Overview
Two traditions — the hide clothing of Indigenous peoples suited to a cold climate, and the woven-cotton dress of Mesoamerica — were overlaid and displaced by European dress from the 16th century.
The story of dress
After colonial-era Western dress, modern America spread a casual style symbolised by the T-shirt and jeans across the world, through Levi’s blue jeans (1873), ready-to-wear, the department store and Hollywood.