Clothing

Garments, fabrics, or other coverings worn
by humans over their bodies

The materials that early humans used to create the first
clothing were probably those they found around themn,
such as pliable grasses, plant leaves, and animal skins.
Because these materials decompose so easily it is difficult
to determine when humans first created clothing.
Researchers studying human lice have suggested
that clothing could have become widespread as early
as 650,000 years ago, while other studies suggest an
origin of about 170,000 years ago. These time periods
correspond to either the beginning or the end of an Ice
Age, indicating that clothing may have first developed
as a way of coping with colder climates.
The first items of clothing were most probably fairly
Crude in their construction, draped around the body
and tied with sinevw. The development of the needle
Clothes can suggest, persuade, connote,
insinuate, or indeed lie..."
Anne Hollander, Seeing Through Clothes (1975)

around 35,000 years ago by Homo sapiens allowed the
creation of more complex clothing--garments that
could be layered and tailored to fit certain parts of the
body. It has been hypothesized that this technology
may have been what enabled Homo sapiens to flourish
as a species over the Neanderthals, who were more
adapted to the cold biologically and thus did not
have the impetus to refine the cutting and sewing
techniques that were needed for warmer clothes.
Although clothing may have been created out of
necessity initially, it has since become far more than a
means of adaptation to the environment. Throughout
history it has been used to protect a wearer from
the elements, but also as a way to convey nonverbal
information, such as signaling differences in wealth,
class, sex, or membership of a particular group.