Judge — March 14, 1891 — page 16: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This Judge magazine page satirizes emerging 1910s-era fashion trends reported from Paris. The central figure, labeled as Sarah Bernhardt (the famous French actress), models exaggerated "Cleopatra costumes" that will allegedly become fashionable—an absurd prediction satirizing Paris's influence on American fashion. The surrounding vignettes mock other predicted trends: embroidered dresses, elaborate hats, trains for street wear, and excessive accessories. The satire targets how American women blindly follow French fashion pronouncements, no matter how impractical or ridiculous. Text annotations add humor—noting that "long pants and big sleeves are all the go," that "ladies' collars will be very high," and that "dress suits will be very much embroidered"—exaggerating real trends to comedic extremes. The overall message: Paris dictates absurd fashions that Americans enthusiastically adopt.