Intended AudienceTrade
ReviewsNo book explores fashion as a seductive pleasure that kills like Alison Matthews David's Fashion Victims . With contaminated cloth, mercury-laden fur and toxic dyestuffs, poisoned fashion silently claims its victims - makers and wearers. This panoramic work outlines the hazardous substances used in fashion, both past and present., In gruesome and fascinating terms, Matthews David focuses on the 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries, recounting ways people have literally died for fashion, from clothing that harbored germs or caught fire easily to poisonous arsenic in green dyes and mercury in fur hats. The conclusion draws parallels to the dangers of fast fashion, with its sweatshops and toxic industrial manufacturing processes., "Get your hands on a copy. It's fantastic." - Rachel E. Pollock, La Bricoleuse "The book does an excellent job of storytelling by combining examples of popular culture from each relevant era as a contrast to the more serious accounts of the clothing-related health threats that were occurring at the time." - Fashion, Society & Popular Culture
Table Of ContentIntroduction: Death by Fashion in Fact and Fiction 1. Diseased Dress: Germ Warfare 2. Toxic Techniques: Mercurial Hats 3. Poisonous Pigments: Arsenical Greens 4. Dangerous Dyes: A Pretty, Deadly Rainbow 5. Entangled and Strangled: Caught in the Machine 6. Inflammatory Fabrics: Flaming Tutus and Combustible Crinolines 7. Explosive Fakes: Plastic Combs and Artificial Silk Conclusion: The Afterlife of Fashion Victims Bibliography Index
SynopsisFrom insidious murder weapons to blaze-igniting crinolines, clothing has been the cause of death, disease and madness throughout history, by accident and design. Clothing is designed to protect, shield and comfort us, yet lurking amongst seemingly innocuous garments we find hats laced with mercury, frocks laden with arsenic and literally 'drop-dead gorgeous' gowns. Fabulously gory and gruesome, Fashion Victims takes the reader on a fascinating journey through the lethal history of women's, men's and children's dress, in myth and reality. Drawing upon surviving fashion objects and numerous visual and textual sources, encompassing louse-ridden military uniforms, accounts of the fiery deaths of Oscar Wilde's half-sisters and dancer Isadora Duncan's accidental strangulation by entangled scarf; the book explores how garments have tormented those who made and wore them, and harmed animals and the environment in the process. Vividly chronicling evidence from Greek mythology to the present day, Matthews David puts everyday apparel under the microscope and unpicks the dark side of fashion. Fashion Victims is lavishly illustrated with over 125 images and is a remarkable resource for everyone from scholars and students to fashion enthusiasts., From insidious murder weapons to blaze-igniting crinolines, clothing has been the cause of death, disease and madness throughout history, by accident and design. Clothing is designed to protect, shield and comfort us, yet lurking amongst seemingly innocuous garments we find hats laced with mercury, frocks laden with arsenic and literally 'drop-dead gorgeous' gowns. Fabulously gory and gruesome, Fashion Victims takes the reader on a fascinating journey through the lethal history of women's, men's and children's dress, in myth and reality. Drawing upon surviving fashion objects and numerous visual and textual sources, encompassing louse-ridden military uniforms, accounts of the fiery deaths of Oscar Wilde's half-sisters and dancer Isadora Duncan's accidental strangulation by her long, fringed scarf; the book explores how garments have tormented those who made and wore them, and harmed animals and the environment in the process. Vividly chronicling evidence from Greek mythology to the present day, Matthews David puts everyday apparel under the microscope and unpicks the dark side of fashion. Lavishly illustrated with over 100 images, Fashion Victims is a remarkable resource for everyone from scholars and students to fashion enthusiasts.