All posts tagged: 17th

17th century shipwreck woven into dress (seriously)

17th century shipwreck woven into dress (seriously)

Published by Jenni Sidey

Get the Popular Science daily newsletter💡 Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent six days a week. Pirate treasure and shiny coins typically come to mind when an old shipwreck is discovered. These bits of maritime history are usually studied, preserved, and placed in a museum or private collection—not made into a dress worthy of Paris Fashion Week.  Using the surplus wood from a shipwreck dating back to the 1600s, archeologists, chemists, and textile experts in Finland turned the raw material into a textile fiber. They then spun the fibers into a workable yarn and knit it into a dress with the help of AI-assisted technology. The Shipwreck Dress represents over two years of collaboration between scientists and designers. This unique piece of clothing is also an opportunity to bring history to new audiences. “Underwater cultural heritage is often invisible, but the Shipwreck Dress brings it into people’s everyday environments,” Minna Koivikko, a maritime archaeologist with the Finnish Heritage Agency, said in a statement. “It’s almost like a spokesperson for history—with a modern twist.” The color …

Emma Heming Willis says she was ‘made to love’ husband Bruce in 17th anniversary post

Emma Heming Willis says she was ‘made to love’ husband Bruce in 17th anniversary post

Published by Daniella Wilson

Stay ahead of the curve with our weekly guide to the latest trends, fashion, relationships and more Stay ahead of the curve with our weekly guide to the latest trends, fashion, relationships and more Stay ahead of the curve with our weekly guide to the latest trends, fashion, relationships and more Emma Heming Willis has marked her 17th wedding anniversary to husband Bruce Willis with a sweet social media post. The 47-year-old former model shared a throwback photo of the Die Hard star — who is living with the rare neurodegenerative disease frontotemporal dementia (FTD) — carrying his wife as they smiled together on a beach in Turks and Caicos. “I was made to love him. 17 years,” Heming Willis captioned the post. The anniversary post comes days after Heming Willis, who has been married to Willis since 2009, honored the actor’s 71st birthday by asking for donations to their new charity. “Today we celebrate Bruce’s birthday. This journey with frontotemporal dementia (FTD) has opened my eyes to the realities so many families face,” she …

How the word ‘cravat’ came from the battlefields of 17th century Europe : NPR

How the word ‘cravat’ came from the battlefields of 17th century Europe : NPR

Published by Sam Flores

Men dressed in traditional 17th century uniform line up during a ceremony marking the “Cravat Day” in central Zagreb on October 18, 2011. Hrvoje Polan/AFP via Getty Images hide caption toggle caption Hrvoje Polan/AFP via Getty Images For many in the business world, a return to work after the winter break will mean once again donning the dreaded suit and tie. The corporate neckwear is the everyday counterpart to the traditionally more luxurious cravat – a voluminous neckscarf that conjures up images of opulent dinners aboard a yacht sailing through the Mediterranean. President Abraham Lincoln wore cravats, as did Hollywood actor Cary Grant and the extravagant entertainer Liberace. In more recent times, the garment has been popularized in the American mainstream by the likes of Madonna and the late Diane Keaton. American pianist Liberace (WƂadziu Valentino Liberace, 1919-1987), waves as he descends the stairs of his plane on a visit to Britain, London Airport, March 30th, 1960. Evening Standard/Getty Images/Hulton Archive hide caption toggle caption Evening Standard/Getty Images/Hulton Archive In this installment of NPR’s “Word …

The Mystery of How a Samurai Ended up in 17th Century Venice

The Mystery of How a Samurai Ended up in 17th Century Venice

Published by José Betancourt

It would­n’t sur­prise us to come across a Japan­ese per­son in Venice. Indeed, giv­en the glob­al touris­tic appeal of the place, we could hard­ly imag­ine a day there with­out a vis­i­tor from the Land of the Ris­ing Sun. But things were dif­fer­ent in 1873, just five years after the end of the sakoku pol­i­cy that all but closed Japan to the world for two and a half cen­turies. On a mis­sion to research the mod­ern ways of the new­ly acces­si­ble out­side world, a Japan­ese del­e­ga­tion arrived in Venice and found in the state archives two let­ters writ­ten in Latin by one of their coun­try­men, dat­ed 1615 and 1616. Its author seemed to have been an emis­sary of ƌto­mo Sƍrin, a feu­dal lord who con­vert­ed to Chris­tian­i­ty and once sent a mis­sion of four teenagers to meet the Pope in Rome — a mis­sion that took place ear­li­er, in 1586. So who could this undoc­u­ment­ed Japan­ese trav­el­er in the fif­teen-tens have been? That ques­tion lies at the heart of the sto­ry told by Evan “Nerd­writer” Puschak in …