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Welcome back to Myths & Mischief! This is your Lovable Lord of Lore, today’s mischievous myth is about the dangers of fashion. 

 

But, before we dive into today’s topic, might I draw your attention to this conveniently located “hiring” sign? Yes, that’s right, Myths & Mischief is looking to welcome new faces to our crew of creatives. If you’re an artist, writer, social media maven, coding genius, or graphic designer who prefers to work remotely, we’d love to meet you!

 

 

Now, back to our topic!

 

Fashion may be the only constant, but what lengths are people willing to go to in order to fit in with the times?  Would they be willing to put their lives on the line? Here are some fashion horror stories that don’t involve how something looks… just the deadly results.

 

 

Perhaps a pretty green dress catches your fancy. What makes it green? In the 1800s, clothing, including dresses and accessories, included a dye that was partially made from copper arsenate. This poison was not only  deadly for those who wore the items, but also for those who made them; they would breathe in the toxic dust and handle the garments without protective equipment. I hope the dress was pretty and brought delight to its makers and users, because that may have been their dying wish.

 

 

That look was fire! However, it wasn’t fire-proof. Also in the 1800s, thousands of deaths were attributed to crinolines (wide cage-shaped dresses) that were easily combustible when exposed to flame. Not to be outdone, flammable petticoats with layers of cotton and tartalan, which were worn under skirts, also caught fire easily when around open flames. Gas lamps or fireplaces were, of course, common fixtures in many nineteenth-century towns. Talk about your hot underwear. These were scorchers.

 

 

Scarves were designed to save lives. When in a medical emergency, they can be transformed into a tourniquet used to stem  the bleeding of a wound until proper treatment can be administered, potentially saving the life of the injured person, or at least keeping them alive until they can reveal some juicy secret or the lamenting for a loved one. In the movie The Incredibles, it is explained why superheroes should not wear capes: they are accidents waiting to happen. In 1927, famed dancer Isadora Duncan was wearing her long signature silk scarf while riding. Her scarf became entangled in the car’s wheel and her dancing… and living days came to a tragic end.

 

 

During the European Renaissance, Chopin heels (high wooden or cork platforms) caused numerous falls on the uneven streets and pathways, causing those of the societal elite to stumble and fall frequently. These falls could be fatal, injurious, or mind-altering.   Multiple concussions were likely. Having never worn high heels myself, I can only imagine how hard it is to walk with them on a flat surface, let alone along the cobblestone streets of Paris or London.

 

 

The gents, unfortunately,were not immune to fatal fashion. Perhaps for a night on the town, a young man might choose the always-in-style top hat. The weight of these hats made them easy to dislodge, which led to many young men straight into a public brawl. Keep in mind, the early chemical dyes used lead and other heavy metals for their illustrious color. Perhaps the mind-altering mercury made these mishaps more common. Interestingly,  they may have inspired Lewis Carroll’s Mad Hatter character. They had deadly consequences.

 

 

Stiff corsets are commonly singled out for the abuse they cause their owners. The extreme tightlacing not only made it difficult for those who wore corsets to breathe, but it moved around internal organs to create the illusion of the most ideal  figure. Everything has its place, and when nature is disregarded, bad things happen. It makes one wonder whether any of our current fashion trends will be discovered to be deadly . Do piercings incite some sort of reaction?  Tattoos, hair coloring, makeup, cologne, deodorant, who knows what might be deemed dangerous? Ever since testing on animals began, we’ve liked to believe that our products and practices are safe, but it is impossible to tell what future knowledge will be used to cast a critical eye on today’s fashion. 

 

So you may want to dress for comfort, because fashion can be deadly!

 

That’s it for this week’s installment, this is your Lord of the Lore signing off.

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