Each day most people use some sort of clothing fastener as they go about their daily lives: buttoning a shirt to wear to work, zipping up a parka to fend off the cold or teaching a young child how easy it is to secure the hook and loop closure on their shoe. Although these devices are usually taken for granted, they have greatly influenced the way clothing fits the human body.
Fasteners from Ancient Times Through the Middle Ages
Prehistoric cultures fashioned straight pins of thorns to hold animal hides together. The Egyptians employed brooches, metal straight pins, buckles or cloth ties to secure their garments. Greeks and Romans used straight pins and clasps similar in design to the modern safety pin to fasten their intricately draped clothing at the shoulder. Japanese kimonos were wrapped over the body and held in place with a sash known as an obi tied at the waist.
Ancient clothing was often based on rectangular pieces of fabric that were draped, pinned and tied over the body. By the 13th Century, garments became more form fitting. Several fasteners began to replace the fibula, the ancient precursor to the safety pin.
Although initially used for adornment by ancient cultures, buttons began to be used as fasteners during the Middle Ages. Functional buttons with buttonholes first appeared on men’s clothing; hooks and eyes and intricate lacing worked better for the closely fitted bodices of women’s dresses.
Nineteenth- and Twentieth-century Fasteners
Although similarly designed pins date back to the Bronze Age, American inventor Walter Hunt patented the device that is now called the safety pin in 1849. Hunt called it the “miracle fastener.” It was made in lengths from several inches to a half-inch and was used to secure everything from kilts to doll clothing. Since they were machine produced, the pins were inexpensive and widely used.
The invention of snap fasteners have been attributed to German inventors Louis Hannart in 1863 and Herbert Bauer in 1885. American M. D. Shipman patented a similar design in 1886.
The zipper required the ingenuity of several inventors. In 1851, Elias Howe, inventor of the sewing machine, patented a device he called the “Automatic, Continuous Clothing Closure.” He did not market the product. Over forty years passed before Chicago inventor Whitcomb Judson patented a similar tool known as a “Clasp Locker.” Although it debuted at the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair, the clasp was not commercially successful, primarily due to design flaws that made it unreliable.
Gideon Sundback, a Swedish-born engineer, joined Judson’s Universal Fastener Company. Tasked with improving Judson’s clasp, he came up with the design of the modern zipper in 1913. Sundback called his invention the "Separable Fastener." The B. F. Goodrich company coined the term zipper when they used Sundback’s fastener on their new model of rubber galoshes trademarked Zipper Boots.
The speed and ease of getting in and out of clothing fastened with zippers soon became apparent. The U. S. Army used zippers in World War I flight suits. In the 1920s and 1930s, zippers began appearing in children’s clothing and in the fly front openings of men’s trousers. Designer Elsa Schiaparelli is credited with popularizing the use of zippers in women’s fashions.
Space Age Fasteners
In the 1940s and 1950s, Swiss engineer George de Mestral developed a hook and loop fastener inspired by the burrs that clung to his wool clothing after a day of hunting. By studying the burrs under a microscope, de Mestral discovered that tiny hooks on the burrs caught the loops of wool in the woven fabric of his trousers.
He called his fastener Velcro – a combination of the French words velour (velvet) and crochet (hook). Marketed as the “zipperless zipper,” the Velcro brand was manufactured as interlocking strips of tape that can be sewn into garments or affixed to surfaces. NASA recognized the potential of the fastener and uses it in spacesuits and to store food pouches or tools on the walls of the space shuttle.
In 2007 Leonard Duffy won a Popular Science Invention Award for his “slidingly engaging fastener” that improves on both zippers and hook and loop fasteners. The durable plastic interlocking strips slide and lock into position quietly and easily and are eight times stronger than hook and loop tape. Duffy’s invention looks promising for a number of practical applications from ski gloves to artificial limbs.
Sources:
- Friedel, Robert, The History of the Zipper? American Heritage Online, Summer 1994
- McNeil, Ian, An Encyclopedia of the History of Technology, Routledge, 1990
- Mone, Gregory, “Invention Awards: The New Velcro,” Popular Science Online, May 14, 2007
- Steele, Victoria, ed., Encyclopedia of Clothing and Fashion, Charles Scribner’s Sons, 2005
- "The Up and Down History of the Zipper," Smithsonian Libraries Online, May 3, 2010
Kristin Hanneman - Kristin Hanneman is a freelance writer and photo editor based in metropolitan Washington, D. C. Kristin has over 30 years experience ...
