Dressed in meaning

Mannequins were real people once? The origin of 10 fashion item names

Image: Yasamine June

Fédora was a Princess, Cardigan was an Earl. Even though all of these garments have evolved over time, their unusual names remain. Sometimes we can’t even pinpoint the language from which they derive. Have you ever asked yourself why we call bikinis, tuxedos, and galoshes exactly that? Where do the words "denim" and "cashmere" come from? In this article, we uncover the origins of 10 items from the fashion industry.

Image: Suzy Hazelwood

A couple of centuries before Levi Strauss popularized denim jeans, two cities in Europe were already developing the textile that would become an icon of the future.

In the late 17th century, weavers in Nîmes, France set out to design a sturdy cotton fabric similar to the one that was being produced in Genoa, Italy, which had a distinctive diagonal weave. Laborers and sailors would benefit from using strong, durable clothes. The serge fabric they elaborated came to be known as serge de Nimes, a phrase that time shortened to simply "denim."

What happened to the original textile from Genoa? It was an ancestor of the modern denim, too. In France, people would refer to the foreign fabric as coming from Gênes, as they called the city. When English speakers heard about these clothes from "Gênes", they annotated the textiles as "jeans."

Image: Rasheeque Ahnaf (Piash)

Fedora, the soft-brim hat that was an icon of American culture in the early 20th century, has an unexpected origin: it was the name of a princess.

A fictional princess, at least. Fédora (1882) was a very successful play by French author Victorien Sardou. In it, the protagonist Princess Fédora Romazoff wore an iconic felt hat that soon women in Paris picked up. At first, this center-creased hat became a symbol for the women's rights movement. Eventually, Edward, Prince of Wales, started wearing a similar one in the 1920s, and the fashion spread among men.

In American society, the hat became an accessory for public courtesy and a symbol of status. History went full circle when, again, the garment became an emblem of cultural icons such as Indiana Jones or Michael Jackson.

Image: Diana ✨

Did you know that, before the fashion industry developed these real-life-sized dolls, women’s clothing was displayed in young male boys?

The first mannequins originated in the 15th century. But before that, in the Middle Ages, young pages were made to wear female clothes to expose the fit for potential buyers. Eventually, the need for dolls was understood, and when these figures were developed, the Flemish called them manneken, meaning "little men."

When the device arrived in Paris, it was written as "mannequen." It wasn’t until the 19th century that female mannequins were introduced.

Image: Jess Loiterton

Yes, the modern two-piece swimsuit was named after a beach –but the story is more perplexing than one would imagine.

Louis Réard was the French designer who introduced this disruptive garment in 1946. He dressed a young French dancer in it to debut the invention in a Parisian piscine. When asked about the name of the design, he said it was "Bikini." He didn’t add much. Four days prior to this fashion launch, an event had occurred in the South Pacific grabbing the world’s attention: a nuclear warhead had been tried in a small coral reef from the Marshall Islands, called the "Bikini Atoll."

A theory says that this label was a pun he played at Jacques Heim, a fellow French designer who had shortly before introduced a similar small bathing suit he had called the "Atome."

Image: Divazus Fabric Store

"Spandex" is the preferred name in the U.S. for the material that in the rest of the world is known as "lycra".

This notably elastic fabric had been developed in 1958 by Joseph Shivers while working for an American company named "DuPont Textiles and Interiors." DuPont decided to launch a sub-brand that would only sell synthetic fiber products. They picked the trade name "Lycra" to market their inventions.

Why "spandex," then? That is the name that was chosen for the fabric without attaching it to any brand. If you pay attention, you’ll notice that "spandex" is an anagram (an alteration of the letter order) of the word "expands."

Image: Steve Johnson

One of the most versatile pieces of clothing, bandanas have their origin in the Middle East and South Asia.

The word derives from the Hindi and Urdu word bandhana, "a bond," also related to bāndhnū, which means "tie-dyeing" in Hindi. The most traditional pattern used in the cloth was the Paisley, of Persian origin, which looks like a motif made of curved "tear" shapes.

Another word for the accessory is "kerchief," which derives from the Old French couvre-chef, or "cover head."

Image: No-longer-here

They are not exactly rain boots, and they are not to be confused with Wellington boots. Galoshes are overshoes, usually made of rubber, meant to protect your actual shoes in muddy or wet weather.

A distant relative of this invention is the calopedes. These were wooden clogs or heals used even before the Middle Ages. The word came from the Greek kalopódion, which roughly meant "feet wood". In French, footwear derived from these devices came to be called galoche, which translated in English to "galosh" or "golosh."

Image: Jovan Vasiljević

The knitted jacket that is now associated with a cozy, homely look, had its origin in military apparel. Cardigans were named after the waistcoats used by British officers under the command of James Brudenell, 7th Earl of Cardigan, known by history as Lord Cardigan. He commanded a brigade during the Crimean War in the early 19th century.

Cardigans were sleeveless vests at first, but they evolved over time to include all the versions we know today. Cardigans are characterized by having an open front, as opposed to pullovers which are of similar materials but must be "pulled over" the head of the wearer.

Image: kevin Clonee

Back in the 1880s, when white collars and tailcoats were the norm for extremely formal evening wear, the introduction of jackets without tails was considered rebellious.

Originally known as "dinner jackets," these less formal substitutes were an option picked up in the United Kingdom, and popularized after Edward VII, then Prince of Wales, wore one with matching trousers. In the U.S., the tailless coat was quickly adopted in the New York area of Tuxedo Park. For a few years, "Tuxedo" referred only to the jacket, but then its pairing with trousers also caught on, and the term came to name the whole suit. More recently, the piece also became known as "tux."

Image: Skylar Kang

One of the rarest and most expensive fibers in the world, cashmere is made from wool sheared from goats. Kashmir, in the high plateaus of the Himalayas, was the region where the wool was originally produced. The soft and luxurious fabric was first spun as early as the 3rd century BC. Kashmiri weavers became known for their high-quality shawls made from this wool.

"Pashmene" is sometimes used interchangeably, although it is a variant of fiber, sometimes mixed with silk. Pashm means "wool" in Persian, and around the 15th century, this fabric was already a sign of wealth for cultures in India, Pakistan, and Nepal.

Some names stick around

From Table Tap Joe to Ziggy Stardust: Who are the best song characters?

Sometimes, a character is the perfect alter-ego to write a song about oneself without self-referencing so much. Other times, a character is just a character. Over the years, musicians have come up with lonely dreamers, fearless heroes, mysterious strangers, and even supernatural villains who have become just as famous as the songs themselves. Some were inspired by real people, others sprang entirely from imagination, but all of them left a lasting mark on music history. Which of these 12 do you remember?

Tom Waits has always had a soft spot for society's oddballs, and few are even stranger than Table Top Joe. Introduced on the 2002 album Alice, Joe is born with only a head and hands, yet grows into a brilliant piano player whose extraordinary talent earns him fame despite the odds stacked against him.

The song unfolds like a forgotten American folk tale, complete with references to Coney Island's legendary Dreamland amusement park and composer Igor Stravinsky. Although many listeners assume the story is based on an old carnival legend, Table Top Joe is entirely Tom Waits' own creation.

Few fictional musicians have ever become as famous as Ziggy Stardust. Introduced in 1972, Ziggy is an alien rock star sent to Earth shortly before humanity's end, only to be consumed by the very fame that makes him a savior to millions.

David Bowie blurred the line between fiction and reality by performing as Ziggy onstage for more than a year. When he unexpectedly announced Ziggy's retirement during a concert at London's Hammersmith Odeon in 1973, many fans believed the character, and perhaps Bowie himself, had truly reached the end of the story.

Tommy Walker isn't just the hero of a song, he's the central figure of one of rock music's first great operas. After witnessing a traumatic event as a child, Tommy becomes deaf, mute, and blind, yet somehow develops astonishing pinball skills that transform him into an unlikely celebrity.

Pete Townshend built an entire musical world around Tommy, exploring themes of trauma, faith, and redemption. First released in 1969, Tommy later became a hit film, a Broadway production, and one of the most influential concept albums ever recorded.

Johnny B. Goode is every aspiring musician's dream. Growing up in rural Louisiana with little more than a guitar and natural talent, he plays so brilliantly that listeners predict "his name will be in lights."

Chuck Berry based the character partly on himself and partly on pianist Johnnie Johnson. Originally described as a "colored boy," Johnny became a "country boy" in the final lyrics, making the song more likely to receive airplay during the segregation era. Nearly two decades later, Johnny's anthem would even travel into space aboard NASA's Voyager Golden Record.

Few fictional characters have captured loneliness as powerfully as Eleanor Rigby. She quietly moves through life unnoticed, while Father McKenzie delivers sermons that no one hears, creating one of popular music's saddest portraits of isolation.

Paul McCartney later explained that Eleanor's name came from actress Eleanor Bron and the Liverpool shop Rigby & Evens. The discovery of an actual Eleanor Rigby gravestone in Liverpool only deepened the song's mystique, though McCartney maintained the coincidence was unintentional.

Billie Jean may be one of pop music's most famous women, yet Michael Jackson insisted she wasn't a real person. Instead, she represented several women who falsely claimed that he had fathered their children during the height of the Jackson 5's fame.

Released in 1983 as part of Thriller, the song became a global phenomenon. It also provided the stage for Jackson's legendary moonwalk during Motown 25.

Unlike many legendary song characters, Stagger Lee actually existed. His real name was Lee Shelton, a St. Louis criminal who murdered Billy Lyons during an argument over a hat on Christmas Eve in 1895.

The shocking crime quickly entered American folklore through countless folk songs before Lloyd Price transformed it into a chart-topping hit in 1958. More than a century later, Stagger Lee remains one of the most enduring antiheroes in American music.

Tom Dooley was inspired by Thomas Dula, a Confederate veteran executed in North Carolina in 1868 after being convicted of murdering Laura Foster. His surname was locally pronounced "Dooley," giving the ballad its familiar title.

The Kingston Trio revived the old Appalachian folk song in 1958, turning it into an international hit and helping launch America's folk music revival.

When the narrator of "Lola" meets an intriguing stranger in a Soho nightclub, expectations quickly give way to surprise. Ray Davies crafted one of rock's earliest mainstream stories exploring gender ambiguity, decades before the topic entered popular conversation.

The recording rarely reached British radio. Because BBC rules prohibited commercial product names, Davies had to interrupt a U.S. tour and fly back to London simply to replace the lyric "Coca-Cola" with the now-famous "cherry cola."

Unlike most famous song characters, the Piano Man is really Billy Joel himself. Before becoming a superstar, Joel spent six months in 1972 and 1973 performing under the pseudonym Bill Martin at the Executive Room, a piano bar in Los Angeles, after becoming trapped in a bad recording contract. The song transforms those experiences into a bittersweet portrait of ordinary people searching for escape at the end of another week.

Joel has said that virtually every character in the song was based on a real person, from bartender John to "Paul, the real estate novelist" and Davy, who really was in the Navy. Yet the Piano Man himself became the story's most enduring character: a quiet observer who offers music as a brief refuge for dreamers, lonely souls, and regulars alike. More than fifty years after its 1973 release, "Piano Man" remains Billy Joel's signature song, and its title has effectively become his lifelong nickname.

Standing nearly seven feet tall and missing an arm, Amos Moses roams the Louisiana swamps hunting alligators. Jerry Reed filled the song with colorful Southern expressions and exaggerated storytelling that make Amos feel like an authentic folk legend.

Although fictional, Amos embodies the larger-than-life heroes found throughout American tall tales. His adventures turned the song into one of Reed's biggest crossover hits and secured Amos a permanent place among country music's greatest characters.

Big Bad John hardly says a word, but he doesn't have to. The towering coal miner earns everyone's respect through quiet strength before sacrificing his own life to save fellow workers when a mine collapses.

Jimmy Dean's 1961 ballad became a smash hit, winning a Grammy and inspiring several sequel songs. More than sixty years later, Big Bad John still stands as one of country music's defining working-class heroes.