Bandage

Bandage (pronounced ban-dij)

(1) A strip of soft cloth or other material used to bind up a wound, sore, sprain etc, or as a protective compression device to prevent or limit injury.

(2) Anything used as a band or ligature.

(3) To bind or cover with a bandage; to put a bandage on a wound, sprain etc, or as a protective compression device to prevent or limit injury.

(4) In fashion, a type of dress, distinguished from similar styles by the use of knitted fabrics.

(5) Figuratively, by extension, a provisional or makeshift solution that provides insufficient coverage or relief (also as band-aid solution).

1590-1600: From the Middle English bandage (strip of soft cloth or other material used in binding wounds, stopping bleeding etc), from the sixteenth century French bandage, from the Old French bander (to bind), from bande (a strip).  The verb bandage (to dress a wound etc, with a bandage) dates from 1734 (and was implied in bandaging).  Bandage is the spelling in Danish, Dutch, German, English & Swedish but other languages localized the French including Norwegian Bokmål (bandasje) Polish (bandaż) & Turkish (bandaj).  The spelling in the constructed Esperanto is bandaĝo.  Bandage is a noun, verb & adjective, bandaged & bandaging are verbs (used with & without an object) and the noun bandager does exist although use seems restricted to first-aid manuals.  Other words used in similar vein include dressing, gauze, plaster, swathe, truss, compress, bind & wrap.  The noun plural is bandages.

The noun compress, (in the surgical sense of "soft mass of linen or other cloth to press against some part of the body (with the aid of a bandage)”), as an adaptation from the earlier verb, evolved in the 1590s in parallel with bandage.  In earlier use, the noun ligament (band of tough tissue binding bones) was a late fourteenth century creation from the Latin ligamentum (a band, bandage, tie, ligature), from ligare (to bind, tie), from the primitive Indo-European root leig- (to tie, bind) and in the medical literature, ligamental, ligamentous & ligamentary still occasionally appear.  One technical term from medicine which seems extinct is the verb deligate (to bind up, bandage), noted since 1840 (and implied in deligated), from the Latin deligatus (bound fast), from deligare (to bind fast), the construct being de- (from the Latin dē-, from the preposition dē (of, from); the Old English æf- was a similar prefix) + ligare (to bind).  Under the Raj, the noun puttee (long strip of cloth wound round the lower leg as protection by soldiers) enjoyed a evolution in spelling typical of many words in British India, patawa in 1875, puttie by 1886 and the modern puttee finally (more or less) standardized by 1900).  The source was the Hindi patti (band, bandage) from the Sanskrit pattah (strip of cloth).  The noun fascia did have a brief career in medicine, being from the Latin fascia (a band, bandage, swathe, ribbon), derivative of fascis (bundle (which as fasces became a familiar form in the twentieth century)).  In English, the original use was in architecture, the anatomical application not noted until 1788 and it’s now also a familiar form in botany, music, astronomy and interior design, most obviously in cars.  The noun bandeau (headband), now much associated with revolutionaries (and in fashion the emulation) dates from 1706, from the French bandeau, from the twelfth century Old French bandel & bendel (bandage, binding), a diminutive of bande (a band, a strip).  As a style of women's top or bra, it was first described in 1968 and is distinguished from similar styles in being of a rectangular cut, the hems forming two horizontal lines above and below the breasts.

The bandage dress

Although the motif of what is called the bandage dress is clearly identifiable in depictions of women which pre-date antiquity, the creation of the modern commercial product is credited to the 1980s work of Tunisian couturier Azzedine Alaïa (1935-2017) but it is with French designer Hervé Peugnet’s (1957–2017) fashion house Hervé Léger that the style is now most associated.

Charlotte McKinney (b 1993), 2018.

The bandage dress is a specific interpretation of the earlier, figure-hugging bodycon dress, the name originally a contraction of "body conscious" which the industry would later morph into "body confidence" in reaction to criticism and in Japan, they were marketed as ボディコン (bodikon), a spelling better suited to traditional pronunciation in Japanese.  What distinguished bandage from bodycon was the fabric, the former made not with anything woven, engineered instead to compress with machine-knitted material, the completed panels left uncut and assembled to created the finished item.  Bandage dresses thus, although truly suitable for only one body type, because of the compression effect of the knitted fabric, do (slightly) extend the parameters of the silhouette which can be accommodated while still being aesthetically successful whereas bodycon dresses made from fabrics which merely cling rather than smooth out imperfections rely on an ideally formed frame.  For that reason, the jocular slang “body compression” was sometimes used to describe this sub-set of the bodycon, the bandage dress working like externally worn shapewear, corset-like in effect if not quite an actual exoskeleton.

Lindsay Lohan (b 1986), 2008.

Hervé Léger in 1992 first displayed the bandage dresses which would come to be the style’s definitive look; instantly popular, they were a red-carpet staple well into the twenty-first century.  Still a big seller, the bandage dress in 2015 migrated, via the twittersphere, from the fashion section to the front page when the comments of Patrick Couderc (b 1961, then managing director of Hervé Léger's British distributor, MJH Fashion), were published.  In an interview with the Daily Mail on Sunday, Mr Couderc made it clear he’d prefer it if some women would avoid buying Hervé Léger’s most famous creation, those on the proscribed list including lesbians, those beyond a certain age and anyone with a less than ideal silhouette.

There was an element of classism too in his critique as he lamented the bandage dress as a victim of its own success, too many now seen on the wrong-shaped customers and worse still, they were often cheap knock-offs of the £1,300 (US$1603) originals and thus increasingly associated with reality TV stars and those working in hair salons.  Admitting dryly “you can be a victim of your success”, his comments seemed to echo those reported earlier in the century by the distributers of a high-end cognac and the Maybach, Daimler-Benz’s ill-fated mistake in thinking what was needed was a brand above Mercedes-Benz which for almost a century had been good enough for presidents, popes and potentates.  Then the complaint had been that drink and car were finding favor with hip-hop & rap stars and this most interpreted as an expression of concern the association with people of color might “cheapen the brand”.  Mr Couderc didn’t comment on skin color but told The Mail he refuses to give free dresses to celebrities if they are “judged to lack sufficient class”.

Clearly a student of the interplay of sociology and economics, he allowed his mind to wander wide, recalling that he’d “...never go out to dinner if she’s not wearing tights.  I think hosiery is something which is very magical in my world and I’m veering off into complete poetry now.  But it’s a social statement because in the 1980s, the difference between someone who was wearing tights and someone who was not was very significant.”  Clearly nostalgic for a time when the poor were less inclined to get ideas above their station, he added that then, “...whoever was wearing tights was working in a private office in a bank in St James’s and whoever was not wearing tights was coming to work as a shampooist in a High Street hairdresser, commuting from Croydon.  We were living in a time where the distinction between the two social strata was much more significant than today”.  How he must long for that vanished, pre-1945 world, when folk from Croydon were deferential to their betters.

Salma Hayek (b 1966), 1998.

The attitude was hardly unique in the industry, Abercrombie & Fitch early in the century re-built into a highly profitable company using a model former CEO Mike Jeffries (b circa 1944) described in a 2006 interview as “exclusionary” noting their clothes were a product in which “a lot of people don’t belong and they can’t belong.”  That really wasn’t an unusual business model but it was rare for a CEO so bluntly to state the obvious and, when the comments were published in 2013, Jeffries issued a apology saying "We are completely opposed to any discrimination, bullying, derogatory characterizations or other anti-social behavior based on race, gender, body type or other individual characteristics".  Also controversial was a later comment, attributed in 2013 to (an unnamed) Abercrombie and Fitch district manager.  It’s said the person being interviewed requested anonymity so the statements have never been verified but it was reported that when asked how the company responds to non-profits asking for donations of discontinued clothing to be given to the poor and homeless, the reply was “Abercrombie and Fitch doesn’t want to create the image that just anybody, poor people, can wear their clothing. Only people of a certain stature are able to purchase and wear the company name”, to which he added they would rather “burn the clothes” than risk them being seen on the backs of the poor.  Again, while rarely discussed, the practice of destroying rather than discounting or giving away unsold or discontinued items is widespread in the industry.

Speaking at Hervé Léger’s boutique in Knightsbridge, Central London, the like-minded Mr Couderc wasn’t entirely lacking in empathy, noting “You women have a lot of problems. You will lose the plot.  You will come and you will put a dress on and you’ll be in front of the mirror, like, ‘Argh, I’m so fat’”.  “Yes, you have a 12th of an inch around your stomach, it’s not really a disaster, and what you’re not noticing is that your cleavage is about two inches too low because you are 55 and it’s time that you should not display everything like you’re 23.”  At this point he did concede the particular virtue of the bandage dress was it could in such cases “provide useful support” but that didn’t mean he approved.

How a Hervé Léger bandage dress should hang.

He’d clearly thought about things, his advice to lesbians (presumably young or old) that “if you’re a committed lesbian and you are wearing trousers all your life, you won’t want to buy a Léger dress.  Lesbians would want to be rather butch and leisurely.”  Warming to the topic, he went on to say “voluptuous” women (most drawing the inference he meant "not slender") and those with “very prominent hips and a very flat chest” should wear something else, adding the handy hint that women must not wear underwear that was too small, because “the knicker line cuts through the flesh and goes through the other side of the dress” thereby creating the dreaded “visible panty line” (VPL).

Hervé Léger’s Moscow store.

Quite what he thought the reaction to his comments would be isn’t recorded but while his views may not much have changed since the 1980s, much of the rest of the world now has the means to respond en masse and what should have been the foreseen twitterstorm quickly gathered, #boycottherveleger & #wecanwearwhateverthefuckwewant soon trending.  Doubtlessly fearing the wrath of blood-thirsty lesbians, those not slender, chav shampooists and women of a certain age, Max Azria’s BCBGMAXAZRIA Group (which in 1998 had acquired Hervé Léger), went immediately into crisis management mode, issuing a statement saying they were “...shocked and appalled by Patrick Couderc’s comments made in the Mail on Sunday.  BCBGMAXAZRIA Group is working in concert with MJH Fashion, the London-based licensee of the Herve Leger brand, to investigate and establish appropriate next steps. The statements made by Mr. Couderc are not a reflection of Herve Leger by Max Azria or MJH Fashion ideals or sentiments.”  The Herve Leger by Max Azria brand celebrates sensuality, glamour and femininity without discrimination.”

Less than twenty-four hours later, MJH Fashion confirmed Mr Couderc was no longer employed by the company.  Max Azria (1949–2019) in 2016 ended his connection with BCBGMAXAZRIA and its associated companies and in 2017 the group filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, the intellectual property rights and assets later acquired by the Marquee Brands division of the Global Brands Group.  Bandage dresses remain popular.

Ombre

Ombre (pronounced om-brey)

(1) A gradual blending of one color to another, usually a blended shifting of tints and shades from light to dark within the range of one hue but it can also be applied when using contrasting hues.

(2) A card game of Spanish origin, dating from the late seventeenth century; played usually by three, it uses a deck of forty cards, the 8, 9 & 10 discarded and gained the name from the phrase “Soy el hombre” (I am the man), uttered at critical points during play.  As a fashionable game, it was superseded by quadrille.

(4) A large Mediterranean fish (Umbrina cirrosa), popular in cooking (archaic and better known as the shi drum, gurbell, sea crow, bearded umbrine or corb).

1840–1845: From the French ombré (shadowed, shaded), past participle of ombrer, from the Italian ombrare (to cover in shadow (in painting)), ultimately from the Latin umbra (shadow).  The name of the card game (as a reference to the player who attempts to win the pot) was from the French hombre, from the Spanish hombre (man), from the Latin homo, from the earlier hemō, from the Proto-Italic hemō, from the primitive Indo-European ǵm̥mṓ (earthling), from déǵōm (earth), from which Latin gained Latin humus (ground, floor, earth, soil).  It was cognate with the Old Lithuanian žmuõ (man), the Gothic guma and the Old English guma (man).  The link between the words for both earth and man wasn't unique to Latin and existed also in Semitic languages, illustrated by the Hebrew אָדָם‎ (adám) (man) & אֲדָמָה‎ (adamá) (soil).  Ombre is a noun & adjective (and conceivably a verb); the noun plural is ombres.

Ombre chiffon strapless bridesmaid dress from Dollygown (left) and Mansory’s Ferrari F8XX Spider Tempesta Turchese (right).  There seems no clear agreement about when a "bridesmaid dress" becomes a "bridesmaid gown" and most retailers avoid the latter term, presumably to avoid compressing relativities between "bridal gowns" and what the bridesmaids wear.

Mansory is a German operation based in Tirschenreuth, Bavaria, the core business of which is the modification of high-priced (mostly European) cars.  Their signature approach is the celebration of conspicuous consumption and they eschew subtlety in favor of an eye-catching appearance, a focus being “one-off” (the “one of one philosophy” as they describe it) creations where a particular combination of colors and modifications are not duplicated on another vehicle.  So, while not exactly bespoke, their products are about the closest thing possible to actually displaying a price-tag somewhere on the bodywork, their output said to have achieved high sales Russia, China, the Middle East and India; Mansory's work with specific components, notably carbon-fibre, is renowned in the industry as state-of-the-art and of the highest standard.  One recent one-off creation was the F8XX Spider Tempesta Turchese (Turquoise Storm), a variation of their modified Ferrari F8 Spider on which the ombre color scheme transitioned gradually from a specially blended white to a vivid turquoise, accented by Mansory’s traditional set of forged carbon-fibre pieces in black.  The company also modifies the 3.9 liter (238 cubic inch) twin-turbocharged V8, its output increased by some 22% to 868 bhp (648 kW) which propels the Tempesta Turchese to a top speed of 220 mph (355 km/h).

Lindsay Lohan in vintage Herve Leger bandage dress, Maxim Hot 100 Party, Gansevoort Hotel, New York City, May 2007 (left) and 1976 PDL Ford Mustang II, Baskerville Raceway, Tasmania, Australia, 1977 (right).

Incorrectly, ombre sometimes is used to describe color arrays or schemes where a variety of distinct shades are applied with a clear line of division between each and this is wrong because the ombre effect is one in which there's a gradual blending of one hue into another.  Where the multi-color (which can be just two) layers are distinct and differentiated, designers use the generic term “color block” to refer to the use of solid blocks of contrasting or complementary shades.  A special case is the “rainbow stripe”, applied to an array which recalls the pattern (not necessarily the curved shape) of a rainbow but this need not follow the classic (ROYGBIV) color model.  Indeed, an array of colors which in nature would never be seen in a rainbow can still be called “rainbow stripe”, based on the pattern. So, Ms Lohan's bandage dress is in rainbow stripe while the Mustang II's livery is in a color block scheme. 

1974 Ford Mustang II.

Although of the seven generations it's the least fondly remembered, commercially, the Mustang II (1973-1979) was a great success.  Smaller and lighter than what its predecessor had evolved to become, serendipitously, it had been released just weeks before the first oil shock began on 17 October 1973.  It's sometimes forgotten the shift in the US to also produce smaller cars pre-dated the oil crisis of the 1970s and was a reaction to changing public tastes and success of imported cars, most notably those from Japan.  Upon debut, the Mustang II surprised some (and appalled others) because a V8 engine wasn't even on the option list but it was the right car at the right time and a great success although it's the only Mustang not to have some sort of following in the collector market.

1976 PDL Mustang II.

The PDL Mustang II was a space-frame race car built in New Zealand in 1976 to conform to the commendably liberal rules which at the time applied.  So extensive were the modifications from the donor vehicle that any relationship with the actual Ford Mustang II wasn’t even skin deep and it used one of the rare, aluminum-block Ford 351 cubic inch (5.8 litre) Cleveland V8s.  It replaced the original PDL Mustang  which was based on a genuine 1970 Mustang Boss 429 which had been stolen and recovered without its valuable engine and transmission.  Purchased for what was in retrospect the bargain price of US$500, it was actually a good basis for a circuit racer because Kar Kraft (the specialist operation to which the build of the Boss 429 programme (1969-1970) was out-sourced) was compelled to widen the front track to accommodate the big 429, something which, when fitted with an iron-block 351, greatly improved the handling.  Both cars enjoyed much success but so radical were the modifications to the Mustang II that eventually it was compelled to wander the planet to find events where the organizers were prepared to let it run.  When it was unleashed, it was fast, loud and spectacular and made a good case for there being more Formula Libre races.  That case can still be made.

Butterfly

Butterfly (pronounced buht-er-flahy)

(1) Any of numerous diurnal insects of the order Lepidoptera, characterized by clubbed antennae, a slender body, and large, broad, often conspicuously marked wings which are typically closed when the creature is at rest (the adjectival form is lepidopteran).

(2) A person who moves effortlessly from one social situation to another, usually as “social butterfly”.

(3) Someone perceived as unserious and (originally) dressed gaudily; someone flighty and unreliable; a bolter (common between the seventeenth & nineteenth centuries; now archaic).

(4) In competitive swimming, a racing breaststroke, using a dolphin kick, in which the swimmer brings both arms out of the water in forward, circular motions.

(5) In carpentry, as butterfly joint (or wedge), a type of joint or inlay used permanently to hold together two or more pieces of timber, either as something aesthetic (usually with a contrasting color of timber) or merely functional (also known as the bow tie, dovetail key, Dutchman joint, or Nakashima joint).

(6) In sculpture, an X-shaped support attached to an armature.

(7) As butterfly arm, the swinging brackets of a butterfly table.

(8) In film editing, a screen of scrim, gauze, or similar material, for diffusing light.

(9) In cooking or the display of food, to spread open in halves what is being prepared, resembling the wings of a butterfly (the chef’s term being butterflied).

(10) In financial trading, the simultaneous purchase and sale of traded call options, at different exercise prices or with different expiry dates, on a stock exchange or commodity market; historically a combination of four options of the same type at three strike prices giving limited profit and limited risk.

(11) In medical & surgical dressings, a prepared bandage or the use of surgical tape, cut into thin strips and placed across an open wound in a manner which resembles the open wings of a butterfly, holding it closed.

(12) In mathematics and geometry, any of several plane curves that look like a butterfly and known as butterfly curves (transcendental & algebraic).

(13) In chaos theory and the discipline of alternate (counter-factual) history, as butterfly effect, a single event or random change in an aspect of the timeline seemingly unrelated to the primary point of divergence, resulting from the event.

(14) In automotive design (also used on certain airframes and nautical vessels) a style of door hinged from the A pillars (the windscreen frame).

(15) In engineering, a term applied to a number of fittings (butterfly valve, butterfly clamp, butterfly nut) with some resemblance to the open wings of a butterfly.

(16) As a motif, a widely use shape in fields such as architecture, stained glass, visual art and industrial design.

Pre 1000: From the Middle English buterflie, butturflye & boterflye, from the Old English butorflēoge, buttorflēoge & buterflēoge.  It was cognate with the Dutch botervlieg and the German Butterfliege (butterfly).  The construct was (with variations was butere (butter) +‎ fly.  Etymologists note alternative origins for the name.  Either (1) it was first applied to creatures with wings of a notably yellowish hue (perhaps the dominant or single species of the type in an area) or (2) as a response to the belief that butterflies ate milk and butter or (3) the first element may have originally been butor- (beater), a mutation of bēatan (to beat), a reference to the movement of the wings.  The idea of the fragile things as thieves of milk and butter is supported by similar instances in other European languages including the German Molkendieb (butterfly (literally “whey thief”) and the Low German Botterlicker (butterfly (literally butter-licker) & Bottervögel (butterfly (literally “butter-fowl”).  There was also the notion they excreted a butter-like substance, memorably expressed in the Dutch boterschijte (butterfly (literally “butter-shitter”).  Most memorable however is the explanation in the tales of the Brothers Grimm (die Brüder Grimm, Jacob (1785–1863) and Wilhelm (1786–1859)) in which witches disguised themselves as butterflies.  The early forms in Middle English superseded the non-native Middle English papilion (butterfly) borrowed from the Old French.  Butterfly is a noun & adjective, butterflied is a verb & adjective and butterflying is a verb.  The noun plural is butterflies.

Anatomy of the butterfly valve (left), butterfly crochet (centre) & butterfly bandage (right).

Butter was from the Middle English buter & butter, from the Old English butere, from the Proto-West Germanic buterā, from the Latin būtȳrum, from the Ancient Greek βούτῡρον (boútūron) (cow cheese), the construct being βοῦς (boûs) (ox, cow) + τῡρός (tūrós) (cheese).  Fly was from the Middle English flye & flie, from the Old English flȳġe & fleoge (a fly, a winged insect), from the Proto-Germanic fleugǭ (a fly) & fleugon (flying insect), from the primitive Indo-European plewk- (to fly).  It was cognate with the Scots flee, the Saterland Frisian Fljooge, the German Low German Fleeg, the Danish flue, Norwegian Bokmål flue & Norwegian Nynorsk fluge, the Swedish fluga and the Icelandic fluga, the Old Saxon fleiga, the Old Norse fluga, the Middle Dutch vlieghe, the Dutch vlieg, the Old High German flioga and the German Fliege (fly (literally "the flying (insect))).  The Old English fleogende (flying) was from the primitive Indo-European root pleu- (to flow).

Social butterfly Lindsay Lohan in butterfly print swimsuit, Cannes, 2016.

Butterfly was applied first to people circa 1600, originally in reference to vain and gaudy attire, an allusion to often bright and varied colors of a butterfly's wings.  By 1806 it had become a class-based put-down referencing a transformation from a lower social class to something better, invoking the idea of progression from sluggish caterpillar to graceful butterfly (essentially a synonym for bounder).  The reference to flitting tendencies (from one interest, occupation etc) dates from 1873 and the social butterfly (one who moves effortlessly between social encounters and events) emerged in the 1920s.  The swimming stroke was first defined in 1935.  As a general descriptor (butterfly agave, butterfly ballot, butterfly fish, butterfly flower, butterfly plant, butterfly bomb, butterfly keyboard, butterfly chair, butterfly ray, butterfly shell etc), it’s applied wherever the resemblance to the open wings appears compelling.  In culture, the butterfly tends to be more admired than caterpillar which is an earlier stage of their development, the lovely creatures often appearing on fabrics used for clothing and furnishings.

Native to the forests of Central and South America, the Blue Morpho is one of the world’s largest butterflies. The wings are bright blue with lacy black edges, the result of light reflecting off microscopic scales on the back of their wings.  Lovely though the blue appears, it’s often not seen because the underside of this butterfly’s wing is a dull brown which provides a camouflage against predators.  When the wings are closed as the Blue Morpho sits on a tree, it blends in well.

Highly qualified content provider Busty Buffy (b 1996) being adorned with body paint in the shape of a butterfly with open wings.

Butterfly valves came into use in the late 1700s and have been popular since for their ease of manufacture, simplicity of operation and low maintenance.  The butterfly nut appeared in 1869 although in some markets it usually called the wing nut; interestingly, the similar fastener with a male thread is known as a wing screw or wing bolt but apparently never a butterfly screw or bolt, presumably because the delicate butterfly is thought emblematically female.  The phrase “Who breaks a butterfly upon a wheel?” is from Alexander Pope's (1688-1744) Epistle to Dr Arbuthnot" (1735).  The allusion is to "breaking on the wheel", a form of torture in which victims had their long bones broken by an iron bar while tied to a Catherine wheel, the idea a critique of excessive effort or deployment of resources to solve a simple problem; the less confronting phrase “sledgehammer to crack a nut” means the same thing.  The phrase “butterflies in the stomach” is a descriptive reference to the mild stomach spasms induced by anxiety and dates from 1908.  The butterfly effect is the most celebrated idea from (the somewhat misleadingly named) chaos theory, introduced in the 1972 paper Predictability: Does the Flap of a Butterfly's Wings in Brazil Set Off a Tornado in Texas? by US academic meteorologist Edward Lorenz (1917–2008).  Lorenz had developed the theory based on his observations in the early 1960s (in one of the earliest big-data models) that a tiny change in one variable (one of a dozen numbers representing atmospheric conditions) had an extraordinary effect upon long-term outcomes.

1966 Dodge Polara convertible (left) and 1966 Dodge Monaco 500 two-door hardtop (right).

The use of the butterfly motif in industrial design in 1967 became a footnote in legal history in the trial of the boxers Rubin "Hurricane" Carter (1937–2014) & John Artis (1946-2021) for a triple murder committed at the Lafayette Bar and Grill in Paterson, New Jersey.  Evidence presented by the prosecution claimed that witness descriptions of the getaway car matched the hired car Carter was found driving in the vicinity of the Lafayette immediately after the killings, their statements even including a mention of the distinctive butterfly-shaped taillight chrome.  However, although a witness said the rear lights lit up across the back of the getaway car, the taillights on Carter's Dodge Polara, although there was certainly a butterfly chrome surround, lit up only at the edges; it was the more expensive Dodge Monaco which had the extended lights.  In the ever changing swirl of model names and trim levels which characterized the US industry during its golden age (1955-1973), in 1966 the Polara was Dodge’s entry-level full-size model, above which sat the higher-priced Polara 500, Monaco, and Monaco 500.  For some reason (and this was not unusual), the lineup’s nomenclature in Canada differed, being Polara, Polara 440, Polara 880, and Monaco.  In both markets however, it was only the Monaco which featured the extended tail lamps.

1966 Dodge Polara convertible (left) and 1966 Dodge Monaco two-door hardtop (right).

On a dark night, glimpsed by a traumatized witness for a second or two, that may have not been significant because tests did reveal the reflective silver finish on the Polara’s rear panel did indeed appear red at certain angles when the brake lights were activated but the distinction, along with a witness’s correction of this in the 1976 re-trial did lead some to suggest the police might have been coaching witnesses; “hardening the statement” in law enforcement lingo.  That actually aligned with the evidence provided by another witness and the prosecution would later suggest later suggested the confusion was caused by the defense misreading the court transcript.

Maria Callas (1923-1977), backstage after appearing as Madam Butterfly, Civic Opera House, Chicago, 17 November 1955.  Had Cio-Cio-San been this feisty, she'd have kept Pinkerton. 

Bud Daley’s famous AP (Associated Press) photograph of diva Maria Callas, still in her Cio-Cio-San’s kimono, caught her snarling at US Federal Marshal Stanley Pringle, one of eight process servers there to serve her with two summonses.  The image was shot just after she'd left the stage, following her third and final performance in Giacomo Puccini's (1858–1924) Madama Butterfly (Madam Butterfly, 1904) and appeared the next morning on the front page of the Chicago Sun-Times with the headline: “Not So Prim a Donna”.  The article reported her words as: “Chicago will hear about this!  I will not be sued!  I have the voice of an angel!  No man can sue me.”  It transpired however at least one man could sue, the action brought by one Edward “Eddy” Bagarozy, who claimed to be the singer’s agent, an assertion based on a contract dating from 1947; the plaintiff sought (1) specific performance of the contract and (2) in the alternative, damages of US$300,000 (depending on the metrics chosen, equivalent to between US$4-6 million in 2025).  As in many such matters, ultimately, things were settled out of court.

2002 Ferrari Enzo (left) & 2016 Ferrari LaFerrari (right).

Butterfly doors are used on some high-performance cars and not wholly as a gimmick, the advantage being that in such usually low-slung vehicle, they do make entry and exit somewhat easier than scissor doors.  There’s even more functionally on certain competition cars because (1) they allow the carefully-crafted aerodynamics of the canopy to be preserved, (2) the driver can enter and leave the cockpit more quickly and (3) the design allows the structural integrity of the shell to be maximized.  Butterfly doors open upwards and outwards and in that they differ from scissor doors which are hinged to move only upwards, thus offering the possibility of a greater aperture while demanding more lateral clearance.  Exotic doors were seen in a handful of pre-war cars, none of which reached production, but it was the Mercedes-Benz 300SL (W194) race-car of 1952 which brought to public attention the idea car doors could be something different.  Such was the response that the factory used the gull-wing doors when, in 1954, the 300SL (W198) was offered in a road-going version although the engineering, like the concept, was not new, having before been used in both marine architecture and aircraft fuselages.  Similarly, the design elements which underlie butterfly and scissor doors can be found in buildings and machinery dating back in some cases centuries but of late, all have come most to be associated with exotic cars.

1967 Alfa Romeo 33 Stradale

Variations on the theme had appeared on the show circuit for some time before butterfly doors debuted on the Alfa Romeo 33 Stradale in 1967 which was much admired but it was thought the complexity of such things would limit their use to low volume runs such as the Stradale (of which only 18 were built) or one-off styling exercises such as the Alfa Romeo Carabo (1968) which used scissors.  However, scissor doors appeared on the prototype Lamborghini Countach (LP500) and, despite the doubts of some, were retained when the production version was released in 1974.  Since then, gull-wings (which open upward on a horizontal axis, hinged from the roof), scissors (which open upwards, rotating on a horizontal axis, hinged from the front), butterflies (which open upwards and outwards on an axis unaligned to the vertical or horizontal, hinged from the A (windscreen) pillar and dihedrals (scissors which move laterally while rotating ) have become common (relatively speaking) and designers seem intent on adding some new twist which seem sometimes to add no advantage but usually attract publicity (admittedly an advantage in the abstract), the most complex to date being the dihedral synchro helix doors which open forward, slide forward and rotate up.

Mercedes-Benz McLaren SLR Coupé & Roadster (top) and McLaren MP4-12C Coupé & Spider (bottom).

When Mercedes-Benz released the SLR McLaren (2003-2009), in an attempt to make explicit the link with the 300SL, they laid it on with a trowel, the phrase “gullwing doors” appearing in the factory’s original press release no less than seven times, just in case people didn’t get the message.  Nobody was fooled and they’ve always been called butterflies.  One clever piece of engineering was seen when the SLR roadster was released, those butterfly doors made possible by using hinge points along the rather than at the top.  McLaren used a variation of this idea when it released the McLaren MP4-12C (2011-2014), omitting the top hinge which allowed the use of frameless windows even on the roadster (spider).

One of the “butterfly motif” art cars in the “Earthly Paradise” series by Los Angeles-based Japanese artist Hiro Yamagata san (b 1948).

Hiro Yamagata san had planned the “Earthly Paradise” series to consist of 24 Mercedes-Benz 220 Cabriolet A models (W187) but it's said only 22 were completed although to assemble and restore that number of what were then 40-odd year old cars was a reasonable achievement.  That probably is understating things because between 1951-1955 only 1,278 W187 Cabriolet As were bodied by Sindelfingen Karosserie and although most mechanical components were durable and easy to service the braking system was remarkably (and apparently pointlessly) intricate and the body structure contained much timber framing so restoration could be both challenging and time-consuming.  Yamagata san’s artistic aim for the Earthly Paradise series was to “merge beautiful examples of technology with the presence of nature” and the inspiration for the “butterfly cars” came from what he’s seen during his visits to Fiji.  According to notes he provided, the intricately painted images were not part of a “Save the Planet” or “Back to Nature” movement but were intended to remind viewers to “…pay attention to wonders of nature that are all around them--in drops of water, rainbows, skies and gardens.”

Yamagata san’s other “butterfly motif” car (one of two in the series).

After restoration the cabriolets were all re-finished in a roughened matte white acrylic before Yamagata san and his 20 assistants hand-painted the colorful images, based on photographs the artist had taken during his visit to the Fijian islands.  There is nothing unusual in work attributed to an artist coming technically from the hand of others and just as Raphael (Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino, 1483–1520) had a number of highly talented assistants in what was one of the largest and most sophisticated workshops of the High Renaissance and Winston Churchill (1875-1965; UK prime-minister 1940-1945 & 1951-1955) often had a team of writers skilled in emulating “Churchillian prose”, Yamagata’s staff were “following the master”.  The Earthly Paradise project was rumored to have cost some US&20-30 million with each car nominally “priced” at $US1.3 million and although most have spent their post-project existences in museums or private collections, the occasional recent sales have been in the vicinity of US$125,000, somewhat less that would be expected for a meticulously restored W187 Cabriolet A.

1955 Mercedes-Benz 220 (W187) Cabriolet A (note the slightly curved windscreen, introduced during 1953 as a running-change).  Unlike most manufacturers which used the term and sold “Cabriolets”, Mercedes-Benz in the inter-war years codified the variations in the coachwork as Cabriolet A, B, C, D & F.

Introduced in 1951, the W187 (type 220, 1951-1955) looked old-fashioned and were it not for the fared-in headlights (a first for Mercedes-Benz), probably few would have picked one from the pre-war W143 (Type 230, 1937-1941) although, stylistically, it’s less related to the W142 (Type 320, 1937-1942) which gained some infamy from being the model (a Cabriolet B) in which notorious Nazi SS-Obergruppenführer (Lieutenant-General) Reinhard Heydrich (1904–1942; head of the Reich Security Main Office 1939-1942) was assassinated in Prague.  Although visually something of a relic, the drive train was modern, the new SOHC (single overhead camshaft) six cylinder engine (M180) being the unit which in various forms (2.2 litre (134 cubic inch); 2.3 (141), 2.5 (152) & 2.8 (170)), would endure until 1985 and more than any other was what re-established the company’s reputation in the post-war years.

1955 Mercedes-Benz 220 (W187) Coupé A.

Total production was 18,514, the bulk (16,154) being four-door sedans (1951-1954) but there were also 2,360 two door models (Cabriolet A, 1951-1955, (1,278), Cabriolet B (1951-1954, 997) & Coupé A (1953-1955, 85)) and an unusual Offener Tourenwagen Polizei (Open Police Touring Car, 1952-1953), a kind of utilitarian four-door phaeton with a fold-down windscreen, 41 supplied (apparently exclusively) to police forces in the FRG (Bundesrepublik Deutschland (Federal Republic of Germany; the old West Germany) 1949-1990).  Collectors of course have always preferred the two-door cars with the Cabriolet A the most desirable; despite the tiny numbers of coupés (if fitted with the optional sunroof they were close to twice the price of a sedan), they’ve never been as sought as the convertibles although had they been numerous, Yamagata san might have preferred them for the Earthly Paradise series because the roof would have provided a notable increase in surface area for his art.

1954 Mercedes-Benz 220 (W187) Cabriolet A (a "non-butterfly" car from the series).

The W187 was the first Mercedes-Benz with a radiator shell which essentially was decorative; despite the appearance, the cap on which the three-pointed star sat no longer unscrewed to permit coolant to be added, the “real” cap under the hood (bonnet). Visually, running changes were few although in 1953 a curved windscreen (nothing as dramatic as had appeared that year on the first Cadillac Eldorado) was added to the Cabriolets and the Earthy Paradise series has examples of both those and the earlier “flat screen” cars.  Reflecting the still austere post-war environment (the German Wirtschaftswunder (economic miracle) had begun but was not then recognized), the W187 (the smaller of Mercedes-Benz six-cylinder cars) wasn’t offered with some of the lower-volume coachwork available on the W142 which also had in the catalogue a four-door Pullman limousine (on a LWB (long wheelbase) with three rows of seats and an additional rear-quarter window), a six-seat Tourenwagen (a four door phaeton), two four door cabriolets (Cabriolet D & Cabriolet F) and a four door Stromlinien-Limousine (streamlined saloon) which picked up styling motifs from the earlier (and very expensive) 500K & 540K Autobahn-Kuriers (Freeway cruisers).

Pro Hart’s 1973 Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow (1965-1980), painted by the artist in 1999.

Like Yamagata san, the establishment never accepted Australian Pro Hart an a “serious artist” but his works achieved great popularity and while rarely seen in state galleries, appear often in private collections and rarely are passed-in when offered at auction.  That his Silver Shadow was only one of several Rolls-Royces and Bentleys he owned hints at his success although keeping more than one may have been a way of ensuring one was always available: he lived in the outback town of Alice Springs and the nearest Rolls-Royce dealer was 1,174 miles (1,890 km) away.

In the art business, there’s a distinction between critical and commercial success and although Yamagata san in the 1980s made millions by producing extraordinary popular prints for the “Limited Edition” series sold by Martin Lawrence Galleries, critical acceptance eluded him.  Although “cross-over” between popularity and artistic respectability is possible (witness Andy Warhol), what Yamagata san suffered was a level of “mass-produced” success which saw him confined to commercial publishing.  Being rich but wishing also to be the “right sort” of famous, the artist decided in the early 1990s to become a patron, hoping to transform his image into something of an avant garde figure, his canvases of choice being a number of Mercedes-Benz 220 Cabriolet As from the early 1950s.  An exhibition on that scale obviously would require a big space and to make the point what he had created was legitimately “authentic art”, that space had to be in a mainstream gallery or museum but his problem was his previous approaches to stage a showing had been declined on the basis of him being “too commercial” or, most cuttingly of all, a “shopping centre artist”.

The eight Mercedes-Benz 220 Cabriolet As of the Earthly Paradise series, Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery, 1994.

Fortunately, the Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery was struggling with chronic (and worsening) financial deficits so agreed to display the cars.  According to the artist and exhibition curator, that decision was unrelated to a US$250,000 donation Yamagata san made to a related third-party, both noting the transaction was executed some twelve months after the booking had been confirmed.  The money was used for “other projects” with the artist paying in whole for the “Earthly Paradise” exhibition; the curator confirmed he “…accepted the show on its aesthetic and conceptual merit”, adding he was “always interested in the interface between popular culture and fine art.”  It was a well-promoted showing (banners all over the city and a prized billboard on Sunset Strip) which opened in September 1994, six completed cars displayed with another two “works in progress”.  The critical response was restrained, although he had become a well-connected social success through his philanthropic work including for AmFAR’s campaign for AIDS research and sponsorship of exhibitions at Los Angeles’ MoCA (Museum of Contemporary Art) and New York’s MoMA (Museum of Modern Art).

Andy Warhol's BMW M1 Art Car (Art Car #4).

Yamagata san did become a fixture in the commercial art business and a notable exponent in silkscreen printing as well as being one of the pioneers in the use of holograms and lasers.   He was however never accepted by the establishment as an “artist” and the record price paid for one of his works was the US$30,529 Snowy Montmartre realized at auction in Tokyo in 2016; that was though an outlier, few of his sales achieving more than four figures.  His career though has remained modestly lucrative because his vividly-colored pieces have wide popular appeal with his prints, serigraphs & screen-prints selling in volume for at least hundreds; books have been written explaining why a “pop artist” like Andy Warhol (1928–1987) was deemed a “genius” while Yamagata san remained marooned as a “shopping centre artist”.  To add insult to injury, while his “US$1.3 million” Earthly Paradise cars have in recent years sold for between US$120-125,000 (essentially a discount of some US$30,000 against what would be expected of a diligently restored example which is about what a good quality repaint would cost), the 1979 BMW M1 hand-painted by Warhol in a reputed 28 minutes using 13 lb (5.9 kg) of paint (authenticity guaranteed by his fingerprints being left on several panels) is valued (depending on who is asked) at between US$60-250 million.  That’s quite a spread but the answer is anyway “very expensive” and certainly a premium of many times the US$600-700,000 usually paid for a “non Warhol M1”.  In fairness, the comparison shouldn’t be with a “normal M1” because the Warhol Art Car was a Group 4 race version which ran in the 1976 Le Man 24-Hour endurance classic (its only competitive outing), finishing a creditable sixth and second in class.  A machine wish such a race pedigree would anyway attract a premium but in the art market it’s acknowledged Warhol’s Art Car #4 would be worth many times more, such is the lure of a "celebrity artist".

IBM's 1995 ThinkPad 701.

IBM's ThinkPad 701 series was available during 1995 and was that year's biggest seller in its class, its distinctive feature the "butterfly" keyboard, a design in response to the obviously contradictory demands that laptops be smaller and lighter while still equipped with keyboards big enough comfortably to be used (especially with the big, clumsy fingers of men).  The 701 was marketed in what was then an untypically IBM manner, newspaper advertisements in the run-up to the launch published with nothing but a butterfly in the corner, the IBM logo later added while a few days before the debut, the text "Watch for the announcement" appeared.  Butterfly had actually been the project's internal codename although it had never been intended for use as a product, apparently because IBM's corporate policies didn't permit the use of the names of living.  Still, the use in the teaser advertisements did suggest they planned it to catch on as a nickname and doubtlessly hoped for a better outcome than the last time a codename was picked-up, the unfortunate "peanut" (the PCjr (1984-1985)) not fondly remembered.

IBM Thinkpad 701 commercial, 1995.

IBM's 1995 ThinkPad 701.

The 701 series was well-received and butterfly keyboard much admired.  By 1995, although it was clear to most of the industry that OS/2 (IBM's pre-emptive, multi-tasking operating system (OS)) was unlikely to achieve critical mass in either the consumer or corporate markets but the company continued to try to nudge things along: While the 701s using Intel’s i486 DX2 50/25 MHz CPU (central processing unit) came pre-installed with a combo PC-DOS 6.3 OS & Microsoft Windows 3.11 (Windows for Workgroups) operating environment, those using the i486 DX4 75/25 MHz chip offered the option of a dual-boot so users could choose either the combo or IBM’s OS/2 Warp (3.0).  The main body of the keyboard was a two-piece construction, which, gear-driven by the movement of the lid, spread apart to become a single unit as the laptop was opened, the process reversed as the lid closed.  IBM actually called it the TrackWrite, but it was universally known as the butterfly and so compelling was the design that to this day, one is on permanent display in Manhattan's Museum of Modern Art (MoMA).  Popular though it was, the market moved and the place on the demand curve at a price point which interested IBM was for laptops with larger screens so the need for the butterfly technology vanished, the 701 remaining unique.  Some patents have recently been filed which suggest manufacturers may be planning to release another laptop with a butterfly keyboard but, in an age of ultra-thin devices, it will presumably be a thing of low-tactility and thus lacking the responsiveness which had been one of the most attractive features of the original.

Thirty years after: 2025 Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 13 (Lenovo part number 21NSCTO1WWAU8).

Although thinner and with many advances internally, at first glance a 2025 Lenovo ThinkPad appears little different from a 1955 (non-butterfly) IBM original.  Like the shark and pencil, the basic laptop design seems to have attained its evolutionary perfection.  Among the features carried over from IBM was the "TrackPoint" (the small, red pointing device in the centre of the keyboard), used to control the on-screen pointer.  IBM made a number of variants of the red rubber cap (“Classic Dome”, “Soft Dome”, “Soft Rim” and (most memorably) “Eraser Head”) but (male) programmers tended to call it “the clit”. 

A descendent of IBM ThinkPad, the original IBM PC-1 (August 1981) was the MRCA (most recent common ancestor) of both and, even now, a few ancient traits remain identifiable.  In 2005, IBM exited the PC (personal computer) and laptop business, selling the lines to Chinese manufacturer Lenovo, including as a transitional arrangement the right to use the IBM brand on the hardware for five years, the last so labelled thus made in 2010.  However, because the ThinkPad and ThinkCentre trademarks were part of the IP (intellectual property) Lenovo acquired, these continue to appear.  The deal in 2005 meant that IBM, which in 1981 had triggered the PC revolution with the release in August of the original PC-1, was no longer a part (although it continued to be active in software and server production) of the industry which (unintentionally) it had played such a part in creating and which transformed the modern world.  Nothing lasts forever.