• Disney World does 285,000 pounds of laundry each day
• in the 1800's, during the Revolutionary war, arranging clothesline laundry was used to communicate with spies.
• The average American family does 8–10 loads of laundry each week.
• If you dream that you are doing your laundry, it suggests that you are cleaning up your act or changing your image because you are concerned about how you appear to others.
• If you dream about sorting the laundry, it indicates that you are trying to understand your own feelings and sorting out your attitudes.
• In the United States Air Force, no airman goes on any flight without his laundry bag. In military lingo, a laundry bag is a parachute.
• Laundromats in the UK are called launderettes or laundrettes.
• Soap didn’t become sudsy until the 1900s
• What do these items have in common? A T-shirt with a transfer design, an embellished swimsuit, and dark jeans. They should all be washed inside out
• There is a bra that doubles as a gas mask. It’s meant to be snapped off and put over the mouth in the event of an emergency.
• It was Mark Twain (yes, that Mark Twain) who actually invented and patented the bra-strap clasp.
• When Disneyland opened in 1955, it had a lingerie store right on Main Street, called Hollywood-Maxwell Intimate Apparel. It included an animatronic figure called the Wizard of Bras. WHAT?
• Actress Julie Newmar, who starred as the original Catwoman, actually holds the patent for “pantyhose with shaping band for cheeky derriere relief,” a forerunner to Spanx. She was granted the patent in 1975.
• According to Icelandic folklore, if you don’t get new clothes to wear for Christmas, there is a giant Yule Cat that will eat you.
• Up until the 19th century, children were dressed as miniature adults.
• Up until around 1910, it was totally common for little boys to wear dresses until they were around 5 or 6.
• After its modern debut, the bikini was banned in Belgium, Italy, Spain, and Australia, and it was declared a sin by the Vatican.
• A woman was actually arrested in Boston in 1907 for wearing a formfitting one-piece on the beach.
• Bathing suits were so scandalous that the Quakers created a bathing machine with a “modesty tunnel” that allowed women to enter the sea or ocean and retain their modesty.
• Designer Rudi Gernreich took the bikini to the next level in the 1960s with the monokini, which was a one-piece swimsuit with a completely exposed top.
• Barbie’s first outfit? A black-and-white striped one-piece swimsuit.
• Princess Leia’s bikini in Star Wars — probably the most famous bikini in the world — was actually two. She had a real metal one she wore for much of filming, and then a rubber one she wore during action scenes. There’s a whole website devoted to her bikini.
• You can thank former New York Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia for popularizing the modern-day thong. He introduced it in 1939 to make NYC’s nude dancers cover up a little bit.
• The first miniskirt was unveiled by designer André Courreges in 1965. It ended a modest four inches above the knee.