Reverie, by Hubert Denis Etcheverry, c. 1930. © RMN-Grand Palais / Art Resource, NY.

Fashion

Volume VIII, Number 4 | fall 2015

Miscellany

A Japanese shogun in 1615 attempted to eradicate the popular fashions of the kabuki-mono, young men from the fringes of samurai communities who favored long hair with shaved foreheads and temples, large swords with showy red scabbards, imported velvet collars, and short kimonos with lead weights sewn into the hem. “Clothing should not be confusing,” stated a new samurai dress code.

Fashion, n. A despot whom the wise ridicule and obey.

—Ambrose Bierce, 1911

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The Colosseum, attributed to Robert Eaton, c. 1855.
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DÉjÀ Vu

Monumental Mistakes

2023:

Fitness instructor carves his girlfriend’s name into the Colosseum.

c. 1850:

Thompson of Sunderland makes his mark on Pompey’s pillar.

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