Life — September 29, 1921 — page 9: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# "The Milliner (at the Zoo)" This cartoon satirizes women's fashion, specifically the early 20th-century trend of using feathers and bird parts in women's hats. The milliner (hat-maker) observes ostriches at the zoo, admiring their plumage while lamenting it's "wasted on a lot of silly birds." The joke targets the absurdity of the fashion industry's demand for exotic feathers—women wore elaborate feathered hats as status symbols, driving demand for ostrich plumes and other bird materials. The cartoon criticizes both the wasteful practice and the vanity it represents, suggesting feathers would be "better used" adorning fashionable hats rather than the birds themselves. This reflects growing early-1900s conservation concerns about bird populations being decimated for the millinery trade.