I know it feels deeply unreal and bizarre that people are wandering around blithely denying we’re in a pandemic, but… humans do this. I just, for example, started casually researching green dye for a murder mystery I’m writing...

The Victorians were so obsessed with emerald dye (made from arsenic) that they happily kept wearing it, even though doctors all told them it was poisonous, even with newspapers publishing pictures of skeletons in ballgowns...

...even with reports of hands blistering from wearing green gloves!

What was the alternative, wearing DULL COLOURS?

Some people believed it was fine as long as you did not lick the fabric. IT WAS NOT FINE.

Not to mention the factory workers making the damned clothes, who were exposed to the arsenic constantly, despite open sores and blisters on their hands.

One factor worker, Matilda Scheurer, not only vomited green… but the whites of her eyes turned green.

Eventually, the Ladies Sanitary Association stepped in, commissioning a chemist, Hoffman, to investigate. He found that an average headdress had enough arsenic in it to poison 20 people...

Wallpaper, paintings, it was everywhere! And still the British government would not ban the substance… because they had to protect the economy.

One thing I have learned from my recent inhaling of the Shedunnit podcast is that arsenic and other poisons were just EVERYWHERE in Victorian times, all the way up to the 1920s-30s. Not just in frocks. But it’s a fascinating insight into humans choosing aesthetics over safety.

Thanks everyone for enjoying this thread. I have just ordered “Fashion Victims: the dangers of dress past and present” by Alison Matthews David to learn more on this fascinating subject.

Check out my murder mysteries under the pen-name Livia Day! https://mailchi.mp/tansyrr/liviaday