Some of history's most fashionable choices were also among its most lethal, including arsenic-dyed dresses, lead-based cosmetics and radioactive hairstyles, according to an opinion piece by a fashion academic.
Naomi Braitwaite, an associate professor of fashion at Nottingham Trent University, wrote that the desire to keep up with the latest trends sometimes leads people to sacrifice health and comfort for the sake of style.
She noted that modern trends have already caused their wearers considerable suffering, citing compression underwear that squeezes internal organs, thin flat-soled ballet flats and oversized tote bags as current examples.
Even so, Braitwaite described those modern discomforts as innocent trifles compared to the fashion choices of past centuries, some of which she said proved truly deadly.
