Existing comment:
Waistcoat (France), ca. 1790
This waistcoat is teeming with insect life. Small butterflies float between floral sprigs, blue dragonflies adorn the pocket flaps, furry caterpillars crawl along branches, and menacing-looking stag beetles take flight along the bottom edge. In her memoir, author Lady Elizabeth Craven recalled a visit to Lyon in 1785, where she reacted in horror to a new waistcoat design with "great sprawling butterflies." Also notable was the shrug of the salesman who remarked that "novelty was everything." |