"Monstrosities of 1818", an October 3rd 1818 caricature by George Cruikshank exaggerating the latest style trends. For women, this was a trend towards a conical silhouette (as opposed to the narrow clinging skirts of the ca. 1797-1815 period) and large bonnets -- and for men, extremely tall cravats at the neck, narrow tails of the tailcoats, and the wearing of male corsets(?). By an old caricaturists' trick, the women's skirts are shown shorter than they would have been in real life. The men walking fully arm-in-arm was reasonably common and socially acceptable at the time.

Edited from image http://memory.loc.gov/master/pnp/ppmsca/07800/07806u.tif on the Library of Congress website. The raw TIFF has now been uploaded to Wikimedia Commons as File:Monstrosities of 1818.tif.

Bibliographic information found on the LoC site:

TITLE: Monstrosities of 1818 / G. Cruikshank fect.

CALL NUMBER: PC 3 - 1818--Monstrosities of 1818 (B size) [P&P]

REPRODUCTION NUMBER: LC-DIG-ppmsca-07806 (digital file from original print) No known restrictions on publication.

SUMMARY: Print shows unusual clothing styles in men's and women's fashions, particularly dresses and hats.

MEDIUM: 1 print : etching, hand-colored.

CREATED/PUBLISHED: [London] : Pubd. by G. Humphrey, 27 St. James's Strt., 1818 Octr. 3d.

CREATOR: Cruikshank, George, 1792-1878, artist.

RELATED NAMES: Humphrey, G., fl. ca. 1820, publisher.

NOTES: Title from item. Forms part of: British Cartoon Collection (Library of Congress).

SUBJECTS:

• Clothing & dress--England--1810-1820.

FORMAT: Satires (Visual works) British 1810-1820. Etchings British Hand-colored 1810-1820.

PART OF: British Cartoon Collection (Library of Congress)

REPOSITORY: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA

DIGITAL ID: (digital file from original print) ppmsca 07806 http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/ppmsca.07806