It doesn’t matter what they are made of: cloth, leather or metal – fringes are the trend du jour. The fine decorative thread is one of the oldest ways of underlining the unique style of fine materials. At first, fringes were to be found on carpets or sofas, but soon enough they appeared in the world of fashion. In the Middle Ages hair styles were decorated with them, for example with a fringe braid attached to a hair circlet. Later, Native Americans decorated their clothes and works of art like pipes and tomahawks with long threads and said they had a special and mystical meaning. And also modern Western clothing, derived from the cowboys, plays with a whole lot of leather fringes and braids.
The fashionable heyday of fringes began in the 1920’s with the classic Charleston dresses. These
short dresses were covered all over, sometimes with many layers of fringes that were swinging around during the dances, which made them look ever so dynamic.