Sequins, the tiny shiny disks sewn onto fashion garments to give them a big of bling have gone through many transitions and are older than you think.
In the 1930s, sequins were made of gelatin from animal products because the material could be rolled into sheets and punched into shapes. The problem was that gelatin melts when too much heat is applied, and it also dissolves in water. Wearing sequin dresses in the rain was a disaster, and they obviously couldn’t be cleaned using washing machines, so the collagen style didn’t survive the decade.
Tutankhamun was the first recorded person to wear sequins
Love of the shiny fashion piece dates back to ancient Egypt. In 1922, archaeologists discovered King Tutankhamun’s tomb and became the first people to enter it in more than 3000 years. The rooms of the tomb were filled with many signs of Tut’s wealth, including a solid gold coffin. Inside the coffin, the young mummified king’s body was found draped in lavish garments with what Smithsonian.com described as “gold sequinlike disks” sewn onto them.
Leonardo da Vinci is well known for his a=invetions and designed many machines which were never built. One of his sketches from the early 1480s is a device that would use pulleys and weights to make sequins. Da Vinci’s reasons for designing the machine are still unknown, but it is believed it may have been for fashion or something more “utilitarian.”