Les dames du Bois de Boulogne, photographs by Jacques-Henri Lartigue

Detail of below.

As a vague reference to Easter and the celebrated New York Easter parade and the sometimes outrageous "Easter bonnet", I thought I'd share these photographs of terribly chic Parisian ladies promenading in the Bois. From what I'm able to tell, they were taken by the great Lartigue in 1911 and 1912.

Detail of above.

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Though, in deference to my "vague" Easter theme, I should be most concerned with the ladies' imaginative - and sometimes downright frightening - chapeaux, I find I'm quite distracted by what comes at the other end of the trop maquillée lady - if indeed she may be called that - who begins this post. Under the insane hat and under all the paint she may be what - in rather archaic American parlance - might be called a battleaxe, but she is nonetheless beautifully shod. Lovely feet.