The Pleasures and Perils of Dress in the 19th Century

"From the challenges faced by those who produced fashionable dress to the risks taken by those who wore it, this exhibition provides thought provoking insights into what it means to be a fashion victim."

The dress and shoes below were made by mixing a deadly combination of arsenic and copper to make a colourfast green dye.

The photo below shows the terrible damage suffered by those who mixed it.

See the beaver fur hats made using mercury and the shoeshine boys and embroiderers who laboured for a pittance to make and maintain the footwear of the wealthy at the Bata Shoe Museum in Toronto.