Life — February 5, 1914 — page 23: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This illustration depicts a social scene at what appears to be an upscale establishment (suggested by the decorative vases and refined furnishings visible in the background). The caption "Joints Going Out" combined with the text "Corsets! Worn much longer this season" suggests satirical commentary on fashion and social venues during the Prohibition era. The drawing likely mocks the tension between changing women's fashion (looser, shorter corsets) and lingering Victorian formality. "Joints" was slang for illicit speakeasies during Prohibition. The humor appears to target how establishments catering to fashionable crowds were becoming outdated or "going out" of style, possibly while corset manufacturers ironically promoted longer styles—a backward trend contradicting the era's modernizing fashion sensibilities and increasingly relaxed social norms for women.