2,179 articles
Obi (sash)
The obi (帯) is a sash worn with Japanese kimono and traditional dress, wrapped around the body and knotted to secure the garment and signal formality.
Obi (帯) (sash)
Obi (帯) is the sash wound and tied around the waist with Japanese kimono. Covers its history from cord to decorative sash, types (fukuro, Nagoya, maru), the o-taiko knot, obijime, and the Nishijin, Kiryu, and Hakata weaving regions.
Obscene gesture
Obscene gesture: a hand or body movement whose conventional meaning in a culture is a sexual, scatological, or contemptuous insult. Covers the middle finger (digitus impudicus), fig sign, OK ring, and thumbs-up, whose meanings reverse across countries.
Obverse and reverse
Obverse and reverse are the two faces of a coin: the obverse (heads) front, usually a monarch or issuer's insignia, and the reverse (tails) back. Assignment uses die-position rules for ancient coins and issuer-based conventions for modern ones, with the Euro as a noted exception.
Octavia St. Laurent
Octavia St. Laurent (1964–2009), also known as Heavenly Angel Octavia St. Laurent Manolo Blahnik, was an American transgender performer, model aspirant, and ballroom icon featured in Paris Is Burning and How Do I Look.
Oeko-Tex
Oeko-Tex (OEKO-TEX®) is a textile and leather certification system run by an association of 17 independent testing institutes founded in 1992. STANDARD 100, its flagship label, tests finished products for over 1,000 harmful substances; other standards include ORGANIC COTTON, STeP, ECO PASSPORT, and MADE IN GREEN.
Off-White (company)
Off-White™ is Virgil Abloh's luxury streetwear label, founded 2012/2013, Milan-based, known for quotation marks, diagonal stripes, arrows, and Nike and IKEA collaborations; LVMH held 60% from 2021, sold to Bluestar Alliance in 2024.
Office siren
Office siren is a TikTok fashion aesthetic, viral from late 2023 into 2024, that restyles 1990s and 2000s corporate workwear (Tom Ford-era Gucci, Calvin Klein, Prada) with a sensual edge: pencil skirts, fitted shirts, and Bayonetta glasses. Related to corpcore and corporate fetish; linked to Asia Bieuville; faded by 2026.
Oiran (花魁)
Oiran (花魁) were the highest-ranked courtesans working in the pleasure quarters licensed by the Tokugawa shogunate during Japan's Edo period, above all in the Yoshiwara district of Edo, present-day Tokyo.
Ojiya chijimi
Ojiya chijimi (小千谷縮) is a lightweight ramie crepe fabric made in Ojiya, Niigata Prefecture, Japan, whose wrinkled texture keeps it from clinging in humid weather.
Ola Hudson
Ola Hudson (Ola J. Oliver, 1946-2009), American fashion and costume designer for David Bowie, Diana Ross, John Lennon, and the Pointer Sisters; created Bowie's Man Who Fell to Earth and Thin White Duke looks, and was the mother of Guns N' Roses guitarist Slash.
Old Navy
Old Navy is Gap Inc.'s value-priced family clothing retailer, opened in Colma, California on March 19, 1994 from the Gap Warehouse prototype. First retailer to $1 billion in sales within four years; fiscal 2025 net sales $8.7 billion across 1,200+ North American stores.
Oleg Cassini
Oleg Cassini (1913-2006), American fashion designer of Russian-Italian aristocratic origin, official couturier to Jacqueline Kennedy, Hollywood costume designer, and pioneer of designer name licensing.
Olga de Amaral
Olga de Amaral (Olga Ceballos Vélez, b. 1932, Bogotá) is a Colombian fiber artist known for gessoed, gold-leafed woven wall works, a Wall Hangings (MoMA 1969) pioneer, represented Colombia at the 1986 Venice Biennale, with major 2024-25 retrospectives in Paris and Miami.
Oliver Cheshire
Oliver Luke Cheshire, British fashion model scouted by Select Model Management, face of Calvin Klein Jeans, Hugo Boss, Ralph Lauren and M&S, Mr Porter Style Councillor, CHÉ label founder, and Pixie Lott's partner.
Oliver Peck
Oliver Peck (born 1971) is an American Traditional tattoo artist, co-owner of Dallas's Elm Street Tattoo, Guinness record holder (415 number-13 tattoos in 24 hours), and Ink Master judge seasons 1-13 until his 2020 blackface controversy exit.
Olivia Culpo
Olivia Frances Culpo, American model, TV personality, and entrepreneur; won Miss Rhode Island, Miss USA, and Miss Universe 2012; SI Swimsuit 2020 cover model; married Christian McCaffrey; founded Picolette baby brand at Target.
Olivier Rousteing
Olivier Rousteing (born 1985, Bordeaux) is a French fashion designer, Balmain creative director 2011-2025, the Balmain Army and H&M 2015 collaborator, now creative director of Rabanne since July 2026.
Olmec jade working
Olmec jade working is the craft of the Olmec civilization of Mexico's Gulf Coast, which carved jadeite into figurines, masks, and celts from about 1200 to 400 BCE.
Omelette dress
The omelette dress, also called the Yellow Queen, is a canary-yellow fur-trimmed cape designed by Guo Pei and worn by Rihanna at the 2015 Met Gala.
One red paperclip
One red paperclip: Kyle MacDonald's 2005-2006 barter project trading a red paperclip through 14 Craigslist trades up to a house in Kipling, Saskatchewan; Guinness record, book, and teaching legacy.
One Surfing Co
ONE SURFING CO, a Hossegor, France surf brand founded 2022 (SARL ONE ACTION SPORTS), sells Japanese limestone-neoprene wetsuits and runs the ONE ATHLETE monthly wetsuit subscription; unrelated to the OneSurf training app.
One thousand origami cranes (千羽鶴)
Senbazuru (千羽鶴), one thousand origami cranes, is a Japanese custom of stringing folded cranes to wish for healing, longevity, or peace, tied to the legend of a granted wish and to Sadako Sasaki and Hiroshima's Children's Peace Monument.
One-piece swimsuit
One-piece swimsuit (maillot): a single-piece swimsuit covering the torso, worn for swimming or beachwear, especially by women. Distinguished from the bikini by continuous torso coverage; traces to the Victorian Princess suit, Annette Kellermann's 1907 arrest, and Rose Marie Reid's 1950 elastic pull-on patent.
Onitsuka Tiger
Onitsuka Tiger (オニツカタイガー) is a Japanese footwear and fashion brand founded in Kobe in 1949 by Kihachiro Onitsuka; its company became ASICS in 1977, and the brand was revived as a fashion label in 2002 with the Mexico 66.
Opus Anglicanum
Opus Anglicanum, Latin for "English work," is the luxurious embroidery made in England from about the 12th to the early 16th centuries, prized across medieval Europe.
Origami (折り紙)
Origami (折り紙), Japanese paper folding from oru (fold) and kami (paper), evolved from ceremonial origata into an international art and a research field in mathematics, engineering, and education, with notation from Yoshizawa and applications from space structures to metamaterials.
Ormolu
Ormolu (French or moulu, ground gold), also called gilt bronze or bronze doré, is mercury fire-gilded bronze or brass used for 18th- and 19th-century French furniture mounts, clocks, and candelabra; the toxic process was banned in France in 1830.
Oscar de la Renta
Oscar de la Renta (1932–2014), Dominican-American couturier, founded his New York ready-to-wear house in 1965 after Balenciaga, Lanvin, and Elizabeth Arden; designer of Balmain couture 1993–2002 and gown maker to US first ladies.
Ottoman clothing
Ottoman clothing is the dress of the Ottoman Empire, worn from the late 13th century until 1922. It featured layered robes and silk textiles that signaled status.