Le Vrai et le Faux Chic, Musée des Erreurs, Page 5

Fifth page of illustrated section, "Musée des Erreurs" (Museum of Errors), of book with color lithography illustrations, titled "Le Vrai & le Faux Chic" (The True and False Chic), written and illustrated by SEM [Georges Goursat], and published in Paris in 1914. The page contains three illustrations of female figures. The first figure wears a Hobble skirt that almost looks like trousers, decorated with fur on the bottom, a shirt and jacket with fur neckline, high heels, and a turban with large feathers in front, and holds a cane under her arm, all executed with shades of gray. The second figure wears dress made up of a white shirt with cape, decorated with gray spades in the cuffs and back, decorated with hanging small, orange tassels on the back and black fur around the neck, and a green Hobble skirt with a loose crease, and an orange tassel-shaped bag, white high heels and gloves, a large, orange headdress, and glasses. The third figure presents a three-quarter bust of a woman wearing a large, square-shaped hat with antennae, colored with black and gold, and a large fur scarf, colored with white and gold.

The set of illustrations titled "Musée des Erreurs" (Museum of Errors) provides a number of examples of the "false chic" that SEM criticizes, through caricature in both the written commentary and the illustrations, in his book, which consists of a title page, 2 leaves with advertisements, 40 pages text and illustrations (17 pages compose the illustrated section "Musée des Erreurs"), and 2 leaves with advertisements, not bound and kept in a blue slip case with the original white paper covers, embossed and gilded. SEM argues that disorder that reigns the fashion industry of the time. Fashion, he argues, is no longer reserved for specialists, and appeals for the collaboration of painters, artists and writers alike. It is an "eminently French" phenomenon, which lives especially in Paris, although it has become a sort of vice by the time he writes: fashion has become disorganized and ever-changing due to the influence of a group of people who lack discipline and control. This has led to a number of extravagances that reflect on the irrational choices in the costumes and headdresses of women and the complicated and excessive outfits worn by Parisian women.