The iconic fashion items that can be traced back to France

Paris has come to be known as the fashion capital of the world – and for good reason.

France has brought us powerhouse designers such as Coco Chanel and Christian Dior, while popularising iconic accessories like the beret.

But there are some timeless items in our wardrobes you might not realise can also be traced all the way back to the fashion capital.

With the Olympic Games Paris 2024 right around the corner, we’ve uncovered five surprising fashion staples you have to thank France for. 

1. The mini-skirt

Who actually designed the very first mini-skirt is a question hotly contested in the fashion industry.

British designer Mary Quant is one of the designers widely credited for the mini-skirt after she made it mainstream in the ’60s – along with ‘hotpants’.

But there was another French designer who is also credited as one of the inventors of the iconic garment. 

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Parisian designer André Courrèges has been hailed by many as the creator of the mini-skirt after he included it in one of his 1964 collections.

Quant later denied that either she or the French designer invented the ’60s garment.

“It wasn’t me or Courrèges who invented the miniskirt anyway – it was the girls in the street who did it,” she famously said.

2. The little black dress

The little black dress or ‘LBD’ has persevered through decades of fashion trends since it was first designed by French icon, Coco Chanel in the 1920s.

Chanel’s LBD was first published as an illustration in the October 1926 issue of American Vogue, who predicted the dress would “become sort of a uniform for all women of taste”.

Of course, they were right.

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Nearly a century later and the LBD is still thriving on red carpets and worn by some of the world’s most famous women, including Princess Diana.

As Chanel designer Karl Lagerfeld put it best: “One is never overdressed or underdressed in a little black dress.” 

3. The bikini

While the bikini has a history tracing all the way back to Ancient Rome, the design as we know it today officially came about in the 1940s. 

In the 1930s, tanning had become more popular and swimsuit straps became thinner.

But in 1946, the swimwear game changed forever with the invention of the bikini.

Two French designers have been widely credited for the design of the first bikini in 1946: Jacques Heim and Louis Réard.

Heim debuted a collection of bra-shaped swimwear and bottoms called Atome.

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French style icons who’ve captivated us through the years

However, it is Réard, who was an engineer, that is more famously recognised for creating the bikini after he released his string design just a couple of months later.

Réard’s design was even more daring, featuring four triangular fabric pieces tied together for a top and bottom that was modelled poolside in Paris by 19-year-old Micheline Bernardini.

The bikini really took off in the 1950s after French actress Brigitte Bardot was spotted wearing a two-piece swimsuit while on the French Riviera.

3. Denim

Denim is a fabric that never goes out of style, whether it be jeans, a skirt or a jacket.

It turns out we have a town in southern France to thank for the timeless wardrobe staple, as it is widely believed to have been invented in the town Nîmes.

Before it was ‘denim’, the fabric created in the late 17th century was called serge de Nimes.

The fabric which would later be used by German-American designer Levi Strauss to create the first ever pair of jeans in 1873.

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5. The A-line dress

We have French designer Christian Dior to thank for the A-line silhouette that is still popular in skirts and dresses to this day.

In 1955, Dior released his A-line Spring collection which introduced the world to a completely new silhouette for women’s fashion.

The iconic Dior-invented shape is a wide triangle skirt that is fitted at the hips to accentuate the waist before flaring out at the hem to resemble a capital letter ‘A’. 

Even as hemlines have changed and new dress trends have come and gone since the ’50s, the A-line silhouette has continued to be a staple in fashion.

At the 2024 Oscars Awards, Jennifer Lawrence stunned in a custom Christian Dior gown that features a stunning floor-length skirt with the fashion house’s timeless shape.

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