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Futurism
Futurism wasn’t about the future—it was about breaking the present with a petrol-soaked rag.
The First World War
The war that ended the nineteenth century, four years late.
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All briefs
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Lost Generation
A garage mechanic’s insult became a generation’s epitaph—and erased everyone who didn’t write in Paris.
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March of the Dungarees
Recruitment as railway pageant: a march that gathered men like freight but couldn’t carry the weight of Gallipoli.
Cartier Tank
Louis Cartier · 1917
The Cartier Tank is a line of watches made by Cartier. It was created by Louis Cartier in 1917, and inspired by the new Renault tanks which Cartier saw in use on the Western Front. The prototype watch was presented by Cartier to General John J. Pershing of the American Expeditionary Force. The Tank was introduced in 1918, and entered full production in 1919, when six pieces were built. Its lines and proportions are similar to those of tanks used on First World War battlefields. Its strap is integrated into vertical sidebars called brancards. The defining features of a Tank watch include its bold Roman numeral dial with a chemin de fer chapter ring, sword-shaped blued steel hands, and a sapphire cabochon-surmounted crown.
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Trench coat
Thomas Burberry
The trench coat is a functional garment that solved a narrow military problem. Its civilian life is a story of displacement—not evolution.