I have done a post before about fashion that kills, a hobble skirt that well and truly hobbled the wearer, and these two cases from 1923 detail other unlikely ends thanks to vengeful attire.
The Brisbane Courier 24 Apr 1923 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article20616349
In the first case an Italian girl fainted at a ball. When attended to by a doctor it was discovered that one of the bone stays in her corset had snapped, penetrating her skin.
This minor injury should have not been too much of a problem, except for the fact that the bone had been soaked in prussic acid. She died of blood poisoning.
The second victim, Mademoiselle Lapille, was another victim of fashion choices. At a dance (again!) a friend used a fox stole to playfully nip the Mademoiselle’s nose with the sharp teeth. Very soon after the offended nose reacted and swelling spread over the attached face. Although an operation was performed (what sort of operation do you think?), the unfortunate Mademoiselle Lapille died soon after.
Both of these cases involved using bits of dead animal to create fashion. I wonder if the women’s deaths were some sort of karmic revenge?
I don’t think I could’ve stood it, even if I was raised in the time period. You know how it is in the historical fiction books “She was so graceful”. I would’ve been a bumbling klutz! Oh and those hoopskirts, they really take the cake. Must’ve been terribly awkward to walk in those things.
The hoopskirts were probably not so bad to walk in, it would have been the graceful sitting and not knocking everything over that would have done me in.
I would have been like those comedy movies when the woman sits down and the dress flips up in from of her face showing her unmentionables to the world! The corset probably would have meant I was incapable of sitting though, so I would have been the barely conscious woman leaning against the wall, desperate for a seat and about to keel over. Yep definitely no grace here! 🙂
Oh I love the idea of the animals getting their revenge. I really really loathe those strange bits of dead animal people wear round their necks! Now I am worried about my leather shoes! The stuff nightmares are made of- in fact there should be a horror story in this! The Birds is quite scary enough!
Ooooh, now, whenever your shoes pinch your feet, just think of a ghostly cow mooing mournfully and hoping you choke on your dinner! I can imagine all of those fox stoles rising up… gag… choke… 😉
Something tells me the first girl should have ‘stay’-ed at home. As for Mlle Lapille, I wonder if the Police charged her friend with anything or if they were ‘fox’-ed by the circumstances. ( Sorry, I can hear the groans now).
Ha ha! If she had stay-ed home she wouldn’t have been harpooned by the whalebone, would she! Does Mlle Lapille dying make her the foxes last meal? I wonder what was it brushing its teeth with? Poison dart frogs?
Ouch 😦 I wonder if readers 100 years from now will be finding articles about botox related deaths 😦
Agreed, I don’t see how injecting paralysing poison into your skin can be entirely good for you. It is a bit like when they used to take cocaine for toothache. Bad bad bad!
I’m vain enough to want to look younger but losing all expression on my face is not my idea of an improvement. 😦
I think that if no-one can tell if you are happy or sad it doesn’t matter how young you look, does it! 🙂
I think some of these people only relate to their mirrors!
I don’t understand how you can be an actor/actress when your face doesn’t move. A perfect example is poor old Nicole Kidman. I have heard her face referred to as looking as emotional as a fridge door. Sad, because she isn’t that old anyway!
I really love some of the movies Nicole Kidman has been in – such as Moulin Rouge and a very old one called Dead Calm – but I have to say she has always been a bit ‘wooden’.
So she’s a botox lady???
I’m not sure if she is, but when was the last time you saw her look surprised? I wouldn’t want to play poker with her 🙂
Gawd. I know raising your eyebrows all the time gives you wrinkles but expressing surprise is an inalienable human right!
I could never go the botox track, without the ability to give my ‘you are a f***ing idiot, and I wish to kill you’ look I would cease to exist. ;(
lmao – I want one of those! I did develop a bellow while teaching but I just never quite mastered The Look. You are a scary lady Metan. :p
So I’ve been told 🙂 I don’t have a bellow, but I do have a deep ‘telling the dog off’ voice that has been known to make grown men obey before they even realize what they are doing. If only I could bottle it I could make a fortune….
lmao – I bet Julia Guillard would buy some! Oh and Gina of course. 😉
Julia definitely needs some, just to counteract that nasal whine! I think Gina probably already has her own though 😉
-giggles- you’re a grumpy young woman and I’m a grumpy old one! But you are so right.
Death by Corset — can you imagine the book cover?
Surely it would have to have a beautifully dressed, but blue-faced, woman lying stiffly on the floor!
Yes… an imagine the corset as a weapon. It could be poisoned, in the manner of Medea’s cloak, or simply be a magical weapon that keeps getting tighter.
So happy we live in a post girdle era.
I have one boned bodice. It’s lovely and sexy. I wear it about once a year. It was custom made for me by a designer/tailor specializing in clothes for dancers. Even with its perfect fit, color and fabric (green Chinese silk with gold dragons) it’s still not normal comfy clothes…
That bodice sounds beautiful. I bet that when you take it off you breathe a sigh of relief though. I can’t imagine having to wear something like that every day, although seeing muffin-topped teenagers at the shops makes me wish that something like that was still in fashion!
I bet a real corset would have felt like your imaginary one, getting tighter and tighter. A corset and voluminous skirts on a hot day, what a torture that would be 😦
Total torture.
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