The Arcades Project - Operi

Des d:lmesrl'un demi·montle J mms n'aynnl pasde demi.jnpes .
J mms n'aynnl pasde demi.jnpes .
Fashionable courtesans wearing crinolines. Lithograph by Honore Daumier, 1855. The
caption reads: "Ladies of the demi-monde, but having no demi-skirts." See B2,2.
A knit scarf-a brightly striped muffler-worn also, in muted colors, by men.
[B2a,4]
F. Th. Vischer on the men's fashion of wide sleeves that fall below the wrist: "What " What
we have have here here are are no no longer longer arms arms but the the rudiments rudiments of of wings, wings, stumps stumps of of penguin penguin
wings, fish fins. The movement of these shapeless appendages appendages resembles the gesticulations-theticulations-the
sliding, sliding, jerking, jerking, paddling-of paddling-of a a fool fool or or simpleton." simpleton." Vischer, Vischer,
I.'Verniinftige I.'Verniinftige Gedanken Gedanken weI' die die jetzige jetzige Mode," Mode," p. Ill. [B2a,5] [B2a,5]
Important political critique of fashion from the standpoint of the bourgeois:
"When the author of these reasonable opinions first saw, boarding a train, a
young man wearing the newest style of shirt collar, he honestly thought that he
was looking at a priest; for this white band encircles the neck at the same height
as the well-known collar of the Catholic cleric, and moreover the long smock was
black. On recognizing a layman in the very latest fashion, he immediately understood
all that this shirt collar signifies: '0, for us everything, everything is oneconcordats
included! And why not? Should we clamor for enlightenment like
noble youths? Is not hierarchy more distinguished than the leveling effected by a
shallow spiritual liberation, which in the end always aims at disturbing the pleasure
of refined people?'-It may be added that this collar, in tracing a neat little
ure of refined people?'-It may be added that this collar, in tracing a neat little