Misperceptions

[tealin]

There's a local mall that runs advertising campaigns on bus ads. While I was stopped briefly at a bus shelter, I saw the text at the top of one ad that read 'You have spats, You have makeups, We Have Everything'. This puzzled me ... I knew what spats were (the coverings typically of men's shoes, popular in the nineteenth and early twentieth century) and I knew what makeup was, but why did they pluralise it? Seemed a weird or possibly ESL thing to do. It wasn't until the bus pulled further forward and I saw the picture on the ad, of a young couple apparently enjoying themselves, that it dawned on me I had gotten it all wrong. If I had gotten that advertising copy, I would have done a poster like the one you see above, clearly demonstrating my romantic illiteracy. (But it's a lot funnier ... especially because they probably don't have that kind of spats at the mall.)

I am a costuming geek. Or would be if I knew more about it.

Comments

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

... should wear spats all the time ...

[disneyboy.livejournal.com]

What else would men wear (in your world)? Vests with pocket watches? Top hats? Derbies? Fedoras? Caps? Monocles? Cravats? Twisty moustaches?

[tannhaeuser.livejournal.com]

[disneyboy.livejournal.com]

OK, I was freaking out a little before I realized you were quoting someone else - a "young man (circa 1905)...in my brother’s cast-off frock coat and trousers, neither of which fitted me, and a top hat"?? I knew you were a little old-fashioned, but...!
I thought that all of this actually was making a comeback of sorts when "Benny and Joon" came out, but I guess it was only among alternative-cinema art students. Oh well.