Sponge cake trend

Let’s take a look back in time before we look ahead. Fashion for French women in the 18th century was extreme: they had big dresses, narrow waists, pale skin and high hair. This was neither easy nor healthy.

Toxic makeup

Back in the day, pale skin was a sign that you were rich – the paler, the richer. Ladies made their skin paler by mixing egg whites, vinegar and different kinds of toxins. They applied it on their skin, but the skin got injured. You could also get really sick. Still, people smeared another layer on top to hide the damaged skin. It was dangerous for those who had it on, but also for the men who kissed the women on the cheeks.

Hairstyles with butter and sugar

When the waist and face were done, all that was left was the hair. The hair had to be big and high. Artists made huge wigs for women to wear. The wigs were made from hair, sugar and butter, which was mounted around long metal sticks. They were often decorated with combs, flowers and birds. They were very expensive, so people had them on for weeks without washing them. They smelled really bad, so they put on a lot of perfume to make them smell better.

Rats in your hair?

Rats and mice found the wigs tasty. To stop them from eating the wig during the night, many built a cage where they could lay their head and hair at night. Sleeping with your head in a metal cage with rats running around couldn’t be nice. This was in addition to oxygen loss and  stomach trouble from the corset, and poisoning and sores from the make-up. No pain no gain, right?

Your dress is on fire!

Now that the skin, hair and underwear were on, it was time for the dress. The dress was made up of many layers of fabric and was really big and heavy. To make it even bigger they wore several underskirts. It was heavy and hot. Some people invented a replacement for the underskirt in metal. The metal cage, however, turned the skirt into a pipe. If you came close to a candle or a fireplace, the dresses made the fire spread quickly. The huge dresses also made it easy to be caught by the wind, and be blown off cliffs.

Challenging collars

Men also had health problems following fashion. Like the ladies, they wore big wigs and had pale skin. At the end of the 19th century, it became popular for men to wear shirts with high and stiff collars. These collars were named “father killers.” The collar was so high and tight that if you bent your head forward, your throat tightened, and you could be strangled by the collar.

⬅ Sir Walter Raleigh (1552–1618) was a poet, writer and explorer, and one of the most famous profiles of the Elizabethan era (the time when Elizabeth I was Queen of England, 1558–1603).

Today’s fashion

Today’s trends are less extreme than before. But some trends can be unhealthy or dangerous. For example, in 2010, the artist Lady Gaga showed up in a dress made of meat at the MTV Music Awards. Celebrities, such as Kim Kardashian, get a lot of criticism for the way they have changed their looks in photos, and many movie stars use cosmetic procedures to look younger. Many color their hair and change their clothes to follow the latest fashion, and want to fit in with the trends.