You might have heard the expression "knock 'em dead" related to fashion. Often, the meaning of
this phrase is anything but literal, but there is one exception. Back in the Victorian era,
the green dress, as sold in a very specific jewel-toned shade, was killing it — literally.
Fashion enthusiasts of the Victorian era were so bent on making an impression in the dim,
gaslit rooms of their time that they went to all sorts of extremes.
One of those extremes was arriving in dresses that were painted a deadly emerald green color.
Not only were these frocks fully capable of killing the people who had them on,
but they were so dangerous that they could take out an entire room.
"You! What happened here?" "Well, Uncle Albert was just
havin' his tea and he dropped down dead, didn't he?" "Yea…"
“Yea…" “He might of been poisoned…!"
"Poisoned?" "Indeed."
Sounds like an exaggeration, right? Not quite. The
British Medical Journal described a woman wearing such a dress as
"a killing creature. She actually carries in her skirts poison enough to slay the
whole of the admirers she may meet with in half a dozen ballrooms."
It's clear that these dresses were a devastating trend, but what exactly made them so toxic?
The popularity of the emerald green British Victorian dress is proof of how much people
can be willing to risk in the name of fashion. These dresses were, in fact, dyed with enough
poisonous arsenic to kill 20 people, it's a wonder anyone would want to wear one at all.
The deaths they caused were particularly gruesome. The body would first be ravaged by scabby ulcers.
This initial reaction would be followed by the vomiting of blood and eventually fatal
organ failure. One ill-fated seamstress was exposed to so much arsenic that she claimed
on her deathbed that all she could see was green — as if the world had taken on a spooky emerald hue.
Given the heinous nature of these deaths, you might assume that fashionable socialites were
unaware of the risks that wearing such garments carried. Quite the contrary. Medical professionals
made every attempt to address the health crisis, but to no avail. Apparently, when it comes to
wearing muted tones in a social setting, these femme fatales would have preferred to drop dead.
Speaking of dropping dead, there was another thing that made this particular dye less-than-lovely.
When this arsenic-laced dye made contact with certain household materials — such as wallpaper
— it produced an unmistakable "mouse-like odor." It's difficult to imagine this fatal frock gaining
any admirers whatsoever, with the stench of dead rodents wafting through the air at every turn.
This horrid smell makes sense, given the toxic ingredients of the dye. After all,
arsenic was pretty much synonymous with rat poison in the Victorian era.
Interestingly enough, it seems only visitors from far-off lands — like a
foreign dignitary who came to see Queen Victoria in Buckingham Palace — complained of the smell.
It is possible that locals never noticed it because they had become accustomed to it.
As time wore on, this toxic emerald hue was literally everywhere — on the walls and the floor,
on the frocks and the gloves. Victorian Britain was basically bathing in toxicity
as arsenic found its way into fashion, killing and maiming everyone in its path.
How was this allowed to continue?
While many blamed fatalities resulting from these green frocks on the fashionistas who wore them,
the truth is that Victorian Britain was painted the shade of corporate greed.
Arsenic acid was only regulated when sold on an individual level.
Indeed, acts like the Arsenic Act of 1868 failed to regulate the large-scale manufacturing of the
toxic hue by major corporations that stood to gain massive profits from the poison.
This is despite the fact that doctors and physicians began speaking out in the late 1850s.
It wasn't until 1895 that stricter regulations relegated arsenic-related death to a dark page
in fashion history's past. Even then, high levels of the toxic tint were still
found in fashionable packaging on things like shoe boxes and storage accessories.
According to The New York Times, toxic substances
and carcinogens are commonly found in green fashion to this very day.
Some shades of green are not only harmful to the wearers but also to the environment itself.
Check out one of our newest videos right here! Plus,
even more Grunge videos about your favorite stuff are coming soon.
Subscribe to our YouTube channel and hit the bell so you don't miss a single one.