83 Read the article about fashion trends of the past. Then decide whether the statements below are true or false. Highlight the section of the text where you found the relevant information. There may be more than one correct answer. READING 3 A changing world Fashion over the years Fashion trends change all the time. What’s hot today may be unfashionable tomorrow, but this is nothing new. Throughout history people’s ideas of the latest cool looks have changed, but you probably never knew that wigs for men and false eyebrows for women were once all the rage. Even our clothing basics such as jeans have been given makeovers depending on what was trendy at the time. Jeans were invented in America in 1873 by Levi Strauss as workwear for men. The metal rivets were designed to make the trousers stronger and stop them falling apart. Since then jeans have remained popular, becoming a favourite around the world. They have been made fashionable by being flared or skinny, bleached or ripped, depending on the current trends. Some fashions just seem plain weird to us nowadays. In ancient Greece and Rome it was fashionable for women to have a unibrow or ‘monobrow’1. Women used powdered minerals or soot2 to paint their eyebrows black. False eyebrows were made of dyed goat’s hair and attached with tree resin3. Poets and writers from both cultures have described women wearing false unibrows to improve their looks. Have you ever seen the self-portraits by the famous 20th-century Mexican painter Frida Kahlo? She also celebrated her unibrow. Believe it or not, in the 17th and 18th centuries, it was trendy for women to wear false eyebrows made of mouse skin! Have you washed your hair today? Of course, hair has always been a fashion accessory. Hair loss has meant that people have had to find solutions. When French King Louis XIII started going bald, he had wigs made to cover this up. Wigs for men became all the rage and then powdered wigs (or ‘perukes’) became popular. You have probably seen pictures of these wigs, but have you ever wondered why they were white? A special powder made of flour or dried clay was put on the wigs to keep away the lice. This didn’t always work, however! Wigs were sometimes perfumed with lavender or orange to cover up the bad smell as people did not often wash. Wigs were sometimes made with human hair, but goat and horse hair was also used. 1 The short lifespan of fashion trends is a new phenomenon. true / false 2 Jeans were first meant to be worn by male workers. true / false 3 Fake eyebrows were stuck on with special glue made from vegetables. true / false 4 Frida Kahlo was embarrassed by her unibrow and tried to hide it. true / false 5 A king of France wore a wig because he was losing his own hair. true / false 6 People perfumed their wigs to keep them free from lice. true / false Talking about trends Find expressions in the article you can use to talk about trends and make a list. Then try to add more. Examples: to be hot, to be fashionable/unfashionable, to go out of fashion, … Work with a partner. Discuss the past trends described in the article and agree on the one you think is the strangest. Try to use five of the phrases you’ve written down for 4a. LANGUAGE 4 a b 1 unibrow/monobrow: „Monobraue“ (nicht gezupfte Augenbrauen, die in der Mitte der Stirn zusammenwachsen) 2 soot [sUt]: Ruß 3 tree resin: Harz Nur zu Prüfzwecken – Eigentum des Verlags öbv
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