FASHIONS OF THE DEMI-MONDE ARE HERE!

Nigel has been chuntering away regarding the fashions for the Demi-Monde: I'm aiming these plates as being the Section dividers in the third Demi-Monde book 'Summer' and thus far we've got two Sectors completed: Quartier Chaud and NoirVille. The great thing is that Nigel's managed to capture the 'feel' of Victorian plate-work: these look as though they've come from 1870, the era that the Dupes in the Demi-Monde are trapped in.

The Quartier Chaud is the Sector that has embraced the religion of ImPuritanism - the hedonistic pursuit of pleasure as the creed's followers search for JuiceSense, the ultimate orgasm. They believe that only by achieving this will they be able to commune with their deity, ABBA. Their fashions mirror this rather sexy outlook on life and as the QC is made up primarily of Mediterranean stock with Venice pre-eminent then it will come as no surprise that the wearing of masks is de rigeur.

I think Nigel has captured the spirit of the organised depravity that's rife in the QC. Maybe the cod piece is a tad too optimistic but other than that it's spot on. And I like the nipple tassel...I hadn't thought of that so I'll have to write them in during the edit of 'Spring'.

NoirVillian fashions were more difficult. This Sector's a mix of African and Arab Dupes and the religion is HimPerialism, which celebrates male supremacy and the subjugation of women - or as they are called in NoirVille, woeMen. NoirVillian men are obsessed with bodybuilding as they strive to achieve the perfection of form prescribed by ABBA in NoirVille's holy book, the HIM Book. Father Peter Polykleitos’ has developed [Father Peter Polykleitos: ‘The Kanon: A Man’s Guide to a Heavenly Body’, Firm&Frisky Periodicals] has expounded his theories regarding the mathematical bases of aesthetic bodily perfection. These he has replicated in his famous sculpture ‘ABBA’ which is his representation of Man’s ultimate physical perfection incorporating as it does the idealised symmetria of all parts of the male body.

Polykleitos’ ‘ABBA’ has been declared to be ‘divinely inspired’ by the Church of HimPerialism and is now cited as the aspirational model of the male bodily for all devout HimPerial Men. That this form may only be achieved by much strenuous exercise is believed to have been ordained by ABBA as a means by which Men might prove their faith. As His Grace, Mohammed Ahmed al Mahdi has said [Mohammed Ahmed al Mahdi: ‘Transcendental BodyBuilding for Beginners’, Jerk Your Way to Heaven Books]: ‘by your sweat, ABBA will know you’.

And as for woeMen - poor sods - they have to subscribe to the tenets of subMISSiveness, which involves them being at all times Mute, Invisible, Subservient and Sexually modest. And one of the means by which this is achieved to to have them dress in a MISSqa an all-enveloping robe.