“Penitential and Self-Mortifying”: Mourning Crape in Fashion

Abstract: In 2014, while preparing for the fashion exhibition “Death Becomes Her: A Century of Mourning Attire” organized by the Costume Institute (CI) at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the author, who was then the CI’s head conservator, encountered a question. Was the material being displayed toxic? This question arose upon discovering that nineteenth-century periodicals cautioned against wearing mourning crape, which is a crispy, crinkled, and dull black silk fabric worn in the first stages of Victorian mourning. According to these sources, mourning crape was poisonous. Seeking answers, the author would soon find out that, indeed, there was something to those warnings after all. In fact, an investigation into Victorian mourning crape reveals the incongruous story of a wretched and dangerous fabric that rose to the height of luxurious fashion. This article recounts this tale by exploring the history and materiality of English mourning crape to provide insight into both the macabre meaning of the fabric and the dreadful experience of wearing it.