I. Read the article quickly. Find the information about:

1. clothes which caused serious digestive problems

2. clothes which were banned in a UK school

3. two items of clothing normally associated with women but which men wore

4. a type of make-up which destroyed people’s faces

5. a famous woman who was killed by an article of clothing

6. a year in which comfortable shoes were designed

Clothes to Die for

1. “Put fashion second and your health first, because your legs have got to last you all your life, whereas a fashion will disappear in five minutes.” This was said by a doctor, after a British headmaster banned his pupils from wearing platform trainers. He was worried that they would break their ankles.

2. The problem is that in many cases the more fashionable something is, the more uncomfortable or even dangerous it is to wear. Perhaps the earliest fashions ‘to die for’ appeared in post-revolutionary France. Women then wore thin linen dresses, which they had to wet to make them take on the shape of their bodies. Then they went out in all kinds of weather with the wet clothes on. The result was a new illness, linen flu, which led to many deaths. In Victorian times the corsets were so tight that most women had severe digestive problems, while wide dresses regularly caused the death of fashionable young women. As they walked past open fireplaces, their dresses often caught fire, and nobody could get close to them to put the fire out.

3. Men have had to put up with discomfort, too. The 17^th century men in Europe wore heavy wigs (still worn by the lawyers today), tight corsets and high-heeled shoes. But little can compare with the heavy ruffs worn at that time. It was really difficult and even dangerous to try to move the neck.

4. In the 18^th century the zinc-based make-up used to whiten the faces left the skin destroyed by the time the people were 30. And women wore their hair so dangerously high that they had to kneel down to get into the carriage.

5. In the 1920s men’s trousers, called Oxford bags, were so wide that men often tripped over in them, just like hippies in their flares 50 years later. To try to cycle in them was to risk an injury. Isadora Duncan was strangled by her beautiful long scarf, high fashion at the time, which was caught in the wheel of her sports car.

6. Probably the part of the body that has suffered most through history are the feet. For centuries shoes were straight. They were agony. It was not until 1865 that shoes were designed for right and left feet!

7. So the discomforts and dangers we put up with today are nothing compared to some of the killers from the past. And anyway, as a famous French designer once said, “Real fashion – it’s agony, but it’s always worth it.”

II. Read the text again carefully. Translate p.P. 2, 5, 6 and 7.

III. Match the phrasal verbs from the text and their equivalents.

put up (with)	to leave the house/to attend social functions
take on	to bear, not to protest
go out	to assume (form, appearance)
put out	to catch one’s foot
trip over	to stop smth. from burning