2,179 articles
Francophile
Francophile: admirer of France, its people, culture, and language; synonym gallophile; English word from 1875 (Franco- + -phile); opposite francophobe, distinct from francophone.
Frankie Rayder
Frankie Rayder, born 1975 in River Falls, Wisconsin, is an American fashion model discovered by Steven Meisel, a 1997 Paris runway debut, Victoria's Secret and Sports Illustrated work, and a 2020s comeback with Saint Laurent and Givenchy.
Frasers Group
Frasers Group plc, formerly Sports Direct International, is a British FTSE 100 sports, premium, and luxury retail group founded by Mike Ashley in Maidenhead in 1982. FY26 revenue was £5,325.9m, with an almost 48% stake in Hugo Boss and a €2.7bn takeover bid.
Freedom Quilting Bee
Freedom Quilting Bee, founded March 26, 1966 in Rehoboth, Wilcox County, Alabama, by over 60 Gee's Bend-area quilters with Father Francis X. Walter and first president Estelle Witherspoon; a Black women's quilting cooperative sold to Bloomingdale's, Saks, and Sears, closed in 2012, continued by Freedom Quilting Bee Legacy.
French ban on face covering
French ban on face covering: Law no. 2010-1192 of 11 October 2010, effective 11 April 2011, outlawing face concealment in public space with €150 fines, upheld by the Conseil constitutionnel and ECtHR in S.A.S. v France (2014).
French Connection (clothing)
French Connection (FCUK) is a British fashion brand founded in London in 1972 by Stephen Marks, named after the 1971 film, known for the 1997 FCUK slogan campaign, licensing, and its 2021 return to private ownership.
French law on secularity and conspicuous religious symbols in schools
Law no. 2004-228 of 15 March 2004, the French headscarf ban: prohibits ostentatious religious signs (Islamic veil, kippa, oversized cross) for pupils in public schools, allowing discreet signs; in force since 2 September 2004.
French maid
French maid (フレンチメイド): eroticised fancy-dress costume derived from the 19th-century French housemaid's black-and-white uniform, named for the theatrical soubrette; fixed under the Third Republic, spread via burlesque, pin-ups, and Japanese meido culture.
Frida Gustavsson
Frida Gustavsson, Swedish actress and former model born 1993 in Stockholm, played Freydis Eriksdotter in Netflix's Vikings: Valhalla; a former Victoria's Secret and Valentino couture model, she won a 2025 Kristallen award for Faithless.
Friendship bracelet
Friendship bracelet: handmade knotted or beaded token of friendship, a macramé-style craft. Made from cotton embroidery floss, rooted in Central American weaving, revived by Taylor Swift's Eras Tour.
Fritware
Fritware, also called stonepaste or siliceous ware, is an artificial Islamic ceramic body of ground quartz, glass frit, and fine white clay, invented to imitate Chinese porcelain; its 10:1:1 recipe is recorded by Abu'l-Qasim Kashani in 1301.
Frock coat
The frock coat, also known as the Prince Albert coat, is a man's knee-length coat with full skirts, worn as the formal day coat of the Victorian era.
FUBU
FUBU (For Us, By Us) is an American streetwear brand founded in 1992 in Queens, New York, by Daymond John, J. Alexander Martin, Carl Brown, and Keith Perrin; over $6 billion in retail sales, now a licensing business still owned by its four founders.
Fulling
Fulling, also called milling, tucking, or waulking, is a wet wool-finishing process that cleanses woven cloth and shrinks it 10-50 percent by interlocking wool scales under moisture, heat, and friction; mechanized in water-powered fulling mills from the twelfth century.
Fundoshi (褌)
Fundoshi (褌) is the traditional Japanese loincloth, also called shitaoi, worn by men as underwear until World War II. Main types are rokushaku, Etchu, and mokko; now seen at festivals, in sumo, and in traditional swimming.
Funko
Funko (Nasdaq: FNKO) is an American pop culture collectibles company founded in 1998 by Mike Becker in Snohomish, Washington, best known for its Pop! Vinyl figures introduced in 2010; over one billion sold, brands include Pop!, Loungefly and Mondo.
Fursuit
Fursuit: a custom-made anthropomorphic animal costume worn by fursuiters in the furry fandom; also called zoots. Term coined 1993 by Bob King (disputed); 10-15% of furries own a full suit.
Fustanella
Fustanella (φουστανέλα), a pleated white knee-length men's skirt of the southern Balkans, worn by Albanian Tosks, Arvanites, klephts, and the Greek Evzones; adopted as Greek court dress under King Otto in 1836.
Futon
Futon (布団): traditional Japanese bedding set of a floor-laid shikifuton mattress and kakefuton quilt, cotton-filled, 5–7.5 cm thick, sun-dried and folded daily; distinct from the Western futon sofa-bed.
G-Star Raw
G-Star Raw: Dutch denim brand founded by Jos van Tilburg in Amsterdam in 1989 (originally GAP STAR), known for raw denim and 3D denim such as the 1996 Elwood; majority-owned by WHP Global since December 2023.
G-string
G-string: minimal undergarment with a small front panel and a thin cord back, first recorded 1878 as "geestring" for Native American loincloths; etymology unknown; stripper sense from the 1930s, mass underwear from the 1990s.
Gabbriette
Gabbriette (Gabriella Leigh Bechtel), American model, musician, and Instagram chef; ex-lead singer of Charli XCX's band Nasty Cherry, namechecked in '360', married The 1975's Matty Healy in 2026; distinct from the Brazilian trap artist 'gabrite'.
Gabriel Aubry
Gabriel Aubry (born 1976, Montreal) is a French-Canadian male model, DKNY and Hugo Boss campaign star and Uomo Vogue cover subject, now also a painter, and father of Nahla with Halle Berry.
Gaiters
Gaiters are lower-leg coverings worn over shoes or boots, from ankle to below the knee. Once clerical and military dress, now used for hiking, riding (half chaps vs gaiters), chainsaw protection, and snakebite defense.
Gákti
The gákti is the traditional frock-like coat of the Sámi people, whose cut, colors, and trim signal the wearer's region, family, and gender; everyday use ended in the 1960s.
Galeries Lafayette
Galeries Lafayette: French department store chain founded 1893-1894 by Théophile Bader and Alphonse Kahn, famous for its 1912 Art Nouveau dome on Boulevard Haussmann, Paris; family-owned group with owned and affiliated stores in France and international locations.
Galoshes
Galoshes, also called overshoes or rubbers, are waterproof rubber overshoes worn over regular shoes in rain or snow; the word comes from Middle English galoche via Old French and Late Latin gallicula, a Gallic shoe, and the modern sense dates from the mid 19th century after vulcanization made rubber practical.
Gap Inc.
Gap Inc. (The Gap, Inc.), San Francisco apparel retailer founded 1969 by Don and Doris Fisher; NYSE: GAP. Operates Old Navy, Gap, Banana Republic, and Athleta; 2,474 company-operated stores; CEO Richard Dickson since 2023.
Garbage Pail Kids
Garbage Pail Kids is a series of satirical sticker trading cards produced by Topps, first released in 1985 as a gross-out parody of Cabbage Patch Kids dolls.
Gardiner Museum
The Gardiner Museum is a public museum in Toronto devoted exclusively to ceramic art, holding more than 5,000 objects from the Ancient Americas to contemporary Canadian work.