Judge — May 14, 1921 — page 1: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# Analysis This Judge magazine cover from May 14, 1921 features a stylized portrait of a woman wearing an enormous, egg-shaped hat and a black bow at her neck. The caption reads "A Cucumber and Nec(k)tarine Salad." The satire appears to target **extravagant women's fashion**, specifically the absurdly oversized millinery that was fashionable in the early 1920s. The wordplay in the caption—substituting "nectarine" for "necktarine" (neckwear)—creates a food pun, though the connection between the title and the absurd hat size remains the primary joke. This reflects a common satirical theme of the era: mocking women's increasingly impractical and outlandish hat designs, which were considered both ridiculous and wasteful by critics.