Crossbody (pronounced kraws-bod-ee or kros‐bod-ee)
(1) Of or noting a type of bag, distinguished
by a long shoulder strap intended to be worn diagonally across the body. A crossbody purse or crossbody wallet is a
variation on the theme.
(2) In
professional (ie choreographed) wrestling, a term covering several aerial moves
in which one competitor launches themselves from a height (sometimes using the
ring’s ropes or corner-posts to gain altitude) landing horizontally or
diagonally across their (often already) prostrate opponent's torso, forcing
them to the mat if they were standing.
Early
1950s: The construct was cross + body. As
a prefix, cross was from the Middle English cros-
& crosse- (relating to a cross,
forming a cross, in the shape of a cross or “X”), developed from the noun and
influenced by “across”. Body (the
spelling bodie is long obsolete) was
from the Middle English bodi & bodiȝ, from the
Old English bodiġ (body, trunk,
chest, torso, height, stature), from the Proto-West Germanic bodag (body, trunk), from the primitive Indo-European
bhewd (to be awake, observe). It was cognate with the Old High German botah from which the Swabian gained Bottich (body, torso). Although as late as the sixteenth century, “body”
was used in the now archaic sense of the “section of a dress or gown extending
from the neck to the waist but excluding the arms” the idea of the crossbody
was a reference always to “the body” in the sense of the physical structure of
a human form, in this case the torso, the line extending from a shoulder to
around the opposite hip. The alternative
spelling is cross–body. Crossbody is a
noun & adjective; the noun plural is crossbodies.
The
cross-prefix has widely been used for similar or analogous purposes such as the
crossbow, (an early, mechanized version of the bow and arrow), the cross-bolt
(a means of adding additional structural rigidity to the main bearings in an
internal combustion engine by adding locating bolts at a 90o angle
to those mounted vertically) and cross-purposes (a conversation in which two or
more are talking while misunderstanding each other's plans, intentions or
meanings) and the cross-stitch (in needlework or embroidery, a double-stitch which
forms a cross. Many other uses such as
cross-country, cross-dresser, cross-cultural et al, are different in that they
don’t involve the “X” shape or (of necessity) anything in a diagonal.
Monica
Lewinsky (1973) was the young intern of whom in 1998 Bill Clinton (b 1946; US
president 1993-2001) infamously remarked “I
did not have sexual relations with that woman… Miss Lewinsky.” Had that been something said in a county
court in a remote flyover state of a consensual encounter between two obscure
private citizens, defense counsel may have succeeded in arguing that for there
to be “sexual relations” one must
have “sex” and what transpired had
not crossed the accepted definitional threshold. In 1998, there probably were still places
where such distinctions were maintained but because what happened happened in
the White House between the chief magistrate of the United States and an intern a
quarter century younger, Monicagate played out. As presidential scandals go there have
certainly been worse and as Harold Macmillan (1894–1986; UK prime-minister
1957-1963) replied when woken in the middle of the night to be told a member of
his cabinet was in the midst of an affair with a young lady “with both a present and a past” who was also enjoying the
affections of a Soviet spy: “Well at least
it was with a woman.” That the liaisons with the Russian were arranged at the behest of MI5 (the UK's internal security organization) is one of the many details which made the Profumo Affair (John Profumo (1915–2006)) one of the century's juiciest scandals although, some of the files containing "sensitive" information about members of the English establishment remain embargoed until 2046. Even then, few expect to see unredacted papers.
A
youthful indiscretion is one thing but an indiscretion with a youth is
something else and whether crooked Hillary Clinton (b 1947; US secretary of
state 2009-2013) ever forgave her husband only she knows but she didn’t leave
him so there was that. She had her own reasons
to stay which may or may not have involved forgiveness but the conventional
political wisdom remains that had the US constitution allowed it, Bill Clinton
would probably have enjoyed a comfortable victory in the 2000 presidential
election so enough of the US population either forgave him or were indifferent
in the matter. Monica Lewinsky fared not
as well, being as unprepared for what ensued as just about anyone in her
position would have been and it’s remarkable she coped as well as she did. However, now 50, Ms Lewinsky has survived and
in February 2024 emerged as the face of women’s fashion label Reformation’s
latest campaign, one focused on corporate workwear and, in concert with
vote.org, encouraging women to “use their
voice” in the upcoming election and given the extent to which recent court
decisions have encouraged an influential faction in the Republican Party to
mount further assaults on the rights of women, their vote has the potential to
be decisive in contests for both houses of Congress.
Monica Lewinsky's photoshoot for Reformation’s You’ve Got the Power campaign.
The “You’ve Got the Power” campaign slogan thus
has a dual meaning, referencing both the exercise of the franchise and the “power
dressing” of the wardrobe (good taste prevailed and no electric blue dresses
were featured) although big shoulder pads didn’t make a return which would have
disappointed some but the corporate staples red (here described as “scarlet”) and
black were prominent. The range was conservative
as befits the target market but seems to have been well-received and serious students
of such things especially appreciated the inclusion of an irregular polka-dot in
black & white. Ms Lewinsky certainly
looked good and while photographers have tricks to play with lighting and
angles, there’s little to suggest much post-production editing was done; she
looked a youthful, elegant 50. One piece
which attracted attention was the “Monica” bag which came with both a fitted
top-handle and a longer strap, allowing it to be carried on the shoulder or as
a crossbody.
Reformation’s "Monica" crossbody bag in black (left) and topo (right).
The
Monica crossbody bag is available in topo or black. Topo
is a Spanish word meaning “mole” (both (1) in zoology as the small mammal and (2)
in the jargon of espionage a “sleeper agent” who infiltrates an organization, usually
to spy) and as a dark brownish-grey colour (ie an approximation of the colour
of a mole's skin (hence the familiar "moleskin"), it’s the equivalent of the English taupe, from the French taupe, from the Latin talpa (mole). In the circumstances, “talpa” presumably was more appealing to the
marketing department than “moleskin” although “black” was refreshingly simple. Reformation’s Monica (as in the crossbody bag)
web page recommended the topo hue worked well paired with their “Lysander” dress,
available in “selene” (the rather fetching polka-dot) or “midnight” (a dark
blue close to navy and far enough removed from the shade of dress Ms Lewinsky
made famous not to attract comment). How
fashion houses come up with product names is often mysterious. Lysander was from the Ancient Greek Λῠ́σᾰνδρος (Lúsandros) and is a (now rare) male
given name although in the US there has in the twenty-first century been a
modest resurgence. In the Greek, the name was used to denote “liberator” and it became entrenched in English
probably because William Shakespeare (1564–1616) used it in the comedy, A Midsummer Night's Dream (1596), a romp
in which Lysander found himself under Puck's spell after running away with his
beloved Hermia, enduring a half-dozen cases of mistaken identity before being reunited,
marrying in a triple ceremony (all of which sounds curiously modern in a Netflix sort of way). What Reformation may have had in mind was
Lysander (circa 454-395 BC), the Spartan admiral who liberated his people from
the hegemony of Athens, his most famous victory being the sinking of the Athenian
fleet at the Battle of Aegospotami (405 BC), the engagement which ended the Peloponnesian
War. Presumably, the thinking at
Reformation was the name of an admiral from Antiquity was enough of a connection
with navy blue although that tradition of use in navies began many centuries later. There was also the
Westland Lysander, a World War II (1939-1945) era communications & support
aircraft used by the British Army and best remembered for (1) its role in
smuggling spies and saboteurs into occupied Europe and (2) the unusual use of
the wheel spats as mounting points for machine guns and ordnance such as 250lb
(115 KG) bombs. In production in the UK
& Canada between 1936-1943, it was an uncelebrated but versatile platform which
provided invaluable service in the clandestine operations run by the UK’s
remarkably large number of agencies concerned with dirty tricks and other murky
business. It’s not likely Reformation thought
much about the aircraft.
The Monicagate (1998) effect: The decline of the use of the name Monica in the US
Monica
is a female given name and the variants in other European languages include Monique
(French & Dutch), Mónica (Spanish Portuguese & Italian), Mônica
(Brazilian Portuguese), Monika (Polish, Slovak, Slovine, Lithuanian, Croatian, Finnish,
German & Indian, Czech, Bulgarian, Latvian, Finnish, Swedish, Norwegian
& Danish), Moonika (Estonia), Mónika (Hungarian) and Mònica (Catalan). The origin is obscure but may be from a Phoenician,
Punic or Berber dialect, the oldest known instance being as the name of the
mother of Saint Augustine of Hippo (354–430) although it has also been
associated with the Ancient Greek μόνος (monos)
(alone, only, sole, single). It was Monica
who converted Augustine to Christianity and in gratitude the Church also
canonized her. The Latin name Monica was
from monere (to advise), an inflection
of moneō, from the Proto-Italic moneō, from the primitive Indo-European monéyeti, causative from men- (to think); it was etymologically
unrelated to later forms. As an English
name, it has been in use since the mid-eighteenth century while in the US, popularity
peaked in the mid-1970s before beginning a gradual decline which became a precipitous plummet after 1999, something it seems reasonable to attribute
to “the Monicagate effect”.
Lindsay Lohan with crossbody bags: At the LLohan Nightclub pop-up event, Playboy Club, New York, October 2019 (David Koma crystal-embellished cady midi dress with asymmetric hem, Valentino Rockstud 110mm pumps and Chanel mini tweed bag with crossbody strap from the Spring/Summer 2015 runway collection) (left) and with Louis Vuitton Louis Vuitton Le Coussin BB Bag (with a detachable crossbody strap), arriving at JFK Airport, August 2022 (right).
The crossbody bag in one form or another would have existed about as long as there have been bag-like creations for holding stuff because the design offers the advantage of transferring the weight to the shoulders (alternating if required) and leaving the user inherently "hands free". Although for centuries a feature of military webbing, as a packaged piece of fashion, the industry usually credits the "design" of the product to Robert Sakowitz and later refinements to his daughter Bunny (she added the game-changing zipper!), the latter acknowledging a debt to the eighteenth century cross-body "strap bags". The mix of thoughtful detailing, practicality and high prices meant that in the 1950s it soon became a a fashion staple and Audrey Hepburn (1929–1993) using one in her portrayal of the modern young spinster Holly Golightly in Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961) cemented it's place. It's never left and a crossbody bag is merely one worn across the body with the strap extending diagonally from one shoulder to the opposite hip but the utility come from (1) hands-free convenience, (2) security & stability while affording ease of access to multiple compartments and (3) the ability to optimize weight distribution. The crossbody method can be applied to bags of various sizes and there are even crossbody wallets and small purses and while such things might sound merely decorative, men tend often forget it's not uncommon for a woman's entire outfit to include not one pocket and in an era when it's become possible to carry only one's phone, a lipstick and a small can of mace; practicality need no longer be big.
The Monica 560
France's finest ever: 1963 Facel Vega Facel II.
In the
fashion business there have been a number of products named “Monica” and it’s
likely this often was for no reason other than it was thought appropriately feminine
and pleasing to use. There is also an
automotive footnote, the Monica 560 a French-built luxury car which was the
last of the first generation of trans-Atlantic hybrids which, combining elegant
European coachwork with robust, powerful, very cheap (and very thirsty) US-sourced drive-trains, flourished between the mid-1950s and the first oil shock two
decades later. It’s often said the
Monica was an attempt to resurrect the much lamented Facel Vegas (1954-1964)
but the founder was more nostalgic still, the industrialist Jean Tastevin
(1919-2016) recalling the pre-war Delahayes, Bugattis Delages & Buccialis,
French cars which ranked with the world’s finest. However, when in the late 1960s Monsieur Tastevin
surveyed the scene, even the more expensive French cars, whatever their other
virtues (some of which were admittedly well concealed), were under-powered and although
in many ways sophisticated, lacked the power and refinement of the British, US
& European competition. His core
business was the large conglomerate Compagnie
française de produits métallurgiques (CFPM) which specialized in building freight
rail wagons, his imaginative business model including leasing them, a form of
vertical integration which provided a stable revenue stream during periods of diminished demand.
With
this industrial capacity and financial infrastructure, he reasoned building a
car to compete with the other speciality builders (and he included in that the upper-range
Mercedes-Benz, Jaguars and such) was within CFPM’s capacity and in that he may
have been correct but a combination of bad decisions, bad luck and bad timing
doomed the project. The first mistake
was to try to match Maserati & Ferrari in the use of a bespoke engine
rather than the US V8s pragmatically adopted by Jensen, Bristol, Iso,
Monteverdi and others; Tastevin wanted a thoroughbred, not a bastard. What was available was a V8 designed by the
gifted English engineer Ted Martin (1922-2010) and it was in many ways
outstanding being robust, compact, powerful and light. Convinced, Tastevin bought the rights along
with the collateral contract under which Rolls-Royce agreed to handle the
production, the prestige of a “Rolls-Royce-built engine” another thing which
appealed. Unfortunately, Monsieur Tastevin
subsequently demanded of Rolls-Royce they guarantee the power output of each
unit, an underwriting the company declined on the basis that as a manufacturing
and assembly contractor of something they’d not designed and tested, they were not
prepared to guarantee someone else’s work. His contract well-written, Ted Martin kept
the money and Tastevin had to find another engine.
The first (left) and second (centre) Monica prototypes and the Amiot 143M (1931-1944), a French five-seat reconnaissance bomber (right).
The
Monica made its debut at the Paris Motor Show, late in 1972 and impressed many
with the look of its jewel-like V8 and sumptuous interior although the price raised a few
eyebrows, costing as much as two Citroën SMs, then the most expensive car produced
in France. In the way of such things,
the sales projections were optimistic, suggesting as many as 500 Monicas annually
even though the market for big, expensive four-door saloons had become crowded;
not only were specialists like Iso, Monteverdi and De Tomaso offering
fully-developed and well-established models with reliable US V8s, Jaguar’s V12-powered
XJ12 had set a dynamic benchmark at an extraordinarily low price and
Mercedes-Benz were rumoured to be preparing a 7.4 litre (452 cubic inch)
version of their epoch making S-Class (W116) (post-oil shock, eventually it
would in 1975 surface as the 450 SEL 6.9).
Still, in 1972, generally, there was faith in the future.
1973 Monica 560 interior. The engine was from the US, the leather & burl walnut was English, it was styled in Italy and the gearbox was German (or from the US if automatic). It had a "French flavor".
There optimism
was still in the air in 1973 (the oil wouldn’t stop flowing until October) but
by then the hunt was on for a new engine.
The contractual squabble with Rolls-Royce was one thing but by then, it
had anyway finally occurred to Tastevin’s inexperienced team that the Martin
V8, an enlarged racing engine, was never going to possess the characteristics
needed in a luxury car. It was noisy, at
its best with a manual gearbox and at anything but high revs (where it needed
to operate to produce the required power), somewhat rough. In the early 1960s the Maserati Quattroporte had
been much the same and it sold well but then there were few alternatives and
the world had moved on; what buyers now wanted was the turbine-like smoothness
of the XJ12 or the effortless torque of the big-displacement V8 hybrids. The 3.4 litre (209 cubic inch) Martin V8 was a vibrant thing which would have been entertaining in a sports car but it wasn't what the target market now expected in a luxury saloon. Tastevin’s original plan had been to build a high-performance sports car and the switch to four-door coachwork came early in the development process. Of all the hybrids built in the era, the Monica was the only one never offered as a coupé.
One of the few: 1974 Monica 560 Berlina.
Surrendering to the inevitable, Tastevin phoned Detroit and arranged to purchase a batch of Chrysler’s 340 cubic inch (5.6 litre) (LA) V8s, one of the best of the small-block engines of the era and equally adaptable either to the company’s TorqueFlite automatic transmission or the ZF five-speed manual which still had real appeal for some. Although by then somewhat detuned from its peak during the muscle car years, the 340 could be run in Europe without most of the power-sapping anti-pollution gear insisted on by US regulators (things were different then) and the performance was sparkling; in deference to Europeans for whom cubic inches were mysterious, the car was named the Monica 560. In 1974, the finished product was ready for sale although inflation meant the already high price had risen by over 50% since 1972 and the four-fold increase in the price of oil in the wake of the embargo had punished demand for fast, thirsty, cars, especially those from a previously unknown manufacturer. By late 1974, many of the makers of the trans-Atlantic hybrids were either closed or in the throes of what would for most be a not long-protracted demise. After 17 Monicas were sold in a few months, it was obvious the math was wrong and in February 1975, the company’s closure was announced, one of many such press-releases that year and while a handful of uncompleted chassis were brought to a finished state by a contracted third party, it’s never been clear how many. Had the Monica 560 been brought to market in 1968 or 1969, it might have enjoyed some years of modest suggest although there’s no reason to believe it would have weathered the winds of change brought by the 1970s any better that the others which fell victim.
