Le Vrai et le Faux Chic, Musée des Erreurs, Page 2

Second 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 an illustration of an extravagantly-dressed couple, a man and a woman, both wearing Oriental inspired costumes: the man wears a tunic, a turban, and holds a cape with tassels hanging from his back, and the woman wears a Hobble skirt and a turban; both are rendered with shades of gray. To their right stands a woman with a Hobble skirt and jacket with a transparent, short overskirt, decorated with lines of fur, executed with shades of brown, green and gray, and black-and-white boots. The woman holds a fur muff on her left arm and a large, Ottoman-inspired hat, colored with shades of brown and black, and looks at the couple with a monocle that she holds on the right hand.

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.