Victims of Fashion: Animal Commodities in Victorian Britain by Helen Louise Cowie

Abstract

Victims of Fashion takes a heartfelt and engaging look at the role of animal-based commodities in Britain from 1800 to 1914. Its breadth, which spans fashionable goods made from birds’ feathers, seals’ furs, elephants’ ivory, alpacas’ wool, perfumes made from civets and musk deer, ambergris made from sperm whales, and bear grease made from bears’ fat, as well as its focus on the domestication and maintenance of exotic pets, astutely showcases the extent to which empire sourced and commodified other species for Edwardian and Victorian luxuries. The work significantly extends its concerns beyond Eurocentric humans to examine a wide range of issues: the ecological impact that collecting and transporting these commodities had on indigenous populations and their originating landscape; how solutions to these ecological devastations often revolved around domestication or relocation to the Americas, Britain, or other colonies; the role of new technologies in making these commodities more accessible to middle- and working-class populations; and the engendered, imperial, professional, and lay conversations that developed around how, when, and where to regulate and maintain these commodities.Using archival research from newspapers, scientific treatises, and articles in the contemporary press, Cowie traces the connection between science, empire, economy, and fashion, discussing how the growing concerns and discourse of these fields affected people’s relationships with the animal world. Moving beyond the technological advancements of the Industrial Revolution, the chapters focus on Victorians’ multifaceted and shifting attitudes toward nature and sustainability as they began to acknowledge their contribution to the Anthropocene. Including the professional opinion and research of contemporary scientists and engineers in these debates, “Victims of Fashion explores the contribution of science and technology to the production of animal commodities and the subsequent role of science in the preservation of wildlife” (13).The first and last chapter pay crucial attention to suppliers’ deceptive tactics to protect, brand, and market their sales. Chapter 1 is especially illuminating in its quantified attention to the lucrative trade of plumage. Fueled by fashion, many humanitarians decried the slaughter of animals not hunted for consumption. In response, milliners blamed the demand of high society, especially ladies of fashion. Chapter 5 adopts this same focus with perfumers, emphasizing the conflict that many women felt, either to behave as nurturing mothers or to participate in society’s latest fashions. This tension appears throughout Cowie’s work in her relatively unbiased coverage of accountability between consumer and supplier.The middle chapters insightfully reveal the predicament of seals and elephants hunted for their fur and ivory, respectively, as well as the arbitrary parameters placed on their protection. Both species were in drastic decline, resulting in conservation that placed limits on hunters and enforced closed seasons and borders to protect these species enough to recover their numbers. However, Cowie astutely notes that such borders did not cater to migration patterns but to political agendas, often overlooking how easily these species could enter dangerous and unmonitored territories. At their very best, these efforts proved precariously successful, and at their very worst, offered a harsh blow to the local economies that attempted to maintain their position in an increasingly imperial market. Cowie deepens her analysis of this political and racial tension in her discussion of Peruvian and Bolivian alpacas. The decline in these species’ health and the overwhelming fatalities that they incurred while transported overseas was often attributed to the working class who handled them or to the supposedly inferior care provided by indigenous populations. Attempts to refine these animals’ breeding and increase the fertility of British landscapes further showcases the racist and imperial agenda that operated alongside animal exploitation.The last chapter focuses on another contentious exploitation of animals—the cultivation of exotic pets. Threading together the varying degrees of awareness and affection provided by human owners, concerns within the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (rspca), and legislative loopholes, Cowie brings her expansive overview to a close by emphasizing the significance of this multifaceted network of animal commodities in the Edwardian and Victorian Eras and updating the plight of these species. Her ability to trace a network of fashion, economy, empire, class, gender, science, conservation, and legislation makes Victims of Fashion a necessary contribution and a friendly introduction to the intersection of Victorian and Critical Animal Studies.