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

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...