An early device very similar to the zipper, "an Automatic, Continuous

Clothing Closure", was patented in the United States by Elias Howe in 1851.
The true zipper was the product of a series of improvements over more than
twenty years, by Talon, Inc. Whitcomb L. Judson of Chicago made the first
advancement in zipper production with his “clasp locker” in 1891. Gideon
Sundback followed with his own “hookless fastener” in 1914. The B. F.
Goodrich Company coined the name Zipper in 1923 for the line of rubber
overshoes that it made using the fastener. The name slowly came to be
associated with the fastener itself. The zipper slowly became popular for
children's clothing and men's trousers in the 1920s and 1930s. In the early
1930s the haute couture designer Elsa Schiaparelli featured zippers in her
gowns, helping it to become acceptable in women's clothing. In 1934, Tadao
Yoshida founded a company called San-S Shokai in downtown Tokyo. Later,
this company would change its name to YKK Yoshida Kōgyō Kabushiki-gaisha
and become the world's largest manufacturer of zippers and fastening
products. By World War II, the zipper had become widely used in Europe and
North America, and after the war quickly spread through the rest of the
world.
Zipper Timeline

1851: Elias Howe created "an Automatic, Continuous Clothing Closure", and
it was patented in the United States.

1891: Whitcomb L. Judson of created a “clasp locker” and acquired a patent.

1914: Gideon Sundback's invention of the "Hookless Fastener No. 2", the
first version of the zipper without any major design flaws.

1894: Judson and Harry Earle founded the first incarnation of what was to
eventually become Talon Inc. in Chicago.

1906: Gideon Sundback, a Swedish-born immigrant, joined the company,

then called the Automatic Hook and Eye Company.

1914 Sundback developed another zipper based on interlocking teeth.

1923: The B. F. Goodrich Company coined the name Zipper.

1920 – 1930: The zipper slowly became popular for children's clothing and
men's trousers.

1930: It became acceptable for women to have clothing with zippers.

However Clergy said that zippers made it possible for women to hastily
remove clothing and they became sexually illicit.

1950: It became acceptable in society to wear zippers.