2,179 articles
Comforter
Comforter: a one-piece bed covering with insulating fill (down, wool, cotton, or polyester down alternative) between two fabric layers, built for loft and warmth; unlike a duvet it has no removable cover and is popular in the United States.
Comme des Garçons
Comme des Garçons, Japanese avant-garde fashion house founded by Rei Kawakubo (川久保玲; womenswear 1969, company 1973), Paris debut 1981, known for deconstruction, black, fragrance, and Dover Street Market.
Confetti
Confetti: small pieces of paper, plastic, or natural material thrown at celebrations; from Italian confetto (sweetmeat). Paper form invented circa 1875 by Enrico Mangili in Milan; called coriandoli in Italian.
Conservation and restoration of textiles
Conservation and restoration of textiles (textile conservation) is the museum profession of stabilizing, cleaning, mounting, and documenting historic textiles, from tapestries to costume. Established mid-twentieth century; stitching over adhesives affirmed as the core stabilization technique; light and clothes moths are the dominant risks.
Continental knitting
Continental knitting, also called German knitting or picking, holds the working yarn in the left hand while the right needle picks each stitch. Faster than English throwing for most knitters, harder to purl, dominant in continental Europe.
Coonskin cap
Coonskin cap: a raccoon-fur hat with face and tail, tied to Davy Crockett and Daniel Boone. Never widely worn historically; became a 1950s fad via Fess Parker's Disney show, selling 5,000 caps a day.
Coquette aesthetic
Coquette aesthetic: a hyper-feminine fashion trend of bows, lace, pearls, and pastels drawing on Victorian, Rococo, ballet, and Japanese Lolita influences; viral on TikTok from 2021, peaking 2023–2024; distinct from balletcore, cottagecore, and twee.
Corduroy
Corduroy, also called Manchester cloth, is a cotton cut-pile woven fabric with lengthwise ribs (wales) formed by cutting extra weft floats; wale count, from featherwale at 25 to elephant cord at 2 per inch, sets its texture and use.
Corinthian helmet
Corinthian helmet: the full-face bronze helmet of the Greek hoplite, named from Herodotus, hammered from a single bronze sheet, used from about 700 BC through the 4th century BC and widely copied in Italy.
Cornrows
Cornrows are scalp-flat African braids worked in rows with an underhand technique. Also called canerows in the Caribbean, they are protective styles, carry traction alopecia risk, and feature in CROWN Act and braiding-licensing debates.
Corsage
Corsage: a small flower arrangement worn pinned to clothing or on the wrist, and in French a woman's bodice. From Old French cors "body" via Latin corpus; bouquet sense from bouquet de corsage, 1911 American English.
Corset
Corset: stiffened torso-shaping undergarment, also called stays or a pair of bodies before the 19th century. Originated with 16th-century Spanish whalebone bodies; declined after 1908; revived in modern fashion.
Cosplay
Cosplay (costume play) is dressing up and performing as characters from anime, manga, comics, film, and games. Term coined by Nobuyuki Takahashi after the 1984 LA Worldcon; roots in the 1939 New York Worldcon; major events include Comiket and the Nagoya World Cosplay Summit.
Costume
Costume: special dress worn to portray a character, animal, or figure at costume parties (US), fancy dress parties (UK), masquerades, and Halloween; covers history, competitions, and museum study.
Costume design award records and statistics
Comparative records and statistics for costume design awards across the Oscars, BAFTA, the Tonys, and the CDGAs, led by Edith Head's 8 Oscar wins from 35 nominations.
Costume designer
Costume designer: also costume department head, costume design. The professional who designs, sources, builds, and fits all garments and accessories worn by performers in theater, film, TV, and opera, from script research to continuity and budget. Distinguished from fashion design by serving character and story.
Costume Designers Guild Awards
The Costume Designers Guild Awards (CDGA), given since 1999, are annual peer honors from the Costume Designers Guild recognizing costume design in film, television, and short-form work.
Costume Institute
The Costume Institute is the Metropolitan Museum of Art's curatorial department for historic and fashionable dress, holding more than 33,000 objects spanning seven centuries and funded by the Met Gala.
Cowboy boot
Cowboy boot, also called western boot or santiag: tall leather riding boot with angled heel, high shaft, and pointed toe, developed from vaquero boots in the 1870s American West and now a recurring fashion icon.
Cowboy hat
Cowboy hat: a wide-brimmed, creased-crown Western hat. Known as Stetson, Boss of the Plains (1865), ten-gallon; fur felt or straw, with vaqueteada and sombrero roots.
Craft
Craft is the skilled making of objects by hand or with hand tools, as an occupation, trade, or hobby, distinguished from industrial manufacture by the maker's manual contribution.
Crazy quilting
Crazy quilting, also called crazy patchwork, is Victorian-era patchwork of irregular silk and velvet scraps with embroidered seams, inspired by the 1876 Philadelphia Centennial's Japanese exhibits, popular 1876–1900, usually unquilted and without batting.
Crewelwork
Crewelwork, also called crewel embroidery, is a form of free surface embroidery worked with two-ply crewel wool on linen or cotton twill, flourishing in Europe and the American colonies from the 16th to 18th centuries.
Crimson
Crimson, a deep red color inclining to purple, originally named for kermes dye from the scale insect Kermes vermilio (qirmiz, kermesic acid); later surpassed by cochineal carmine.
Crinoline
Crinoline: a 19th-century skirt-supporting undergarment, originally a stiff horsehair-and-linen fabric, then the 1856 steel-hoop cage crinoline that created the wide Victorian bell skirt, peaking around 1862 before giving way to the bustle.
Cristóbal Balenciaga
Cristóbal Balenciaga Eizaguirre (1895–1972), Spanish Basque couturier, founder of the House of Balenciaga (San Sebastián 1919, Paris 1937), called "The Master"; known for the sack dress, balloon jacket, silk gazar, and a new 1950s female silhouette.
Crochet
Crochet: fabric made with a single hooked tool from one continuous thread, loops pulled through loops (French crochet, small hook). Probably evolved from tambour embroidery around 1800; first described in the Dutch journal Penelope, 1824. One live loop, denser fabric and more yarn than knitting; still not machine-replicable.
Crochet hook
Crochet hook: single pencil-sized hooked tool for crocheting; sized by shaft diameter in mm (US letters vary), steel hooks numbered in reverse; aluminum, wood, plastic, ergonomic handles, and long Tunisian variants.
Crocker Art Museum
The Crocker Art Museum, formerly the E. B. Crocker Art Gallery, is an art museum in Sacramento, California, established in 1885 when Margaret Crocker donated the family's collection to the city.
Crocs
Crocs: molded foam clog brand and Colorado footwear company (Crocs, Inc., NASDAQ: CROX), founded 1999, known for Croslite resin, Jibbitz charms, celebrity collaborations, and the HEYDUDE brand.