The Wasp — 1879 — page 414: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This is a fashion illustration rather than political satire. It depicts two women in formal Victorian reception wear, labeled as "Venetian style" costumes. The accompanying text discusses fashion trends and the pineapple as a luxury commodity in England—contrasting colonial fruit cultivation with metropolitan fashion consciousness. It compares women's fashion sense to artificial fruit, suggesting both are valued for appearance over substance. The illustration shows elaborate dark dresses with decorative elements typical of 1880s formal wear. The text appears to critique how wealthy society women adopted fashionable styles from London and Paris while perhaps lacking deeper substance, using the pineapple metaphor to suggest superficiality in taste and judgment among the fashion-conscious elite.