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A Brief History of Lingerie	The history of stockings	History Of The Corset
Corsets and Sex	History Of The Bikini	History Of Leather
The History Of Lycra	The History of Nylon	History of Valentines Day

Source: www.02-14.com/

Some holidays like Memorial Day and Mother's Day have very clear origins and it is obvious what they are celebrating. Valentine's day is a little more vague. Where does the idea of a Valentine's day come from? How did this whole thing get started? Why does the whole world choose to celebrate the entities called "love" and "affections" on February 14 or each year?

The celebration of February 14 as a day for lovers has several origins. Its historical legacy came from a series of customs and historical events in the last few centuries of the Roman Empire, between the first and fifth centuries A.D.

Source: www.dupont.com

DuPont scientist, the late Dr. Wallace Hume Carothers is the man widely credited with the discovery of nylon. Here we take a look at some of the landmarks in the development of this versatile long chain polymer.

1930
DuPont prepared the ground for Carother’s research by filing a broad patent for synthetic fibres.

1934
The first viable synthetic fibre is drawn.

Source: www.lycra.com

1958 DuPont Invents "Fiber K"
Soon to be trademarked as LYCRA® - and proves a little fiber's good for the fashion diet.

1959 Smooth Move
LYCRA® replaces rubber in corsets for a more natural, more comfortable look.

1960 They Get It!
The world is sold on the benefits of LYCRA® in light-weight and comfortable fabrics.

Source: www.leathertown.com

Primitive people who lived during the Ice Age some 500,000 years ago, were likely the first to use the skins of animals to protect their bodies from the elements. Just as leather today is a byproduct, our ancient ancestors hunted animals primarily for food, but once they had eaten the meat, they would clean the skin by scraping off the flesh and then sling it over their shoulders as a crude form of a coat. They also made footwear to protect their bare feet from rocks and thorns by taking smaller pieces of animal skin made to fit loosely over the foot and tied at the ankle with thin strips of skin or even vines.

Source: www.bikinifiles.com/

1946: Bikini officially invented by engineer Louis Reard in Paris, and named after the Pacific Atolls where the first H-Bomb was tested. Interstingly enough though, Reard's idea came from the work of Jacques Heim who had 2 months earlier created the "Atome" (named for its size) and donned it the world's "smallest bathing suit." But Reard, 'split the atome' and created the world's newest smallest bathing suit. Americans describe it as a "two-piece bathing suit that reveals everything about a girl except her mother's maiden name." It took another 15 years for the bikini to become a hit in America.

1947: The United States tries to compete with a suit that reveals a glimpse of the upper thighs through two circular portholes. It is not a success.

Source: www.geocities.com/~lambdamu

CORSETS, and the urge they meet, to reduce the waist and exaggerate the body's natural curves, are as old as civilisation itself. Drawings scratched onto bone over 20,000 years old found at the Neolithic site at Brandon in Norfolk, show women wearing bodices made of animal hide, probably moulded to the body when still raw, laced down the front and fastened round the waist with skins. Stone dolls, found in the flint caves, were also dressed in dried skin corsets, tied with the sinews of birds and small animals.

Corseted women were often depicted in the pottery and carvings of early civilisations such as Crete, Assyria and Egypt. There may have been a link between corset wearing and the worship of the sun and of snakes, which were credited with magical powers; a coiled serpent symbolised the sun. One Cretan urn, over 5,000 years old, shows a priestess of the snake cult wearing a bronze corset with the classic hour glass shape, fastened at the waist by two serpents, whose heads and tails meet.

Source: www.stockingshq.com

Stockings as we know them began life back in the early 1940s. But we need to go even further back, to 1930, to find out exactly how they came to be. It all started one day in a laboratory in Wilmington, Del...

Julian Hill was a researcher for the DuPont Company who, along with others in the lab, was studying chains of molecules called polymers. They were trying to find a silk substitute. Hill made the discovery that when a heated rod was pulled from a jar containing a mixture of carbon- and alcohol-based molecules, the substance inside stretched. When pulled at room temperature it became silky in appearance.

Source: www.inchant.com/

As long as there have been women, there has been lingerie. At times, it was practical. At others, painful. And at yet others, it approached a work of art.

Today, lingerie combines practicality with a sense of playfulness that's strictly modern. You can boost your front assets or trim your bottom line with fabrics that are both effective and comfortable. You can stick with the basics, pamper yourself with luxurious silks, or indulge your fantasies with the most lavish lingerie.