The term “fashion victim” conjures up images of people shopping till they drop, of clothes mavens obsessed with the latest looks and labels. But sometimes the phrase is literal. The new book “Fashion Victims: Dangers of Dress Past and Present” (Bloomsbury) by Alison Matthews David, offers a deadly tour of fashion history: from diseased uniforms to poisonous pigments, flammable skirts and more. Here, some of the biggest sartorial tragedies of all time.
Combustible crinolines
After suffering itchy horsehair petticoats to make dresses pouf out like cupcakes, women of the late 1800s welcomed the steel-cage crinoline. Mass-produced and worn by ladies of all classes, the contraption stood apart from the wearer’s body like an exoskeleton.
Unfortunately, the crinolines also acted as chimney flues if a skirt caught fire, with the air trapped beneath making flames spread faster. Newspapers of the era were filled with accounts of crinoline-related deaths — among them Archduchess Mathilde of Austria. When her father entered the room unexpectedly, the archduchess hid the illicit cigarette she was smoking behind her back and subsequently burned to death in front of her family.
Skirts too tight to walk in
The hobble skirt — a fashion trend from the early 20th century, in which a skirt was tightly gathered around the wearer’s calves — was likely inspired by one of the first women to take flight. In 1908, the Wright brothers’ business agent Mrs. Edith Berg accompanied the aviators on flights. But her ankle-length skirt had to be bound with twine so as not to catch on any mechanical parts.
Over the next few years, this bound “hobble skirt” became the height of fashion — even though it kept its wearer from being able to walk effectively. In 1910 in Erie, NY, 18-year-old Ida Goyette’s skirt caused her to stumble while crossing a bridge; she fell over the side and broke several limbs. And a woman at a French racetrack was trampled to death after a horse bolted through the crowd and she could not outrun it because of her hobble skirt. Declared one newspaper of the time: “If [women] want to be legally free they shouldn’t be sartorially shackled.”
Real-life Mad Hatters
Thanks to developments in chemistry, 18th-century milliners were able to transform raw pelts into malleable felt that could be shaped into curvy tricorns and top hats. But the process involved a mercury and acid solution, often resulting in serious illness or the death of the person applying it. It’s thought that Lewis Carroll’s trembling “Mad Hatter” character from his 1865 book “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” was so named because he was afflicted with mercury poisoning.
Strangled by her own scarf
In 1927, American dancer Isadora Duncan climbed into a convertible in Nice, France, with her signature long scarf draped around her neck. “Goodbye, my friends, I’m off to glory!” she exclaimed. Minutes later, she was dead, violently strangled when the scarf’s fringes got caught between the spokes of a wheel. Sadder still is the fact that the scarf was given to her by a friend as a gift to cheer her up on the anniversary of her son Patrick’s birth. The 3-year-old had died along with his sister when the car they were in rolled into the Seine.