What do you think?
Rate this book
Fashion Victims: The Dangers of Dress Past and Present
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 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.
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.
347 pages, Kindle Edition
First published September 10, 2015
116 people are currently reading
3130 people want to read
About the author
Alison Matthews David
4 books29 followersDr. Alison Matthews David is an associate professor in the School of Fashion at Ryerson University. She holds a PhD in Art History from Stanford University. Her research on fashion victims examines how dress causes bodily harm to its makers and wearers. She has also published on military uniforms, and on representations of fashion in literature, notably in L. M. Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables. She is also interested in colour theory and the aesthetic movement.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 140 reviews
October 9, 2020
Gruesome, fascinating story of fashion coupled with ignorance and commerce
I really learned a lot, not only about fashion from about the 1800s to the 1950s, but also about how human greed and disdain for the lower classes helped to continue horrible practices in the clothing trade for decades. The upper and middle class were not immune either, for if the poor industrial age factory workers were being made physically and mentally ill from deficient practices in the manufacture and dyeing of clothing, these clothes were made for their "betters" who often succumbed to the wearing of them.
I really learned a lot, not only about fashion from about the 1800s to the 1950s, but also about how human greed and disdain for the lower classes helped to continue horrible practices in the clothing trade for decades. The upper and middle class were not immune either, for if the poor industrial age factory workers were being made physically and mentally ill from deficient practices in the manufacture and dyeing of clothing, these clothes were made for their "betters" who often succumbed to the wearing of them.
September 9, 2015
"Fashion Victims", The Dangers of Dress Past and Present, is fascinating, frightening, and thought-provoking. It's eye-opening with gorgeous photos.
Author Allison Matthews David's book "focuses on the 19th and early 20th centuries in France,
and the United Kingdom, and North America, a period which fashionable clothing
mechanically alter the natural silhouette of the body. Elegant people put their appearances above their health, with women tottering about in high heels, wide hoop skirts, and constricting corsets, while men sweltered and heavy hats, tight starched collars, and narrow boots that a modern Western or would not endure".
"In a routine experiment on August 14, 1996, Karen Wetterham, a 48-year old chemistry
professor at Dartmouth College who specialized in the study of toxic metal exposure, accidentally spilled a few drops of mercury on her glove. Less than a year later she was dead. She believed that the latex gloves she was wearing wood protector and did not take them off immediately. Yet, 'supertoxic' dimethyl mercury she was using soaked through her gloves and entered her bloodstream in less than 15 seconds".
Throughout this book Allison shares stories ....and well researched facts about the cruelties of fashion. We have crippled people with tight shoes. Health professions have blamed women for health hazards to internal organs from tight laced corsets.
Poisonous garments, tainted cloth, has not been fully studied. However we do know that soldiers in war were infected with bone diseases, illnesses, that were caused by epidemics from germs and lice hidden in seems of garments.
Hat wearers are at risk because high levels of mercury have been found in fur dust -making medical doctors suspicious.
Poisonous pigments- arsenical greens killed 19 year old Matilda Scheurer Nov. 20, 1861,
when she was making artificial flowers with green die.
Toxic colors have been found in children's toys, candies, and other consumer products.
It's frightening to think of inflammatory fabrics.
Modern medicine and science have solved some of these historical problems with fashion.
Yet while we have exported many, we have created entirely new ones.
It's pretty scary to think that the belt that you just bought, might be radioactive.
Denim is a popular textile. A complex of cocktail of chemicals is released into the water every time jeans are made.
This book is unique and really interesting. I'm sure glad I had a chance to read it. I think about
my oldest daughter - the many years she perform as an actress with the Santa Cruz Shakespeare Festival... ( I wonder about all that make-up on her face she wore). I thought about the stilettos she's danced in... the many costumes she has worn in theater. I think about projects around my house, knowing I have had different allergies.
I thought about the doctors - functional medicine doctors and even celebrities like Gwyneth Paltrow, advocating organic food products, cosmetic products, household products, natural fabrics, loose fitting clothing to allow the body to move freely.
We still have our challenges - as in the 19th and 20th centuries, but we've come along way baby. :)
Thank You Bloomsbury Academics, Netgalley, and the beautiful - non-frivolous human being...
author, Allison Matthews David. ( a privilege to read your book)
Author Allison Matthews David's book "focuses on the 19th and early 20th centuries in France,
and the United Kingdom, and North America, a period which fashionable clothing
mechanically alter the natural silhouette of the body. Elegant people put their appearances above their health, with women tottering about in high heels, wide hoop skirts, and constricting corsets, while men sweltered and heavy hats, tight starched collars, and narrow boots that a modern Western or would not endure".
"In a routine experiment on August 14, 1996, Karen Wetterham, a 48-year old chemistry
professor at Dartmouth College who specialized in the study of toxic metal exposure, accidentally spilled a few drops of mercury on her glove. Less than a year later she was dead. She believed that the latex gloves she was wearing wood protector and did not take them off immediately. Yet, 'supertoxic' dimethyl mercury she was using soaked through her gloves and entered her bloodstream in less than 15 seconds".
Throughout this book Allison shares stories ....and well researched facts about the cruelties of fashion. We have crippled people with tight shoes. Health professions have blamed women for health hazards to internal organs from tight laced corsets.
Poisonous garments, tainted cloth, has not been fully studied. However we do know that soldiers in war were infected with bone diseases, illnesses, that were caused by epidemics from germs and lice hidden in seems of garments.
Hat wearers are at risk because high levels of mercury have been found in fur dust -making medical doctors suspicious.
Poisonous pigments- arsenical greens killed 19 year old Matilda Scheurer Nov. 20, 1861,
when she was making artificial flowers with green die.
Toxic colors have been found in children's toys, candies, and other consumer products.
It's frightening to think of inflammatory fabrics.
Modern medicine and science have solved some of these historical problems with fashion.
Yet while we have exported many, we have created entirely new ones.
It's pretty scary to think that the belt that you just bought, might be radioactive.
Denim is a popular textile. A complex of cocktail of chemicals is released into the water every time jeans are made.
This book is unique and really interesting. I'm sure glad I had a chance to read it. I think about
my oldest daughter - the many years she perform as an actress with the Santa Cruz Shakespeare Festival... ( I wonder about all that make-up on her face she wore). I thought about the stilettos she's danced in... the many costumes she has worn in theater. I think about projects around my house, knowing I have had different allergies.
I thought about the doctors - functional medicine doctors and even celebrities like Gwyneth Paltrow, advocating organic food products, cosmetic products, household products, natural fabrics, loose fitting clothing to allow the body to move freely.
We still have our challenges - as in the 19th and 20th centuries, but we've come along way baby. :)
Thank You Bloomsbury Academics, Netgalley, and the beautiful - non-frivolous human being...
author, Allison Matthews David. ( a privilege to read your book)
January 22, 2019
Grim yet fascinating. Fashion Victims reveals an industry with a tawdry history of sacrificing people for profit.
The sophisticated marketing machinery of the fashion industry has narrowed our view: we have focused on the social and psychological dimensions of fashion victimization. Our fear and sometimes our scorn leveled at the shopaholic who buys too much, the teen who dresses awkwardly and is mocked or ostracized from her peer group, or the young woman who has body image and self-esteem issues caused by the thin, white beauty ideals paraded triumphantly on catwalks, magazines, and the Internet. This is the face of fashion that we see, and it seduces us with its calculated glamour even as we critique its shallowness.
January 31, 2016
There is a television show called "Naked and Afraid," which I have not seen, and won't see, but have gathered from its advertisements that it features individuals risking deadly wilderness situations - leapfrogging over scorpions, gulping slugs for sustenance, etc. - to which they are made all the more vulnerable because they are completely nude.
Now I guess that's scary and all, but know what's Really scary? Getting poisoned to death by your socks and underwear when you're just trying to get respectably enough dressed and put in a routine day's work.
"Fashion Victims," aka "Clothed and Afraid," recounts all the different possible ways that undergarments and outergarments have heinously murdered both their wearers and especially their makers, particularly in North America and Western Europe between the early 1800s to the 1930s. These garments were able to kill a bunch of folks because we basically had no idea what kinds of crazy potential destruction we were unleashing in their various manufacturing processes, but we wanted - then as now - to look as fabulous as possible, and to make as much cheddar as possible. And so, we quickly invented, made (or compelled others to make), advertised, sold, and wore all kinds of stuff that we then, later, eventually, figured out was completely deadly in utterly grotesque and torturous ways. And then this same basic process repeated itself infinitely over the nearly 1.5 centuries covered by the book.
This book kind of reveals about clothing what a book like Upton Sinclair's "The Jungle" (or, today, "Fast Food Nation" or the film "Super-Size Me") reveals about food processing and eating. It is also reminiscent of how, for example, we've been playing and watching football for ages with reckless abandon and are only just now starting to seriously discuss the great risk and problem of concussions and traumatic head injury.
The case studies in this book were about as gruesome and macabre as those in Edward Gorey's "The Gashleycrumb Tinies," in which a variety of naive moppets fall to their demise in horrendous manner: trampled flat by a brawl; sank in a mire; choked on a peach; took lye by mistake; sucked dry by a leech, etc. (These are all surprisingly more adorable than you'd think, rendered in Gorey's eerie fashion.) In stark contrast, the mass sartorial death described in "Fashion Victims," though equally varied and creative, is decidedly NOT cute in the least. Rather, it all gave me nightmares and rendered me into a complete hypochondriacal state in which I became convinced that I was feeling suspiciously unwell and it was surely because I'd been poisoned from sitting around on my ass in green sweatpants. (Green is NOT good in this book, with sincere apologies to "the most toxic of colors"). Even Early Stephen King, ultimate purveyor of "innocent good thing turned evil on you" plot - your dog, your cool car, your daughter, the fog - could not have competed with the horrific scenarios recounted in this book. Think that's a comb ya just stuck in your hair? Nah - it's basically a lit stick of dynamite.
All that being said, there's way more value to this book than mere shock value. First of all - it's an absolutely beautiful book (published by Bloomsbury), as gorgeous as the stories within it are awful. And in its beauty, the form of the book matches its function, because all the color plates and illustrations help to show why these deadly clothes and accessories were so seductive, and how advertisers and the marketplace were able to sell them to consumers; forestall and evade growing warnings from medicine, science, journalists, and reformers; and compel underpaid, overworked workers to craft them until the workers literally dropped.
The book is beautifully researched and written as well. Matthews David is clearly a great historian and scholar of fashion who is passionate about her subject and her desire to create for us a "usable history." I have to say that although I've read lots of straightforward contemporary nonfiction making reasonable theoretical arguments about how we probably are killing ourselves, others, and nature through our fashion, beauty, and other consumerist habits - it was almost more powerful to read a ton of specific and proven and grotesque past examples of how we definitely did this, absolutely ALL the time, ALL over the Western world, for over one hundred years! that were not that long ago at all! Did we just so happen to figure out, say around 1935-ish, All The Science needed to identify All the Effects and definitively ensure the long-term health and safety of worker, wearer, and nature forevermore? After reading through all the extensive, sound, sample disasters that this author has unearthed - it just seems very unlikely to me that we fucked up so hard for so long but relax! - today we've got it allllll under control....
...And even if you don't quite buy into my pessimistic brand of inferential reasoning in which all historical roads lead to We're Definitely Still Doomed, the author is also careful (especially in her introductory and concluding chapters) to more explicitly connect the history she recounts to our own, present-day, ongoing health, environmental, and social justice concerns related to the manufacture and use of fashion worldwide today.
Though disturbing, this is a very worthwhile read for those interested in social, cultural, and material history, fashion history, the history of health and medicine, and feminism and gender.
Chapters:
Introduction: 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
Now I guess that's scary and all, but know what's Really scary? Getting poisoned to death by your socks and underwear when you're just trying to get respectably enough dressed and put in a routine day's work.
"Fashion Victims," aka "Clothed and Afraid," recounts all the different possible ways that undergarments and outergarments have heinously murdered both their wearers and especially their makers, particularly in North America and Western Europe between the early 1800s to the 1930s. These garments were able to kill a bunch of folks because we basically had no idea what kinds of crazy potential destruction we were unleashing in their various manufacturing processes, but we wanted - then as now - to look as fabulous as possible, and to make as much cheddar as possible. And so, we quickly invented, made (or compelled others to make), advertised, sold, and wore all kinds of stuff that we then, later, eventually, figured out was completely deadly in utterly grotesque and torturous ways. And then this same basic process repeated itself infinitely over the nearly 1.5 centuries covered by the book.
This book kind of reveals about clothing what a book like Upton Sinclair's "The Jungle" (or, today, "Fast Food Nation" or the film "Super-Size Me") reveals about food processing and eating. It is also reminiscent of how, for example, we've been playing and watching football for ages with reckless abandon and are only just now starting to seriously discuss the great risk and problem of concussions and traumatic head injury.
The case studies in this book were about as gruesome and macabre as those in Edward Gorey's "The Gashleycrumb Tinies," in which a variety of naive moppets fall to their demise in horrendous manner: trampled flat by a brawl; sank in a mire; choked on a peach; took lye by mistake; sucked dry by a leech, etc. (These are all surprisingly more adorable than you'd think, rendered in Gorey's eerie fashion.) In stark contrast, the mass sartorial death described in "Fashion Victims," though equally varied and creative, is decidedly NOT cute in the least. Rather, it all gave me nightmares and rendered me into a complete hypochondriacal state in which I became convinced that I was feeling suspiciously unwell and it was surely because I'd been poisoned from sitting around on my ass in green sweatpants. (Green is NOT good in this book, with sincere apologies to "the most toxic of colors"). Even Early Stephen King, ultimate purveyor of "innocent good thing turned evil on you" plot - your dog, your cool car, your daughter, the fog - could not have competed with the horrific scenarios recounted in this book. Think that's a comb ya just stuck in your hair? Nah - it's basically a lit stick of dynamite.
All that being said, there's way more value to this book than mere shock value. First of all - it's an absolutely beautiful book (published by Bloomsbury), as gorgeous as the stories within it are awful. And in its beauty, the form of the book matches its function, because all the color plates and illustrations help to show why these deadly clothes and accessories were so seductive, and how advertisers and the marketplace were able to sell them to consumers; forestall and evade growing warnings from medicine, science, journalists, and reformers; and compel underpaid, overworked workers to craft them until the workers literally dropped.
The book is beautifully researched and written as well. Matthews David is clearly a great historian and scholar of fashion who is passionate about her subject and her desire to create for us a "usable history." I have to say that although I've read lots of straightforward contemporary nonfiction making reasonable theoretical arguments about how we probably are killing ourselves, others, and nature through our fashion, beauty, and other consumerist habits - it was almost more powerful to read a ton of specific and proven and grotesque past examples of how we definitely did this, absolutely ALL the time, ALL over the Western world, for over one hundred years! that were not that long ago at all! Did we just so happen to figure out, say around 1935-ish, All The Science needed to identify All the Effects and definitively ensure the long-term health and safety of worker, wearer, and nature forevermore? After reading through all the extensive, sound, sample disasters that this author has unearthed - it just seems very unlikely to me that we fucked up so hard for so long but relax! - today we've got it allllll under control....
...And even if you don't quite buy into my pessimistic brand of inferential reasoning in which all historical roads lead to We're Definitely Still Doomed, the author is also careful (especially in her introductory and concluding chapters) to more explicitly connect the history she recounts to our own, present-day, ongoing health, environmental, and social justice concerns related to the manufacture and use of fashion worldwide today.
Though disturbing, this is a very worthwhile read for those interested in social, cultural, and material history, fashion history, the history of health and medicine, and feminism and gender.
Chapters:
Introduction: 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
February 10, 2022
Fascinating, fun, and tragic. Great history lesson and filled with interesting photos and illustrations.
August 31, 2015
This book was filled with baffling, numerous, weird and down right scary tid-bits of past present wardrobe malfunctions. I now have even more useless information stored in my brain for trivia night.
January 16, 2019
Death by clothing! or hair accessories or.... a sobering, scary tale of dangerous clothing. Toxins, fire and strangulation, not just a thing of the past, but still a present danger.
August 28, 2015
4 stars!
Yeah I'm a geek too. Don't play trivia with me.
I found this book to be very interesting and informative. I found out a lot of things that I did not know. Some things I was aware of and some not. It is silly when you think back over the years and some of the fashion trends that have been around. And, it's really sad to find out that for the past 25 years I have been putting poison into my body by dying my hair. However, with the alternative being gray roots, you won't see me changing that routine.
I love to read books from Victorian London and it always cracks me up how those women can walk around all primpy like with no roads, sometimes no sidewalks and even if there is, they are dirty, and they are walking in horse and human crap and urine, vomit, rotten vegetables, garbage and just who knows what in their dresses down to their ankles scrapping through all that crap. Gross.
Okay, the public service announcement is over, back to the book. I learned a lot of things that I did not know. I had heard of Isadora Duncan but I had not heard of the way that she left this world. That was sad. And I did not hear about how Henry Wadsworth Longfellow lost his wife. I had never heard of the hubble skirt and can't feel sorry for the women with the three foot wigs. I just say "why?". The green makes sense to me. You never really see a lot of green out in the stores. I have noticed that. I didn't know that the problem is still an existing one and that such high end retailers still are involved.
Anyhow, I thoroughly enjoyed this book and found it to be very interesting, while learning quite a lot of new facts. I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in learning more about the history of the fashion industry or the evolution of poisons that have affected the fashion and other industries.
I would like to thank Bloomsbury Academic and Net Galley for providing me with this free e-galley in exchange for an honest review. I thoroughly enjoyed reading the book!
Yeah I'm a geek too. Don't play trivia with me.
I found this book to be very interesting and informative. I found out a lot of things that I did not know. Some things I was aware of and some not. It is silly when you think back over the years and some of the fashion trends that have been around. And, it's really sad to find out that for the past 25 years I have been putting poison into my body by dying my hair. However, with the alternative being gray roots, you won't see me changing that routine.
I love to read books from Victorian London and it always cracks me up how those women can walk around all primpy like with no roads, sometimes no sidewalks and even if there is, they are dirty, and they are walking in horse and human crap and urine, vomit, rotten vegetables, garbage and just who knows what in their dresses down to their ankles scrapping through all that crap. Gross.
Okay, the public service announcement is over, back to the book. I learned a lot of things that I did not know. I had heard of Isadora Duncan but I had not heard of the way that she left this world. That was sad. And I did not hear about how Henry Wadsworth Longfellow lost his wife. I had never heard of the hubble skirt and can't feel sorry for the women with the three foot wigs. I just say "why?". The green makes sense to me. You never really see a lot of green out in the stores. I have noticed that. I didn't know that the problem is still an existing one and that such high end retailers still are involved.
Anyhow, I thoroughly enjoyed this book and found it to be very interesting, while learning quite a lot of new facts. I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in learning more about the history of the fashion industry or the evolution of poisons that have affected the fashion and other industries.
I would like to thank Bloomsbury Academic and Net Galley for providing me with this free e-galley in exchange for an honest review. I thoroughly enjoyed reading the book!
December 9, 2017
A frightening look at the dangers of fashion and not just in the past. David shows the indifference of society to the health of workers but also sometimes its indifference to the health of those with money to pay. She shows the poisons we have drenched our clothes in, the flammable materials we have worn and, ironically, the poisons we have sometimes drenched our clothes in to save ourselves from those flames. The most frightening thing is that the problem continues and though we may be beastily indifferent to the sufferings of the poor in far away countries, we continue to be victims ourselves.
April 24, 2019
A great book, very interesting. Definitely a guide to understand the different dangerous techniques used in the fashion world throughout time.
September 10, 2015
Wow, this book was... eye-opening. It is written in the style of a textbook, and I suppose it is one, though not one that would be found in any class I ever took. Guess I wasn't taking the interesting classes.
It's easy to look back into the past and laugh at what people once did that we see as insane today. Modern Medicine is a good example (ie, leaches, letting blood, stuffing who-knows-what in open wounds, etc). But fashion is an equally interesting one. Matthews-David covers so many different varieties of death and maiming by clothing that it's difficult to not think about parallels to today. Examples of subjects she covers are the use of mercury in hat making, arsenic in making green dye, and ton of different chemicals in making different fabrics.
Most of the time the people who suffered the most weren't the ones who wore the fashions, but the people who were making them. She adds several modern day examples of the same stuff still happening which makes you wonder even more about the clothes you're wearing right now and what exactly went into making them. Side note, these episodes of Planet Money were about the highly complicated process of making a simple T-Shirt and how it's so convoluted that changes are slow and hard to come by. It includes a fascinating section on what happens to our clothes when we donate them too.
At the end, she has this to say in conclusion:
The past shows us how profit and novelty have won out over safety and health. A better future would include the design and manufacture of clothing that could protect us rather than exposing us to mechanical harm, contagious disease, accidents and chemical toxins.
I suppose it makes me a very narrow-minded person, but I've never spent much time thinking about how the clothing I am wearing came to be, but it's definitely something I am interested in now. I feel pretty terrible knowing that I may have unknowingly contributed to someone elses pain while making my clothes. I can't imagine that people of past times would have felt differently than I did either, which makes this book all the more important for the story it tells.
Copy courtesy of Bloomsbury Academic, via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review
It's easy to look back into the past and laugh at what people once did that we see as insane today. Modern Medicine is a good example (ie, leaches, letting blood, stuffing who-knows-what in open wounds, etc). But fashion is an equally interesting one. Matthews-David covers so many different varieties of death and maiming by clothing that it's difficult to not think about parallels to today. Examples of subjects she covers are the use of mercury in hat making, arsenic in making green dye, and ton of different chemicals in making different fabrics.
Most of the time the people who suffered the most weren't the ones who wore the fashions, but the people who were making them. She adds several modern day examples of the same stuff still happening which makes you wonder even more about the clothes you're wearing right now and what exactly went into making them. Side note, these episodes of Planet Money were about the highly complicated process of making a simple T-Shirt and how it's so convoluted that changes are slow and hard to come by. It includes a fascinating section on what happens to our clothes when we donate them too.
At the end, she has this to say in conclusion:
The past shows us how profit and novelty have won out over safety and health. A better future would include the design and manufacture of clothing that could protect us rather than exposing us to mechanical harm, contagious disease, accidents and chemical toxins.
I suppose it makes me a very narrow-minded person, but I've never spent much time thinking about how the clothing I am wearing came to be, but it's definitely something I am interested in now. I feel pretty terrible knowing that I may have unknowingly contributed to someone elses pain while making my clothes. I can't imagine that people of past times would have felt differently than I did either, which makes this book all the more important for the story it tells.
Copy courtesy of Bloomsbury Academic, via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review
June 27, 2016
Fashion Victims - The Dangers of Dress Past and Present by Alison Matthews David takes a detailed look at fashion items responsible for death, disease and accidents throughout history.
The book is meticulously researched and cleverly broken down into separate chapters, each one denoted by colour coded page edges which make for an attractive hardback edition.
Some of the chapters include:
- Poisonous Pigments (Chapter 3)
- Entangled and Strangled (Chapter 5)
- Inflammatory Fabrics (Chapter 6)
Great chapter headings aren't they? I enjoyed learning about dangerous dyes, the deadly mercury used to make hats, the arsenic contained in green garments in the 1800s, ballerinas who burned to death but refused to change their stage dress and so much more.
The research covers both the garment makers (the dyers, dressmakers etc.) and the wearers, exposing the diseases, accidents and deaths attributed to both sides all in the name of fashion.
The following excerpt from the blurb sets the scene for what you'll find in Fashion Victims:
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.
Wow, right? Fashion Victims - The Dangers of Dress Past and Present is an excellent reference for students and academics as well as readers interested in fashion and/or history.
* Copy courtesy of Bloomsbury Publishing *
The book is meticulously researched and cleverly broken down into separate chapters, each one denoted by colour coded page edges which make for an attractive hardback edition.
Some of the chapters include:
- Poisonous Pigments (Chapter 3)
- Entangled and Strangled (Chapter 5)
- Inflammatory Fabrics (Chapter 6)
Great chapter headings aren't they? I enjoyed learning about dangerous dyes, the deadly mercury used to make hats, the arsenic contained in green garments in the 1800s, ballerinas who burned to death but refused to change their stage dress and so much more.
The research covers both the garment makers (the dyers, dressmakers etc.) and the wearers, exposing the diseases, accidents and deaths attributed to both sides all in the name of fashion.
The following excerpt from the blurb sets the scene for what you'll find in Fashion Victims:
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.
Wow, right? Fashion Victims - The Dangers of Dress Past and Present is an excellent reference for students and academics as well as readers interested in fashion and/or history.
* Copy courtesy of Bloomsbury Publishing *
September 28, 2017
4.5 stars
A fascinating, if sometimes disturbing, look at the deadliness of fashion from the mid-18th century through the mid-20th century. I was drawn to this book for its chapters on mercuric hats and arsenic greens, but all of the fashions highlighted here were fascinating to read about, from the hobble skirts (WHY??) to the combustible crinolines, the combustible artificial plastics and silks, the combustible tulle, the fire-prone flannel.... Pretty much everything was either combustible or poisonous. Or both.
I was also fascinated by the seemingly cyclical problem-solution dangers of most all of the fabrics or clothing types featured. Huge hoop skirts presented a fire hazard, especially when cotton and tulle replaced silk and wool, but the other end of the extreme, the hobble skirt, caused such constraints that women could barely walk. Many dyes were poisonous or otherwise harmful to health (mmmm, mauve color derived coal tar!), but were later replaced with less harmful dyes... only to have the fabric they were printed on be scrutinized for being a fire hazard, on which asbestos-fireproofing was then applied! Not to mention the attempts to save animals by inventing synthetic materials or processes that only released harmful toxins into the environment via their production and use!
The book also substantially highlights the class divide between the producers and the wearers of the clothes, and how the factory workers typically bore the brunt of many side-effects of dangerous fabrics. The concentrated chemical air inside factories, the direct handling of chemicals with bare skin, the ever-present fire danger, and the risk of being mauled by the machines, via clothing. The wearers, while less at risk, still lived dangerously with swooshing skirts around fires, constricting poisonous socks and shoes (made even worse by sweat), and generally choosing vanity and social fads over safety. Both haute couture and cheap rip offs were not immune to deadly production methods; nor are they immune today, as the epilogue chapter shows.
The writing style is much like that of an academic journal, but is more easily accessible for the casual reader. I would have liked to see more pictures of some of the adverts or items discussed, and I felt that the thread linking these disasters of the past to the present to be very thin (except for in the last chapter).
If you're at all interested in the darker side of fashion, I highly recommend this! Each chapter was highly engaging and I can honestly say I came away from this with tons of new information.
(Cross post on my blog.)
A fascinating, if sometimes disturbing, look at the deadliness of fashion from the mid-18th century through the mid-20th century. I was drawn to this book for its chapters on mercuric hats and arsenic greens, but all of the fashions highlighted here were fascinating to read about, from the hobble skirts (WHY??) to the combustible crinolines, the combustible artificial plastics and silks, the combustible tulle, the fire-prone flannel.... Pretty much everything was either combustible or poisonous. Or both.
I was also fascinated by the seemingly cyclical problem-solution dangers of most all of the fabrics or clothing types featured. Huge hoop skirts presented a fire hazard, especially when cotton and tulle replaced silk and wool, but the other end of the extreme, the hobble skirt, caused such constraints that women could barely walk. Many dyes were poisonous or otherwise harmful to health (mmmm, mauve color derived coal tar!), but were later replaced with less harmful dyes... only to have the fabric they were printed on be scrutinized for being a fire hazard, on which asbestos-fireproofing was then applied! Not to mention the attempts to save animals by inventing synthetic materials or processes that only released harmful toxins into the environment via their production and use!
The book also substantially highlights the class divide between the producers and the wearers of the clothes, and how the factory workers typically bore the brunt of many side-effects of dangerous fabrics. The concentrated chemical air inside factories, the direct handling of chemicals with bare skin, the ever-present fire danger, and the risk of being mauled by the machines, via clothing. The wearers, while less at risk, still lived dangerously with swooshing skirts around fires, constricting poisonous socks and shoes (made even worse by sweat), and generally choosing vanity and social fads over safety. Both haute couture and cheap rip offs were not immune to deadly production methods; nor are they immune today, as the epilogue chapter shows.
The writing style is much like that of an academic journal, but is more easily accessible for the casual reader. I would have liked to see more pictures of some of the adverts or items discussed, and I felt that the thread linking these disasters of the past to the present to be very thin (except for in the last chapter).
If you're at all interested in the darker side of fashion, I highly recommend this! Each chapter was highly engaging and I can honestly say I came away from this with tons of new information.
(Cross post on my blog.)
August 29, 2018
Well done and interesting coverage of dangerous fashion trends of the 19th and early 20th century. Some, like mercury poisoning in the hatter's industry, are familiar. Others are not. The chapters on poisoning and illness due to fabric dyes was particularly interesting. The color green was and is still, one of the most dangerous colors to produce. Arsenic was used to create the deep emerald greens and bright greens so popular in the mid-1800's along with chemicals such as copper, zinc, lead, bromine, potassium, and sulfur. The same was true of purple dyes and, later, aniline dyes.
Each chapter details the hazards to both worker and customer from such objects as shoe polish (poisonings), tulle used in ballet tutus and high fashion accessories (fire hazard), celluloid hair combs (fire and explosions), crinolines and hoop skirts (also fire). If you're thinking that we are all protected from these things today, the answer is not quite. In the last chapter, Ms. David gives descriptions of items from today that have caused numerous fatalities or sickness.
The book is easy to read, and full of illustrations and color plates of the various hazardous clothing. There are also several ghoulish pictures portraying people suffering and/or burning to death taken from periodicals of the time. Coming to the end of Fashion Victims will leave you wanting to look up the nearest nudist colony and reserve a place.
Each chapter details the hazards to both worker and customer from such objects as shoe polish (poisonings), tulle used in ballet tutus and high fashion accessories (fire hazard), celluloid hair combs (fire and explosions), crinolines and hoop skirts (also fire). If you're thinking that we are all protected from these things today, the answer is not quite. In the last chapter, Ms. David gives descriptions of items from today that have caused numerous fatalities or sickness.
The book is easy to read, and full of illustrations and color plates of the various hazardous clothing. There are also several ghoulish pictures portraying people suffering and/or burning to death taken from periodicals of the time. Coming to the end of Fashion Victims will leave you wanting to look up the nearest nudist colony and reserve a place.
November 30, 2016
Although perhaps it shouldn’t have surprised me, I found the tone of ‘Fashion Victims’ disconcerting. It’s a curious mixture of academic textbook specificity and ghoulishness. Although I learned some interesting facts, they were all unpleasant and depressing. The title mentions ‘past and present’, but the focus is firmly on the 19th century and how industrialisation introduced exciting new hazards into clothing. Most of these revolved around poisons and flammability. I found the section on ballerinas' dangerous tutus particularly tragic. As the author puts it: ‘The 19th century ballerina was a physical labourer, known for her rigorous training and almost superhuman ability to withstand pain. A select few female stars became international celebrities, but the average member of the corps de ballet came from the poorest of working class backgrounds.’ On top of that they were constantly exposed to the risk of catching fire! As with books examining the social history of Britain’s industrialisation, I was left wondering how anyone managed to survive the barrage of hazards to which they were continually exposed. The afterword points out that many of these dangers, and some new ones, have since been outsourced to poorer countries. Despite the plethora of colourful illustrations, this is a book to leave you feeling distinctly gloomy.
September 25, 2015
(Documentatissima) fonte di incubi assortiti, Fashion victims mostra il lato oscuro dei colori (che battutona!), dei tessuti, dei materiali che per due secoli hanno fatto la moda, arsenico e plastiche esplosive, mercurio e piombo, delicate ballerine che si incendiavano come falene sul palco e povere operaie che morivano fra le convulsioni: niente è sfuggito allo sguardo attento dell'autrice e alle sue ricerche; non un tentativo di colpevolizzare la moda, ma un demistificarne gli aspetti peggiori, inducendo a riflettere anche (sopratutto) sull'impatto che quello che indossiamo a tutt'oggi ha su di noi, sull'ambiente e su chi lavora per produrlo.
Affascinante.
Affascinante.
November 29, 2015
Would you like a lovely arsenic green dress with matching hair ornaments? How about a pair of shiny benzene black boots? Or perhaps an elegant top hat treated with mercury? Deadly, lethal, pestilent! What an excellent topic for a museum exhibition and book this is. Poison hats off to Alison Matthews-David for an excellent overview of killingly fashionable horrors. The illustrations alone are worth the book's price, but the author demonstrates impeccable scholarship plus an easy writing style. A winner on every count!
August 15, 2024
Hands down one of the most captivating books I’ve come across so far. It is very well researched and well-written. There is just the right amount of text and illustrations, which I must mention are really great. It offers so much in terms of both plain history and fashion history. Although it is certainly fascinating, finishing it has left me wishing things weren’t this way, there is just so much unnecessary tragedy that has tagged along with the evolution of the fashion industry and with the human never-ending greed for profit. It was an experience reading this one.
September 23, 2016
A head to toe historical tour of the deadly allure of beauty, propriety and “Dame Fashion”
This may be one of those, “careful what you wish for” instances. I have been looking for a book just like this for some time but after reading all the case studies presented in this fascinating work, I may just avoid standing too close to a yard sale table under a hot sun or exploring dusty attics or antique shops… No, I still plan on doing those things but because of Fashion Victims: The Dangers of Dress Past and Present I will have a greater appreciation and respect for the hidden treasures I may uncover or notice from afar. This book will do that, it takes on a museum tour like quality and walks the interested through the annals of the truly dark side of beauty, decorum and “Dame Fashion” to give the reader a head to toe makeover of awareness.
In this book nine main sections (Death by Fashion Fact and Fiction, Diseased Dress: Germ Warfare, Toxic Techniques: Mercurial Hats, Poisonous Pigments: Arsenical Greens, Dangerous Dyes: A Pretty, Deadly Rainbow, Entangled and Strangled: Caught in the Machine, Inflammatory Fabrics: Flaming Tutus and Combustible Crinolines, Explosive Fakes: Plastic Combs and Artificial Silk and The Afterlife of Fashion Victims) are presented and then further broken down into subsections sharing with the curious harrowing true tales of tragic historic encounters and stark comparisons to our modern times. Fashion Victims: The Dangers of Dress Past and Present is meant to be a serious sympathetic examination of the victims and the eras they lived, but it also has an unexpected humorous side with some very bizarre photos of advertisements for different products plus these absurd photos balance out graphic drawings and photographs of the dangers and awful consequences of trends, lack of government regulations and snappy creative marketing from the 18th-mid 20th centuries centering on England, France and America. In the end, only a few tangents and one section lost this reader’s interest and this is one title that needs to be enjoyed slowly because there is so much to explore in this eye-opening book. In between the bleak stories, photos and comparisons this work is ultimately about education and I for one have learned some new fascinating trivia but also have come away from this title with a deeper respect for these forgotten and ignored sections of history.
* I would like to thank Bloomsbury Academic and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and enjoy Fashion Victims: The Dangers of Dress Past and Present
~*~for more reviews see: http://www.asthefinalpageturns.blogsp...
This may be one of those, “careful what you wish for” instances. I have been looking for a book just like this for some time but after reading all the case studies presented in this fascinating work, I may just avoid standing too close to a yard sale table under a hot sun or exploring dusty attics or antique shops… No, I still plan on doing those things but because of Fashion Victims: The Dangers of Dress Past and Present I will have a greater appreciation and respect for the hidden treasures I may uncover or notice from afar. This book will do that, it takes on a museum tour like quality and walks the interested through the annals of the truly dark side of beauty, decorum and “Dame Fashion” to give the reader a head to toe makeover of awareness.
In this book nine main sections (Death by Fashion Fact and Fiction, Diseased Dress: Germ Warfare, Toxic Techniques: Mercurial Hats, Poisonous Pigments: Arsenical Greens, Dangerous Dyes: A Pretty, Deadly Rainbow, Entangled and Strangled: Caught in the Machine, Inflammatory Fabrics: Flaming Tutus and Combustible Crinolines, Explosive Fakes: Plastic Combs and Artificial Silk and The Afterlife of Fashion Victims) are presented and then further broken down into subsections sharing with the curious harrowing true tales of tragic historic encounters and stark comparisons to our modern times. Fashion Victims: The Dangers of Dress Past and Present is meant to be a serious sympathetic examination of the victims and the eras they lived, but it also has an unexpected humorous side with some very bizarre photos of advertisements for different products plus these absurd photos balance out graphic drawings and photographs of the dangers and awful consequences of trends, lack of government regulations and snappy creative marketing from the 18th-mid 20th centuries centering on England, France and America. In the end, only a few tangents and one section lost this reader’s interest and this is one title that needs to be enjoyed slowly because there is so much to explore in this eye-opening book. In between the bleak stories, photos and comparisons this work is ultimately about education and I for one have learned some new fascinating trivia but also have come away from this title with a deeper respect for these forgotten and ignored sections of history.
* I would like to thank Bloomsbury Academic and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and enjoy Fashion Victims: The Dangers of Dress Past and Present
~*~for more reviews see: http://www.asthefinalpageturns.blogsp...
October 2, 2016
This is one of the best books on fashion, I've ever read. It gives us an honest view of the fashion industry and the sometimes alarming consequences of trends.
Even if you can in all honesty say you are no fashion victim that does not mean fashion can't affect your health because toxic chemicals have been found in the good oldfashion jeans and t shirt. So if they aren't safe then what piece of clothing is?
The answer to that is very simple, every element of fashion in infected. That calming sensible dark green in your closet (which I was wearing when reading that chapter) can contain arsenic or at least did until very recently. I can tell you that was disturbing. Jeans and what it is manifactured with is best not talked about too much here since roughly half the worlds population wears jeans at some point and lets just say it is not encouraging.
And then there are the blissfully no longer worn crinoline, not only did they ruin a womans figure, were they wildly unpractical and for some strange reason mandatory for all, but they were often deadly. Getting killed by fire because your skirt was too flammable and too wide to keep away from the fire was not uncommon. While the early 20th century skirts were doing wrong in the other direction, by shackling the legs and causing severe to deadly accidents that way.
What is most striking to me however is that despite all these accidents and fatalities that so many of the factories were willing to find ways to make their products safer and of course aid their employees by doing so. In one case a death by arscenic in the workplace wasn't proof enough that there was something wrong with the green dye. Other employees had green fingers and health problems, but that didn't seem to be proof enough of a problem. At least now when a product is proved hazzardous it is recalled.
And sometimes death came from the silliest places like bootblack and scarves and for some reason people (or manifacturers) were unwilling to make the investments that would only serve them in the long run.
This was very educational and well researched, I am glad I found this book.
Even if you can in all honesty say you are no fashion victim that does not mean fashion can't affect your health because toxic chemicals have been found in the good oldfashion jeans and t shirt. So if they aren't safe then what piece of clothing is?
The answer to that is very simple, every element of fashion in infected. That calming sensible dark green in your closet (which I was wearing when reading that chapter) can contain arsenic or at least did until very recently. I can tell you that was disturbing. Jeans and what it is manifactured with is best not talked about too much here since roughly half the worlds population wears jeans at some point and lets just say it is not encouraging.
And then there are the blissfully no longer worn crinoline, not only did they ruin a womans figure, were they wildly unpractical and for some strange reason mandatory for all, but they were often deadly. Getting killed by fire because your skirt was too flammable and too wide to keep away from the fire was not uncommon. While the early 20th century skirts were doing wrong in the other direction, by shackling the legs and causing severe to deadly accidents that way.
What is most striking to me however is that despite all these accidents and fatalities that so many of the factories were willing to find ways to make their products safer and of course aid their employees by doing so. In one case a death by arscenic in the workplace wasn't proof enough that there was something wrong with the green dye. Other employees had green fingers and health problems, but that didn't seem to be proof enough of a problem. At least now when a product is proved hazzardous it is recalled.
And sometimes death came from the silliest places like bootblack and scarves and for some reason people (or manifacturers) were unwilling to make the investments that would only serve them in the long run.
This was very educational and well researched, I am glad I found this book.
January 19, 2016
In short, get your hands on a copy. It's fantastic.
I'm not sure which came first, he book or the eponymous exhibit which ran at the Bata Shoe Museum in Toronto recently--the book is much more than an exhibit catalogue, though it does contain a substantial number of illustrations (129 full color ones!). So perhaps the book begat the exhibit? Regardless, it's an imminently readable volume, hardcover, full-color, a coffeetable book of sorts, well worth the $40 retail price. I'll defer to a quote from the press release for an excellent summary:
A boldly gory and thoroughly illustrated history of death by clothing, from blazing crinolines to mercury-laden fur.
As a major proponent of safe work practices and an instructor who incorporates OSHA/EHS compliance topics into my classes, i found this book at turns fascinating, heartbreaking, gruesome, inspiring, and at times downright disturbing. Yes, the example cases mentioned within are sometimes horrible on their own, but more horrifying are the bits where the author discusses having lab techs at her university run tests on modern-day products easily bought in stores in your own neighborhood--lead content in lipsticks, for example, or radioactive metal used to ornament imported studded belts.
The book is structured so that each chapter focuses on a different class of danger--there's a chapter devoted to the hazards of the hatting industry, then one on flammable tutu net and flannelette, etc. As a sometime-hatmaker, the hatting chapter was particularly sad--one illustration showed examples of hatters' legible signatures as young apprentices contrasted with the unreadable trembling scribbles they signed with after a decade in the trade.
I highly recommend the book in general, but it's a particularly significant read and reference volume for those working in costume archives and in vintage clothing houses, as well as those in academia with study collections or large stocks of antique/vintage clothing.
I'm not sure which came first, he book or the eponymous exhibit which ran at the Bata Shoe Museum in Toronto recently--the book is much more than an exhibit catalogue, though it does contain a substantial number of illustrations (129 full color ones!). So perhaps the book begat the exhibit? Regardless, it's an imminently readable volume, hardcover, full-color, a coffeetable book of sorts, well worth the $40 retail price. I'll defer to a quote from the press release for an excellent summary:
A boldly gory and thoroughly illustrated history of death by clothing, from blazing crinolines to mercury-laden fur.
As a major proponent of safe work practices and an instructor who incorporates OSHA/EHS compliance topics into my classes, i found this book at turns fascinating, heartbreaking, gruesome, inspiring, and at times downright disturbing. Yes, the example cases mentioned within are sometimes horrible on their own, but more horrifying are the bits where the author discusses having lab techs at her university run tests on modern-day products easily bought in stores in your own neighborhood--lead content in lipsticks, for example, or radioactive metal used to ornament imported studded belts.
The book is structured so that each chapter focuses on a different class of danger--there's a chapter devoted to the hazards of the hatting industry, then one on flammable tutu net and flannelette, etc. As a sometime-hatmaker, the hatting chapter was particularly sad--one illustration showed examples of hatters' legible signatures as young apprentices contrasted with the unreadable trembling scribbles they signed with after a decade in the trade.
I highly recommend the book in general, but it's a particularly significant read and reference volume for those working in costume archives and in vintage clothing houses, as well as those in academia with study collections or large stocks of antique/vintage clothing.
November 2, 2015
"Fashion Victims" is a fashion history about some health dangers associated with clothing. It mainly focused on the 1800's to early 1900's, but it also talked about some older and some current dangers. The book was full of interesting photographs of the clothing under discussion. It also had drawings from the time showing the work conditions of those making the items and illustrating the dangers to the wearer.
The author discussed how clothing could pass diseases between people, the toxic process of making men's rabbit-fur felt hats, deadly chemical dyes like arsenic green used in dresses and hair wreaths or shoe blacking that could kill, and long silk scarves that strangled and hobble skirts that tripped wearers. Some fabrics were especially prone to catching fire like tulle in tutus, cotton muslin, and flanette cotton. She also talked about how crinolines increased danger of the wearer catching fire or getting entangled in machinery. She described the efforts to come up with an acceptable fire retardant, the use of highly flammable celluloid in combs and other accessories, and various dangers from artificial silks. She also briefly discussed modern dangers from things like chemical dyes, sand-basting denim, strangulation, flame retardants, and chemicals used in screen-printed garments.
I found the book to be easy to follow and very interesting (though a little depressing). I'd recommend this book to those who are interested in the details of fashion dangers of the last 200 years.
I received an ebook review copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley.
The author discussed how clothing could pass diseases between people, the toxic process of making men's rabbit-fur felt hats, deadly chemical dyes like arsenic green used in dresses and hair wreaths or shoe blacking that could kill, and long silk scarves that strangled and hobble skirts that tripped wearers. Some fabrics were especially prone to catching fire like tulle in tutus, cotton muslin, and flanette cotton. She also talked about how crinolines increased danger of the wearer catching fire or getting entangled in machinery. She described the efforts to come up with an acceptable fire retardant, the use of highly flammable celluloid in combs and other accessories, and various dangers from artificial silks. She also briefly discussed modern dangers from things like chemical dyes, sand-basting denim, strangulation, flame retardants, and chemicals used in screen-printed garments.
I found the book to be easy to follow and very interesting (though a little depressing). I'd recommend this book to those who are interested in the details of fashion dangers of the last 200 years.
I received an ebook review copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley.
June 17, 2020
Fascinating and horrifying. I have a weird fascination with arsenic green....had I been a Victorian, I'd surely have died from it as I adore green colors! Also fascinating though is the toxicity of some of the newly developed aniline dyes of the era--the vivid shades were sometimes toxic in their preparations or even as dangerous as some of the arsenical shades....or were even arsenic tainted themselves!
Also laid out in terrifying details: lead based makeups, the dangers of hoopskirts in getting snagged or dragging across an open flame, the flammability of fluffy cottons and gauzes, and the horrible fates of oh-so-flammable ballet dancers. (Gas lights and gauzy burnable fabrics anyone?)
The author concludes we should know better....but really we don't. Dyes continue to pollute, clothing and makeup continues to have harmful additives, and processes used to make our clothes continue to kill the factory workers making it.
Um...nudism anyone?
Forgot I read this and bought a copy. Thought some of this was a bit familiar but I've read other stuff on the same subjects. I read The Poison Squad at the same time--some of the same dyes and chemicals that were poisonous on clothes were creeping into foods at the same time! Want to eat a piece of candy colored with toxic coal tar dye? Makes a good companion to The Poison Squad!
Also laid out in terrifying details: lead based makeups, the dangers of hoopskirts in getting snagged or dragging across an open flame, the flammability of fluffy cottons and gauzes, and the horrible fates of oh-so-flammable ballet dancers. (Gas lights and gauzy burnable fabrics anyone?)
The author concludes we should know better....but really we don't. Dyes continue to pollute, clothing and makeup continues to have harmful additives, and processes used to make our clothes continue to kill the factory workers making it.
Um...nudism anyone?
Forgot I read this and bought a copy. Thought some of this was a bit familiar but I've read other stuff on the same subjects. I read The Poison Squad at the same time--some of the same dyes and chemicals that were poisonous on clothes were creeping into foods at the same time! Want to eat a piece of candy colored with toxic coal tar dye? Makes a good companion to The Poison Squad!
September 1, 2015
From poisonous pigments to mercury in hats, accidents as a result of fashion (hobble skirts—no!), combustible fabrics, and a host of other seriously dangerous fads—Alison Matthews David has rounded up the most disturbing (and disturbingly entertaining) collection of mishaps and tragedies in Fashion Victims.
Laden with colorful pictures, artwork, articles, newspaper clippings, and ads, Fashion Victims puts it all on the table in its artful and intelligent layout. Sometimes the details become overwhelming and I found myself skimming a bit, but overall the book is excellent for history enthusiasts and a must-have for anyone with an interest in fashion.
I would like to thank Net Galley and the publisher, Bloomsbury Academic, for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Laden with colorful pictures, artwork, articles, newspaper clippings, and ads, Fashion Victims puts it all on the table in its artful and intelligent layout. Sometimes the details become overwhelming and I found myself skimming a bit, but overall the book is excellent for history enthusiasts and a must-have for anyone with an interest in fashion.
I would like to thank Net Galley and the publisher, Bloomsbury Academic, for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
November 17, 2015
A FANTASTIC and supremely engaging scholarly work on the history of fashion and the dangers it created through time. It ends on a somewhat somber note-we never really know what goes into the making of our clothes, and I guess I'm never going to wear green again, but overall, I learned so much. The author takes care to talk about the misogyny inherent in a lot of discussions about fashion, and the differences between the "practical" formalwear of men, vs. the "frivolity" of women's wear.
The book was also lavishly illustrated. I purchased it for myself and I am definitely going to read it again.
The book was also lavishly illustrated. I purchased it for myself and I am definitely going to read it again.
September 20, 2015
Fantastic, detailed history of the dangers of clothing throughout history, full of striking and at times humorous illustrations. At times I actually exclaimed out loud while reading. Very surprising and enlightening!
A great accomplishment; very well done. Extremely enjoyable read.
**eARC netgalley**
A great accomplishment; very well done. Extremely enjoyable read.
**eARC netgalley**
October 29, 2015
I'm going to cite this book as the reason I wear jeans and t-shirts, because fashion is, literally, a killer throughout history. Extensively researched and never boring, this book is filled with tales not just of those who perished for their fashionable taste but also includes those who died creating those fashions. Terrible and tragic, but a brilliant read.
April 5, 2016
A fantastic book! Great pictures and absolutely informative. The author takes an interesting approach to the fashion of the past, combining elements of Marxist criticism and Gendered analysis and I loved how it was done. I was really glad to be able to read this one--longer review going up on my blog soon.
March 29, 2016
Interesting with great photos and illustrations.
December 8, 2020
Весьма любопытная книга.
По иронии судьбы, мой любимый цвет в одежде - зелёный, и он всегда был токсичным в производстве и, как оказалось, для потребителей.
По иронии судьбы, мой любимый цвет в одежде - зелёный, и он всегда был токсичным в производстве и, как оказалось, для потребителей.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 140 reviews