 Fashion has long played a role in social distancing, says historian Hinov Rabinovich Fox. Clothing has been used by people to maintain their personal space. For example, during the bubonic plague, doctors wore pointed bird masks as a way to keep their distance from sick patients. But health concerns aren't the only reason for stay away fashion. For the most part, clothing has been used to create distance between genders, classes, and races. Take the Victorian era, crinoline. This was the peak of high society fashion in the mid-19th century. Those big skirts acted as barriers between women and the men that might try and harass them. But they probably also helped protect women from smallpox and cholera, too. Crinolines could be their own health hazard, though. A lot of women burnt to death after those voluminous skirts caught fire. In the 1890s and early 1900s, large hats and, more importantly, hat pins offered women protection from harassers that crinolines once gave. But as the 20th century progressed, women traded big skirts and hat pins for political rights, economic power, and legal protections to fight social injustice. Unfortunately, the tools of social progress don't work so good against biological attackers. With the rise of germ theory and a better understanding of hygiene, though, masks became a useful fashion item during times of modern pandemics. One fashion consequence of the 1918 flu was the use of hats to hold masks in place. In the current crisis, face masks are the most widespread fashion accessory to tell people to stay away. Other than the face mask, it still isn't clear if the coronavirus will lead to new styles and accessories. Who knows, when this is over, we might all be wearing scrubs to go along with our face masks.