Earthquake fashions of the 18th century
Responding to Emily’s suggestion, today’s post is about Earthquake fashion. Like everything else, fashion and textiles are affected by natural disasters. Trade routes are interrupted, industries are destroyed, or moved. Fashions change and developed in response to earthquakes. This post is also meant to celebrate the resilience and fortitude of countless unnamed people across the centuries who have picked up, sought to “bury the dead and heal the living”, and rebuilt their lives and their cities, through an exploration of how the things closest to them, their clothes and textiles, changed in response to the changes in their life. For an interesting look at earthquake fashion let’s look at the 1755 Lisbon Earthquake. In terms of human life, this was the most devastating earthquake ever recorded, and it probably had the most profound effect on society. The massive chaos of the earthquake, and the resulting tsunami and fires, sparked the transition from the baroque to the rococo styles in Spain and Portugal, and prompted the philosophical writings that led to the Enlightenment. Hundreds of …