Origin Of Clothing Essay

The Origin and Evolution of Clothing Clothing and fashion are intrinsic aspects of human culture, indicative of the collective consciousness of a society. But how did fashion become what it is today? When it comes to the history of clothing, we often look at it out of context, like a series of garments that exist independently of the socio-economic, political, cultural, and environmental landscapes of the period. However, clothing correlates directly with these factors. Culture is entirely interconnected, from fashion to politics, art to science, dance to religion. They all become intertwined to produce a zeitgeist of a period. Clothing are pieces of material culture that reflect the values, ideals, and needs of a population, and evolve

Found melting out of a glacier deep in Austria’s Ötztal Alps in 1991, he is a well preserved natural mummy of a man who lived 5,300 years ago. Not much about Neolithic clothing was known prior to the discovery, but Ötzi allowed us to see what an inhabitant of the alpines would have looked like thousands of years ago. The clothing found on him was surprisingly well preserved. His clothing was composed of a bearskin cap, a deer and goat hide coat, a grass cloak, leggings, a belt, a loincloth, and a pair of shoes (Püntener, 315). His intricately constructed shoes are perhaps the most impressive article; made of leather and twine, they were stuffed with grass for insulation and a soft tread. From the other artifacts he was found with, it is known that Ötzi was a hunter. Assumedly, he did not make his shoes himself. This indicates that in whichever village he lived in or tribe he came from, there was someone who specialized in making shoes; a cobbler. It is conceivable that Ötzi paid or traded for the shoes. In other words, there was a garment industry during this time