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0 / 29 Fotos
Poisonous dye
- Green was not a very easy color to make. Dressmakers would mix yellow and blue dyes to try and make it.
© Getty Images
1 / 29 Fotos
Deadly pigment
- This was until a chemist named Carl Wilhelm Scheele invented a new green pigment.
© Getty Images
2 / 29 Fotos
Dressed to kill, literally
- What became known as Scheele’s Green, and later Paris Green, was made by mixing potassium and white arsenic in a solution of copper vitriol.
© Getty Images
3 / 29 Fotos
It was everywhere
- The new green pigment was used for a variety of things, from wallpaper, to candles, toys, and, of course, fabrics.
© Getty Images
4 / 29 Fotos
Severe side effects
- Arsenic dyes exploded in popularity, but these seemed to cause a few side effects, including sores, scabs, nausea, colic, diarrhea, and headaches.
© Getty Images
5 / 29 Fotos
Did wallpaper kill Napoleon?
- It’s speculated that Napoleon was poisoned due to exposure to arsenic-laced wallpaper he had at home.
© Getty Images
6 / 29 Fotos
Infectious clothes
- Disease would spread through clothes during Victorian times. Soldiers and others would catch diseases carried by clothes made or cleaned by sick people.
© Getty Images
7 / 29 Fotos
Contagious clothes
- From lice to typhus, fabrics would many times carry diseases and spread them.
© Getty Images
8 / 29 Fotos
Contagious clothes
- Poor people would also wear second hand clothes, and without being properly disinfected, diseases such as smallpox spread through the fabric.
© Getty Images
9 / 29 Fotos
Deadly clothes
- The daughter of Victorian Prime Minister Sir Robert Peel died after her riding habit was finished in the house of a seamstress who had used it to cover her husband, who was sick with typhus.
© Getty Images
10 / 29 Fotos
Dirty streets
- Women’s long skirts also swept through the dirty city streets, where disease would thrive.
© Getty Images
11 / 29 Fotos
Crinoline hoop skirts
- These may look glamorous in period dramas, but they didn't really combine well with industrial machinery at the time.
© Getty Images
12 / 29 Fotos
Factories
- Accidents in factories were reported, and the dresses were banned in some of them as a result.
© Getty Images
13 / 29 Fotos
Transport
- These were also a problem with traveling in carriages and mounting animals.
© Getty Images
14 / 29 Fotos
Flammable fabrics
- Not only were the popular flowy white cotton garments one of the products sourced from slave-operated plantations, they were also a real danger for those who wore them.
© Getty Images
15 / 29 Fotos
New fabric
- But it was about to get worse. In 1809, what we now know as tulle was invented. Can it get more flammable than that?
© Getty Images
16 / 29 Fotos
British dancer
- Reportedly, in 1845, British ballerina Clara Webster died after her dress caught fire at a London theater after her skirt came too close to the lights onstage.
© Getty Images
17 / 29 Fotos
Fire hazard
- A popular material for nightshirts and undergarments, the fabric was also susceptible to household accidents, such as catching fire from a candle.
© Getty Images
18 / 29 Fotos
Toxic taxidermy
- Dead birds, such as songbirds, were popular on ladies' hats at the time.
© Getty Images
19 / 29 Fotos
Toxic taxidermy
- The birds as such were not harmful. The arsenic used by taxidermists, however, was.
© Getty Images
20 / 29 Fotos
Toxic hats
- If you were an upper-class man in Victorian times, you'd have to wear a hat.
© Getty Images
21 / 29 Fotos
Toxic hats
- The problem was that many of those hats were made with mercury.
© Getty Images
22 / 29 Fotos
Toxic hats
- Mercury was used to turn stiff fur from animals such as rabbits and hares into more flexible felt.
© Getty Images
23 / 29 Fotos
Toxic hats
- Mercury would cause a wide range of harmful effects, including convulsions, abdominal cramps, trembling, paralysis, and reproductive problems, among others.
© Getty Images
24 / 29 Fotos
Toxic hats
- Some say that the Mad Hatter in 'Alice's Adventures in Wonderland' portrayed elements of mercury poisoning.
© Getty Images
25 / 29 Fotos
Deadly beauty routines
- Looking extremely pale was definitely in during Victorian times, so why not apply lead white paint to your face?
© Getty Images
26 / 29 Fotos
Deadly beauty routines
- One of the most popular cosmetic products was called Laird's Bloom of Youth.
© Public Domain
27 / 29 Fotos
Deadly beauty routines
- A doctor at the American Medical Association treated three women who used the product and temporarily lost full use of their hands. He described the condition as "lead palsy."
© Getty Images
28 / 29 Fotos
© Getty Images
0 / 29 Fotos
Poisonous dye
- Green was not a very easy color to make. Dressmakers would mix yellow and blue dyes to try and make it.
© Getty Images
1 / 29 Fotos
Deadly pigment
- This was until a chemist named Carl Wilhelm Scheele invented a new green pigment.
© Getty Images
2 / 29 Fotos
Dressed to kill, literally
- What became known as Scheele’s Green, and later Paris Green, was made by mixing potassium and white arsenic in a solution of copper vitriol.
© Getty Images
3 / 29 Fotos
It was everywhere
- The new green pigment was used for a variety of things, from wallpaper, to candles, toys, and, of course, fabrics.
© Getty Images
4 / 29 Fotos
Severe side effects
- Arsenic dyes exploded in popularity, but these seemed to cause a few side effects, including sores, scabs, nausea, colic, diarrhea, and headaches.
© Getty Images
5 / 29 Fotos
Did wallpaper kill Napoleon?
- It’s speculated that Napoleon was poisoned due to exposure to arsenic-laced wallpaper he had at home.
© Getty Images
6 / 29 Fotos
Infectious clothes
- Disease would spread through clothes during Victorian times. Soldiers and others would catch diseases carried by clothes made or cleaned by sick people.
© Getty Images
7 / 29 Fotos
Contagious clothes
- From lice to typhus, fabrics would many times carry diseases and spread them.
© Getty Images
8 / 29 Fotos
Contagious clothes
- Poor people would also wear second hand clothes, and without being properly disinfected, diseases such as smallpox spread through the fabric.
© Getty Images
9 / 29 Fotos
Deadly clothes
- The daughter of Victorian Prime Minister Sir Robert Peel died after her riding habit was finished in the house of a seamstress who had used it to cover her husband, who was sick with typhus.
© Getty Images
10 / 29 Fotos
Dirty streets
- Women’s long skirts also swept through the dirty city streets, where disease would thrive.
© Getty Images
11 / 29 Fotos
Crinoline hoop skirts
- These may look glamorous in period dramas, but they didn't really combine well with industrial machinery at the time.
© Getty Images
12 / 29 Fotos
Factories
- Accidents in factories were reported, and the dresses were banned in some of them as a result.
© Getty Images
13 / 29 Fotos
Transport
- These were also a problem with traveling in carriages and mounting animals.
© Getty Images
14 / 29 Fotos
Flammable fabrics
- Not only were the popular flowy white cotton garments one of the products sourced from slave-operated plantations, they were also a real danger for those who wore them.
© Getty Images
15 / 29 Fotos
New fabric
- But it was about to get worse. In 1809, what we now know as tulle was invented. Can it get more flammable than that?
© Getty Images
16 / 29 Fotos
British dancer
- Reportedly, in 1845, British ballerina Clara Webster died after her dress caught fire at a London theater after her skirt came too close to the lights onstage.
© Getty Images
17 / 29 Fotos
Fire hazard
- A popular material for nightshirts and undergarments, the fabric was also susceptible to household accidents, such as catching fire from a candle.
© Getty Images
18 / 29 Fotos
Toxic taxidermy
- Dead birds, such as songbirds, were popular on ladies' hats at the time.
© Getty Images
19 / 29 Fotos
Toxic taxidermy
- The birds as such were not harmful. The arsenic used by taxidermists, however, was.
© Getty Images
20 / 29 Fotos
Toxic hats
- If you were an upper-class man in Victorian times, you'd have to wear a hat.
© Getty Images
21 / 29 Fotos
Toxic hats
- The problem was that many of those hats were made with mercury.
© Getty Images
22 / 29 Fotos
Toxic hats
- Mercury was used to turn stiff fur from animals such as rabbits and hares into more flexible felt.
© Getty Images
23 / 29 Fotos
Toxic hats
- Mercury would cause a wide range of harmful effects, including convulsions, abdominal cramps, trembling, paralysis, and reproductive problems, among others.
© Getty Images
24 / 29 Fotos
Toxic hats
- Some say that the Mad Hatter in 'Alice's Adventures in Wonderland' portrayed elements of mercury poisoning.
© Getty Images
25 / 29 Fotos
Deadly beauty routines
- Looking extremely pale was definitely in during Victorian times, so why not apply lead white paint to your face?
© Getty Images
26 / 29 Fotos
Deadly beauty routines
- One of the most popular cosmetic products was called Laird's Bloom of Youth.
© Public Domain
27 / 29 Fotos
Deadly beauty routines
- A doctor at the American Medical Association treated three women who used the product and temporarily lost full use of their hands. He described the condition as "lead palsy."
© Getty Images
28 / 29 Fotos
The health risks of Victorian fashion
From arsenic-laced clothes to flammable fabrics
© Getty Images
Victorian fashion might look incredibly glamorous in period dramas, but there is more to hoop skirts and top hats than just being aesthetically pleasing. Victorian fashion was also dangerous, and many times even deadly. Toxic chemical compounds were often used, and then there were, of course, diseases that spread through fabric. But there's more—a lot more.
Browse through the following gallery and discover how harmful fashion was during the Victorian era.
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