This interdisciplinary study examines the intersection of nineteenth-century fashion, colonialism, and biological specimen collection. Through the lens of material culture, we explore how accessories featuring animal parts—such as beetle elytra, feathers, and furs—became symbols of wealth and power for middle- and upper-class Europeans and Americans. Our analysis begins with two artifacts from the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum: a handscreen featuring jewel beetle elytra and peacock feathers, and a fabric sample embroidered with beetle wings from India. These objects reflect how nineteenth-century society sustained imperial systems and exploited animal life through women’s fashion and through the collection practices of natural history as it developed into modern zoology. By examining the biography of objects—combs, bonnets, jewelry, or entire dresses—we contextualize their histories and cultural significance within nineteenth-century society. Commodification of animal parts, for fashion or collection, spurred the conservation debate at the end of the nineteenth century. At the same time, women of the leisure class performed their status with fashion fads. Through animal attire and adornments, they acted as both agents and objects of colonial wealth. What women wore became a source for tensions between privilege, social performance, and ecological exploitation.