ZIP THIS!

Top: Gideon Sundback, inventor of the zip (…you mean, the postal code?)

We’d like to pay a tribute to Gideon Sundback, the man who invented the zip, a device that beautifully separates and joins not only two pieces of fabric, but reveals a whole world of things, opening up and closing, showing and concealing, freeing and restraining both flesh and spirit, and the fireworks of fantasy.

“Thank you Gideon!” for your ’embroidered’ drawings of the 1917 patent (above). Inventions like this were a mix of technology and poetry. The etiquette, in such official documents, dictated meticolous handwriting, reflecting a sense of brainy elegance and aesthetic discipline.

“Thank you Gideon!” for opening (and closing) a new path in history.

“Thank you Gideon!” We couldn’t exist without you (The Cat Women).

“Thank you Gideon!”. The Shut Up logo (courtesy caoazul.com)

“Thank you Gideon!” Politicians should wear this on campaign. (The voters).

“Thank you Gideon!” for letting me properly torture women’s feet. (Loboutin).

“Thank you Gideon!” because shorts must be short, but never short of zips.

“Thank you Gideon!” for filling another gap in the fashion industry.

“Thank you Gideon!” for giving a ‘time-poor” society a chance for quick love.

The monster was stitched together by hand. B-movies show zips on his head and neck, but this is an historic false. Frankestein was written by a 19-year old Mary Shelley in 1817, exactly one hundred years before Gideon Sundback’s invention.

” °°°° you, Gideon!”. The button.