoes that were 2 feet long. Merchants were allowed one foot and peasants just half a foot.