I am unable to actually review this book at present as the download would not work on multiple device types. I included a 3 star rating to find a middle ground, but it is not an actual rating as I haven't been able to read the book yet. I have high hopes for it as I am an avid fan of Jennifer Wright though.

A fun but kinda forgettable read about 'dangerous fashion' in which .. most of the entries end up being about set on fire which as a comedic or shock device kinda loses its effect after about the third time it makes an appearance.

The features that this books boasts are:

- A lil comedic summary of the garment and a bonus anecdote - the ones with more detail and specific contexts were the most successful as the general items and their issues I feel are already common knowledge

- A lil rhyme for each entry, my favourite one being:

"Viscose caught fire with far less ease
but brought its own kind of disease.
The poison fumes drove men insane.
You can't douse the fires inside the brain."

(I love that twenty one pilots song)

- And a cute illustration of the garment which personally was the highlight of this book

- ALSO REFERENCES GOD BLESS GOOD FORM

While it didn't contain a well of new and exciting information it was a whimsical lil experience

Subtitled: “Poisonous Petticoats, Strangulating Scarves, and Other Deadly Garments Throughout History.” But despite all that, it’s easy to think of this as a comedy, albeit a dark one.
Simple rhyming couplets accompany an illustration in each story. . . and just to keep the rhyme motif, they’re mostly gory. Best rhyme: “boast” and “ghost.”
If you hate your mother-in-law, give her artificial silk.
The long history of asbestos was intriguing.
Mercury poisoning was known as the “mad hatter’s disease.”
Beauty—supposed beauty, anyway—sure had a heavy price; from belladonna eyeballs to lightning bras to strangling corsets to high heels to lead makeup. . .
Despite how it eventually turned out, I love that a new hairstyle came out of falling off a horse.
Poor Jean Harlow. . .
The scariest part, even if it was a sign of the times, was the newspaper editorial that stated, “What of woman’s mission to be lovely?”
Ends with ten pages of sources.
If you’re into fashion and macabre—if you like your humor black and morbid—this is for you.
3.5 pushed up to 4/5

The main thing that surprised me about the various ways clothes can kill you that are shown in Killer Fashion: Poisonous Petticoats, Strangulating Scarves, and Other Deadly Garments Throughout History was the sheer number of them that involved catching on fire. Wigs, artificial fabric, and shirt cuffs were all surprisingly flammable.

While (as a fan of weird cultural history) I had heard of many of these before, though, I hadn’t seen them expressed in such a charmingly grotesque manner. Each item gets a paragraph or two of description by Jennifer Wright, accompanied by an illustration by Brenna Thummler, who appears to be influenced by Edward Gorey. The black-and-white illustrations are made more morbid with touches of red for highlight and a short, four-line poem under each.

You’ve likely heard of, for example, Isadora Duncan, killed by her scarf (and shown on the cover), or the radium girls, or Chinese bound “lotus feet”, or lead used in makeup, and it won’t be a surprise that corsets or neckties can be dangerous, but I had no idea that when the top hat first appeared in 1797, it caused a riot.

Some of the history given is iffy. Although there are footnoted sources, many are internet articles, and a few pieces are wrong or misleading. For example, Wright writes of Jennie Jerome, Winston Churchill’s mother, “while wearing a brand-new pair of high heels, she slipped down a flight of stairs, falling to her death.” Except Wikipedia reports that the fall was in May 1921, and she died in late June of complications after an amputation caused by gangrene resulting from the broken ankle she suffered in the fall. I suppose that was too complicated to get into the 10-sentence page. I was similarly disappointed to see that Wright repeated the urban legend that Jean Harlow’s dyed hair was responsible for her death, based on an Atlantic article full of “maybe”s and “could have”s.

That said, this is a popular history, and in books of that type, I expect the better story to sometimes win out over the facts. Killer Fashion would make a wonderful gift for that teen interested in both fashion and death — of which there are more out there than you might imagine.

Killer Fashion is exactly what its title promises: A compilation of the most fashionable ways to die, accompanied by quirky rhymes and illustrations, just in time for the darker season. I was especially pleased by the wide definition of "fashion", including lethal makeup trends such as belladonna. Funny, informative and macabre, but nothing that hasn't been done before.

Killer Fashion: Poisonous Petticoats, Strangulating Scarves, and Other Deadly Garments Throughout History, by Jenifer Wright
👗👗👗1/2 (out of 5)
〰
"When London haberdasher John Hetherington first publicly debuted a top hat in 1797, onlookers were so terrified that it incited a riot. Women fainted, people screamed, and one young boy was trampled and left with a broken arm."
〰
This is a short book of historic anecdotes about people who died because of fashion. The usual suspects--hatmakers' mercury poisoning, giant flammable and rodent-infested wigs--show up, but there's also the disastrous top hat introduction referenced above, as well as death-by-crinoline and the dangers of wearing an underwire bra during a storm.
〰
Throughout, these brief entries are accompanied by Gorey-adjacent drawings with verses more concerned with end rhyme than meter.
〰
There's an extensive appendix which shows just how well-researched this little book is, and I appreciate its inclusion. It's nice to have documentation for stories that could easily be taken as urban legend.
〰
I received this book as a digital arcfrom netgalley
〰
#books #bookreview #bookstagram #reader #reading #fashion #killerfashion #fashionhistory

This is a mix of the specific (Isadora Duncan's scarf, Churchill's mum's new high heels) and the general (asbestos fibres, flammable wigs and bustles) but concentrates solely on fashion that injured or indeed killed either the wearer or the maker. Woodcut-styled illustrations and little bits of poetic doggerel add a certain facile whimsy, but don't really go far enough to counter the thought that, mucho research and footnotes aside, there's isn't really a great amount of book here. An entertaining novelty read, however.

I never knew that fashion could be so deadly. The history of the fashion is educational, but, the illustrations and poems make the book great. It's a quick read, so I don't have a lot to say about it. Honestly, I'm just glad I wasn't alive during some of these fashion trends.

I received a copy of this book from NetGalley for an honest review.
Author: Jennifer Wright
Publisher: Andrews McMeel Publishing
Publication Date: 21 Nov 2017

The author took me on a guided tour of clothing styles through the ages. So many fashions and accessories you could literally die for. Actually, from. Rich with illustrations that added luster to an already good read.

An interesting read, very well researched. Wonderful drawings too.

3.5 Short and quick, a nice insight into the history of fashion from 1700s onward, and how sometimes the price for beauty was deadly - literary. I'm sorry, but I just wasn't very impressed with it, although it had everything I like: lovable illustrations, morbid historical trivia and hidden killers of everyday life, to name a few. But, as I already knew all this or at least most of this before, the suprise factor failed. And when I realized that I know way more about Georgiana's wigs and all various styles, I understood that a couple of supposedly true things in here were, as a matter of fact, over-the-top hyperboles. Which was funny, but not quite fitting for a graphic non-fiction - and I do not mean to discredit author's research and effort that went into this by saying it.

Overall, this will surely appeal to the ones with not really big knowledge of history, and will probably react with the ones who hated history in school say: "Well, I was right, they were all mad people doing mad things after all!"

ARC from NetGalley, thank you kindly.

When I was a teenager, my goals were Wednesday Addams and Lydia Deetz, and I would have loved this book in my Christmas stocking. Who knew there were so many flammable fashions? Every other page is an item of clothing that makes you catch fire (some of them even self-ignite). Honestly, based on this I'm pretty surprised that all of humanity hasn't burned to death. If you're looking for a small Halloween present or Christmas stocking filler for a fashion student or any spooky-cute folk you know, this is ideal.

I adore short quirky non-fiction especially if there are illustrations so this little e-arc fits the bill perfectly. I love the illustrations and it was an extremely quick but interesting read even though I knew quite a lot of the information already (I watch too many documentaries). It was a quirky non-fiction that I'd definitely recommend!

Fashion can be deadly. There is no denying that. I have gotten many scarves caught on things or stumbled in my shoes. I am sure we all have had a mishap at some point and our clothes were partially to blame. Scarves plus car doors can definitely be a recipe for disaster. I once witnessed a man get his coat caught in a bus door and the bus started moving with him running next to it. That could have ended very badly if someone had not seen it and told the driver. Fashion has killer potential.

I just finished "Killer Fashion: Poisonous Petticoats, Strangulating Scarves, and Other Deadly Garments Throughout History" by Jennifer Wright. Many of the items discussed I knew about but some of them surprised me. It wasn't so much the fact that they were dangerous that surprised me but the fact that people still continued to wear or use them when they fully knew that they could die from it. I am currently thinking of all the deadly objects that are currently residing in my closet.

I received a free copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Any quotes that may follow are directly from the text and are not my words.

Isadora Duncan was RedPut on a scarf; popped off her head
Fashion is silly, thought Stein
It may tear your head from your spine

I am not quite sure what it says about me when I admit that I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I could not help but chuckle and smile when reading the little poems that accompanied the information. Historical incidents for deadly objects and insidious habits are shown throughout this work, demonstrating the amount of research performed by the author. The illustrations and poetry definitely add a comical component to a very macabre subject.

My morbid curiosity led me to this book and I am glad it did. I highly recommend it.

Brevi quadri che, in maniera vivace e con l'aiuto di illustrazioni ironiche e originali, illustrano alcuni dei terrificanti pericoli (e più che pericoli, spesso: veri e propri danni) della moda attraverso i secoli.
Letale a volte per chi la produceva, a volte per chi la indossava, a volte per chi, innocente, passava accanto a damigelle e signori alla moda.
Purtroppo per chi come me ha letto il dettagliatissimo (e inquietantissimo!) Fashion victims di Alison Matthews Davies questo volumetto, superficiale e poco approfondito, ha ben poco interesse, se non per le originali illustrazioni.

This book is so fun, combining the macabre and dark side of fashion trends with Edward Gorey-esque art and limericks, truly it was a book after my own heart. I love the art and the snippets of information, also really appreciate the massive sources section that allows me to find out more about these interesting bits of history.

This was a fun book detailing a lot of the horrible [and sometimes downright stupid] ways that people have endangered themselves for the name of fashion. I enjoyed the illustrations, the entries were short and informative, and there's even a bibliography in the back if you want to do some more reading. However I've got two complaints with this. The first is kind of nit-picky but I would have liked for the fashions to be in something resembling chronological order so we could see more of the evolution of one thing to another rather than just random entries.

The second is that while I know this was just supposed to be a short fun work I feel like there could have been some entry in the front or back about how even though there are a few fashions in here specific to men 'killer fashion' is mostly a gendered phenomenon and is rooted both in seeing women as more decoration than actual people and in some cases even purposely restricting their movements to make it harder to exert / defend themselves physically. I feel like this is an important thing to touch on when talking about this kind of history even in a work like this and was a bit put off that it wasn't even mentioned in passing.

"One only has to give a dress of Chardonnet silk to your mother-in-law, she approaches the fire, she burns, and you are rid of her."
A delightfully & charmingly gruesome dictionary that proves the adage 'beauty is pain'! The illustrations & couplet rhymes between each entry are nothing short of adorable, and there's a lot of knowledge packed into the entries themselves. Everyone knows about the deadly reputation of corsets, but what about crinolines causing women to fall off cliffs by getting caught in gusts of wind? Or that influenza was once nicknamed 'the muslin disease'? Truly, my only complaint about this book is that's it does not last longer!

Without preamble, Jennifer Wright jumps right into the world of fashion and it's lesser know causes of violence and death.
With whimsical drawings and little rhymes, Wright manages to make the macabre less depressing and very interesting. You'll learn about death due to scarves, high heels and more. Don't believe here? Check the sources!
Interesting and darkly fun, Killer Fashion is a gift for every fashionista!