Fashion Victims: The Dangers of Dress Past and Present

by Alison Matthews David

Overview

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 jourbaney 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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781350005082
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	07/13/2017
Pages:	240
Sales rank:	464,832
Product dimensions:	8.60(w) x 10.80(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Alison Matthews David is Associate Professor in the School of Fashion, Ryerson University, Toronto, Canada.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Death by Fashion in Fact and Fiction

Chapter 1. Diseased Dress: Germ Warfare
Chapter 2. Toxic Techniques: Mercurial Hats
Chapter 3. Poisonous Pigments: Arsenical Greens
Chapter 4. Dangerous Dyes: A Pretty, Deadly Rainbow
Chapter 5. Entangled and Strangled: Caught in the Machine
Chapter 6. Inflammatory Fabrics: Flaming Tutus and Combustible Crinolines
Chapter 7. Explosive Fakes: Plastic Combs and Artificial Silk
Conclusion: The Afterlife of Fashion Victims

Bibliography
Index

Editorial Reviews

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

From the Publisher

No 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.

Tanya Williams Wetenhall

In this provocative and beautifully-illustrated volume, Alison Matthews David spans past and present, producers and consumers, Europe and the United States, to explore the many ways that fashionable clothing and accessories harmed and sometimes killed. A fascinating read and essential backdrop to concerns about today's globalized textile and garment production.

Clare H. Crowston

Combining narrative verve with a brilliant selection of pictures, Fashion Victims is both an engaging read and a 'useable history'. Meticulously researched, it wears its academic credentials lightly, and the story it tells is at once entertaining and startling. Fashion history will never seem quite the same again.

Caroline Evans

A highly engaging and thought-provoking book. Informative, entertaining and unsettling, Fashion Victims is a history of death by dress for fashionistas and scholars alike. Read it!

Susan J. Vincent

In this provocative and beautifully-illustrated volume, Alison Matthews David spans past and present, producers and consumers, Europe and the United States, to explore the many ways that fashionable clothing and accessories harmed and sometimes killed. A fascinating read and essential backdrop to concerns about today's globalized textile and garment production.

Clare H Crowston

10/01/2015
Fashion historian David (Ryerson Univ., Toronto) examines how clothing caused death, disease, and madness during the 19th and early 20th centuries in France and North America, transmitting contagious diseases, emitting chemical toxins, and catching fire. David's aim is "to put current problems into a historical context and provide a 'usable past' for current debates about health and sustainability in the fashion industry." The often pointed historical examples include the mercury used to create felted hats that poisoned the hatters who made them; pigments such as green dyes made of arsenic that endangered dressmakers and wearers alike; and combustible fabrics such as crinoline and flannelette. Aside from drawing upon contemporary accounts and archival evidence, the author strengthens her arguments by citing recent and past scientific studies that prove the toxicity of historic textiles. This compelling and sometimes disturbing book is strongest when discussing historical rather than contemporary clothing issues but does make a case for reexamining our fashion consumption in the 21st century and how that consumption hurts the environment and people, especially those in developing countries where most apparel is now produced. VERDICT For readers interested in fashion history and social history.—Sandra Rothenberg, Framingham State Univ. Lib., MA

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