Heigh-Ho! It's off to IRON I go! Quiz

Answer: Little Black Dress

The little black dress, or LBD as it has become known, is a short evening dress, usually simply cut, which can be dressed up or down with accessories depending on the occasion. It is now considered to be the default ensemble for those "who have nothing to wear" and a well cut LBD is the epitome of chic.

Credited to Coco Chanel, whose original design for a LBD appeared in American Vogue in 1926, the simply cut calf length dress was nicknamed "Chanel's Ford" as it was simple, accessible to the masses and, of course, black. The iconic dress worn by Audrey Hepburn in the 1961 movie "Breakfast at Tiffany's" was designed by Hubert de Givenchy and was auctioned for ₤410 000 in 2006. The Duchess of Windsor once stated that "when a little black dress is right, there is nothing else to wear in its place."

The Big White Dress is the name given to the skintight long white evening dresses which were popular with stars in Hollywood in the 1930s. The little red dress is the signature dress of Betty Boop.

A smile while you iron: "I'm eighteen years behind in my ironing. There is no use in doing it now. It doesn't fit anyone I know." - Phyllis Diller.

Answer: Nehru jacket

The Nehru jacket was a hip length, single breasted tailored jacket with a single row of buttons and a mandarin collar which was very popular in the 1960's and early 1970's. The design was based on the traditional achkan or sherwani as worn by Jawaharlal Nehru who was the Prime Minister of India from 1947-1964.

The 1960s heralded an exploration of eastern cultures and, after they had visited India, The Beatles began wearing this style of jacket. They were made from a wide range of fabrics including cotton, wool, brocade, vinyl and even sharkskin. Sammy Davis Jnr, who called them his "guru coats", was reputed to have owned over 200 of them and Johnny Carson famously wore an Oleg Cassini designed Nehru jacket on "The Tonight Show".

The fad however ended within a few years and Nehru jackets came to symbolize someone who was unsuccessfully trying to be hip and cool. This was immortalised in the 1994 song "Nehru Jacket" by Love Battery about a man in a Nehru jacket and bell bottoms trying, in vain, to get a date.

A smile while you iron: "My second favourite household chore is ironing. The first is hitting my head on the top bunk bed till I faint." - Erma Bombeck

Answer: Poodle skirt

The Poodle skirt, with its wide swing skirt in a solid bold colour and its appliqué of a coiffed French poodle, represented a freedom from the restrictive straight, tight fitting skirts of the 1940s. Originally made from felt, the skirt was designed by Juli Lynne Chalot, an actress turned fashion designer, in 1947. She cut a big circle of cloth, made a hole in the middle for the waist, appliquéd a Christmas tree on it and wore it to a seasonal party. The skirt was a hit and she was asked to make the skirt with dog appliqués. She chose the French Poodle and, after Life magazine, in 1951, featured a model dressed in a Poodle skirt holding a real Poodle on a leash, the rest, as they say, is history.

The skirt was ideal for dancing to the new craze of rock 'n roll as the full skirt gave ease of movement. With the easing of restrictions on fabric after the war years, the skirts were fun and easy to make at home. They could be made fuller with the use of starched petticoats worn underneath. I can still remember my mom telling me how she used to spend Friday nights starching her petticoats and standing them in the corner of her room in readiness for Saturday night's dance. The Poodle skirt was usually worn with a tight fitting blouse, a cardigan, bobby socks, saddle shoes and a ponytail. Think Sandy in "Grease".

A smile while you iron: "Ever notice how irons have a setting for permanent press. I don't get it." - Stephen Wright

Answer: France

Defined by the Webster Dictionary as "a woman's scanty two piece bathing suit", the bikini revolutionized swimwear when it was introduced to the world on July 5 1946 by Louis Reard in Paris, France. Reard, a French engineer turned boutique owner, named the garment after the Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands where nuclear tests were being carried out. It is said that he chose this name as he wished to create as much of an explosion in the world of fashion as the nuclear tests were doing in the Pacific.

In June 1946, a fellow Frenchman, Jacques Hein, showed off his "Atome" in Cannes, calling it "the world's smallest bathing suit". Three weeks later, Reard introduced the "Bikini", billing it as "smaller than the world's smallest bathing suit". His design was so daring that, for the July 5 presentation at the Piscine Molitor in Paris, he could not find a model willing to wear it and he had to resort to the services of a nude dancer by the name of Micheline Bernadini to show it off. This original bikini used just 30 square inches of fabric.

Sales of bikinis were initially slow as they were considered scandalous. After Brigitte Bardot's appearance in one in the 1957 movie "And God Created Woman", they started gaining popularity. However, it was Ursula Andress, as Honeychile Rider in the 1962 movie "Dr No", walking from the sea in a white bikini, who catapulted the bikini to fame. This is still considered to be the world's most memorable bikini and it sold for $60 000 at an auction in 2001.

A smile while you iron: "A bikini is like a barbed wire fence. It protects the property without obstructing the view." - Joey Adams

Answer: Levi's

Created in 1936 as a means of identifying Levi's at a distance, the famous "Red Tab", which is a company trademark, is attached to the rear left pocket of all Levi's jeans.

Levi's are synonymous with blue jeans. In 1836 Levi Strauss traveled to San Francisco to open a branch of his brother's dry goods store. Asked by prospectors working in the goldfields for pants, he first manufactured trousers from tent canvas but, as this hard fabric chafed, he switched to using a twilled cotton cloth from France known as "Serge de Nimes". Meanwhile, a tailor named Jacob Davis had found a method of using rivets to reinforce the points of strain on these pants which were known as waist overalls. In 1872, unable to afford the $68 required to file a patent application, he wrote to Levi Strauss and suggested that they go into partnership and, in 1873, Levis Strauss & Co, was formed. Patent 139 121 was awarded for the process of riveting pants and the blue jean was born.

However, the term did not come into popular use until the 1960s when it was adopted by the baby boomer generation, although Vogue did use "blue jeans" in 1935 to designate denim pants for women. Popularised by James Dean in "Rebel Without A Cause" and Marlon Brando in "On The Waterfront", jeans have become a staple item in the wardrobe of millions of people around the world. The iconic French designer, Yves Saint Laurent, summed it up when he stated that "I have often said that I wished I had invented blue jeans... They have expression, modesty, sex appeal, simplicity, all that I hope for in my clothes."

A smile while you iron: "I base most of my fashion sense on what doesn't itch." - Gilda Radner

Answer: Mini-skirt

To be called a mini-skirt, it required a minimum distance of four inches between hem and knee! The Swinging Sixties was a decade of revolution and change and no single item created more of a stir than the mini-skirt when hemlines shot skywards in 1965. The famous model, Jean Shrimpton, caused consternation at the Melbourne Cup in 1965 when she arrived at the event wearing a mini-skirt with no stockings, no hat and no gloves.

Although Mary Quant, working from her King's Road, Chelsea boutique "Bazaar", has been become synonymous with the mini-skirt and is known as the "Mother of the Mini-skirt", she alone cannot claim credit. In Paris, Andre Courreges was developing the same idea separately from Quant in London. Known as the "Lord of the Mini-skirt", Courreges introduced the mini-skirt to haute couture and gave it a certain respectability. Mary Quant herself once stated that "It wasn't me or Courreges who invented the mini-skirt anyway. It was the girls in the street who did that." However, it was Quant who coined the term mini-skirt, naming it after her favourite car, the Mini.

Minis-skirts were most famously teamed with zip-up knee boots, usually made of vinyl, known as "go-go" boots and the new invention, pantyhose or tights. It was the latter which made the mini-skirt possible as garter belts were no longer required and hemlines could soar. This look was immortalized by Nancy Sinatra with the 1966 song "These Boots Are Made For Walking" when she appeared on TV in a mini-skirt and knee high white boots.

A smile while you iron: "You cannot get spoiled if you do your own ironing" - Meryl Streep

Answer: A T-shirt, Italian style sports coat with linen pants and slip-on sockless loafers

Miami Vice, which starred Don Johnson as Detective Sonny Crockett and Philip Michael Thomas as Detective Ricardo "Rico" Tubbs and which aired on NBC from 1984 to 1989, created an epiphany in men's fashion. It was especially the style of outfits worn by Johnson which caused men to change the way they dressed. A typical Crockett outfit consisted of a T-shirt worn under an Armani style Italian sports coat, usually in a shade of pastel, white linen pants with slip-on sockless loafers. The look was completed by a pair of Ray-Ban sunglasses and a growth of "designer stubble". The primary colours of the show were pink, blue, green, peach and fuchsia and were aimed at complementing the art-deco architecture of Miami.

Fashion consultants to the show included the famous designers, Georgio Armani, Gianfranco Ferre and Hugo Boss and the "look" became the 1980s answer to power dressing. The influence of the show's fashion was so powerful that, in 1986, an electric razor called the "Stubble Device" was marketed to recreate Crockett's designer stubble beard. As Horatio Sanz, the comedian, succinctly said "I knew it was cool if I saw it on Miami Vice."

A smile while you iron: "My clothes are always wrinkled up. Everyone says "you need to iron your shirt" and I'm like "No, I don't. I'm comfortable"" - Justin Timberlake, a man after my own heart.

Answer: Check or tartan

A trench coat is a raincoat, usually knee or hip length, made of a waterproof material with an insulated lining. The trench coat has its origins in the great coats worn by army officers.

Burberry was founded in 1856 by Thomas Burberry who invented gabardine, a hard-wearing water resistant yet breathable fabric. He patented this fabric in 1888 and his classic khaki coloured coat with its large buttons and distinctive check patterned lining has become a fashion icon. The "Burberry Check", as it has become known, was first used in 1924 and is recognized by the Scottish Tartan Authority. From 1967 onwards the "Burberry Check" began to be used on its own for such items as scarves, umbrellas and luggage.

Famous Burberry trench coat wearers include Humphrey Bogart in "Casablanca", Audrey Hepburn in "Breakfast at Tiffany's" and Peter Sellers in the Pink Panther movies.

A smile while you iron: "My golf swing is like ironing a shirt. You get one side smoothed out, turn it over and there is a big wrinkle on the other side. Then you iron that one out, turn it over and there is yet another wrinkle." - Tom Watson

Answer: T-shirt

The term T-shirt did not enter the American English Dictionary until the 1920s but the popularity of this thin cotton garment had been growing since the First World War when American troops, wearing their heavy wool uniforms, noticed the comfortable undershirts worn by their European counterparts. They adopted this thin knitted shirt and named it after the shape of the garment.

The T-shirt became popular with workers because it was easily fitted, easily cleaned and inexpensive. At this stage, the T-shirt was considered to be underwear but, when they were worn without a covering shirt by Marlon Brando in the 1951 movie "A Streetcar Named Desire" and by James Dean in "Rebel Without A Cause" in 1955, the T-shirt as outerwear became cool. In the mid-1960s the introduction of cotton polyester blends with their relatively wrinkle free qualities completed the T-shirt's metamorphosis from underwear to outerwear.

Improvements in screen-printing techniques made T-shirts the ideal medium for advertising and promotion and the "Human Billboard" was born as printed T-shirts became commonplace. Today many variations exist and the T-shirt has become one of the world's most ubiquitous garments.

A smile while you iron: "Oh, no, I never do much ironing except for the outside clothes. We must not iron out the fresh air and sunshine, you know." - Laura Ingalls Wilder

Answer: Bell Bottoms

Bell bottoms, so named for their "bell-like" flare at the bottom of the legs, were trousers which formed part of a sailor's uniform, first in the US navy and later in the British navy. The first mention of them came in a description, in 1813, by Commodore Stephen Decatur of a sailor's dress having "blue trousers with bell bottoms". It is thought that they became part of the uniform due to the ease with which they could be worn over boots, the fact that the could easily be rolled up and that they could be used as a flotation device if the legs were tied in knots and filled with air. The trousers were high waisted and fitted to the knee from where they flared widely. In the British navy, they were known as "flares" or "loons", the latter being a shortened version of "balloon pants".

In 1954 Coco Chanel marketed flared pants for wearing while lounging on the beach and named them "beach pajamas". In the 1960s and 1970s they were a staple item in the wardrobe of any self-respecting hippie and were popular with both sexes. Bell bottoms were purchased from Navy surplus stores and individualized by the additions of patches and other decorations. Jimi Hendrix wore a pair of floral bell bottoms at his Hollywood Bowl Concert in 1968 and they were regularly worn by Sonny & Cher on their TV show.

The song "Bell Bottom Blues", sung by Derek and the Dominoes, was written by Eric Clapton for Pattie Boyd after she had asked him to get her a pair of bell bottomed blue jeans from the USA.

A smile while you iron: Question: What's grey and doesn't need ironing? Answer: A drip dry elephant. - Yes, I know its lame but I ran out of quotes :)