History

Timeline

1. In antiquity

   People wear what they need for travel and work: pouches hung from the belt, bands and wreaths on the head, amulets and simple ornaments that serve both as charms and as signs of kinship.

2. In the Middle Ages

   A purse on the belt becomes a normal part of a townsperson's dress. Others judge a person's standing by what their belt, headwear and fastenings are made of.

3. In the 18th century

   Pockets appear inside clothing, and when lighter dresses without them come into fashion, women begin to carry a small bag in the hand: the reticule.

4. In the 19th century

   Railway travel brings the travelling bag. Craft workshops begin to put their own marks on their goods, and trade between countries makes people think about protecting those marks.

5. 1883

   The Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property is signed: one of the first international agreements to cover trade marks.

6. In the 20th century

   The shoulder bag frees the hands, hats gradually stop being obligatory, and accessories increasingly become a way to express personal taste rather than social rank.

7. 2000

   The World Intellectual Property Organization establishes World Intellectual Property Day on 26 April. It is celebrated for the first time in 2001.

How an accessory becomes history

While an object serves its owner, it is rarely noticed. A bag is carried until its bottom wears through, a hat until it goes out of use. An object becomes history when people start asking about it: why it looks the way it does, who made it, what it meant to its owner.

Accessories preserve the traces of their time well. The shape of a clasp reveals the level of craftsmanship, the material shows what resources the era had, and the size of a bag tells us what people were used to carrying. A small evening bag and a roomy travelling bag speak of entirely different ways of life.

Images are an important source. In formal portraits, old photographs and films, an accessory often helps us understand who we are looking at: gloves and a fan suggest a social occasion, a headscarf and a basket suggest market day. We discuss such examples in general terms, without relying on specific works.

Authorship adds another layer of history. As soon as a craftsperson starts stamping their mark on an object, the question arises of who owns that name and whether it may be repeated. Trade mark laws and international agreements became the answer.

Read next

• History of bags (in Russian)

  A note at an archived address: from the pouch on a belt to the shoulder bag, and what an old bag can tell you.

• Headbands & hats (in Russian)

  A note at an archived address: why people wore headbands, wreaths and headscarves, and how to care for textile accessories.

• Brand histories (in Russian)

  A note at an archived address: how to research the history of a fashion label from open sources, and what not to believe.

• Copies & the law (in Russian)

  A note at an archived address: why a copy of someone else's mark is counterfeit and what Russian law says about it.

• Articles

  The magazine's six themes, from the history of accessories to authorship and trade marks, plus a catalogue of articles in English.