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Post by lovemondays on Jun 19, 2014 3:14:39 GMT
The Toronto Star had a very interesting article today about an exhibit at the Bata Shoe Museum called Fashion Victims: The Pleasures and Perils of Dress in the 19th Century.
In the exhibit, 'which focuses on the sartorial mores of the 19th century, questions arise about how far we will go to jeopardize our health and the safety of others when it comes to expressing an idea of beauty...the term fashion victim was...very much in use at the time'.
What is truly astonishing is that fashion created victims because of the chemicals, we now know to be toxic, used to colour or treat different fabrics and materials.
Examples: A wildly popular shade of green was made with arsenic. Queen Victoria even had a dress in that shade. The silk was absolutely saturated with it.
Coal tar sludge was used make a beautiful mauve dye. It was so toxic that some wearers were know to develop such severe skin reactions it became known as the "mauve measles".
Beaver pelts were treated with mercury before being made into hats.
Other fashions identified as health hazards include corsets and the very tight footwear that often required the woman to pre-bind her feet (similar to the Asian practice).
It occurs to me that the concept of toxic clothing could be an interesting plot line...a woman dies, the husband is suspect, but it takes all of William, Julia and Emily's knowledge of fashion and chemistry to figure out that the culprit was her clothing. The writers could even take it a step further by having Julia and/or Emily take up the cause of raising public awareness of the issue.
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Post by snacky on Jun 19, 2014 3:32:05 GMT
how far we will go to jeopardize our health and the safety of others when it comes to expressing an idea of beauty...the term fashion victim was What is truly astonishing is that fashion created victims because of the chemicals, we now know to be toxic, used to colour or treat different fabrics and materials. Examples: A wildly popular shade of green was made with arsenic. Coal tar sludge was used make a beautiful mauve dye. It occurs to me that the concept of toxic clothing could be an interesting plot line...a woman dies, the husband is suspect, but it takes all of William, Julia and Emily's knowledge of fashion and chemistry to figure out that the culprit was her clothing. The writers could even take it a step further by having Julia and/or Emily take up the cause of raising public awareness of the issue.
ROFL, what a twist on the concept of "fashion victim"! I'm actually very familiar with the mauve story and the patent wars the vogue for mauve stimulated (leading to Big Chemistry and weapons of mass destruction like mustard gas): I took this up as a debating subject as an undergrad while I was in England. XD I think your mystery idea is an outstanding one, and I love how it makes serious use of Julia and Emily. It makes me wish that fans had a venue to present good plot ideas to writers. As it is, presenting our ideas here probably taints them, since the writers wouldn't want to plagiarize us. (Though I for one would be delighted if an MM writer thought our ideas were good enough to use: if an idea is THAT good, I hope they find a way through the legalities). |
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Post by CosmicCavalcade on Jun 19, 2014 3:35:06 GMT
They apparently check FB pretty regularly so you could post ideas there.
I agree that that sounds like an interesting story line!
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Post by snacky on Jun 19, 2014 3:39:18 GMT
Is there an FB group she could join?
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Post by lovemondays on Jun 19, 2014 3:47:21 GMT
Sure there is. I'm just hopeless with FB. I'd rather just creep it, but if they really do check it, I just might friend the site.
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Post by CosmicCavalcade on Jun 19, 2014 3:59:39 GMT
You don't need to join a group. Just post on their main page. I'm not saying anything will come from it but it doesn't hurt to try. They are about 99.9% more likely to see it on there than here. I don't know if they even know this forum exists.
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Post by lovemondays on Jun 19, 2014 4:05:17 GMT
It would be so sad  if they didn't know about us. I will try to post on the main page. Thanks for the suggestion! |
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Post by snacky on Jun 19, 2014 4:21:52 GMT
It would be so sad if they didn't know about us. I will try to post on the main page. Thanks for the suggestion! Well that might be part and parcel of the demographic bias: the presumption would be the youngsters they want to attract all use facebooks and only old-timers cling to forums. The Revolution will not be Televised on Facebook. |
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Post by lovemondays on Jun 19, 2014 4:23:40 GMT
Sigh, you have hit the nail on the head. Bloody hell.
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Post by CosmicCavalcade on Jun 19, 2014 4:27:56 GMT
The stats for CBC Murdoch on FB say that the majority of people who comment on things are middle aged and living in Toronto.
So I don't think their strategy is working. I think that's why they started looking at Tumblr too. That's where most of the younger fan base is for the show.
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Post by lovemondays on Jun 19, 2014 4:30:44 GMT
Well I certainly fall into the FB demographic, lol!
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Post by snacky on Jun 19, 2014 4:32:18 GMT
The stats for CBC Murdoch on FB say that the majority of people who comment on things are middle aged and living in Toronto. So I don't think their strategy is working. I think that's why they started looking at Tumblr too. That's where most of the younger fan base is for the show. The great irony is by the time marketers tried to "leverage" FB, most young people moved on to "cooler" channels their parents didn't monitor yet like Snapchat. That's why Facebook wanted to buy Snapchat: their strategy was going to be to quietly own all the different options instead of branding them all the increasingly uncool "Facebook". But of course this misses the importance of Facebook as central aggregator of activity: it's hard to draw people to separate forums these days, while "everyone" already has a Facebook account and can join a Facebook group. Anyway, I don't use Facebook myself, and I have to laugh at the strategy fail. XD |
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Post by lovemondays on Jun 19, 2014 18:58:15 GMT
Well, I went in a posted my idea on FB. It would be so cool if they ran with it. Now I'm thinking I should actually go and see the exhibit.
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Post by CosmicCavalcade on Jun 19, 2014 21:23:46 GMT
DID YOU SEE THE COMMENT YET?!!
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Post by CosmicCavalcade on Jun 19, 2014 21:33:37 GMT
Oh and they recently posted a pic of an apparent mob outside of a fabric building! So it looks like someone or many people died from toxic clothing and the men want retribution.
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if they didn't know about us. I will try to post on the main page. Thanks for the suggestion!