The Rage, or Shepherds I have lost My Waist

Isaac Cruikshank uses the text of a song to comment on the current fashion for high-waisted dresses. A tall handsome young woman extends her right hand dramatically, as though singing, watched by a short, stout companion who wears a hat and holds a fan as she looks up at her companion. Both wear short-waisted dresses and have partly uncovered breasts. A voluminous scarf is swathed round the neck of the singer with the ends tucked into her waist. Two ostrich feathers adorn her hair and she has large earrings. Her right hand is extended, as if indicating that she refuses the jellies and tartlets brought by liveried footman. On the wall at left there is a portrait of a lady dressed in the fashion of ca. 1740, whose wide hooped petticoats, corseted torso and lace apron offer a contrast with the skimpy garb of the women in 1794. The title, and verse below, repeat a common critique of the new fashion–that it did away with defined waistlines and seemed to erase women's bodies below the bust.