Cover Story · No. I
The Sari Across Centuries
Six yards of unstitched cloth, worn continuously on the subcontinent for three millennia. A history of the longest-lived garment in the world.
The Corset & The Revival
From This Issue
The Table of Contents
Three essays on the garments, houses, and movements that shaped the century.
01movements
Punk and Vivienne Westwood's SEX
At 430 King’s Road, in the years 1974 to 1976, a boutique began selling bondage trousers and the end of the 1970s. Neither arrived quietly.
02iconic garments
The Birth of Denim: From Workwear to Wardrobe
A single-indigo twill, first woven for dockworkers in Genoa, crossed the Atlantic and rode out with the miners. A hundred and fifty years later, it is the closest thing humanity has to a common uniform.
03designers
Elsa Schiaparelli and the Birth of Shocking Pink
Before the colour had a Pantone number, it had a bottle. The surrealist couturier who tinted the twentieth century.
A Timeline
Browse by Era
Victorian
An age of whalebone, crinolines, and rigid propriety, yet also of radical industrialization that transformed how clothing was made and worn.
1920s Flapper
The drop-waist dress, the bob, and the scandal of visible ankles. Chanel, Lanvin, and the birth of modern womenswear.
1950s New Look
Dior's wasp waist, the ascendance of haute couture, and a postwar romance with volume and femininity.
1990s Streetwear
Hip-hop, skate, grunge: the decade that taught luxury to speak slang.
Y2K
Low-rise, butterfly clips, frosted gloss. A decade that the algorithm will not let us forget.
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From the Archive
Earlier Dispatches
Punk and Vivienne Westwood's SEX
The Birth of Denim: From Workwear to Wardrobe
Elsa Schiaparelli and the Birth of Shocking Pink
Le Smoking: Yves Saint Laurent Dresses Women in Tuxedos
Y2K Revival: How the 2000s Came Back
The Rise of Streetwear: From Subculture to Runway
Christian Dior's New Look: Femininity Reimagined
Coco Chanel and the Liberation of the Modern Silhouette
Dispatches by Post
A Letter, Perhaps Monthly
One essay at the start of each month. No advertisements. No urgency. Enrol below and the next dispatch, unsealed, will arrive at your address.