Ridiculous fashions throughout history

Part 1

A macaroni in mid-18th-century England was a fashionable fellow who dressed and even spoke in an outlandishly affected and epicene manner. The term pejoratively referred to a man who "exceeded the ordinary bounds of fashion" in terms of clothes, fastidious eating, and gambling.

Black Teeth

In early Tudor England, sugar wasn't readily available. By the time that Elizabeth I came around, it was everywhere (though at a very high cost), and the Virgin Queen had a thing for sweets. According to The Telegraph, her teeth were black and decaying, and some folks even complained that it was hard to understand her. Though Elizabeth's teeth were a product of a sweet tooth (and a whole lot of neglect), they also sparked a short-lived fashion trend in England: Women purposefully blackened their teeth to prove that they had enough money to buy sugar.

Hobble skirts

�"Hobbling" is a term for tying an animal's legs together to prevent it from running away. In the early 20th century, the hobble skirt attempted to do the same to women. Designed specifically to slow women down and prevent them from taking large steps, the hobble skirt is certainly symbolic of how women were viewed at the time. According to the Metropolitan Museum Of Art, the first hobble skirt is credited to a French designer called Paul Poiret, who eschewed petticoats for this sleek, crippling silhouette, while also forgoing the then-popular corset. "Yes, I freed the bust," Poiret once wrote. "But I shackled the legs."

Chopines

If you thought a stilettoed Louboutin was hard work, your ankles and toes are going to quake in fear at the thought of chopines. Popular with Venetians in the 16th and 17th centuries, the shoe attachment was invented to help women walk through muddy streets. However, the practicality of the chopines soon turned to fashion, as being tall signified that you were an important, wealthy person. Sometimes, a lady's chopines were so high that she needed an attendant to maintain balance.