A Most Beguiling Accomplishment

this Youtuber best known for (very funny!) videos mocking luxury fashion brands posted a video about the history of "poverty-core" fashion

I was immediately concerned

her thrust was the Consumptive Chic quasi-myth (ARGH NO BAD), but she followed it up with "women were literally taking poison to look like this." End Video.

thing is, if she was talking about what I think she was talking about. it IS an example of Poverty-Core! just a different, more commonplace kind of Poverty-Core!

in 1851, Johann Jakob von tschudi published an article in a Vienna medical journal documenting a village in Styria where the inhabitants took small, regular doses of arsenic. this practice, he claimed, made the women's complexions beautiful (in what way, he didn't specify). cue cosmetics companies in cities jumping on this idea and producing "arsenic complexion wafers"

this ad also specifies that the wafers are free of certain abortifacient herbs. just in case ladies think it's that kind of coded Female Irregularity ad. fascinating

note that these ads generally tout the product as "safe." the idea, not so foreign to us today, was that a tiny dose of a dangerous substance could have a beneficial effect. Botox, anyone?

...except not like Botox, exactly, because a Boston medical journal tested some popular brands in the 1870s and found that they were mostly dried lactose with no detectable arsenic. womp womp.

Oh For the Simple Country Life :3 was a really common kind of Poverty-Core in the 19th century! and it was being used to scam people into buying products they thought contained poison, with only a random ad's assurance that the products were safe! this Youtuber could EASILY have talked about that and been 100% factually correct!

In a 1942 interview, high-end Montreal dressmaker Florine Phaneuf recalled a gown she had created for the character of the wife of a Venetian doge at this ball. Valier was the only such character, and his wife’s published costume description corresponds to this dress, leading us to its owner, Hylda Hodgson, and identifying it as one of Phaneuf’s favourite creations. Source

Roller Printed Day Dress

c. 1815

Roller Printed Day Dress

c. 1815

Roller Printed Day Dress

c. 1815

Fashion plate 667 from Le Follet and the Court and Lady's Magazine Magazine united, unsigned.

Modes de Long-champs.

Chapeau en Pou de soie garni de dentelle des Mins. d'Alexandrine.

Capote en Gros de Naples — Chale en Organdi brodé de laine. Echarpe en tulle application de Mins. de Mme. Poller, r. Richelieu, 95 — Fleurs et Aigrettes de Chagot frères

~~~~~

English description from The Court Magazine and Monthly Critic, pages 368 & 369:

No. 8. Toilettes de Promenade. — Fashions for Long-Champs. Hat of pink poux de soie; the front large, coming low at the sides, where it is rounded off, low crown, trimmed with rich satin ribbon and blonde; a bouquet of white lilac is placed at each side, under the front of the bonnet. Dress of gros de Naples, plain, low corsage, tight sleeves, the bottom of the dress ornamented with three flounces. Arab Mantelet. — This we give, not for its beauty exactly, but to convince our fair readers that we give them the newest fashions, whilst still only adopted by the French court, consequently, months before such articles are to be seen commonly worn in Paris, or displayed in the shop windows. This mantelet or shawl, may be made of cashmere, satin, velvet, or even clear muslin for summer. At back, it has the appearance of a shawl, the point descends low, it is sloped out at the neck, so as to fit without a wrinkle: a small collar, rounded at back, adds much to its appearance; the shape of the mantelet in front can be easily cut from our plate. The guirlande, all round, is embroidered in floss silks or worsteds.

La Mode, 16 mai 1840, Paris. Redingotte de Foulard de Gagelin Opigez façon de Mlle. Moismont. Robe de mousseline. Gants Mayer, Passage Choiseul. Fleurs de Fauconnier. Capote et mantelet d'organdie borde de dentelle. Sous jupes d'Oudinot Lutel. Bonnet d'Angleterre et tablier de Me. Lassalle. Robe de mousseline, capote, et mantelet d'organdie bordé de dentelle expédiés par la Maison de Commission Lassalle, 28 rue Taitbout. Digital Collections of the Los Angeles Public Library

Can we bring back 18th century hairstyles?

Sudha Reddy at the 2026 Met Gala

Hyderabad is not just my origin; it is a language, a rhythm, a way of being. Through this look, I aspired to translate that sensibility into a form that could exist effortlessly on a global stage while remaining deeply rooted in the South Indian imagination.

The Tree of Life, envisioned by Manish Malhotra in collaboration with Mariel Haenn, becomes the central metaphor an unfolding of time, memory and continuity. Drawing from the storytelling traditions of Kalamkari, it is reinterpreted here as something sculptural and alive, where every thread holds a fragment of history. This ensemble is not about nostalgia, it is about evolution. A 3,000-year-old textile tradition is recontextualized through form, texture, and movement: sculpted velvet, antique gold zari, and intricate zardozi come together to create something both archival and immediate. The motifs Palapitta, Jammi Chettu, Kalpavriksha, Tangedu, Surya, Chandra, Kalpa are not merely decorative; they are markers of identity, fragments of home that travel with me. What moves me most is the human touch behind it all. Thousands of hours, countless hands, generations of knowledge woven, embroidered and shaped into a single moment. For me, this is what costume art can be: not just adornment, but a living archive. A way of carrying heritage forward not as something fixed, but as something that continues to grow, transform, and speak. Tonight, I arrive not just wearing a story, but continuing one.

Gwendoline Christie in Giles Deacon, homage to The Viscountess of Poilloue of Saint-Perier by John Singer Sargent

Luke Evans in Alejandro Gómez Palomo, homage to the works of Tom of Finland

Amy Sherald in Thom Browne, homage to Miss Everything by Amy Sherald

Venus Williams in Swarovski, homage to Venus Williams, Double Portrait by Robert Pruitt

Hunter Schafer in Prada, homage to Mada Primavesi by Gustav Klimt

Gracie Abrams in Chanel, homage to Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I by Gustav Klimt

Yu-Chi Lyra Kuo in Jean Paul Gaultier, homage to Winged Victory of Samothrace

Angela Bassett in Prabal Gurung, homage to Girl in a Pink Dress by Laura Wheeler Waring

Rachel Zegler in Prabal Gurung, homage to The Execution of Lady Jane Grey by Paul Delaroche

Evening dress ca. 1823-24

Journal des Dames et des Modes, Costume Parisien, 20 avril 1824, (2230): Chapeau de gros de Naples orné de giroflée de mahon. Robe garnie de remplis de satin. Collection of the Rijksmuseum, Netherlands

Kaga-Yuzen Kimono