A short break for fluff

[sartorias]

If you like kittens . . .

And today's culture test:

When you look at the below caricature of French fashion of the 1770s, do you think . . .

Comments

[readinggeek451]

All of the above.

[sartorias]

Me too!

[queenoftheskies]

I love the kittens. I saw them earlier; they made my day.

The French fashions remind me of something from a SF movie.

[sartorias]

Those fashions got caricatured a lot. They remind me of boys' pants hanging off their butts: the fashion looks ridiculous, and yet it persists for more years than one would ever have guessed.

[steepholm]

I think of the craftsmen who devoted their lives to making hair pitchforks.

[sartorias]

How about the perruquieres who had to construct these fashion accoutrements?

[negothick]

That's right, all of whom lost their livelihood after the Revolution. I've heard that Paris' restaurant boom came about when all those aristo's chefs became superfluous. What happened to the perruquieres?

[sartorias]

Probably hid out, along with the lace makers and the like, until Napoleon decided he couldn't finance his army without getting industry going. (Though wigs stayed out of fashion)

[sartorias]

Wow! That is fascinating.

[genarti]

Cuttlefish.

[sartorias]

Heh!

[genarti]

I think it's the smooth front of the lady's giant wig -- it just looks so much like a mollusc of one sort or another!

I recognize all the pop culture allusions, although only two of them have been popular in my lifetime, but none of them were what sprang to mind first.