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The article is wrong on ‘usta’. In modern Turkish, ‘usta’ isn’t used only for cooks, but for all master tradesmen. It literally means ‘master’, and is commonly appended to a person’s name as a form of address. A carpenter or joiner might be also simply referred to or addressed as an ‘usta’, without reference to his trade.

It is not used in the way that the English have used ‘master’ in modern times: as a form of address for male children too young to be called ‘mister’.

Funny fact: In Age of Empires 2, a Turkish villager shouts "usta" if you task him/her as a carpenter[1].

It means being a craftsman, not necessarily a master. I mean, its literal meaning is rarely what is meant.

[1]: https://ageofempires.fandom.com/wiki/Turks#In-game_dialogue_...

For anyone interested in history and museums: visiting the Topkapi museum in Istanbul is a must. It’s the best way to experience the ottoman era, while literally walking through the rooms of long-gone sultans. I highly recommend getting a guide (or, as a hack, follow a group that paid for one) to consume all of the juicy stories along the way. I’ve been there twice and I’m looking fwd to the next visit.
It is interesting to see that these days, everyone across the globe dresses essentially the same way. Why would that be, especially since other parts of cultures (like food) are still distinct in distinct places?
Until the 20th century, producing color fast fabrics was either impossible or expensive. Brightly-colored clothing was difficult to maintain, and if you had a lot of it, you basically needed to be rich enough to afford a staff to take care of it.

As the middle class expanded, people wanted practical dress clothes, and that generally meant black or white for fastness and launderability.

Puritans/dissenting protestants played a large role in manufacturing and finance in the US and Britain, and they preferred dark colors to reflect their seriousness and sobriety. As these countries came to dominate world trade, their dress preferences spread.

In the 19th century morning coats and frock coats predominated in the middle/upper class. After WWI these came to be despised emblems of the older generation that started the war. The future Edward VIII of the UK, when he was Prince of Wales, popularized men's sporting wear -- his tastes were influential because they represented youth, modernity and vitality in contrast to the pre-WWI generation. He introduced the style of sport coat, tie and collar that still predominate today. His style, plus the darker colors already preferred by professionals, remain more or less the global uniform for men because of the influence of British/American professionals.

"Producing fast black in the Middle Ages was a complicated process involving multiple dyeings with woad or indigo followed by mordanting, but at the dawn of Early Modern period, a new and superior method of dyeing black dye reached Europe via Spanish conquests in the New World. The new method used logwood (Haematoxylum campechianum), a dyewood native to Mexico and Central America. Although logwood was poorly received at first, producing a blue inferior to that of woad and indigo, it was discovered to produce a fast black in combination with a ferrous sulfate (copperas) mordant. Despite changing fashions in color, logwood was the most widely used dye by the 19th century, providing the sober blacks of formal and mourning clothes."[0]

[0]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_dye#The_rise_of_formal...

I find it fascinating that it's called a "sport coat" because people used to wear it with a tie for sporting activities (definitely golf, maybe hunting, etc). These days it looks really formal, but back then it was (apparently) the equivalent of today's running shorts and yoga pants.
And now people go out and about in their yoga pants and activewear, even if they aren't doing anything remotely sporting.

Funny how history repeats.

Exactly so, both men's suits and tuxedos originated as leisure wear.
Some nobody English man (Beau Brummell) one day declared that dressing in richly colored fabrics with intricate designs was not appropriate for men and was too akin to women fashion, thus starting the dandy-ism movement.

Eventually it caught on and through trade and colonization the movement started taking form worldwide and bleak standard menswear started replacing traditional clothing.

Even in the cases where people dress differently than the global norm (ie the Middle East and parts of Africa), clothing is increasingly homogenized throughout the region and each constituent area's unique style has disappeared.

I'm all in favor of trying on other clothing styles. Don't be shy about wearing a Chinese dress to prom. People complain about cultural appropriation, but really, the only way to ensure that modern western clothes don't become the sole form of acceptable formal and casual wear is to let more people wear and provide demand for alternative styles.

Kind of evolution in clothing? Do we dress better and more comfortable now?
all I know is that I joined the enlightenment and all I got was this lousy necktie
More ammo for Manning press book covers.
Thanks for the honest chortle.
Onion head hat. I need one for work.
"We value your privacy. Atlas Obscura and our trusted partners use technology such as cookies on our website to personalise ads, support social media features, and analyse our traffic.", sorry, what? Does not compute. So they don't value my privacy then?
> No doubt they’ll long serve as a source of sartorial inspiration.

Is this use of “sartorial” considered a pun? Did I read that correctly?

What's the pun? I only see the one meaning.
“Sartorial” can be related to humor or tailoring.
Only tailoring, according to Webster's dictionary. Perhaps you're thinking of "satirical" ?
Can you point me to a reference for that? I can't find it anywhere, and didn't know the word relating to anything other than tailors.
When I first read that line, I confused "sartorial" with "sardonic", so I was surprised to find out what sartorial meant. However, I also have a Spanish dictionary enabled on my phone, so one of the Spanish-english entries mentioned "pertaining to humor". This was a mistake on my part though, because later I looked more closely and I think the entry was more referring to the usage like "sartorial wit", which would still be about clothes.

So, basically I was confused.