Fashion to die for
Oct. 22nd, 2006 02:09 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sawylCatching up on last week's papers — the weather is foul and I really can't motivate myself to do anything other than laze around — I found a fascinating article on the tortuous nature of fashion in Friday's Guardian.
Although the piece featured details of particular bizarre trends, including a Renaissance fetish for metal corsets (something I'd previously assumed only existed in the minds of sexually frustrated role playing gamers), the most shocking detail was the absolute lethality of many trends. For it seems that through much of history, thanks to all the crinoline and lace, women's fashions have been about as fireproof as a barrel of gunpowder. Particularly shocking was story that both Oscar Wilde's sisters had died in a fashion related conflagration, after one had caught fire and the other, in attempting to extinguish her sibling, had also perished, making both of them quite literally fashion victims.
Truly horrifying stuff.
Although the piece featured details of particular bizarre trends, including a Renaissance fetish for metal corsets (something I'd previously assumed only existed in the minds of sexually frustrated role playing gamers), the most shocking detail was the absolute lethality of many trends. For it seems that through much of history, thanks to all the crinoline and lace, women's fashions have been about as fireproof as a barrel of gunpowder. Particularly shocking was story that both Oscar Wilde's sisters had died in a fashion related conflagration, after one had caught fire and the other, in attempting to extinguish her sibling, had also perished, making both of them quite literally fashion victims.
Truly horrifying stuff.
