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High-waisted dresses in the "Empire style" of Josephine Bonaparte, French Emperor Napoleon's wife, become vogue in the United States. They remain in style throughout the nineteenth century.
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The women's magazine Godey's Lady's Book launches in the U.S. and becomes a very popular periodical. It includes dress illustrations in each issue and defers to France as the center of fashion trends.
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While searching for a way to keep rubber from melting in hot weather, Charles Goodyear develops the vulcanization process. Vulcanization allows latex fibers to stretch and then contract; the new technique paves the way for not only tires but also prophylactic condoms, elastic fabrics, and more comfortable corsets.18
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A new petticoat style becomes vogue in the 1840s; women's skirts take on a bell shape with the addition of several heavy layers of petticoats extending from a tightly corseted waist. The new style sparks considerable controversy, as the extra skirt layers imply a degree of decadence and materialism that alarms many social critics who think that women should assume a simpler, more pious way of life.
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Synthetic Polymers Developed Synthetic polymers are developed as an alternative to cotton, linen, wool, and silk fibers. They will ultimately supplant all natural textile bases as a source for manufacturing underwear.
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The Bloomer (or "American") Costume first appears in Amelia Bloomer's newspaper, The Lily. Bloomers are ankle-length trousers—the large Turkish style or straight-legged "pantaloons"—worn with a mid calf-length dress. Few women actually adopt the costume, but it generates a disproportionate amount of public outrage and ridicule.
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The first synthetic dye is invented.
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The American Charles R. De Bevoise Company selects "brassiere," a Norman French term, for its new product. Brassiere translates as a woman's bodice or a child's undervest. The product looks like a camisole with a few bones (or "stays") to maintain its shape.
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The legendary Hollywood designer Edith Head bans miniskirts from the Academy Awards because she feels that they lack elegance
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Early Nevada Jean Discovered "The Nevada jean," a nineteenth-century pair of denim jeans, is found in a Nevada mining town. Denim manufacturer Levi Strauss & Co. purchases the Nevada jean for $46,532
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San Francisco-based denim manufacturer Levi Strauss closes six of its domestic plants, leaving the company with what reporter Fred Dickey describes as "just a tiny U.S. manufacturing presence—a plant in San Antonio, Texas, devoted to quick turn-around products that have deadlines overseas plants can't meet
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The five-member panel of the Committee for the Implementation of Textile Agreements (CITA) unanimously agrees to issue twelve-month import limits on Chinese-made bras, dressing gowns and knit fabric, to protect the American textile industry
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Washington Post fashion writer Robin Givhan devotes an entire article to the subject of presidential candidate and Senator Hillary Clinton and her cleavage. The article sparks an outcry from multiple critics.
