The words "climate change" and "fashion" don't belong in the same sentence. Unless, that is, the topic is folding fans, the most intimate and ornamental form of air conditioning. It's thought that "fan" may derive from the Latin word vannus, a tool for winnowing grain, but the artifact itself clearly pre-dates the Romans. Large ceremonial fans called flabellum heralded Egyptian Pharaohs, and feather and leaf fans were common in tropical regions from India to the Americas. The oldest fans to survive, however, are two woven bamboo hand-screens found in a Chinese tomb dating from 2 B.C.
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