Best of Racked Histories

Racked is no longer publishing. Thank you to everyone who read our work over the years. The archives will remain available here; for new stories, head over to Vox.com, where our staff is covering consumer culture for The Goods by Vox. You can also see what we’re up to by signing up here.

From the political nature of pockets to the gruesome effects of green dye, what we put on our bodies has alternately lifted us up and weighed us down. Racked’s histories aimed to remind, and in many cases teach, readers about the stories hidden in the things we wear every day.

• Wearing a 19th-Century Mourning Veil Could Result in — Twist — Death
• Why Do We Think Serial Killers All Wear the Same Glasses?
• The Trashy, Expensive, Contradictory Reputation of Leopard Print
• The Marie Antoinette Dress That Ignited the Slave Trade
• Before Fenty: Over 100 Years of Black Makeup Brands
• A History of Women Who Burned to Death in Flammable Dresses
• When Cardigans Were Battle Attire
• Fast Fashion’s Surprising Origins
• In the Cold War, Makeup Was a Weapon
• The Birth of Vintage
• Flappers Didn’t Really Wear Fringed Dresses
• Colonial Williamsburg Has a Luxury Historical Spa
• The History of Green Dye Is a History of Death
• A Shockingly Gruesome History of Beauty Marks, Real and Fake
• The Long, Red History of the Power Tie
• The Complicated History of Headscarves
• The Politics of Pockets
• The Rise and Fall of Khaki
• Why We Wear White in the Summer
• The Teen Who Invented Bras Lived in a Castle, Published Hemingway, Much More
• How Red Lipstick Went From Illegal to Everywhere
• Corsets Were Always Terrible, But Maybe Less Terrible Than You Think
• Syphilis Sufferers and Movie Stars: The Real History of Sunglasses
• How Pink Became a Color for Girls