{"id":350,"date":"2016-05-28T20:24:00","date_gmt":"2016-05-28T20:24:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cinnamonstudio.com\/blog\/2016\/05\/28\/fashion-victims-2\/"},"modified":"2016-05-28T20:24:00","modified_gmt":"2016-05-28T20:24:00","slug":"fashion-victims-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cinnamonstudio.com\/blog\/2016\/05\/fashion-victims-2.html","title":{"rendered":"Fashion Victims"},"content":{"rendered":"
\nDressed to Death<\/p>\n
\nFashion Victims is a collection of very interesting facts,
\nfolklore, and, sometimes dangerous misconceptions in the history of textiles
\nand fashion.<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n\n
<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Fashion Victims – The Dangers of Dress Past and Present
Alison Matthews David, Bloomsbury Publishing, London, 2015<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nWe know the textile industry has a somewhat dubious history
\nconcerning the safety of its workers (see my blog series \u201cSlavery in the
\nFactory\u201d) and many early textile techniques relied upon the use of potent
\nchemicals and unsanitary practices.  But
\nthere is much, much more hidden in the closets throughout fashion history.  From time to time, I will share some of
\nthese, often gruesome, tales.  <\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nToday I wish to consider one short piece of fashion history
\npresented by the author.  I had never
\nconsidered  the wearing of long skirts
\nin the late 1800\u2019s and early 1900\u2019s as a potential health concern ( beside the
\nobvious tripping hazard when crossing the street) but Alison David discusses
\nthe scenario of fashionable women dragging their skirts through the filthy city
\nstreets.  We all have heard accounts and
\nseen pictures of the unsanitary conditions prevalent in large cities at that
\ntime ( and, I might add, today in some sections of our modern cities).  The streets were clogged with horse drawn
\ncarriages, and anyone who has mucked a stable can attest to the obvious problem
\nhere.  Waste water was thrown from
\nwindows onto the street below and there was no shortage of animals, vermin and
\nother distasteful elements present. 
\nObviously, the hems of the garments would inevitably become soiled and
\ndusty and all those little microbes would then be carried into the family
\nparlor.  The idea of the germ theory,
\nwas just a theory, and most people had little idea of the potentially dangerous
\nconsequences of their ordinary lifestyle.<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nWe live in a very different time.  The other day I stopped to buy some bathroom cleaner at a big box
\nstore.  There were 4 long aisles, floor
\nto ceiling, with products to clean, disinfect and sanitize the home.  Rows of detergents for the washing machine,
\nbleaches and stain removers shared space with floor cleaners and carpet
\nsteamers.  Soaps for your body and
\ndishes were next to several rows of hand sanitizers and wipes containing
\nbleach, presumably to be used to destroy any virus, bacteria or other harmful
\npathogen.  Next came the insecticides
\nand pest control products.  Good grief,
\nI thought, we must be the most sterilized 
\ncivilization ever.  <\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

\nBut, how clean are the clothes we buy?  When you purchase items do you immediately
\ngo home and throw them into the washing machine?   After all, where have these items been?  From fiber through manufacture of the cloth,
\nto the cutting and sewing of the garment, through packaging and shipping and
\nfinally arriving at the retail establishment there have been dozens and dozens
\nof contacts with the environment and the textile workers.  Of course this can be said of anything we
\npurchase, from TVs to corn soup.  But I
\nmight throw a bit of cautionary advice. 
\nBe aware that clothing can be a conduit for those little \u201cgermies\u201d we
\ncannot see.  When we try on jeans to
\nfind the perfect fit, we surely know that perhaps others have been in that same
\ndressing room, or that those jeans may have been returned after purchase.  Perhaps judicious use of  those products at \u201cbig box\u201d is a fairly good
\nidea.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dressed to Death Fashion Victims is a collection of very interesting facts, folklore, and, sometimes dangerous misconceptions in the history of textiles and fashion. Fashion Victims – The Dangers of Dress Past and PresentAlison Matthews David, Bloomsbury Publishing, London, 2015 We know the textile industry has a somewhat dubious history concerning the safety of its…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-350","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinnamonstudio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/350","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinnamonstudio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinnamonstudio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinnamonstudio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinnamonstudio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=350"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cinnamonstudio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/350\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinnamonstudio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=350"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinnamonstudio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=350"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinnamonstudio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=350"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}