New World Order

The onset of the Pandemic forced luxury houses to produce protective clothing for frontline workers and general populations to wear face masks. But as history shows us, fashion has always been shaped by the medical emergencies of its time.

- Mitchell Oakley Smith

In 1619, the French medical doctor Charles de Lorme designed a special uniform for doctors treating plague patients. Comprising a long coat, gloves, boots, a wide-brimmed hat and a wooden cane, typically all in black, the distinguishing feature of the priest-like uniform was the bird-like mask. With its six-inch beak and glass eye holes, the resultant appearance of the doctor was utterly terrifying—which explains why it’s often worn today as a Halloween costume—not least for the fact that it indicated to the patient that you were likely close to death.

It seems ridiculous to us today, but Lorme’s concept was not altogether ridiculous. Medical science was, at the time, pretty nascent—the Black Death killed millions through the 14th century before the plague outbreaks of 17th century Europe—and he and others in his profession postulated that germs were spread by odorous air. Herbs and flowers were thus installed within the beak of the mask, the idea being that through purification the attending doctor would be protected from the plague. Of course, a bouquet of mint and carnation didn’t stop the plague from its onward march, however it was the full body covering of the uniform that did, in fact, protect the doctors from another form of transmission: through the bites of fleas and rodents.