Life, 1927-01-27 · page 22 of 35
Life — January 27, 1927 — page 22: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This satirical cartoon mocks the "balloon sleeve" fashion trend of the 1890s. The joke depicts a shy young man ("timid swain") attempting to compliment or court a woman wearing the exaggerated puffy sleeves popular in that era. The humor lies in the practical problem these enormous sleeves created: they were so voluminous that when the couple stood close together, the woman's sleeves literally prevented the man from reaching her or expressing affection—he must "stuff" the sleeves to get near her. The cartoon satirizes both the impracticality of extreme fashion trends and the awkwardness of courtship etiquette in the 1890s, where physical contact was heavily restricted by social convention. The balloon sleeve, intended as fashionable, ironically became a physical barrier to romance.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
The Gay Nineties TIIE BALLOON SLEEVE PASHION WAS A GREAT BOON TO THE YOUNG LADY WITIL A TIMID SWAIN. STAY TONGUE-TIED F you are looking for something which reads along smoothly without cither insulting your in- telligence or provoking much speeu- lation as to its prize-winning or selling significance—and if the sup- ply of such fiction did but equal the demand !—I can commend to you two recent Dutton publications, “The Pacer,” by Viola Paradise, and “The Rebel Bird,” by Diana Patrick. FOR IT WAS INDEED A HOP AFTER SS CASE IP COMPLYING WiTit SLEEVES IN.” Life and Letters “The Pacer" is about a Chicago girl who worked in a pickle factory and married the boss. She had been adopted as a baby by a. spinster dressmaker (who runs through the story in an unobjectionable, wise- cracking character part), at whose physical collapse she was foreed to deave school for the canning depart- ment. Soon the lovely Judith was putting on more tops than any of ART COULD MANAGE TO THE REQUEST, “PLEASE STUFF MY the other girls, and almost in less time than is required to tell it was being taken out to luncheon by Mr. Gunner, Marriage followed swiitly, and in the Blackstone Hotel, at that. Judith’s social experience was of the slightest, but she possessed that in- nate refinement with which lady authors love to endow their niccly- on-the-make heroines. — Something told her that the (Cont. on page 28) cond H dep A barr Case sunt whic copy Like son, Wab dD } tnont read com comicbooks.com