ration: 1926]

The plate dated 1920 exhibits a very gorgeous and yet altogether simple
set of garments for the male of that period. We are told that the upper
portion was of crimson plush, and the lower part of a delicate pink,
with white stockings and orange boots. It were well had the leaders of
fashion stopped at this, but it would appear that either their thirst
for novelty was insatiable or the Hysterical Wave too strong for them,
for in the incredibly short space of six years fashion had reached the
stage depicted in the following plate. Yet, even then, the depth of
folly and ugliness does not appear to have been sounded, for three years
later, in 1929, we are favoured with a plate of what is presumably a
husband and wife on their way to church or perchance upon a shopping
excursion. The lady is evidently looking archly back to see if anybody
is observing what a consummate guy her spouse is making of himself, for
with all her sartorial short-comings she has certainly the best of the
bargain. The prudes, too, seemed to have gained their point, for the
skirt is considerably less scanty in the region of the ankles.

[Illustration: 1929]

This skirt seems to have been rather a weak point with our posterity of
the female persuasion, for in the next three or four plates we find it
rising and falling with the habitual incorrigibility of a shilling
barometer. The Oriental influence is easily traced in the fashions from
1938 to 1945, but it cannot but make the judicious grieve to note that
trousers seem to have been adopted by the women at the same time that
they were discarded by the men.

[Illustration: 1935]

[Illustration: 1938]

A further detail which might interest the student concerns the revival
of lace, which transpired so early as 1905. Curiously enough, this
dainty adjunct to the attire had fallen into desuetude among women. More
curiously still, it remained for the sterner sex to revive it. For it
was in that year that the backbone of stiff white collars and cuffs was
broken. A material being sought which would weather the existing
atmospheric conditions, it was yielded in lace, which continued in vogue
for at least two generations.

[Illustration: 1940]

[Illustration: 1945]

If we look for the greatest donkey in the entire collection, it is
obvious that we shall find him in the middle-aged party of 1936, who is
gadding about in inflated trunks and with a fan in his hand. If it were
not for the glo