Sewing Highlights
Year Type Event Description
b B SP CL 704 1225 tx Cotton K Cotton is manufactured in Spain. The fabric will compete with linen and wool (see 3000 B.C.). 
b B E  C 876 1298 tx Sew K The invention of the spinning wheel revolutionizes textile production. 
m M UK 956 1337 tx Wool P A “Hundred Years’ War” between England and France begins as Philip VI contests English claims to Normandy, Maine, Anjou, and other French territories while England’s Edward III denies Philip’s legitimacy, assumes the title king of France, and orders Philip to yield his throne. Edward gains support from the townspeople of Flanders, who depend on English wool for their industry, and from the City of London, which is concerned about French influence in its Flemish market (see wool embargo, 1336). 
b B L  1282 1478 ir Textile Z Brussels becomes the center of Europe’s tapestry industry following the destruction of Arras. 
b TR L  C 1777 1560 ic Textile E Antwerp reaches the height of its prosperity. The city has a thousand foreign merchants in residence with as many as 500 ships entering its harbor each day from Danish, English, Hanse, German, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish ports. 
b IR UK IR 3030 1733 ir http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/TEXflying.htm; http://www.genealogy.org/~slassey/cotton.htm Wool K The flying shuttle invented by English weaver John Kay revolutionizes the hand loom, halves labor costs, and prepares the way for further developments that will speed the industrialization of Britain’s cottage industry in textiles (see Arkwright, 1769).  John Kay flying shuttle
b B UK IR 3101 1742 ir http://humanities.uwe.ac.uk/corehistorians/britind/cores/cotton.htm; http://www.tardis.ed.ac.uk/~sl/cotton.htm Cotton K Cotton mills open at Birmingham and Northampton. The Lancashire millowners will import East India yarns next year to improve the quality of their textiles. 
b NA IR 3348 1764 ir http://www.britannia.com/history/naremphist4.html Wool K Pennsylvania colony mechanic James Davenport invents machinery to spin and card wool. 
b K UK IR 3434 1769 ir http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/IRarkwright.htm; http://www2.exnet.com/1995/10/10/science/science.html Wool K English inventor Richard Arkwright, 37, patents a spinning frame that can produce cotton thread hard and firm enough for the warp of woven fabric. Arkwright’s invention will have a profound effect on Western society (see 1770; Luddites, 1811).  Richard Arkwright spinning frame
b UK IR 3448 1770 ir http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/TEXjenny.htm; http://tomwgrim.home.texas.net/WebPages/HargGrim.htm Textile K English weaver-mechanic James Hargreaves patents a spinning jenny that automates part of the textile industry (see Arkwright, 1769; Crompton, 1779; Luddites, 1811).  James Hargreavespinning jenny
b K UK IR 3682 1779 ir http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/TEXmule.htm; http://timeline.vcot.com/articles/Spinningm/main.html Cotton K English millhand Samuel Crompton, 26, devises a muslin wheel, or spinning mule, which spins yarns suitable for muslin, but he lacks the funds needed to obtain a patent for his improvement on the 1770 spinning jenny and is tricked into revealing his secret, a landmark in the Industrial Revolution (which will not be called that until 1881).  Samuel Crompton spinning mule
b B UK IR 3811 1785 ir http://www.adam-matthew-publications.co.uk/collect/p167.htm; http://www.papplewick.org/local/millinfo.htm Cotton U Steam powers textile machinery for the first time. An English cotton factory at Papplewick, Nottinghamshire, installs a Boulton and Watt rotative engine (see 1782). 
b IR US CL 3841 1787 ir http://www.kidinfo.com/American_History/Industrial_Revolution.html; http://mars.acnet.wnec.edu/~grempel/courses/wc2/lectures/industrialrev.html; http://www.eurohist.com/the_industrial_revolution.htm Cotton E English cotton goods production is 10 times what it was in 1770, and iron production has quadrupled, but cottage industry still prevails with few large power-operated mills. The Industrial Revolution is still in its early stages. 
c B US IR 3911 1790 ir http://www.riverpointlace.com/lippitt_mill_history.htm Cotton K The first successful U.S. cotton mill is established at the falls of the Blackstone River at what later will be called Pawtucket, R.I. Samuel Slater and ironmaster David Wilkinson set up a mill that operates satisfactorily after a correction is made in the slope of the carder teeth (see 1789; 1793; Whitney, 1792).  Samuel Slater, David Wilkinson, Moses Taylor RI mill
c B UK A 4092 1798 rf http://www.formalwear.org/public/resources/tophat.html; http://www.toffs-r-us.com/default.htm Hat L London hatter John Hetherington makes the first top hat of silk shag, or plush, thus reducing demand for American beaver pelts.  http://www.toffs-r-us.com/
c B US IR 4334 1810 tx http://www.concordmonitor.com/stories/top100/kh_amoskeag_10y58y45.shtml; http://www.psnh.com/AboutPSNH/EnergyPark/Amoskeg.asp Amoskeag K Amoskeag Manufacturing Co. is founded on the Merrimack River in the New Hampshire town of Amoskeag that becomes Manchester, taking its name from the great English milltown. The new company will soon be operating the world’s largest cotton mill. 
c B US   4398 1812 tx http://www.ultranet.com/~crmi/millsite.html Lowell K New Englander Francis Cabot Lowell, 37, charters a cotton fabric company in association with his brother-in-law Patrick Tracey Jackson, 33. Lowell has memorized the designs and specifications of English textile machinery (see 1814; Slater, 1789).  John Cabot Lowell and Patrick Tracey Jackson Lowell idea
b UK IR 4415 1813 ir http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/TEXloom.htm; http://www.riverpointlace.com/lippitt_mill_history.htm Textile K English inventor William Horrocks produces the world’s first power loom (see Bigelow, 1839).  William Horrocks power loom
c ne E US C 4433 1814 tx http://www.tcr.org/advpl_3.html; http://www.nps.gov/lowe/loweweb/Lowell%20History/francis_cabot_lowell.htm; http://www.tcr.org/advpl_3.html; http://web.bryant.edu/~history/h364proj/fall_99/kroner/index.htm Lowell E Massachusetts becomes a cotton cloth producer to meet the pent-up demand for the cloth that came from England before the war. Francis Cabot Lowell raises $100,000 for the company he started with Patrick Jackson in 1812, uses 
b K UK A 4732 1823 tx http://inventors.about.com/science/inventors/library/inventors/blelastic.htm Burberry L The Macintosh raincoat has its beginnings in a waterproof fabric of rubber bonded to cloth patented by Scottish chemist Charles Macintosh, 57, who applies his research on possible uses of the coal tar distillate naphtha. It is sticky in hot weather and brittle in cold but Macintosh’s cloth will make the name Macintosh a British generic for raincoat (see Goodyear, 1839; Aquascutum, 1851; Burberry, 1856).  Charles Macintosh raincoat
b F F 5066 1829 ha http://www.derf.net/inventions/solutions.html' http://perso.wanadoo.fr/buisson/english/singer_propaganda.htm Sew K French inventor Barthélemy Thimmonier, 36, develops the world’s first practical sewing machine. He will obtain a contract to produce French army uniforms, but a mob will destroy one of his new machines out of fear that French tailors will be deprived of their livelihoods (see Luddites, 1811; Hunt, 1832).  Sew I Bathelmey Thimmonier
b B US F 5249 1832 ha http://www.fudgefunnies.com/wars.htm#skirm; http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blsewing_machine.htm?once=true&; http://www.ismacs.net/smhistory.shtml; http://www.ideafinder.com/history/inventions/story065.htm Sew K A modern sewing machine devised by New York inventor Walter Hunt, 36, has a needle with an eye in its point that pushes thread through cloth to interlock with a second thread carried by a shuttle. Hunt does not obtain a patent, and when he suggests in 1838 that his daughter Caroline, then 15, go into business making corsets with his machine, she will protest that it would put needy seamstresses out of work (see Thimmonier, 1829; Howe, 1843; Hunt’s safety pin, 1849).  Walter Hunt sewing machine needle with ey, later safety pin, shirt collar
c B US C 5311 1834 tx http://people.clemson.edu/~pammack/lec122/amir.htm; http://members.tripod.com/~testube/pix/Lowell.html Lowell E Lowell, Mass., has six corporations operating 19 mills with 4,000 looms and more than 100,000 spindles (see 1814;
c ne B US F 5613 1839 ir http://virtualmuseumofhistory.com/erastusbrighambigelow/ Textile K Massachusetts inventor Erastus Brigham Bigelow, 25, devises a power loom to weave two-ply ingrain carpets (see Erastus Bielow power loom to weave carpets
b G CH 5753 1841 ch http://ubmail.ubalt.edu/~pfitz/time/tl_sci1800.html Dye K German chemist C. J. Fritzsche shows that treating indigo with potassium hydroxide produces an oil (aniline) (see C.J. Fritzsche indigo aniline dye
c B US F 5903 1843 ha http://www.fudgefunnies.com/howe.htm#sick; http://histclo.hispeed.com/mat/tech/cloth-techsm.html; http://perso.wanadoo.fr/buisson/english/singer_propaganda.htm; http://histclo.hispeed.com/mat/tech/cloth-techsm.html  Sew K The Howe Sewing Machine, invented by Boston machine shop apprentice Elias Howe, Jr., 27, uses two threads to make a stitch that is interlocked by a shuttle. Howe is not familiar with Walter Hunt’s machine of 1832 (see 1846).  Elias Howe interlocked stitch sewing machine
b K F CL 6057 1845 ir http://www.fibresci.unsw.edu.au/Fax&Fix/TextHist/mileston.htm; http://www1.hollins.edu/students/comm348/ART/nicole/a_stitch_in_time.htm Textile K French inventor Joshua Heilman, 49, patents a machine for combing cotton and wool.  Joshua Heilman machine to comb cotton and wool
c B US F 6056 1845 ir http://208.154.71.60/bcom/eb/article/1/0,5716,115281+10+108603,00.html Textile K E. B. Bigelow of 1830 two-ply power loom fame invents the Brussels power loom for carpet making. 
c B US F 6131 1846 ha Sew K The Howe Sewing Machine of 1843 is patented September 10, but U.S. tailors and garment makers are fearful of using it lest they antagonize their workers. Howe’s English agent pirates British royalties on the machine and there is wide infringement on the patent (see Singer, 1850, 1851). 
c B US F 6214 1847 tx http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0771858.html Sew K Butterick Patterns have their beginnings in a technique invented by U.S. tailor-shirtmaker Ebenezer Butterick, 21, for http://www.hoovers.com/co/capsule/6/0,2163,44056,00.html
b IR US M 6207 1847 ir http://www.law.tulane.edu/alumni/tulawyer/1847.htm; http://www.literary-liaisons.com/news0199.html Cotton U Steam powers a U.S. cotton mill for the first time at Salem, Mass., where the Maumkoag Steam Cotton Mill begins Maumkoag Steam Cotton Mill
b K US HH 6375 1849 tx http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blhunt_pin.htm?once=true&; http://www.ideafinder.com/history/inventions/story019.htm; http://www.comptons.com/encyclopedia/CAPTIONS/20001919_P.html Sew L A safety pin is patented by New York sewing machine inventor Walter Hunt, now 53, who sells the patent rights for $400 in order to raise money to discharge a small debt (see 1832; paper collar, 1854). 
c B UK A 6377 1849 tx http://www.bookitprogram.com/01-02/Bibliography/PDF_version/Timeline.pdf; http://perso.cybercable.fr/donnet/News2.htm Hat L The bowler hat (derby) is introduced by London felt-hat makers Thomas Bowler, Ltd., of Southward Bridge Road who made the hat to fill an order placed by the 172-year old firm James Lock Co. of St. James for their customer William Coke of Holkham, Norfolk, who wants protection from low overhanging branches while out shooting. His hard shellacked derby headgear will become popular with foxhunters and businessmen.  Thomas Bowler, Ltd.
c B US F 6464 1850 ha http://www.150.si.edu/150trav/remember/r822.htm; http://www.geocities.com/RodeoDrive/6561/Singer/the_singer_history.htm; http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blsewing_machine.htm?once=true&; http://www.ismacs.net/smhistory.shtml Singer K The Singer Sewing Machine invented by U.S. actor-mechanic Isaac Merrit Singer, 38, will become the world’s largest-selling machine of its kind (see Howe, 1843). A boiler explosion has destroyed Singer’s patented wood-carving machine, he has watched some Boston mechanics trying to repair a primitive sewing machine, and he has been inspired to devise a better one (see 1851).  http://www.singerco.com/corporate/corp_history_story.html
c B US F 6661 1851 ha Singer L I. M. Singer receives a patent on his sewing machine August 12. He has gone into partnership with his New York lawyer Edward Clark, 41, who will defend I. M. Singer and Co. from patent suits brought by Elias Howe (see 1846; 1850). Howe will eventually win a Massachusetts court decision and make a fortune from royalties that Singer will pay as the sewing machine gains worldwide distribution (see Hunt, 1858).  I.M. Sing, Edward Clark start long patent fight with Howe and lose.
c K UK A 6665 1851 tx http://store.yahoo.com/bensilver/920.html; http://www.englishhall.com/index.html Clothing L The Aquascutum raincoat challenges the Macintosh raincoat of 1823. The London firm Bax & Co. in Regent Street makes the new raincoat from a chemically treated wool fiber trademarked Aquascutum (see Burberry, 1856).  Bax & Co.
c B US B 7096 1856 ha Singer F I. M. Singer & Co. offers a $50 allowance on old sewing machines turned in for new Singer machines—the first trade-in
c B UK A 7094 1856 tx Burberry L The Burberry raincoat, introduced by English tailor Thomas Burberry of Basingstoke, is made of water-repellent fabric rather than rubberized fabric or oilskin. It will vie with Macintosh and Aquascutum (see 1823; 1851; Tielocken, 1910). 
b B UK CH 7068 1856 ch http://argon.ch.ic.ac.uk/perkin.html; http://home.clara.net/don.ainley/Perkin.htm; http://www.comptons.com/encyclopedia/ARTICLES/0050/00574208_A.html#P18A1; http://classes.yale.edu/chem220a/studyaids/history/chemists/perkin.html Dye K A mauve dye produced from coal tar by English chemistry student William Henry Perkin, 18, is the world’s first synthetic dye. Hoping to find a synthetic qui-nine that will break the Dutch monopoly in cin-chona bark, Perkin winds up with a disappointing tarry black solution, but when he dips a piece of silk into the solution he finds it is a stable dye, the first ever made from anything but a root, bark, or berry (see Fritzsche, 1841).  William Henry Perkin mauve dye from coal tar.
b B G CH 7072 1856 ch http://argon.ch.ic.ac.uk/perkin.html; http://home.clara.net/don.ainley/Perkin.htm; http://www.comptons.com/encyclopedia/ARTICLES/0050/00574208_A.html#P18A1; http://classes.yale.edu/chem220a/studyaids/history/chemists/perkin.html Dye K W. H. Perkin has been working as assistant to German chemist August Wilhelm von Hofmann, 38, who was brought to London’s Royal College of Medicine by the queen’s consort Prince Albert. Von Hofmann will persuade young Perkin to develop a German aniline dye industry; synthetic organic dyes will wreck the market for indigo and for the madder roots used to produce the dye alizarine (see 1857). 
b B UK CH 7152 1857 ch Dye K The aniline dye industry begins in England as W. H. Perkin and his father build a mauve dye works near Harrow (see
c B US K 7240 1858 ha Singer E Isaac M. Singer offers sewing machine inventor Walter Hunt of 1854 paper collar fame $50,000 in five annual payments to clear up any possible patent claims, but Hunt will die in June of next year at age 62 before the first payment falls due, having derived little benefit from his Globe stove, fountain pen, breech-loading rifle, or other inventions.  Walter Huntgets little from sewing, stove, fountain pen, rifle or other inventions
b K US TL 7258 1858 sh http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blblake.htm; http://www.deas.harvard.edu/~jones/mckay/mckay.html Shoe K The McKay machine invented by South Abingdon, Mass., shoemaker Lyman Reed Blake, 23, permits production of low-cost shoes by eliminating the heavy work of hand sewing. Gordon McKay, now 37, will promote Blake’s machine and it will become famous as the McKay machine.  Gordon Blake promotes Lyman Reed Blake's machine for low cost shoes
c B US C 7542 1861 ha Singer E I. M. Singer sells more sewing machines abroad than in America and has profits of nearly $200,000 on assets of little more than $1 million (see 1856; 1863). 
c pa US A 8036 1865 tx http://cheltenhamtownship.org/wallhouse/stetson.html Hat L The Stetson “10-gallon” hat is created by Philadelphia hat maker John Batterson Stetson, 35, whose high-crowned “Boss of the Plains” is a modified Mexican sombrero with a 4-inch crown, a 4-inch brim that can carry 10 “galions” (ribbons), and a leather strap hatband. The $5 hat has a look of importance and is destined for fame on the Western plains (a Stetson made from better materials will sell for $10, one made from pure beaver or nutria felt for $30). Stetson worked for years in his family’s hat company until he came down with tuberculosis, went West to seek a cure, joined the gold rush to Pike’s Peak in 1863, and has returned home to open his own factory, which by 1900 will have a payroll of more than 3,000. 
c B US A 9516 1876 tx http://www.vintageskivvies.com/pages/archives/history.html; http://www.mum.org/underhis.htm Cloth L B.V.D. underwear for men is introduced by Bradley, Voorhees, and Day of New York http://www.fruit.com/static/company/history_company/index.cfm
c B US C 9609 1877 ha Singer E Singer Manufacturing Co. cuts sewing machine prices in half as the U.S. economic depression continues. The move will increase sales enormously (see 1863; 1880). 
c B US C 10092 1880 ha Singer E Some 539,000 Singer sewing machines are sold, up from 250,000 in 1875 (see 1863;
c B US M 11057 1889 ha http://members.tripod.com/~Antique_Sewing_Mach/ManufacturesFrame1Source1.htm#Singer Singer U I. M. Singer Co. introduces the first electric sewing machines and sells a million machines, up from 539,000 in 1880 (see
b K US TL 11171 1889 am http://www.uwec.edu/Academic/Geography/Ivogeler/w111/agr25.htm; http://www.seeya-downtheroad.com/Dec2000.html Cotton A The first spindle-type cotton picking machine is tested by U.S. inventor Angus Campbell whose machine will not be developed and produced commercially for more than half a century (see Rust, 1927). 
c B US N 12930 1902 sh shoe C “Buster Brown” debuts May 4 in the New York Herald. Richard F. Outcault’s comic-strip adventures of the middle-class boy and his dog Tige will be far more successful than his “Yellow Kid” strip (see 1896; “Mutt and Jeff,” 1908). 
b B UK A 14324 1910 tx Burberry L The Tielocken coat introduced by Burberry’s will be called the trenchcoat beginning in 1914 (see 1856). Tied and locked closed with a strap and buckle, it will be given buttons, epaulettes, and rings for hanging grenades. 
b K US A 15004 1914 Clothing L The elastic brassiere that will supplant the corset now in common use is patented in November by Mary Phelps Jacob who as a New York debutante devised the prototype bra with her French maid before a dance, using two pocket handkerchiefs, some pink ribbon, and thread. A descendant of steamboat pioneer Robert Fulton, Jacob was asked by friends to make bras for them, a stranger asked for a sample and enclosed a dollar, she has been encouraged to engage a designer to make drawings, will make a few hundred samples of her Backless Brassiere with the help of her maid, will find them hard to sell, but will sell her patent to the corset maker Warner Brothers Co. of Bridgeport, Conn., which will acquire for $15,000 a patent that will later be estimated to be worth $15 million.  Mary Phelps Jacob , a Robert Fulton descendant,  patents elastic bra.
c B US A 15314 1916 sh shoe L U.S. Keds with canvas uppers, rubber soles, are introduced by United States Rubber Co.   US Rubber
c B US SF 15533 1918 ch textile K Celanese Corp. of America is founded at Cumberland, Md., by Swiss-American chemist Camille Edward Dreyfus, 40. It will become the largest producer of acetate rayon and a major factor in viscose rayon and other synthetic fibers (see American Viscose, 1910; nylon, 1935). 
c B US A 16128 1921 Cloth L The Arrow shirt is introduced by Cluett, Peabody Co. of Troy, N.Y. as demand increases for collar-attached shirts. Research director Sanford Lockwood Cluett, 47, develops a “Sanforizing” process to limit shrinkage.  Sanford Lockwood Cluett's sanforizing process to limit Arrow shirt shrinkage Cluett, Peabody
c B US A 16125 1921 Cloth L The Van Heusen collar is introduced by Phillips Jones Corp. which has acquired rights to the starchless but stiff collar invented by John M. van Heusen, 52. The collar is made from multiple ply, interwoven fabrics and van Heusen has patented collars, cuffs, neckbands, and other articles made in whole or in part from such fabrics.  John M van Heusen's starless stiff collar introduced by Phillips Jones Corp. Van Heusen
c B US 16180 1922 tx Amoskeag J The Amoskeag textile mill in Manchester, N.H., announces February 2 that it is cutting wages 20 percent and increasing weekly hours from 48 to 52. French-Canadian financier Frederic C. Dumaine, 56, controls the mill and finds that demand for gingham has shrunk, Southern mills are better equipped and more efficient. Amoskeag workers begin a 9-month strike.  Mills move from New England to South as Amoskeag fades.
c B US A 16277 1922 sh shoe L The first Thom McAn shoe store opens October 14 on New York’s Third Avenue near 14th Street with men’s shoes at $3.99 per pair. Melville Shoe Co. vice president and founder’s son (John) Ward Melville, 35, served during the Great War under J. Franklin McElwain, head of the Quartermaster Corps shoe and leather division. He and McElwain have developed the idea of a mass-produced shoe to be sold through a chain of low-priced stores with Melville Shoe and J. J. McElwain Co. of Nashua, N.H., sharing in the profits.  
c B US C 16362 1923 tx http://www.thetimesnews.com/answer/topics/communities/Burlington/history.html Burlington E Textile executive J. Spencer Love, 27, of Gastonia, N.C., sells his mill at auction for $200,000, retains his outworn machines, moves them to Burlington whose Chamber of Commerce has agreed to underwrite a $250,000 stock offering and sell the stock to local investors, produces a coarse cotton dress fabric that promptly goes out of fashion, but will make his company the largest U.S. rayon producer. Burlington will become the world’s largest diversified textile producer.  http://www.burlington.com/about/
c B US A 16501 1923 Clothing L Maidenform brassieres are introduced by Russian-American entrepreneur Ida Rosenthal, 36, and her English-American partner Enid Bissett who last year opened a dress shop on New York’s West 57th Street and gave away sample brassieres with a little uplift because they did not like the fit of their dresses on flat-chested “flappers” (see 1914).  Ida Rosenthal introduces uplifted Maidenform bra to couter flat chested flappers
b K US A 17138 1926 Clothing L Slide fasteners get the name “zippers” after a promotional luncheon at which English novelist Gilbert Frankau, 42, has said, “Zip! It’s open! Zip! It’s closed!” (see Sundback, 1913). Elsa Schiaperelli will use zippers in her 1930 line and when the general patents expire the following year the zipper will come into wide use in men’s trousers, jeans, windbreakers, and sweaters and in women’s dresses and other apparel. 
b K US TL 17363 1927 ag Cotton A The mechanical cotton picker perfected by Texas inventor John Daniel Rust, 35, and his 27-year-old brother Mack will have a profound social impact on the South when marketing of the machine begins in 1949 (see Campbell, 1889). The Rust cotton picker inserts a long spinning spindle with teeth into the cotton boll, winds up the cotton, picks it out, and is kept wet to facilitate removal of the cotton from the teeth. It picks a bale of cotton in one day, and it will spur migration of blacks to northern cities as it reduces the need for field hands (see 1949). 
b K UK A 17780 1929 Clothing L The first crease-resistant cotton fabric is introduced by Tootal’s of St. Helens, England. 
c B US A 19142 1936 sh shoe L Bass Wee’juns, introduced at $12 a pair by G. H. Bass & Co. of Wilton, Me., begin a unisex fashion for slip-on moccasin “loafers.”  
c B US PC 19750 1939 Clothing L Cup-sizing for brassieres is introduced by Warner Brothers of Bridgeport, Conn., whose designer Leona Gross Lax, 48, has developed the concept (see 1914).  Leona Gross Lax's cup size bra concept introduced.
c B US CL 19953 1940 Clothing L Cotton fabrics hold 80 percent of the U.S. textile market at the mills, down from 85 percent in 1930. Man-made fabrics, most of them cellulose fabrics such as rayon and acetate, have increased their market share to 10 percent (see 1950). 
b K F A 20889 1946 Clothing L The skimpy two-piece bikini swimsuit designed by French couturier Louis Reard is modeled (by a stripper) at a Paris Louis Reard's bikini
c K US TL 21487 1949 ag Cotton A The Rust cotton picker of 1927 goes into mass production at Allis-Chalmers Corp. in Milwaukee and Ben Pearson, Inc.,
c K US A 22909 1959 cloth L Pantyhose—waist-high nylon hose requiring no garters, garter-belts, or corsets—are introduced by Glen Raven Mills of Glen Raven Mills panyhose
b US L 24424 1969 Clothing L U.S. pantyhose production reaches 624 million pair, up from 200 million last year, as American women switch from
b US SF 24568 1970 Clothing L Man-made fabrics raise their share of the U.S. textile market to 56 percent, up from 28 percent in 1960, with polyesters enjoying a 41 percent share of the market and cotton only 40 percent, down from 65 percent in 1960. E. I. Du Pont’s patent on polyester has run out, other companies have entered the market, and some big chemical companies have helped mills that use polyester-cotton blends with massive consumer advertising to proclaim the virtues of durable press fabrics. 
c B US A 24822 1972 sh shoe L Nike Inc. is founded under the name Blue Ribbon Sports by Portland (Ore.) entrepreneur Philip H. Knight, 33, and his Nike
c B US C 26433 1986 ha Singer E Singer stops making sewing machines. It announces plans to spin off its sewing operations to a separate firm and
b K US CL 14813 1913 mt Cloth L Swedish-American inventor Gideon Sundback, 33, develops the first dependable slide-fastener and efficient machines to manufacture it commercially. He attaches matching metal locks to a flexible backing, each tooth being a tiny hook that engages with an eye under an adjoining hook on an opposite tape. He will patent improvements on his slide fastener in 1917 and assign the patents to the Hookless Fastener Co. of Meadville, Pa., which will manufacture the Talon slide fastener (see Judson, 1893; “zipper,” 1926).   Gideon Sundback patents improvements on slide fastener and assigns to Hookless as Talon
1893 Cloth L The “Clasp Locker or Unlocker for Shoes” exhibited at the Chicago fair is the world’s first slide fastener. U.S. inventor Whitcomb L. Judson has patented the device and a machine to manufacture it (see Sundback, 1913).  Whitcomb L. Judson slide fastener at Chicago World's Fair
1965 Cloth L The miniskirt appears in December in “swinging” London. Designed by Mary Quant, the provocative new skirt comes to 6 inches above the knee, it will help Quant’s 10-year-old Bazaar on King’s Road, Chelsea, become an international conglomerate of fashion, cosmetics, fabrics, bed linens, children’s books, dolls, and wine (Mary Quant Limited), and the skirt eventually will dwindle to micro-mini lengths.  Mary Quant designs miniskirts