Oscar de la Renta Fall/Winter 1987

In 1914, Mary Phelps Jacob (later known as Caresse Crosby) patented the first modern bra, sewn from two handkerchiefs and a ribbon after she got fed up with a whalebone corset ruining the line of her dress.

In 1916–17, the U.S. Rubber Company consolidated over 30 shoe brands into one label, Keds, and mass-marketed the first canvas-and-rubber "sneaker," a name coined by ad man Henry Nelson McKinney because the soft soles let wearers move silently.

In 1926, French tennis champion René Lacoste designed the modern polo shirt, a soft, short-sleeved knit piece that was far more practical on court than the stiff, long-sleeved button-ups players had worn before.

And in 1929, Sam Foster began mass-producing affordable celluloid sunglasses under the name Foster Grant, selling them out of a Woolworth's on the Atlantic City boardwalk.

In January 2024, Bianca Censori was photographed leaving a tanning salon in a sheer white tank top reading "WET" in bold black letters, paired with black boxers and pumps, her hair slicked back to match. Kanye West, directing paparazzi on how to shoot the moment, then turned it into an actual product: he and Mowalola Ogunlesi, the Nigerian-British designer behind many of Censori's most talked-about looks, officially released the "WET" shirt as a Yeezy collaboration, selling for $20. Mowalola had already been dressing the entire West family by that point, having been appointed Yeezy Gap's design director back in 2020, and Kanye had personally funded her Spring 2024 collection presentation. Shortly after the shirt went viral, Kanye posted a follow-up photo of Censori in an oversized fur coat, captioned simply "DRY."

The peak lapel, worn here by Daniel Craig in Casino Royale, is the most formal of the three, its elongated points trace back to the full dress tailcoat, and it remains the classic, conservative choice for black tie. The shawl lapel, worn here by Cary Grant, is actually the original dinner jacket style: in 1865, the future King Edward VII asked his tailors for something less formal than a tailcoat for private dinners, and Henry Poole delivered a single-breasted jacket with a rounded shawl collar borrowed from the smoking jacket, making it technically the least formal of the three despite its now-classic status. The notch lapel, worn here by Sean Connery, is the standard lapel found on everyday business suits, and while less traditional for black tie, it's become an accepted modern alternative for a slightly less formal tuxedo look.