Life — April 13, 1905 — page 11: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# "Our Ice Climate" This satirical cartoon depicts three figures in early 20th-century dress observing a woman in an elaborate fur coat and fashionable hat. The title "Our Ice Climate" appears to mock the fashion trend of wearing expensive furs as winter wear among wealthy women. The two men in bowler hats and coats represent conventional observers, while the extravagantly dressed woman—rendered in bold, expressive line work—embodies the excesses of upper-class fashion. The satire likely critiques either the impracticality of such ostentatious dress or the class disparity it represents. The cartoon's style and subject matter are typical of Life magazine's social commentary on American manners and fashion during the early 1900s. The artist's signature appears lower right.