Consumptive chic : a history of beauty, fashion, and disease / Carolyn A. Day.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Day, Carolyn, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Tuberculosis--Social aspects.

Tuberculosis.

Tuberculosis--History.

History.

Clothing and dress--Health aspects--History.

Clothing and dress.

Clothing and dress--Health aspects.

Tuberculosis--history.

Medical Subjects:

Tuberculosis--history.

Genre:

History.

Physical Description:

x, 189 pages, 32 unnumbered pages of plates ; 26 cm

Other Title:

History of beauty, fashion, and disease

Place of Publication:

London ; New York : Bloomsbury Academic, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, 2017.

Summary:

During the late 18th and early 19th centuries, there was a tubercular 'moment' in which perceptions of the consumptive disease became inextricably tied to contemporary concepts of beauty, playing out in the clothing fashions of the day. With the ravages of the illness widely regarded as conferring beauty on the sufferer, it became commonplace to regard tuberculosis as a positive affliction, one to be emulated in both beauty practices and dress. While medical writers of the time believed that the fashionable way of life of many women actually rendered them susceptible to the disease, Carolyn A. Day investigates the deliberate and widespread flouting of admonitions against these fashion practices in the pursuit of beauty. Through an exploration of contemporary social trends and medical advice revealed in medical writing, literature and personal papers, Consumptive Chic uncovers the intimate relationship between fashionable women's clothing, and medical understandings of the illness. Illustrated with over 40 full color fashion plates, caricatures, medical images, and photographs of original garments, this is a compelling story of the intimate relationship between the body, beauty, and disease - and the rise of 'tubercular chic'.

"During the late 18th and early 19th centuries, there was a tubercular moment in which perceptions of the disease consumption (tuberculosis) became inextricably tied to contemporary concepts of beauty, playing out in the clothing fashions of the day. With the ravages of the illness widely regarded as conferring beauty on the sufferer, it became commonplace to regard tuberculosis as a positive affliction, one to be emulated in both beauty practices and dress. While medical writers of the time believed that the fashionable way of life of many women actually rendered them susceptible to the disease, Carolyn A. Day investigates the deliberate and widespread flouting of admonitions against these fashion practices in the pursuit of beauty. Through an exploration of contemporary social trends and medical advice revealed in medical writing, literature and personal papers, Consumptive Chic uncovers the intimate relationship between fashionable women's clothing and medical understandings of the illness. Illustrated with over 40 full color fashion plates, caricatures, medical images, and photographs of original garments, this is a compelling story of the complex connections between the body, beauty, and disease --and the rise of tubercular chic"--Back cover.

Contents:

The approach to illness

The curious case of consumption : a family affair

Exciting consumption : the causes and culture of an illness

Morality, mortality, and romanticizing death

The angel of death in the household

Tragedy and tuberculosis : the Siddons story

Dying to be beautiful : the consumptive chic

The agony of conceit : clothing and consumption

Epilogue: The end of consumptive chic

Concluding the fashion.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Local Notes:

Athenaeum copy: Erpf Fund bookplate.

ISBN:

9781350009370

1350009377

9781350009387

1350009385

OCLC:

970681974