10 Must-Have Women’s Items People Have Been Wearing For A Longer Than We Thought

Earrings, tights, lipstick and high heels have been tried on or worn by most women at least once in their lifetime. These items are now accessible to everyone, but it wasn’t always that way, and in the past they could cost a fortune.

we, from awesome.clubwe became interested in the history of women’s items and found that many of them were originally intended for men only, as well as being either inaccessible to most people or having a completely different purpose than they currently do.

If lipstick is now made of wax, oils and pigments, in ancient times cinnabar, henna and carmine were used. The lips of the Egyptian queen Nefertiti likely smelled of rust and were poisonous, as she rubbed them with iron oxide and beeswax.

It took 70,000 insects (scale insects) to get about a pound of carmine, the red pigment used in Cleopatra’s lipstick.

In Mesopotamia, jewelry was ground to make shimmering lip paint.

The history of swimwear is not one of the best in terms of comfort. Until the second half of the 17th century in Europe, women swam without clothes or with cloth sashes, but from 1670 onwards they were prohibited from visiting public bathing places without special attire.

Gradually, the arms were exposed, then the legs, and the collar disappeared, giving way to the cleavage. During World War II, due to the need to save fabric, the two-piece swimsuit became popular, which showed a little bit of the upper abdomen. It was not until 1946 that French designer Louis Réard exposed a woman’s belly button to the world of fashion when presenting a new bikini model.

In antiquity, men and women dyed their hair with cinnamon, leeks, henna, gold dust and even leeches to hide gray hairs or to acquire a popular and noble hue.

In Europe, hair coloring began to be attributed exclusively to women only from the Middle Ages onwards.

Prior to the invention of the first organic dye (purple in color) by William Perkin in 1856, hair was dyed with sulfuric acid and lead, and then bleached in the sun after alkali treatment. In 1907, Eugène Schueller, founder of L’Oréal, developed an effective ink formula that changed the lives of women around the world.

Everyone has heard of corsets, but what came before them? Ancient Roman athletes wore bands that looked like a strapless sports bra. It even has mosaics depicting the first primitive bra, which can be seen in Sicily and Pompeii.

The first patent for a bra was issued in 1914, but that could have been in the 15th century; In 2012, scientists found medieval “breast bags” made of linen very similar to a modern bra.

In Ancient Rome, earrings were worn by slaves, and in Ancient Greece, by “promiscuous” young women. Roman and Greek noble women also wore earrings, but with precious stones, which further emphasized their high status.

In Europe, earrings were popular with thieves, pirates, and gypsies, and in Shakespeare’s day, they served as a hallmark of poets, musicians, and artists.

The first shoes with heels appeared in Persia in the 10th century: soldiers wore them while riding to better secure their feet in stirrups. Heels spread from Persia to Europe, where aristocratic men wore them to look taller and more respectable.

Women also began to wear high-heeled shoes, under the influence of men’s fashion. And only at the end of the 18th century did they become associated exclusively with the female wardrobe.

Christian Louboutin, who created the famous high heels with red soles, already knew the history of fashion well. In the 17th century, aristocrats in many countries began to wear shoes with red soles and heels (a color symbol of luxury and war), until Louis XIV enacted a law that allowed the wearing of red heels only by members of his court.

When Elizabeth I took power in England, red hair came into fashion. The trend was to lighten and dye the eyelashes to match the hair. This used to be dangerous, as homemade mixtures of toxic substances were used.

Queen Victoria’s court perfumer Eugène Rimmel (founder of the Rimmel cosmetics company) developed a mascara compound from charcoal powder and Vaseline. His invention became a sensation at the time because it was the first non-toxic product invented for eyelashes.

An important event in women’s lives was the creation of sanitary napkins (around 1920). They were made from stockpiles of absorbent dressings, intended for soldiers, left over after the First World War.

The menstrual cup is not an invention of the 21st century, or even the 20th century. In 1884, this little rubber cup had already been announced, only with a support attached to the hip.

Did you already know these facts from the history of women’s items? What surprised you most about all of this? Comment!