Le Vrai et le Faux Chic, Musée des Erreurs, Page 11

Eleventh 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 illustrations of three female figures: The first wears a long, pink dress with ruffles and a white shirt neckline, fastened with a thin, black belt around the waist, black high heels, a large, black and gray fur muff, and a red hat with black and gray feathers. The second, shown from behind, wears a purple dress or coat with a brown fur scarf and belt, a brown-and-black fur muff, and a cone-shaped, black headdress with white feathers. The third figure shows a side-portrait of a woman's head, her lips colored with red, and her eyes and head covered by an elongated, black headdress with black feathers, and her shoulders covered by a white fur scarf.

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.