Despite whatever you may have heard, fashion hasn't been around since the beginning of time. The caveman probably didn't one day wake up and wonder if the hemline on his hessian tunic was too short, too tight or too revealing. He probably didn't worry about all his other neanderthal mates looking at him strangely because he hadn't tied his loin cloth in the way everyone else was doing it.
A recent infographic, depicting the rise of fashion in the Western world shows how the very notion of it was created. In fact, it didn't really appear in the west until 1400s, which was when clothing style changed rapidly. Between this time and the 1600s, art historians used the evolution of fashion to recognise the different periods of history.
However, it was really the industrial revolution in the mid-18th century that brought with it a complete change in terms of how clothing was produced did the world of fashion really start to become fully formed.
With the textile industry improvements and technological advances came with it more garments being produced, and at one time 25% of the UK's exports were clothing and textile-related items.
Then, in the late 1800s, fashion magazines came into play. In 1876 Harper's Bazaar's first ever issue was produced and not long after, in 1892 the first ever issue of Vogue was published too. This signaled another turning point with the magazines establishing fashion as a marker of one's societal status.
Currently, £741 billion is spent on fashion worldwide, 4.2 million people are employed in the fashion industry and of those people, 19,300 are fashion designers.
Take a look at some of the incredible statistics below.
Click on the image to enlarge

Despite whatever you may have heard, fashion hasn't been around since the beginning of time. The caveman probably didn't one day wake up and wonder if the hemline on his hessian tunic was too short, too tight or too revealing. He probably didn't worry about all his other neanderthal mates looking at him strangely because he hadn't tied his loin cloth in the way everyone else was doing it.nA recent infographic, depicting the rise of fashion in the Western world shows how the very notion of it was created. In fact, it didn't really appear in the west until 1400s, which was when clothing style changed rapidly. Between this time and the 1600s, art historians used the evolution of fashion to recognise the different periods of history.nHowever, it was really the industrial revolution in the mid-18th century that brought with it a complete change in terms of how clothing was produced did the world of fashion really start to become fully formed.nWith the textile industry improvements and technological advances came with it more garments being produced, and at one time 25% of the UK's exports were clothing and textile-related items.nThen, in the late 1800s, fashion magazines came into play. In 1876 Harper's Bazaar's first ever issue was produced and not long after, in 1892 the first ever issue of Vogue was published too. This signaled another turning point with the magazines establishing fashion as a marker of one's societal status.nCurrently, u00a3741 billion is spent on fashion worldwide, 4.2 million people are employed in the fashion industry and of those people, 19,300 are fashion designers.nTake a look at some of the incredible statistics below.nClick on the image to enlarge

Infographic on the history of fashion

The history and growth of the fashion industry explored in new infographic