2,179 articles
Bild Lilli doll
Bild Lilli doll: German fashion doll made 1955-1964 by O. M. Hausser, based on Reinhard Beuthien's Lilli cartoon in the Bild newspaper; model for Mattel's Barbie, whose rights Mattel bought in 1964.
Billabong (clothing)
Billabong is an Australian surfwear brand founded in 1973 on the Gold Coast by Gordon and Rena Merchant, known for boardshorts and wetsuits. Once ASX-listed, it is now owned by Authentic Brands Group via the 2023 Boardriders acquisition.
Billabong Outlet
Billabong Outlet stores are discount factory outlets of the Australian surf brand Billabong, selling previous-season boardshorts, swimwear, and wetsuits in the US, Japan, France, Brazil, Bali, and Australia.
Billiken
Billiken: charm doll patented by Florence Pretz of Kansas City in 1908, the smiling "god of things as they ought to be"; later a good-luck figure at Osaka's Tsutenkaku Tower, mascot of Saint Louis University, and namesake of Argentina's long-running children's magazine.
Billionaire Boys Club (clothing retailer)
Billionaire Boys Club (BBC), with sister brand ICECREAM, is a streetwear label founded in 2003 by Pharrell Williams and BAPE creator NIGO, known for its astronaut logo, Tokyo flagship, rap-lyric marketing, and the motto 'Wealth is of the heart and mind, not the pocket.'
Bindle
Bindle: US slang for a hobo's bundle of bedding and possessions carried on a stick; also a small folded paper packet for powdered drugs; Scots bindle means a binding cord or rope.
Biretta
Biretta (beretta, biretum): stiff square cap with three or four ridges worn by Catholic clergy, cardinals in red, bishops violet, priests black; ancestor of the academic mortarboard.
Birkin bag
Birkin bag, Hermès Birkin, structured French luxury handbag created in 1984 for Jane Birkin with Jean-Louis Dumas; handmade by one artisan in 18+ hours, sells above retail on resale, prototype sold for $10.1 million in 2025.
Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery
Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery (BMAG), Chamberlain Square, Birmingham, England: municipal art museum opened 28 November 1885 by the Prince of Wales, holding the world's finest Pre-Raphaelite collection, distinct from the Alabama museum of similar name.
Blac Chyna
Blac Chyna, born Angela Renée White (1988, Washington, D.C.), is an American model, rapper, and reality star from Rob & Chyna; since 2023 she goes publicly by Angela White after leaving OnlyFans and embracing sobriety and faith.
Black tie
Black tie is a formal evening dress code built on the dinner jacket and black bow tie, less formal than white tie. Originating with an 1865 Henry Poole & Co. commission for the Prince of Wales and named the tuxedo at New York's Tuxedo Club in 1886, it is worn for evening events after 6 p.m.
Black Versace dress of Elizabeth Hurley
The black Versace dress of Elizabeth Hurley, also called the safety-pin dress or "that dress", is Gianni Versace's spring 1994 black silk gown with gold Medusa safety pins, worn by Hurley to the 1994 Four Weddings and a Funeral premiere.
Black-figure pottery
Black-figure pottery (black-figure vase painting): ancient Greek technique, Corinthian origin c. 700-720 BC, Athenian peak with Exekias, black slip silhouettes with incised detail, replaced by red-figure after c. 530 BC.
Blazer
Blazer: a lightweight semi-tailored jacket, usually navy, with metal buttons and patch pockets, worn with contrasting trousers. Origins in HMS Blazer 1837 and Lady Margaret Boat Club; distinct from suit jacket and sport coat.
Blocking (textile arts)
Blocking (textile arts), also called wet, steam, or spray blocking, is the finishing step that wets or steams finished knitting or crochet and pins it to shape while drying, evening stitches, opening lace, and setting final measurements by fiber type.
Blouse
Blouse: a lightweight, loose-fitting women's upper-body garment, from French workwear origins (1820s English adoption) through the 1890s shirtwaist, 1910s ready-made boom, Romanian ie, and Indian sari blouse traditions.
Blue and white pottery
Blue and white pottery: ceramics painted with cobalt blue pigment under a transparent glaze, also called qinghuaci (青花瓷). Originated in ninth-century Iraq, matured at Yuan Jingdezhen, and was imitated worldwide from Iznik to Delft.
Blue ribbon
Blue ribbon: a blue ribbon marking first place or excellence, from the blue ribbon badge of England's Order of the Garter; also the adjective blue-ribbon for panels of selected quality.
Bob Mackie
Bob Mackie (Robert Gordon Mackie, 1939/1940–2026), American costume and fashion designer, the 'Sultan of Sequins,' known for dressing Cher and Carol Burnett, nine Emmys, a 2019 Tony for The Cher Show, and the Bob Mackie Barbie line.
Bobbie Brown
Bobbie Brown (Bobbie Jean Brown, born 1969) is the American model known as the Cherry Pie girl in Warrant's 1990 video, ex-wife of Jani Lane, author of Dirty Rocker Boys, and later stand-up comedian.
Bobbin
Bobbin, also called pirn or quill, is a cylindrical or tapered spool holding yarn or thread in spinning, weaving, and sewing. Covers industrial types and materials, shuttle use, bobbin batteries, winders, and 1-2 year service life.
Bobblehead
Bobblehead: a figurine with a spring-mounted oversized head that bobs when tapped, also called a nodder or wobbler. Chinese nodding figures date to the 1760s; baseball giveaways since 1960 and the 1999 Willie Mays promotion made it a collectible.
Bobo masks
Bobo masks are carved wooden and fiber masks made by the Bobo people of western Burkina Faso, embodying the spirit Dwo in initiation rites, funerals, and harvest ceremonies.
Bocio
Bocio are carved wooden power figures of the Fon and Ewe peoples of Benin and Togo, empowered with bindings and offerings to protect against harm.
Bodice
Bodice: the fitted upper part of a woman's dress or a separate torso garment, from "a pair of bodies" (mid-16th century). Distinct from stays and corsets, which are stiffened undergarments worn beneath it.
Body piercing
Body piercing: insertion of an ornament into a tissue perforation for decorative, cultural, or spiritual reasons. Ancient practice (46,000-year-old Australian nose ornament, Varna gold earrings), revived in 1970s California by Jim Ward; infection is the main risk; professional practice requires sterile needles and implant-grade jewelry.
Bodysuit
A bodysuit is a snug one-piece garment covering the torso and fastening at the crotch with snaps, a top that never comes untucked from skirts or trousers.
Bogolan
Bogolan, more fully bògòlanfini, is a Malian cotton cloth dyed with fermented, iron-rich river mud, traditionally made by the Bamana people and known since the 1980s as a symbol of African style.
Bohemian engraved glass
Bohemian engraved glass is glass made in Bohemia and decorated by cutting or copper-wheel engraving, a craft begun at Rudolf II's court in Prague around 1609.
Bohemian glass
Bohemian glass (Czech: české sklo), also called Bohemian crystal or Czech glass, is the glassmaking tradition of Bohemia in the Czech Republic, known since the 13th century for hard potash-lime crystal suited to cutting and engraving, UNESCO-listed in 2023.