How Illnesses Affected Fashion

I am currently home in my comfy clothes writing this article as the TV show I was working on has been paused due to COVID-19. While sitting at home I was wondering what this pause would mean for costumes, clothing, and fashion, and what other viruses and illnesses have done to affect fashion throughout history. (Fitting no?)

Smallpox

Smallpox has been around since the 6th century according to the CDC. It is identified by the flat rash it spreads on the skin. It usually starts near the mouth and as it spreads it turns into very unpleasant filled bumps. It usually leaves those infected with pitted scars where the bumps used to be. 
​During the 1600s small decorative patches made out of silk, leather, or cotton were plastered to the face to "hide" imperfections, especially pockmarks. Many women and men kept these patches or "beauty marks" in small decorative boxes to then be attached to their faces with a form of glue. This fashion trend started in France but took hold in other European countries. Although "beauty marks" were great to cover up small scars and marks, you had to be careful. If you plastered them ALL to your face you'd be too overt, if you placed just one or two, too bleh. You needed to be Goldilocks and and find the amount that was "just right".
These small decorative patches went out of style along the same time that the smallpox vaccine became widely available and administered which was roughly in 1798. Although those "beauty marks" fell out of fashion, recently jewels, stickers, and face jewelry have become more wide spread. After knowing origins of these patches one can't help being reminded of it when they see the odd holographic face sticker.  

18th Century fabric patches or "beauty marks" from the Wellcome Library, London

This box held rouge and "beauty marks" for its owner ca. 1750 -Met Museum Online Collection

These modern "beauty marks" or face stickers can be purchased at many clothing or makeup stores.

Tuberculosis

Portrait of a Girl-Ferdinand Georg Waldmuller 1840

In the Victorian era Tuberculosis (disease caused by bacteria that attack the lungs and is spread through the air) was an epidemic in Europe and the US. The disease was romanticized and many of their beauty standards emulated those with Tuberculosis. It was seen as feminine; brought about due to nervous sensibilities, and if you were beautiful you were predisposed to the disease! 
Victims were thin, "swan like" some references state. Thinness was achieved through long tight corsets that make the wearer thin, not curvy as later corsets did. Necklines were low to show off any thinness and any visible bones, especially shoulder blades. The almost translucent skin was mimicked by fashionable ladies paining on blue veins with "makeup".  Pale complexion was highly prized as were dilated eyes. (Some used deadly nightshade drops to make their eyes bigger. You can read about it here.) The nickname for the fashion was "consumptive chic" with tiny waists, lighter skin, and colored cheeks.

Smallpox and Tuberculosis are just two examples of how diseases have affected fashion throughout history. There are many other epidemics and illnesses that have changed the way we dress.  Maybe I'll research a few more in the future for part 2 if I end up having to extend my social separation. Stay safe and healthy. Don't forget to was your hands!

References:

• CDC.GOV
• Smithsonian Magazine
• Consumptive Chic by Carolyn A. Day
• Survey of History Costume by Phillis G. Tortora and Keith Eubank
• Collectors Weekly
• Why'd They Wear That? by Sarah Albee