From revolutionary designs to timeless classics, these iconic fashion pieces have left an indelible mark on style and society. Join us as we explore the garments and accessories that transformed the way we dress, from groundbreaking innovations to cultural phenomena that continue to influence fashion today.
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00:00Category is Little Black Dress.
00:03Welcome to Miz Mojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the most seminal pieces of clothing that shaped fashion as we know it today.
00:12There are things in fashion that never go out of style.
00:15Jeans, a white shirt, and a Chanel jacket.
00:20Number 10.
00:21Diane von Furstenberg's Wrap Dress.
00:24Trends may come and go, but this beauty is forever.
00:26Designer Diane von Furstenberg took inspiration from the wraparound tops of ballet dancers and Japanese kimonos to create this effortless one-piece.
00:37The wrap dress became something very magical because it gave women confidence.
00:44What was different about my dress is that it was in Jersey, and because it was of Jersey, it kind of sculpted the body.
00:51The genius idea struck when she saw former U.S. President Richard Nixon's daughter, Julie, on TV, speaking on Watergate, wearing one of her wrap blouses with a skirt.
01:02Thus, the wrap dress was born, representing freedom, versatility, and glamour all at once.
01:08It's a dress that hides, that has a small waist, and so we have so many different types.
01:15It allowed working women to look put together and feel elegant without having to sacrifice comfort, thanks to the soft silk jersey material.
01:29Such needs haven't changed, so although first launched in the 70s, the wrap dress continues to be a wardrobe staple, even today.
01:37You know when a woman wakes up in the morning, and you open your closet, and you don't feel well, and you don't know what to wear, and that moment that you go into your closet, you go for a friend, and the wrap dress is the best friend ever.
01:53Number 9. The bikini
01:54The OG two-piece has been around since before Christ, and was worn by women in ancient Rome, as evidenced by mosaics found in Sicily.
02:04The bikini we know today, though, was popularized by Tinseltown.
02:08Should I go classy?
02:09Your Doris Day.
02:10Or risque?
02:11Your Mamie Van Doren.
02:13Will any other girl bother to compete?
02:14Before the Hays Code enforced a sanitization of cinema, musicals like Gold Diggers of 1933 and Flying Down to Rio featured women in bikinis, sparking interest in these daring fits.
02:27They inadvertently became normalized when the Second World War led to the restriction of fabric used for women's swimwear.
02:34Finally, the French made it fashionable.
02:36Louis Rayard unveiled the bikini, naming it after the World War II nuclear testing site Bikini Atoll.
02:43Rayard said it wasn't a true bikini, unless it could fit through a wedding ring.
02:48Dancer Micheline Bernardini modeled the swimsuit in Paris, causing a sensation.
02:54Despite sparking moral controversy worldwide, its popularity only rose when stars like Brigitte Bardot donned it, making it vogue.
03:03It's not good to say, but I'm good to say.
03:07Number 8. Christian LeBreton, High Heels
03:10Hello, Santa?
03:11And what would you like for Christmas, little girl?
03:14I would like a shiny new pair of Louis Vuitton shoes.
03:16You know, the ones with the high heels and the red bottoms?
03:19The classic red bottoms are a status symbol in high society.
03:23They're especially popular among celebrities and have found a place in uncountable braggadocious songs, including those by Madonna and Ariana Grande.
03:31They say which one I say now, I want all of them.
03:35Happiness is the same price as red bottom.
03:38These red soles were conceived in the 90s when Christian LeBreton noticed the stunning shade of crimson his assistant had been painting her nails with.
03:47In a stroke of brilliance, he decided to coat the bottom of a pair of heels in the red lacquer and instantly noticed the difference.
03:54An ordinary set of pumps had been transformed into a striking piece worth collecting.
03:59Clearly, his clients agreed because sales skyrocketed, causing the fad of stilettos to return with full force.
04:06It's like something that everyone knows.
04:08So the second you see the red bottoms, it's like, I know what those are.
04:13I know what those cost.
04:14Number 7. The Burberry Trench Coat
04:16If there's any fashion item that's truly timeless, it's this one.
04:20The Burberry Trench was first introduced at the dawn of the 20th century.
04:24The brand's founder, Thomas Burberry, had just come up with the gabardine fabric.
04:29It was breathable, it was waterproof, and it was double-breasted, making it the must-have accessory for high-ranking explorers, travelers, and soldiers.
04:38Naturally, coats made with this material were utilitarian and began to be used on expeditions to combat harsh weather conditions at the poles.
04:46Upon demand, they were customized for military use, and caught on when they made their appearance on The Silver Scream.
04:52Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.
04:57Humphrey Bogart wearing a trench coat in Casablanca was enough to start a trend,
05:01which found momentum when Audrey Hepburn sported a similar Macintosh in Breakfast at Tiffany's.
05:07With gender-neutral appeal, the trench became an irreplaceable part of modern style.
05:12The practicality, the versatility, the quality.
05:16I mean, I'm just as happy with the Burberry trench coat as an evening wrap as I would be with an opera coat.
05:22Number 6. The miniskirt.
05:24The rising hemline trailblazed by rebellious young women was once met with much brouhaha.
05:30And whenever these abbreviated fashions appear, they command attention, while spectators exchange comments, opinions, and, depending on gender, unabashed enthusiasm.
05:41It's enough to make a fellow want to go to market every day in the week.
05:44Although short skirts were nothing new, considering they were fairly common thousands of years ago, modesty was an issue the modern world had lots of opinions on.
05:53So, when Josephine Baker showed up at the Folli-Bergère in Paris wearing a rubber banana skirt, she challenged those norms.
06:01And it's this fascination that is both malsane and positive, positive in the sense that I think people admire their freedom, even if they won't call it like that, what they consume it on stage.
06:15Over the next few years, short skirts became a thing of the future, as they were featured in sci-fi works.
06:21It was only when American and British teenagers started cropping their skirts in the 60s that fashion houses caught on to the craze.
06:28Designers like Mary Quant and André Courage put miniskirts on the runway, and the rest, as they say, is history.
06:36When you get bored, you start with the long one. When you get bored, you sort of pull it off and have it a bit shorter.
06:40When you get really bored, you pull it off and have it shorter again. And when you're really bored, you're going to turn it into a sweater.
06:45Number 5. Jeans
06:46Skinny or baggy, blue or grey, there are innumerable varieties of denim pants in the market today.
06:54According to the documentary Riveted! The History of Jeans, it all started with captive African people in America,
07:00who, by their knowledge of indigo, created the first iteration of blue jeans.
07:05In Africa, the cloth is considered the next layer to the skin. It holds the person's soul, their spirit.
07:14Africans have had a long history of working indigo, and knew the special process involved in making the dyeing and dyeing cloth.
07:26Levi Strauss and Jacob Davies added rivets to the fabric, making the trousers ideal for working-class Americans doing manual labor.
07:35Cowboys were particularly fond of denim, and those fond of cowboys, usually women, naturally romanticized the garment.
07:41When I'm wearing your blue jeans, I'll be here on my body, so much more forget.
07:49Hollywood bad boys Marlon Brando and James Dean made them even cooler, and soon jeans were everywhere.
07:56Today, denim is used for tops, bottoms, jackets, dresses, and more, and its popularity is showing no signs of waning.
08:03They are universal and individual at the same time. In the history of clothing, there is nothing like that.
08:10Number 4. Saint Laurent's Le Smoking
08:13YSL's first-ever women's tux from 1966 was for the bold and beautiful.
08:20With the collection Liberation, you have made a scandal.
08:23It gets its name from a men's suit that prevented cigar smoke from settling on one's outfit in a smoking area.
08:30Through Le Smoking, Saint Laurent wanted to enhance its wearer's femininity by contrasting it with the angular tux.
08:38However, it didn't immediately stick with his clientele, so he took the price down a notch and marketed it to a younger consumer base, who lapped it up.
08:47We're getting towards 1968 and storming the barricades, and what did a woman need? She needed her pantsuit.
08:55It wasn't long before greater fame followed. Bianca Jagger, ex-wife of the Rolling Stones' Mick Jagger, paired a Le Smoking blazer with a skirt on their wedding day.
09:05Slowly but surely, the tux became a signature look for stylish women, who were unbothered by social conventions.
09:11You either follow or you lead, yeah, I'm talking about you, I'll keep on blaming the machine, and now I'm talking about it.
09:18Number 3. The Chanel tweed jacket.
09:21Coco Chanel prioritized comfort above anything else when designing this legendary piece during the jazz age.
09:27Permettre aux femmes de bouger aisément, ne pas se sentir déguisé, ne pas changer d'attitude, de manière d'être, selon la robe dans laquelle on les a fourrées.
09:39She was inspired by the tweed used in Scottish workwear, which her then-lover, the Duke of Westminster, Hugh Grosvenor, often wore.
09:47It was a rough fabric, but Coco softened it by blending in cotton, wool, and silk.
09:52Thus, a lighter material was produced, which lent itself wonderfully to the relaxed structure of the Chanel jacket.
09:58Decades later, the item got its second wind, emerging in stark opposition to the cinched silhouette of Dior's new look.
10:06Coco's jackets opted for a liberating yet flattering shape, which was both refreshing and empowering.
10:12It was an incontrovertible success.
10:14The international press, hungry for modernity and change, acclaimed the style and allure of Chanel.
10:20She made the front page of magazines worldwide.
10:23The clients followed.
10:25The most beautiful women were soon seen wearing the Chanel jacket.
10:28When Karl Lagerfeld took up the mantle from the Mademoiselle, the jackets evolved while maintaining their core, remaining evergreen.
10:36The jacket lends itself to all metamorphoses, adapts to all daring creations.
10:44Today, almost 60 years after its creation by Gabrielle Chanel, the jacket has become the cornerstone of contemporary fashion.
10:51Number two, the Hermes Birkin bag.
10:54This lucrative bag was born from a simple request.
10:57She had her signature straw tote bag.
10:59She was shoving it in an overhead compartment and it fell out.
11:02It tumbled out.
11:02Everything fell to the floor.
11:04And the gentleman sitting next to her said, why don't you have a bag with pockets?
11:08And she said, I will when Hermes makes me one.
11:10Hermes CEO Jean-Louis Dumas met actress and singer Jane Birkin on a flight in the 80s,
11:16where she mused about a roomy handbag she could give up her trusty wicker basket for.
11:21Rumor has it that the Birkin was sketched on the plane itself.
11:25Unfortunately, when the bag first came out, it didn't make a big splash.
11:29Being name-dropped in an episode of Sex and the City finally got the demand going.
11:34Look what I got.
11:35Some nice man dropped it off at my hotel this morning.
11:38Hermes.
11:39It's a Birkin.
11:41Today, a huge part of the frenzy surrounding the Birkin is because of its exclusivity.
11:45They're unbelievably expensive, which makes them more coveted, and each piece has a waitlist.
11:51So, as long as the Birkin remains a privilege, its desirability will continue to rise.
11:57You know, I think my computer cords would fit in this perfectly.
12:00Uh, this is not a computer cord kind of purse, Ace.
12:03You know what, why don't you just call my sister, she'll fill you in.
12:05It's like a thing, you know?
12:06Oh, it's a thing.
12:07A beautiful leather grown-up thing.
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12:25Number 1.
12:27The Little Black Dress
12:28The concept of an LBD introduced by Chanel in the Roaring Twenties remains an influential force in fashion to this day.
12:36It was this dress that severed the connection of black garments with mourning and gave them an invigorating, versatile twist.
12:43Big deal, it's just a little black dress.
12:45Ah, to the untrained eye.
12:47But add a faux jacquard scarf and pair of pearl button earrings and look.
12:55Over several decades, variations of this dress have been produced by almost every fashion house
13:01and it has never gone out of style.
13:04Givenchy created Audrey Hepburn's unforgettable black dress from Breakfast at Tiffany's
13:09and Christina Stambolian gave Princess Diana her famed revenge dress.
13:14She changed course and opened up her closet and there was this sexy black dress
13:21that in fact she had bought three years earlier
13:23but at the time deemed too out there, too risque, too eye-grabbing to wear.
13:28Flash forward three years and she was all set to put it on.
13:32Not just celebs, but any ordinary woman could transform into the femme fatale with an LBD.
13:38Thanks to its accessibility in this case, Ubiquiti did not devalue the dress but uplifted it.
13:45I think that quality of timelessness that we associate with the little black dress
13:49because of the concepts that really lay at the heart of this iconic design.
13:55Ideas of kind of a simplified silhouette, of an understated elegance.
14:00Which grailed luxury fashion piece is on your wish list?
14:04Tell us in the comments below.
14:06Let's just go, Emily.
14:07Now.
14:08And leave that purse.
14:09I was going to leave the purse, Richard.
14:1121-year-old girl has a Birkin bag and a grown woman doesn't.
14:15Do you agree with our picks?
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14:30All right.
14:39and see you later.
14:49See you later.