Judge — January 20, 1912 — page 17: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This vintage Judge illustration depicts a woman in an elegant black coat and fashionable hat holding a man's arm while walking. The caption "A Total Eclipse" is a visual pun: the woman's elaborate, oversized hat completely obscures the man's face and head from view—he is literally "eclipsed" by her headwear. The satire targets early 20th-century women's fashion, specifically the trend of extremely large, ornate hats that dominated the era. The joke mocks both the impracticality of these garments and the social dynamic where a woman's fashionable display could completely overshadow her male companion. It's a lighthearted commentary on vanity and the sometimes absurd extremes of contemporary fashion trends.