Le Vrai et le Faux Chic, Musée des Erreurs, Page 6

Sixth 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 two illustrations of female figures, one wearing a long, purple dress with a gray bow belt, black high heels, a large, white fur scarf and matching fur muff with an animal head, and a large, black headdress with a scrolling antena, and the other wearing a gray Hobble skirt with matching jacket with two layers of ruffles and fur neckline, and a fur muff, colored with black and brown, black high heels, and a large, purple headdress with two short antennae with white fur puffs. There is a smaller figure of a female head, outlined with gray, wearing a large headdress with a fur puff in front.

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.