Whether you’re into tailored suits or gym chic, whether your closet is filled with one-off pieces or thrifted garms, we all have our own tastes when it comes to clothes.

After all, as much as we might sometimes prefer it not to be true, how we dress our bodies says a lot about who we are as people.

Not to say that fashion makes you better or cooler (it absolutely doesn’t), but it certainly marks out your priorities, your tastes, and tells the world something about what makes you you.

And why not? Why not take something functional (the cloth we use to keep ourselves warm) and make it fun (or soft, or stylish). We only live once, after all.

That’s a luxury we have now, of course, that wasn’t always possible for our ancestors. After all, in the days when our priorities were largely about eating and not getting eaten, fashion really didn’t top the list – or at least, we might assume this to be the case.

However, as a paper published recently in the journal Science Advances explains, humans have long had a knack for tailoring, with evidence from the earliest known scraps of sewn human clothing.

It might not be much, but the discovered clothing (sewn scraps of elk hide) have told us a lot about how humans dressed for warmth and practicality many thousands of years ago, as the researchers explain in their study:

“Structurally and functionally complex technologies were a defining element of Late Pleistocene societies, but physical examples of them remain extremely rare in the archaeological record because most were made from perishable raw materials. By ~45,000 years ago, modern humans became the only hominins to live permanently above 45°N latitude, where cold temperatures and limited biodiversity make survival impossible without the assistance of thermoregulatory and complex food-acquisition technologies.”

This all comes from artefacts discovered in Cougar Mountain Cave and Paisley Caves, and the combination of early needles and scraps of clothing proves that our early ancestors learned that elk hide was particularly suited to insulate, and that fitted clothes were more effective for protecting the wearer from the elements:

“We present radiocarbon, Zooarchaeology by Mass Spectrometry, and other taxonomic identification data from two of the largest Late Pleistocene perishable assemblages in the world, Cougar Mountain Cave and Paisley Caves, Oregon, US. These data include 66 radiocarbon dates on 55 items made from 15 different plant and animal taxa, including the oldest known physical remains of sewn hide. We provide data on eyed bone needles from four regional sites, showing that they are among the finest bone needles made in the Pleistocene. Our study illuminates the complex interplay of culture, climate, and technology in the Pleistocene.”

Why is this important? Well as well as providing evidence for humans tailoring clothing at a very early date, it also shows how our species adapted to their environment and changing climate, how humans learned to manipulate the world around them for their own survival.

And because of that, we have a lot to thank them for.

If you think that’s impressive, check out this story about a “goldmine” of lithium that was found in the U.S. that could completely change the EV battery game.