Consumptive Chic : A History of Beauty, Fashion, and Disease

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”. This study discusses the social space occupied by tuberculosis (consumption) during the late eighteenth and first half of the nineteenth century, as well as its reciprocal impact on both the individual and the social body. During this period, there was a tubercular moment in which cultural ideas about beauty increasingly intertwined with the disease process to allow for the ravages of consumption to be presented in an aesthetically pleasing light. This curious convergence of disease and aesthetics was not just the product of literary minds but was also reinforced in the works of medical men, and those concerned with social instruction. There was a persistent and influential notion that tuberculosis, in its middle and upper class incarnations, was a disease not only identified by the existence of beauty but one that also conferred beauty upon its sufferer. Thus, tuberculosis was rationalized as a positive affliction, one to be emulated in both beauty ideals and fashion. Yet there was a contradiction, since both fashions and the way of life of fashionable society were thought to “excite” the disease in upper and middle-class women who inherited a predisposition to the illness and whose inherent feminine character rendered them more susceptible to the activation of that predisposition. The favorable associations between consumption and aesthetics permitted the widespread flouting of admonitions against the fashions and practices believed to cause the disease. Day investigates the practical application of this rhetoric and the ways in which tuberculosis became idealized, feminized, and incorporated into contemporary fashions and beauty practices. 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'.;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. Introduction : Constructing tuberculosis ; The social context ; Scholarly construction of tuberculosis -- The approach to illness : Tuberculosis mortality ; Anatomico-pathological approach to disease -- The curious case of consumption: a family affair : Contagious? ; The constitution ; Palliate rather than cure -- Exciting consumption: the causes and culture of an illness : The personal environment: status symbol ; Ephemeral causes of consumption ; Nervous consumptives ; Civilizing consumption -- Morality, mortality, and romanticizing death : The consumptive performance: resignation in the face of death ; Romanticizing consumption ; The illness intelligence ; Consumptive Keats -- The angel of death in the household : That sentimental feeling: feminizing consumption ; Consumptive marriage ; The reproductive body ; Sensibility and feminine character -- Tragedy and tuberculosis: the Siddons story : A beautiful predisposition ; That lothario Lawrence ; The decline of Maria ; A beautiful ending? -- Dying to be beautiful: the consumptive chic : From corpulent to consumptive chic ; Fashionable illness ; Sentimental beauty -- The agony of conceit: clothing and consumption : Classical consumptive and the dangers of fashionable life ; Consumptive corsetry and romantic fashion ; Tubercular and tight the sentimental way -- Epilogue : The end of consumptive chic -- Concluding the fashion "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'."--Page 4 de la couverture "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.