Homage

Homage (pronounced hom-ij, om-ij or oh-mahzh)

(1) Respect or reverence paid or rendered.

(2) In feudal era custom & law, the formal public acknowledgment by which a feudal tenant or vassal declared himself to be the man or vassal of his lord, owing him fealty and service; something done in acknowledgment of vassalage (archaic).

(3) The relation thus established of a vassal to his lord (archaic).

(4) Something done or given in acknowledgment or consideration of the worth of another.

(5) To render homage to (archaic except in artistic or historic use).

(6) An artistic work imitating another in a flattering style.

(7) A (sometimes controversial) way of describing an imitation, clone or replica of something.

(8) A demonstration of respect, such as towards an individual after their retirement or death (often in the form of (an obviously retrospective) exhibition).

1250–1300: From the Middle English hommage, omage & umage (the existence of “homage” is contested), from the Old French homage & hommage, from the Medieval Latin homināticum (homage, the service of a vassal or 'man'), the construct being (h)ome (man), from the from Latin hominem, accusative of homō (a man (and in Medieval Latin “a vassal”)) + -āticum (the noun-forming suffix) (-age).  The suffix -age was from the Middle English -age, from the Old French -age, from the Latin -āticum.  Cognates include the French -age, the Italian -aggio, the Portuguese -agem, the Spanish -aje & Romanian -aj.  It was used to form nouns (1) with the sense of collection or appurtenance, (2) indicating a process, action, or a result, (3) of a state or relationship, (4) indicating a place, (5) indicating a charge, toll, or fee, (6) indicating a rate & (7) of a unit of measure.  The verb homage was derived from the noun in the late sixteenth century (the agent noun homager noted from the turn of the fifteenth).  Homage is a noun & verb, homager is a noun, homageable is an adjective and homaging, & homaged are verbs; the noun plural is homages.  In Scots the spelling was homage and in Irish, ómós and the old synonym manred has been obsolete since the fourteenth century.  The predominately US pronunciation with a silent h happened because of a conflation with the nearly synonymous doublet hommage, pronounced thus.

By convention, the modern use of the form is usually as “pay homage to” but because of the variations in pronunciations (the h silent and not), homage is sometimes preceded by the article “a” and sometimes by “an” and under various influences in popular culture, the French pronunciation has in some circles become fashionable.  The term “lip homage” is much the same as “lip service”: something expressed with “mere words”.  In Middle English, the meanings variously were (1) An oath of loyalty to a liege performed by their vassal; a pledge of allegiance, (2) Money given to a liege by a vassal or the privilege of collecting such money, (3) A demonstration of respect or honor towards an individual (including prayer), (4) The totality of a feudal lord's subjects when collected and (5) Membership in an organized religion or belief system.

In feudal times, a homage was said to be an “act of fealty”.  The Middle English noun fealty dates from the twelfth century and was from feaute, from the Old French feauté, from fealte (loyalty, fidelity; homage sworn by a vassal to his overlord; faithfulness), from the Latin fidelitatem (nominative fidelitas) (faithfulness, fidelity), from fidelis (loyal, faithful), from the primitive Indo-European root bheidh- (to trust, confide, persuade).  In feudal law, to attorn was to “transfer homage or allegiance to another lord”.  The verb attorn (to turn over to another) was from the Middle English attournen, from the Old French atorner (to turn, turn to, assign, attribute, dispose; designate), the construct being a- (to) + tourner (to turn), from the Latin tornare (to turn on a lathe) from tornus (lathe), from the Greek tornos (lathe, tool for drawing circles), from the primitive Indo-European root tere- (to rub, turn).  Attornment was a part English real property law but was not directly comparable with the operation of those laws which in matters of slavery assigned property rights over human beings which technically were no different than those over a horse.  Attornment recognized there was in the feudal system some degree of reciprocity in rights & obligations and it was held to be unreasonable a tenant should become subject to a new lord without their own approval.  At law, what evolved was the doctrine of attornment which held alienation could not be imposed without the consent of the tenant.  Given the nature of feudal relations it was an imperfect protection but a considerable advance and attornment was also extended to all cases of lessees for life or for years.  The arrangement regarding the historic feudal relationships lasted until the early eighteenth century but attornment persists in modern property law as a mechanism which acts to preserve the essential elements of commercial tenancies in the event of the leased property changing hands.  It provides for what would now be called “transparency” in transactions and ensures all relevant information is disclosed, thereby ensuring the integrity of the due diligence process.

The historical concepts of homage and tribute are sometimes confused.  Homage was a formal ritual performed by a vassal to pledge loyalty and submission to a lord or monarch.  There were variations but the classic model was one in which the vassal would kneel before the lord, place his hands between the lord's hands, and swear an oath of loyalty and service.  That was not merely symbolic for it signified the vassal's acknowledgment of the lord's authority and their willingness to serve and protect the lord in exchange for a right to live on (and from) the land.  The relationship was that creature of feudalism; something both personal and contractual.  Tributes were actual payments made by one ruler or state to another as a sign of submission, acknowledgment of superiority, or in exchange for protection or peace.  Tribute could be paid in gold, other mediums of exchange or in the form of  goods or services.  Tribute was something imposed on a subordinate entity by a dominant power, either as a consequence of defeat in war or as a way of avoiding being attacked (ie a kind of protection racket).  The meaning of homage in feudal property law was quite specific but synonyms (depending on context) now include deference, tribute, allegiance, reverence, loyalty, obeisance, duty, adoration, fealty, faithfulness, service, fidelity, worship, adulation, honor, esteem, praise, genuflection, respect, awe, fidelity, loyalty & devotion.  However, those using homage for anything essentially imitative might find out other synonyms include fake (and more generously faux, tribute, reproduction, pastiche, clone or replica).

Sample from Ariana Grande’s (b 1993) Thank U, Next (2018). 

Singer Ariana Grande’s (b 1993) song Thank U, Next (2018) was one of the year’s big successes and the video included well-constructed references to a number of early-century pop culture products including Legally Blonde (2001) and Mean Girls (2004).  Within popular culture, there seems to be a greater tolerance of works which are in some way a homage, the term “sampling” presumably chosen to imply what was being done was (1) taking only a small fragment of someone else’s work and (2) for all purposes within long established doctrine of “fair use”.  Interestingly, instead of regarding sampling as fair use, US courts initially were quite severe and in many early cases treated the matter as one of infringement of copyright, apparently because while a attributed paragraph here and there in a paper of dozens or hundreds of pages could reasonably seen as “fair use”, a recurring snatch of even a few seconds in a song only three minutes long was not.  Of late, US appeal courts seem to have been more accommodating of sampling and have taken the view the legal doctrine of de minimis which has been used when assessing literary or academic works should apply also to sampling but the mechanics of calculating “fair use” need to be considered in the context of the product.  The Latin phrase de minimis (pertaining to minimal things) was from the expressions de minimis non curat praetor (the praetor does not concern himself with trifles) or de minimis non curat lex (the law does not concern itself with trifles) and was an exclusionary principle by which a court could refuse to hear or dismiss matters to trivial to bother the justice system.  One Queen of Sweden preferred the more poetic Latin adage, aquila non capit muscās (the eagle does not catch flies).  As a legal doctrine, it actually predates its fifteenth century formalization in the textbooks and there are records in civil, Islamic and ecclesiastical courts of Judges throwing out cases because the matters involved were of such little matter.  In many jurisdictions, governments now set a certain financial limit for the matters to be considered, below which they are either excluded or referred to a tribunal established for such purposes.

One suspects artists, architects, film directors and such are inclined to call their work a homage (or probably the French hommage (pronounced omm-arge)) as a kind of pre-emptive strike against accusations of plagiarism or a lack of originality.  Car manufacturers are apt to do it too, examples in recent decades including the BMW Mini, Volkswagen Beetle, Dodge Challenger and Chevrolet Camaro, all of which shamelessly followed the lines of the original versions from generations earlier.  The public response to these retro-efforts was usually positive although if clumsily executed (Jaguar S-Type) derision soon follows.  Sometimes, it’s just a piece which is homaged.  On the Mercedes-Benz CL (C215 1998-2006), the homage was to the roofline of the W111 & W112 coupés (1961-1971), especially the memorable sweep of the rear glass although all of that was itself a homage to the 1955 Chryslers.  It was a shame the C215 didn’t pick up more of the W111’s motifs, the retrospective bits easily the best.

1969 Chevrolet Camaro Z/28 (left) and 2023 Chevrolet Camaro.  The original Chevrolet Camaro (1966-1969) was a response to the original Ford Mustang (1964) which had made the pony-car segment a wildly popular and profitable place to be and it in turn not the shape the Mustang would follow but certainly the engineering but the styling attracted Chrysler which adopted the lines just as Chevrolet abandoned them.  Chevrolet however picked them up again in 2010 but their homage to 1966 was perhaps a little too heavy-handed, dramatic though the effect was.  Still, the result doubtlessly was better that what would have been delivered had the designers come up with anything original and that's not a problem restricted cars.  One wishes architects would more often pay homage to mid-century modernism or art deco but the issue seems to be all the awards architects give each other are only for originality, thus the assembly line of the ugly but distinctive.

1970 Dodge Challenger (left) and 2023 Dodge Challenger (right).  The original Challenger (and its corporate companions the Plymouth Barracuda & Cuda) was a homage to the 1966 Camaro and so well executed that Chrysler’s pair are thought by many to be the best looking pony cars of the muscle car era.  In 2008 when the look was reprised, it was thought a most a accomplished effort and better received than would be the new Camaro two season later.  Chevrolet must have been miffed Dodge was so praised for paying homage to what in 1969 had been borrowed from their 1966 range.

1979 Volkswagen Beetle Cabriolet by Karmann (left) and 2015 Volkswagen Beetle Cabriolet (right).  First produced in 1938, Volkswagen clung to the rear-engine / air-cooled formula so long it almost threatened the company’s survival and while the public showed little enthusiasm for a return to the mechanical configuration (the Porsche crew are a separate species which, if they had their way, would still not have to bother with cooling fluid), the shape of the Beetle did appeal and over two generations between 1997-2019, the company sold what was initially called the “New Beetle”.  Despite the pre-war lines imposing significant packaging inefficiencies, it was popular enough to endure for over a decade.

1966 Austin Mini-Cooper 1275 S (left) and 2001 BMW Mini (right).  Students of the history of design insist the BMW Mini was not so much a homage to the British Motor Corporation’s (BMC) original Mini (1959) but actually to some of the conceptual sketches which emerged from the design office between 1957-1958 but were judged too radical for production.  That was true but there are enough hints and clues in the production models for nobody to miss the point.

1965 Jaguar 3.8 S-Type (left) and 1999 Jaguar S-Type.  Released in 1963, the Jaguar S-Type was an updated Mark 2 with the advantage of more luggage space and markedly improved ride and handling made possible by the grafting on of the independent rear-suspension from the E-Type (XKE) and Mark X (later 420G).  The improvements were appreciated but the market never warmed to the discontinuity between the revised frontal styling and the elongated rear end, the latter working better when a Mark X look was adopted in front and released as the 420.  Still, although never matching the appeal of the classic Mark 2 with its competition heritage, it has a period charm and has a following in the Jaguar collector market.  According to contemporary accounts, the homage launched in 1999 was a good car but it seemed a curious decision to use as a model a vehicle which has always been criticized for its appearance although compared with the ungainly retro, the original S-Type (1963-1968) started to look quite good, the new one the answer to a question something like "What would a Jaguar look like if built by Hyundai?".  As an assignment in design school that would have been a good question and the students could have pinned their answers to the wall as a warning to themselves but it wasn't one the factory should ever have posed.  Quietly, the new S-Type was dropped in 2007 after several seasons of indifferent sales.

1956 Chrysler 300B (left), 1970 Mercedes-Benz 280 SE Coupé (centre) and 2005 Mercedes-Benz SL65 (right).

The 1955-1956 Chryslers live in the shadow cast by the big fins which sprouted on the 1957 cars but they possess a restraint and elegance of line which was lost as a collective madness overtook the industry.  Mercedes-Benz in 1961 paid due homage when the 220 SE Coupé (W111; 1961-1971) was released and returned to the roofline with the C215 (1998-2006).  The big coupé was the closest the factory came to styling success in recent years (although the frontal treatment was unfortunate) but one must be sympathetic to the designers because so much is now dictated by aerodynamics.  Still, until they too went mad, the BMW design office seemed  to handle big coupés better.  

In the collector market, there are many low-volume models which have become highly prized.  Some were produced only in low numbers because of a lack of demand, some because the manufacturer needed to make only so many for homologation purposes and some because production was deliberately limited.  Such machines can sell for high prices, sometimes millions so, especially where such vehicles are based on more mundane models produced in greater numbers, many are tempted to “make their own”, a task which car range from the remarkably simple to the actually impossible.  Those creating such things often produce something admirable (and technically often superior to the original) and despite what some say, there’s really no objection to the pursuit provided there is disclosure because otherwise it’s a form of fraud.  When such machines are created, those doing the creating seldom say fake or faux and variously prefer tribute, clone, recreation, homage or replica and those words in this context come with their own nuanced meanings, replica for example not meaning exactly what it does in geometry or database administration.

A 1962 Ferrari 250 GTO in silver (US$70 million) and a fine replica by Tempero of a 1963 model in rosso corsa (US$1.2 million).

As an extreme example of the homage was inspired by the Ferrari 250 GTO, of which it’s usually accepted 36 were built although there were actually 41 (2 x (1961) prototypes; 32 x (1962–63) Series I 250 GTO; 3 x (1962–1963) “330 GTO”; 1 x (1963) 250 GTO with LM Berlinetta-style body & 3 x (1964) Series II 250 GTO).  The 36 in the hands of collectors command extraordinary prices, chassis 4153GT in June 2018 realizing US$70 million in a private sale whereas an immaculately crafted replica of a 1962 version by Tempero (New Zealand), said to be better built than any original GTO (although that is damning with faint praise, those who restore pre-modern Ferraris wryly noting that while the drive-trains were built with exquisite care, the assembly of the coachwork could be shoddy indeed) was listed for sale at US$1.3 million.  Even less exalted machinery (though actually more rare still) like the 1971 Plymouth Hemi Cuda convertible also illustrate the difference for there are now considerably more clones / replicas / recreations etc than ever there were originals and the price difference is typically a factor of ten or more.  On 13 November 2023, the market will be tested when a Ferrari 250 GTO (chassis 3765LM) will be auctioned in New York, RM Sotheby’s, suggesting a price exceeding $US60 million.  A number which greatly exceeds or fails by much to make that mark will be treated a comment on the state of the world economy.

Bogus

Bogus (pronounced boh-guhs)

(1) Not genuine; counterfeit item; something spurious; a sham; based on false or misleading information or unjustified assumptions.

(2) In printing. a matter set (by union requirement) by a compositor and later discarded, duplicating the text of an advertisement for which a plate has been supplied or type set by another publisher.

(3) In computer programming, anything wrong, broken, unlinked, useless etc).

(4) In philately, a fictitious issue printed for exclusively for collectors, often issued as if from a non-existent territory or country (as opposed to a forgery, which is an illegitimate copy of a genuine stamp).

(5) As calibogus, a US dialectical word describing a liquor made from rum and molasses (sometimes rum and spruce beer).

1827: An invention of US English, coined originally by the underworld to describe an apparatus for coining counterfeit currency.  The origin is unknown, etymologists noting the Hausa boko (to fake) and because bogus first appeared in the US, it’s possible the source arrived on a slave ship from West Africa.  An alternative speculation is it was a clipped form of the nineteenth century criminal slang tantrabogus (a menacing object), from a late eighteenth century colloquial Vermont word for any odd-looking object (which in the following century was used also in Protestant churches to mean "the devil").  The New England form may be connected to tantarabobs (a regionalism recorded in Devonshire name for the devil) although the most obvious link (for which there’s no evidence) is to bogy or bogey (in the sense of “the bogeyman”).  In this sense, bogus might thus be related to bogle (a traditional trickster from the Scottish Borders, noted for achieving acts of household trickery which sometimes operated at the level of petty crime.  The use of bogy & bogie by the military is thought unrelated because the evidence is it didn’t pre-date the use of radar (a bogie being an unidentified aircraft or missile, especially one detected as a blip on a radar display).

The noun came first, the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) tracing the first use to describe the counterfeiting apparatus to Ohio in 1927, the products of the nefarious minting having also picked up the name by at least 1838, adjectival use (counterfeit, spurious, sham) adopted the following year.  Later, bogus came to be applied to anything of poor quality, even if not something misrepresenting a brand-name (ie bogus in intended function).  The adoption by computer programmers (apparently in the 1980s) to refer to anything wrong, broken, unlinked, useless etc was an example of English in action; they could have chosen any of bogus’s many synonyms but it was the word of choice and hackers use it too.  Bogus is an adjective and (an occasional) noun, bogotic is an adjective, bogusly is an adverb and bogusness a noun.

From the nerdy humor of programmers came the related bogon, the construct being bog(us) (fake, phony) + -on (the suffix used to form names of elementary particles or fundamental units) (the noun plural being bogons).  To programmers, the bogon was the the imaginary elementary particle of bogosity; the anti-particle to the cluon (the construct being clue (idea, notion, inkling) + -on (the plural being cluons) which was the imaginary elementary particle of cluefulness and thus the anti-particle to the bogon.  The slightly less nerdy network engineers adopted bogan to refer to an invalid Internet Protocol (IP) packet, especially one sent from an address not in use.  Clutron proved useful, a clutron an especially clever or well-informed nerd although it was also picked-up in the misogynistic word of on-line gaming where a slutron was a highly skilled female player a combination where meant she attracted hatred rather than admiration a make would usually enjoy.

The surname Bogus was borrowed from the Polish (masculine & feminine) forms Bogus & Boguś, or the Romanian Boguș (the plural of the proper noun being Boguses).  In the British Isles it was initially most common in Scotland before spreading south and is thought ultimately related to other named beginning with Bog- (Bogumił, Bogusław, Bogdan et al).  In Polish, Boguś is also a given name and listed as a back-formation (as a diminutive) from either Bogusław, Bogdan, Bogumił or Bogusław (+ -uś).

A real Ferrari 1963 250 GTO (left) and Temporoa's superbly made replica of a 1962 model (right).  US$70 million vs US$1.2 million. 

The synonyms can include fraudulent, pseudo, fake, faux, phony, false, fictitious, forged, fraudulent, sham, spurious, artificial, dummy, ersatz, imitation, pretended, pseudo, simulated, counterfeit but bogus is what’s known as a “loaded word”.  Bogus implies fake (and less commonly “of poor quality”) but just because something isn’t real doesn’t mean it need be thought bogus.  Ferrari made only 39 (it can also be calculated at 36 or 41 depending on definitions) 250 GTOs and one has sold for US$70 million but it’s possible for experts to create an almost exact replica (indeed one of higher quality than an original although given the standard of some of the welding done in the factory in those years that's really not surprising) but it will only ever be worth a fraction of the real thing (a fine example offered for US$1.2 million).  Whether such a thing should be regarded as a replica, recreation, clone or whatever is something about which there's debate but few would dismiss such a work as bogus.  It really hangs on disclosure and representation.  With only 39 250 GTOs on the planet, all with well-documented provenance, it’s not possible to claim a replica is authentic but there are cars which have been produced in the hundreds or even thousands which some try to pass off as genuine; in these cases, they have created something as bogus as knock-off handbags.  One popular use of bogus is to describe various members of royal families who parade themselves in the dress military uniforms of generals or admirals, despite often having never served on been near a combat zone.  

With something digital, just about anyone can create an exact duplicate, indistinguishable from the source, hence the attraction of the non-fungible token (NFT) which, thus far, can’t be forged.  NFTs have been linked to real-world objects, as a sort of proof of ownership which seems strange given that actual possession or some physical certificate is usually sufficient, certainly for those with a 250 GTO in the garage but there are implications for the property conveyancing industry, NFTs possibly a way for real-estate transactions to be handled more efficiently.  For those producing items which attract bogus items (running shoes, handbags etc), there’s interest in attaching NFTs as a method of verification.

Humble beginnings: Publicity shot for the 1960 Ford Falcon.

When Ford released the Falcon in 1960, it was modest in just about every way except the expectations the company had that it successfully would counter the intrusion of the increasingly popular smaller cars which, worryingly, many buyers seemed to prefer to the increasingly large offerings from Detroit.  A success in its own right, the Falcon would provide the platform for the Mustang, the Fairlane, the Mercury Cougar and other variations which, collectively, sold in numbers which would dwarf those achieved by the original; it was one of the more profitable and enduring platforms of the twentieth century.  In the US, it was retired after a truncated appearance in 1970 but it lived on in South America and Australia, the nameplate in the latter market lasting until 2016, a run of over half a century during which the platform had been offered in seven generations in configurations as diverse as sedans, vans & pick-ups (utes), hardtop coupés, 4WDs, station wagons and long wheelbase executive cars.

Ford Falcon GTHO Phase I leading three Holden Monaro (HT) GTS 350s, Bathurst 1969.

Most memorably however, between 1969-1972, it was also the basis of a number of thinly disguised racing cars, production of which was limited to not much more than was required by the rules of the time to homologate the strengthened or high-performance parts needed for use in competition.  The Falcon GT had been introduced in 1967 and had proved effective but the next year faced competition from General Motors’ (GM) Holden Monaro GTS which, with a 327 cubic inch (5.3 litre) Chevrolet V8 out-performed the Ford which had by then had benefited from an increase in displacement from 289 cubic inches (4.7 litres) to 302 (4.9) which proved not enough.  The conclusion reached by both Ford & GM was of course to increase power so for 1969 the Falcon and Monaro appears with 351 cubic inch (5.8 litre) and 350 (5.7) V8s; the power race was on.  Ford however decided to make sure of things and developed homologation-special with more power, some modification to improve durability and, with endurance racing in mind, a 36 (imperial) gallon (164 litre) fuel tank, quickly (and inexpensively) fabricated by welding together two standard tanks.  The car was called the GTHO (written variously in documents as also as G*T*H*O, GT-HO & G.T.H.O. (and as GT·HO on the glovebox lid)), HO apparently understood by the Ford engineers to mean “high output” but presented to the public as “handling options”, the company not wishing to frighten the horses with fears of racing cars being sold for use on the streets (and such a furore did ensue in 1972 which proved the GTHO’s death knell.

1970 Falcon GTHO Phase II.

If the 1967 GT had been something beyond what Ford in 1960 thought the Falcon might become, the GTHO would have been beyond their wildest imaginings.  Still usable as a road car, it also worked on the circuits although, because of a bad choice of tyre which was unsuited to the techniques of the drivers, it failed to win the annual Bathurst 500, then (as now), the race which really mattered.  Determined to win the 500, a revised GTHO was prepared and, in a novel move, was known as the Phase II (the original retrospectively re-christened the Phase I), the most obvious highlight of the revised specification a switch to Ford’s new Cleveland 351 V8 which, heavier and more powerful, replaced the Windsor 351.  Underneath however, there were changes which were just as significant with the suspension re-calibrated to suit both racing tyres and the driving style used in competition.  Said to have been developed with “a bucket of Ford’s money in one hand and a relief map of the Bathurst circuit in the other”, the Phase II drove like a real racer and probably few cars sold to the public have deliberately been engineered to produce so much oversteer.  On the track it worked and victory at Bathurst followed, something which drew attention from the early unreliability of the Cleveland 351, the implications of it’s less elaborate lubrication system not for some months appreciated.

1971 Ford Falcon GTHO Phase III (Clone).

The Phase III followed in 1971 with increased power, the propensity to oversteer toned down and it proved even more successful, the legacy due to be continued by a Phase IV with four-wheel disk brakes (something probably more helpful than more power) but the project was abandoned after a moral panic induced by a Sydney newspaper which ran a front page which alleged “160mph (257 km/h) supercars” were about to fall into the hands of teenagers to use on city streets and highways.  That certainly frightened the horses and politicians, always susceptible to anything which appears in a tabloid, vowed to act and prevailed on the manufacturers to abandon the homologation specials.  Thus ended the era of the GTHO and also the similar machines being prepared by GM and Chrysler, the handful of Phase IV GTHOs built quietly sold off, never to see a race track although one did, most improbably, enjoy a brief, doomed career as a rally car.

1972 Ford Falcon GTHO Phase IV.

Over the decades, as used cars, the surviving GTHOs (many destroyed in accidents on and off the track) have become collectable and of the 1222 made (including circa 115 of the (unofficial) Phase 1.5 with a milder (hydraulic valve lifters) Cleveland engine), it’s the Phase III (300 built) which is the most coveted at auction (the handful of Phase IVs seem to change hands mostly in private sales and the record is said to be circa Aus$2 million) and while the prices achieved track the state of the economy, the current record is believed to be Aus$1.3 million.  Based on what was essentially a taxicab which was produced in the hundreds of thousands, there’s an after-market ecosystem which produces all the parts required for one exactly (except for tags and serial numbers) to create one’s own GTHO at considerably less than what a real one now costs so it’s no surprise there are many acknowledged replicas (also described as clones etc) but the odd bogus example has also been unearthed.

Ford Falcon GTHO Phase IVs being prepared for racing, Melbourne, 1972.

Quite how many of the 287 Phase IIs survive isn’t known and the prices are high so it’s little surprise some have been tempted to misrepresent a bogus example as something real and there are legal implications to this, both criminal and civil.  There are even examples of the less desirable Falcon GTs and in 2011, in a judgment handed down in the District Court of Queensland (Sammut v De Rome [2011] QDC 294), a couple was ordered to pay the plaintiff AU$108,394.04 (US$107,200 at the then favorable exchange rate).  The defendants had sold to the plaintiff what they advertised as a 1969 Ford Falcon GT, a vehicle they had in 2006 purchased for Aus$18,000.  The plaintiff undertook due diligence, inspecting the car in person and in the company of a expert in bodywork before verifying with Ford Australia that the VIN (vehicle identification number) was legitimate car.  Once the VIN had been confirmed as belonging to a 1969 Falcon GT, a sale price of Aus$90,000 was agreed and the sale executed, the buyer having the car transported by trailer to Sydney.

Bogus & blotchy: Lindsay Lohan with fake tan.

Two years later, when the plaintiff attempted to sell the car, a detailed inspection revealed it was a bogus GT, a real GT’s VIN having been used to replace the one mounted on an ordinary 1969 Falcon, an x-ray examination of the firewall confirming the cutting and welding associated with the swap.  It was never determined who was responsible for creating the bogus GT and expert testimony given to the court confirmed that then, a non-GT Falcon of this year and condition was worth between Aus$10-15,000 while the value of an authentic GT was between Aus$65-70,000.  Accordingly, the plaintiff sued for breach of contract, requesting to be compensated to the extent of the difference between what he paid for the car and its current value, plus associated matters such as transport, interest and court costs.  The court found for the plaintiff in the sum of Aus$108,394.04 although the trial judge did note that the defendants likely didn't know the car was bogus, thereby opening for them the possibility of commencing action against the party from whom they purchased the thing, his honor mentioned that because of the civil statute of limitations, they had less than a month in which to file suit.  It's to be hoped they kept the car because in 2022, well-executed replicas of XW Falcon GTs are being advertised at more than Aus$125,000.

Appliqué

Appliqué (pronounced ap-li-key)

(1) Ornamentation, as a decorative cut-out design, sewn on, glued or otherwise applied to a piece of material.

(2) The practice of decorating in this way

(3) A work so formed or an object so decorated.

(4) A decorative feature, as a sconce, applied to a surface.

(5) To apply, as appliqué to.

(6) In medicine, of a red blood cell infected by the malarial parasite Plasmodium falciparum, assuming a form in which the early trophozoite of Plasmodium falciparum parasitises the marginal portion of the red blood cell, appearing as if the parasite has been “applied”.

1841: From the from French appliqué (work applied or laid on to another material), noun use of the past participle of appliquer (to apply), from the twelfth century Old French apliquier), from the Latin applicare (attach to, join, connect) and the source of “apply” in Modern English.  The alternative spelling is applique and in French, the feminine was appliquée, the masculine plural appliqués & the feminine plural appliquées.  As a verb, appliqué refers to a method of construction but as a noun, depending on the item, the synonyms can include finery, ornament, plaque, ribbon, trinket, wreath, brocade, decoration, lace, needlepoint, quilting, tapestry, mesh, arabesque, bauble, braid, curlicue, dingbat & embellishment.  Appliqué is a noun, verb & adjective appliquéd is a verb & adjective and appliquéing is a verb; the noun plural is appliqués.

The woodie wagon and the descent to DI-NOC appliqué

Horse drawn carriages of course began with timber construction, metal components added as techniques in metallurgy improved.  The methods of construction were carried over to the horseless carriages, most early automobiles made with a steel chassis and bodywork which could be of metal, wood or even leather, located by a wooden frame.  That endured for decades before being abandoned by almost all manufacturers by the 1970s, Morgan remaining one of the few traditionalists, their craftspeople (some of whom are now women) still fashioning some of the internal structure (attached to the aluminum chassis) from lovingly shaped and sanded English ash.

Early woodies:  1934 Ford V8 Model 40 woodie wagon (left), 1941 Packard One-Ten woodie wagon (centre) and 1949 Mercury 9CM woodie wagon (right).

During the inter-war years, the timberwork again became prominent in the early shooting brakes and station wagons.  Because such vehicles were limited production variations of the standard models, it wasn’t financially viable to build the tooling required to press the body panels so a partially complete cars were used (often by an external specialist), onto which was added the required coachwork, all fashioned in timber in the same manner used for centuries.  In the US, the cars were known as woodie wagons (often spelled woody in the UK where the same techniques were used) and the more expensive were truly fine examples of the cabinet-maker’s art, the timbers sometimes carefully chosen to match the interior appointments.  So much did the highly-polished creations resemble the fine oak, walnut and mahogany furniture with which the rich were accustomed to being around that they began to request sedans and convertibles built in the same way and the industry responded with top-of-the-range models with timber doors and panels replacing the pressed metal used on the cheaper versions.

1947 Nash Ambassador sedan (left), 1947 1948 Chrysler Town & Country convertible (centre) and 1947 Cadillac Series 75 Limousine 1947 (right).  Such was the appeal of the intricate woodwork that in the 1940s, manufacturers offered it on very expensive models although the timber offered no functional advantage over metal construction.

General Motors (GM) in 1935 actually introduced an all-steel model with station wagon coachwork but it was on a light-truck chassis (shades of the twenty-first century) and intended more for commercial operators; nobody then followed GM’s example.  The woodies were of course less practical and in some climates prone to deterioration, especially when the recommended care and maintenance schedules were ignored but demand continued and some returned to the catalogue in 1946 when production of civilian automobiles resumed from the war-time hiatus but these lines were almost all just the 1942 cars with minor updates.  By 1949, the manufacturers had introduced their genuinely new models, the construction of which was influenced by the lessons learned during the war years when factories had been adapted to make a wide range of military equipment.  Although woodies remained briefly available in some of the new bodies, one innovation which emerged from this time was the new “all steel” station wagon which was not only cheaper to produce than the labor-intensive woodie but something ideally suited to the emerging suburban populations and it would for decades be one of the industry’s best-sellers, decline not setting in until the mid-1970s.

US manufacturers applied the appliqué for decades and until 1953, Ford even used real timber for the DI-NOC's perimeter molding.  Some were worse than others.

However, although by the mid-1950s, the all-steel bodies had in the US replaced all but the handful of coach-built wagons made for those who valued exclusivity more than practicality, there was still a nostalgic longing for the look of timber.  It was too expensive to use the real stuff but what was adapted was DI-NOC, (Diurno Nocturna, from the Spanish, literally “daytime-nighttime” and translated for marketing purposes as “beautiful day & night”), an embossed vinyl or polyolefin material with a pressure-sensitive adhesive backing produced since the 1930s and perfected by Minnesota Mining & Manufacturing (3M).  Described as an “architectural finish”, it was used mostly for interior design purposes in hundreds of patterns and was able to be laid over a variety of substrates such as drywall, metal, and laminate.  Remarkably effective at emulating (at a distance) more expensive materials such as wood, leather, marble, metal or granite, what the manufacturers did was not re-create the appearance of the original woodies but instead unleash the designers on the large side-surfaces of the modern Amerian car, the results mostly variations of a theme and polarizing, the DI-NOC appliqués something one either loved or hated.

1963 Ford Consul Cortina 1500 (Mk1 “Woody” estate) (left) and 1963 Ford Falcon Squire (left).  Neither sold well or were offered for long, the Falcon’s DI-NOC particularly ill-suited to the Australian summer.

It was the Americans who fell in love with the look and in the 1960s and 1970s, a wide range of cars, large and small and all of them station wagons were available off the showroom floor, complete with a faux-woodgrain appliqué glued to the flanks and sometimes the tailgate.  3M claimed it looked exactly like the real thing and at night, that was actually true although close-up, daylight exposed reality like the ugly lights in a night-club, something especially noted of a DI-NOCed machine which has spent a couple of summers baking in the Arizona sun.  Still, nobody actually claimed it was real wood and unlike something subtle like a badge, several square feet of DI NOC plastered on the sides was a way of telling everyone you bought the most expensive model.  Detroit had established colonies in England, Australia and Germany and there they tried to export the DI-NOC idea.  The Prussians weren’t tempted but Ford did briefly offer an embellished Cortina in the UK and the Falcon Squire in Australia.

Real, sort of real and surreal.  1964 Morris Minor Traveller (left), 1961 advertisement for the Morris Mini Traveller (centre) and the custom (originally a 1960 3.4 FHC (fixed head coupé)) Jaguar XK150 shooting brake (Foxbat).

In the UK, one traditional woodie did enjoy a long life, the Morris Traveller, introduced in 1953 as an addition to the Minor range (1948-1972 (1975 in overseas markets)) remaining in production until 1971, the body aft of the doors formed with structural timber members which supported infill panels in painted aluminum.  It was the last true woodie in production and is now a thing in the lower reaches of the collector market, one donating its rear compartment to someone who wanted the Jaguar XK150 shooting brake the factory never made.  Dubbed the Foxbat, it has been restored as a charming monument to English eccentricity.  However, while the Minor Traveller was real, the subsequent Mini Traveller (1961–1969) was a curious hybrid: Structurally it was exactly the same car as the Mini station wagon, the external members real wood but wholly decorative affectations which were attached directly to the steel body, the "infill" panels an illusion.  The original Mini enjoyed a forty-year life between 1959-2000 but when in 2001 BMW introduced their retro-flavored take on the idea, although they resurrected a few motifs, they didn’t bring back a woodie, fake, faux or real.

Lindsay Lohan in lace appliqué trousers and black swimsuit, Mykonos, Greece, August 2016.

Bustle

Bustle (pronounced buhs-uhl)

(1) To move or act with a great show of energy (often followed by about).

(2) To abound or teem with something; display an abundance of something (often used as “bustling with” or bustled with”).

(3) Thriving or energetic or noisy activity; stir; ferment.

(4) In dressmaking, the fullness around or below the waist of a dress, as added by a peplum, bows, ruffles, etc.

(5) In nineteenth century dressmaking, (1) a pad, cushion, worn under the back of a woman's skirt to expand, support, and display the full cut and drape of a dress; (2) a metal or whalebone framework worn by women, typically only protruding from the rear as opposed to the earlier more circular hoops.

(6) In the design of electronic office equipment, a cover to protect and hide the back panel of a computer or other office machine.

(7) In automotive design, latterly as “bustle-back”. a mid-twentieth century coachwork motif which integrated into the rear of the bodywork the previously separately-mounted trunks used to store luggage;  In the UK, the style was used in a tiny number of limousines until 1992 and in the US, there was an unfortunate revival in the 1970s.

(8) In the design of armored vehicles, an additional, external storage space added to the rear of a vehicle (on a tank, at the rear of the turret).

(9) In sailboat design, as bustle stern, a reference to a stern with a blister at the waterline designed to prevent the stern from "squatting" when getting underway.

1570s: The verb was from the Middle English bustlen, bustelen & bostlen (to hurry aimlessly along; bustling, noisy or excited activity) perhaps a frequentative of Middle English bresten (to rush, break), from Old English bersten (rushing about) of uncertain origin but perhaps (1) from the Old Norse busla & bustla (to splash about), (2) from the dialectal word busk from Old Norse būask (to prepare; to make oneself ready), (3), from the obsolete word buskle (energetically to prepare something) or (4), from the verb busk via the sixteenth century frequentative form buskle.  John Milton (1608–1674) in the 1630s used bustle to suggest "activity, stir, fuss, commotion.  In modern English use, the word is often heard in the phrase “hustle & bustle”.  Related forms include the noun bustler, the verbs bustled & bustling, the adjectival form of bustling not noted until 1819.

Profile of the bustle dress: 1885 American example rendered in silk with rhinestones in a metal frame.

The origin of the use of bustle as a noun referring to "padding in the upper back part of a skirt" is of uncertain origin but may be connected with the German Buschel (bunch, pad) or (more speculatively) may be a special adaptation of the verb, a tribute to the "rustling” the fabric of the dresses made while in motion.  Apparently first used in 1788, the bustle was a specifically-shaped frame, stuffed with cotton, feathers etc, worn by women to kill two birds with one stone: affording a greater rotundity to the hips and emphasizing the narrowness of the of the waist-line.  It had the added practical attraction of causing the folds of the skirt to hang more gracefully and prevent the fabric from interfering with the feet when walking.

Fashions change: the bustle in the late nineteenth century.

Bustle dresses obviously pre-dated modern synthetic fabrics which can be engineered to assume and retain a defined shape so were created by using an internal frame, an exoskeleton assembled usually from metal, cane or bone using essentially the same technique as coachbuilders in the twentieth century, the space frame providing support and describing the arc of the desired curves.  The earliest of the breed were less exaggerated that what was to follow, used more to allow the fabric to fan-out and create a train and it was later, in the mid-nineteenth century, that the loops and hoops grew in number and size to allow the multi-gathered layers now most associated with the style.  It was about this time that trains began to retreat and the shape of the bustle adopted the more pronounced humped shape on the back of the skirt immediately below the waist, the voluminous material tending now to fall straight to the floor in a cut designers at the time called the “waterfall effect”.  A wonderfully elegant style in which a lady could waft around a ballroom, taking a seat could be difficult, trips to the loo presumably a matter of gymnastics.

As a piece of fashion, the bustle rose and fell in popularity, its most dramatic flourish in the late 1880s when the most extreme of the bustles were built with proportions even more extraordinary than the originals of the late 1700s.  Absurdity having been achieved, the bigger bustles were banished to the of the wedding dress where it remains to this day, used both to better display a clinched waist and sometimes support a train.  The engineering however endured into the twentieth century, structural support still required for what was were now only slightly exaggerated interpretations of the female form but by 1908 it was noted that but for wedding dresses, the bustle was extinct, supplanted by the long corset.  

Portrait of Maria Carolina of Austria (1752-1814), circa 1767, by Martin van Meytens (1695–1770).

In the late 1700s, the bustle was actually quite modest compared with the earlier pannier which seems to have existed only as court dress and then rarely, reserved for the most formal occasions.  Offering the advantage of rendering the skirt as a large, almost flat, square or rectangular shape in the manner of a painting, it permitted a large surface on which elaborate designs or embroidery could be displayed, transforming the wearer into something of a walking (or at least standing) billboard. 

The style began somewhere in Europe in the early 1700s, historians of fashion in several countries laying claim although whether that's as a proud boast or admission of guilt isn’t clear.  The term seems to have been applied retrospectively as a point of differentiation from the bustle, “pannier dresses” not described as such until 1869.  In their most imposing iterations, the panniers could extend the skirt by almost a metre (39 inches) either side so there may be a comeback for what would presumably be a practical garment in the #metoo era.  The word pannier dates from circa 1300, from the Old French panier & paniere (basket), from the Latin pānārium (breadbasket), the construct being pānis (bread) + ārium (place for).  As originally used in French, panniers were the wicker baskets slung either side of a beast of burden, the name still used to describe the side-mounted containers available as accessories for bicycles and motor-bikes.

Un dimanche après-midi à l'Île de la Grande Jatte (A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte) (1884-1886) by Georges Seurat (1859-1891).

Seurat’s most famous painting is an indication of the state of the bustle art in the 1880s but is best remembered as an exemplar of the technique of divisionism (sometimes called chromoluminarism), most associated with Neo-Impressionist painting and defined by the colors being separated into individual dots or daubs, the optical result created in the brain of the viewer.  The eye is an outgrowth of the brain and, having “learned” the nature of color, what the eye sees, the brain intuitively blends and mixes, seeing the painting not as an agglomeration of dots but as an image.  The final processing is not by the painter but the viewer, an early example of a deconstruction of the the reader constructing the text, a direction of thought which would come to intrigue many theorists, some of whom unfortunately pursued the concept a little too long and much too often.

Playboy magazine, May 1976.

In what was presumably intended as a post-modern touch, Playboy magazine superimposed an image of a slightly bustled Nancy Cameron (January 1974 Playmate of the Month) on the painting for their May 1976 cover, the bunny logo hidden among the dots.  It’s not known how many of Playboy's readers were sufficiently taken with divisionism to devote much time to rabbit hunting.

1928 Mercedes-Benz Nürburg 460 K Pullman Limousine (W08).

The origin of the bustle-back style on motor cars was organic, a evolution from the luggage trunks which, borrowing from the practice used with horse-drawn carriages of many types, were attached to the rear, a practical arrangement which afforded easy access and didn’t impinge on passenger space.  Sometimes the trunks were provided by the manufacturer or coachbuilder but often, especially on lower-prices vehicles, were from third-party suppliers and not always specifically designed for the purpose, being made variously from steel, timber or leather and even woven with wicker.

1936 Studebaker Dictator 4-door sedan.

As all-metal bodies gradually replaced the mixture of steel, wood and fabric which had typified construction in the early days of the industry, the function of the once separate trunk was retained but integrated into the coachwork.  Ascetically, some were more successful than others but the trend did coincide with the move towards more sloping rear coachwork, replacing the upright designs which had been a direct inheritance from the horse-drawn stage coaches and this would have an important influence on what came to be known as the bustle-back motif.

1939 Lincoln Zephyr V12 Coupe (left) and 1937 Mercedes-Benz 540K (W29) Special Roadster (originally delivered to King Mohammed Zahir Shah of Afghanistan, right).

The sweep of the fastback line did present an obvious stylistic challenge.  To augment one with the bustled trunk would defeat the purpose but the functional advantages of the added storage had come to be appreciated so the solution was complete integration, the once discernibly separate trunk now wholly encapsulated.  The price to be paid for that was the elongation of the rear body but, in the era of streamlining, the market took well to this latest incarnation of modernism and the style turned into a profitable niche for Detroit, the two-door “business coupe” long a favorite of travelling salesmen who were happy with the sacrifice of the back seat to provide an even more commodious trunk (boot) with which to secure samples of wares.

1953 Ford Zodiac (Mark 1) & 1959 Mercedes-Benz 220 SE (W180).

By the early 1950s, a “three-box” form had evolved and it would become for several generations the standard for the mainstream sedan.  Typified by the Ford Zephyr & Zodiac (1951-1956) and the Mercedes-Benz “pontoons” (W105 / W120 / W121 /W128 / W180) (1951-1962), the style was described as “one loaf of bread atop another”.  Although many couldn’t resist embellishing the simplicity with fins and other unnecessary stuff, the basic outline endured for decades although it did tend to the "longer, lower and wider".

1954 Bentley Mark IV (left), 1963 Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud III (centre) & 1968 Daimler DS420 (right).

Not all however saw the need to advance beyond the bustle which, by an accident of economics, had come to define the traditional English limousine.  While mass-market vehicles evolved quickly with model cycles as little as 3-4 years, the low-volume and substantially hand-made limousines typically remained in production for sometimes a decade or more, reflecting the time it took to amortize the capital investment.  In the post-war years, Austin, Armstrong Siddeley, Bentley, Daimler, Rolls-Royce & Vanden Plas all persisted although production levels, never high, dwindled increasingly as the bustle-back came to be seen as an antiquated relic and by 1965, even Rolls-Royce had all but abandoned the bustle, only the low-volume Phantom V still maintaining the link to the pre-war style.

The choices in 1968: Vanden Plas Princess 4-litre Limousine (left), NSU Ro80 (centre) & Daimler Majestic Major DR450 (right).

Emblematic of the troubles which beset British industry in the era, the most obviously antique of the English bustle-backs, the Vanden Plas Princess 4-litre Limousine, was still on sale in 1968 by which time that glimpse of the next century, the NSU Ro80, had been in showrooms for over a year.  The Princess, still with a split windscreen, was a (mildly) updated version of the Austin Sheerline, introduced in 1947 when it was a genuinely new design although even then, few would have been surprised had they been told it came from before the war.  The eventual longevity wasn't planned but rather a product of the uncertainty in the future of corporate structure the industry would assume, plans for a successor put on hold, the same fate which befell the only slightly more modern-looking but remarkably rapid Daimler Majestic Major which also enjoyed a stay of execution until 1968.       

However, their new rarity made the bustle-back eventually an attraction, the very exclusivity creating a receptive and surprisingly wide market segment which included undertakers, wedding planners, Lord Mayors and anyone else to whom the sense of lost elegance and whiff of wealth appealed.  Jaguar understood and responded in 1968 with the Daimler DS420 which didn’t encourage any imitators but there was room for one and it enjoyed a long, lucrative life, remaining in production until 1992.  Over five thousand were built.

1966 Mercedes-Benz 600 (W100, left) & 1962 Rolls-Royce Phantom V by Mulliner Park Ward (right).

The traditionalists didn’t however always insist on tradition.  Even before Mercedes-Benz had shown their 600 at the 1963 Frankfurt Motor Show, coachbuilders Mulliner Park Ward had built some of the 832 Rolls-Royce Phantom Vs without the pronounced bustle-back which adorned most.  Nothing of course matched the austerity of line of the 600, the most severe interpretation the “three-box” form ever applied to a limousine and, as an alternative to the bustle-back, MPW offered "de-bustled" variations on the theme until the last of the 374 Phantom VIs was built in 1990. 

1965 Oldsmobile 98 two-door hardtop.

Fins began to shrink from the “three box” US cars in the early 1960s and were gone by mid-decade.  Having to go in some direction, the tails of the full-sized US cars noticeably lengthened, matching the growth at the front.  Aesthetically, the long hoods (bonnets) did have their attraction but were hardly an engineering necessity.  Although the biggest US V8s were wide and heavy, they weren’t, by either historic or even contemporary European standards, especially long yet in some of the full-sized cars of the era, a V16 would have fitted and there were those at Cadillac, recalling the genuine exclusivity the sixteen cylinder engines lent the marquee during the 1930s, who hankered for one and they actually built some V12 prototypes before corporate reality bit.  They contented themselves instead with a gargantuan 500 cubic inch (8.2 litre) V8 although another reality would soon bite that too.

The 1961 Cadillac: The long (left) and slightly less long (right) of it. 

Whether in response to or in anticipation of some owners preferring their Cadillac in a more conveniently sized package, between 1961-1963, a “short-deck” option was made available on certain body styles.  Offered first on the six-window Sedan deVille, an encouraging 3,756 were built so the option was in 1962 offered on the four-window Sixty Two Town Sedan but sales actually dropped to 2600, the decline in interest confirmed the next year when only 1575 of the four-window Park Avenue Sedan deVille were sold.  Using the same 129.5 inch (3289 mm) wheelbase as the regular models but eight inches (200 mm) shorter in overall length (215 vs 223 inches (5461 vs 5664 mm)), space utilization was obviously a little better but the market had spoken.  With fewer than eight-thousand of the short-deck models sold across three seasons while the standard editions shipped in the tens of thousands, the flirtation with (slightly) more efficient packaging was abandoned for 1964; in the course of the following decade, Cadillacs would grow another seven inches (178 mm) and gain over 400 lb (181 kg).

1971 Holden HG Premier (left) & 1968 Holden HK Brougham (right).

In Australia, Holden, General Motors's (GM) local outpost, took the opposite approach, the Brougham (1968-1971) created by extending the tail of the less exalted Premier by 8 inches (200 mm), the strange elongation a hurried and far from successful response to the Ford Fairlane (1967-2007).  The 1967 Fairlane had been crafted by stretching the wheelbase of the Falcon sedan from 111 inches (2819 mm) to 116 (2946 mm) and tarting-up the interior.  Ford had since 1965 been locally assembling the full-sized Galaxies for the executive market but tariffs and the maintenance of the Australian currency peg at US$1.12 meant profitability was marginal, the locally concocted Fairlane, much more lucrative, produced as it was with high local content and a miniscule development cost.  The Fairlane name was chosen because of the success the company had had in selling first the full-sized Fairlanes (nicknamed by locals as the “tank Fairlane”) between 1959-1962 and later the compact version (1962-1965).

1977 Ford LTD Silver Monarch (P6).

The massive success of the 1967 car and its successors prompted Ford to cease local assembly of the Galaxie and revert to importing fully built-up cars for the small segment of the market which wanted the bigger vehicles, including the government executive fleets.  Available with both small and big-block V8s, the Galaxies, now badged as Galaxie-LTDs, would remain available until 1973 when Ford Australia created their own LTD (1973-2007), giving the Falcon’s wheelbase a final stretch to 121 inches (3073 mm) and adding the novelty of a 24 hour analogue clock, lashings of real leather and fake timber along with that status symbol of the 1970s: the padded vinyl roof.

Lindsay Lohan photo-shoot by Tom Munro (b 1964) for Bustle, March 2024.

The “malaise era” bustle-backs (1980-1987) by Cadillac, Imperial and Lincoln.

The US cars of the decade between 1973-1983 (some say it lasted a bit longer) were called “malaise era” cars, named after a thoughtful but perhaps unfortunate speech President Jimmy Carter (b 1924; US president 1977-1981) delivered in July 1979.  The president didn't actually utter the word "malaise" but people listen to what politicians mean as much as what they say and the word came to be associated with his unhappy, single-term administration.  Not yet able substantively much to improve the dynamics of the cars, Detroit thought of a distraction: the bustle-back.  It proved a short-lived fad although one better remembered that some of what had gone before and much of what would follow.

The 1980 Cadillac Seville was first, the advertising copy even trying to justify the appearance by claiming the design offered “more usable trunk space”, something which could neither be proved nor disproved which was good, given it offered 14.47 (.409 m³) cubic feet of space whereas last year’s model had 14.9 (.421 m³).  Still, what one got was “more usable”.  Cadillac were explicit about their plagiarism, the Seville’s lines based not on just any bustle-back but one with the most severe lines, the Hooper-bodied Rolls-Royces of the post-war years.  The critics were divided: some not liking it and some hating it, a spread of opinion seemingly shared by buyers, sales never matching those of its more conventional predecessor although there were other factors in the lukewarm response such as the switch to front wheel drive and some reliability issues with the power-train.  Production of the bustle-back Seville ceased in 1985; sales of its successor were higher.

Chrysler always claimed the design of the 1981 Imperial was locked-in long before their designers had laid eyes on the new Seville but it wasn’t until 1981 it was in the showrooms.  Based on the competent J-body Cordoba platform, it was offered only as a two-door coupé with a fuel-injected 318 cubic inch (5.2 litre) V8 and an automatic transmission.  After 1955, Chrysler had run Imperial as a separate division in an attempt to gain the cachet of Cadillac and Lincoln but, despite early success, the experiment failed and the brand was retired in 1975.  The bustle-back Imperial (1981-1983) ostensibly revived the division and the car was well-equipped, including bits and pieces from Cartier although its best-remembered association with celebrity was the “Frank Sinatra Edition”.  Unexpectedly, a brief foray onto the fastest of the NASCAR ovals proved the bustle-back’s aerodynamic efficiency; it achieved an impressive top-speed despite not using the highest-powered engine.  It wasn’t enough to save the brand which was shut down for the last time in 1983 although Chrysler did continue to use “Imperial” on the odd tarted-up model and surprised everyone in 2006 by presenting an Imperial concept car.  Criticized at the time because it was so obviously influenced by the Rolls-Royce Phantom (the retrospective VII) and a pastiche of many clichés, if one didn't mind that sort of thing, it seemed a quite accomplished execution.  

Ford’s retro-take arrived last in 1982 but the Lincoln lingered longest, not replaced until 1987.  The bustle-back Lincoln actually used the most restrained implementation of the idea but, unable to resist the temptation to add lipstick, the designers applied to the trunk the faux spare tyre bump which had been on so many Continentals since the 1955 Mark II first sought to pay tribute to the 1940 original although this was the first time a Lincoln without a Continental badge had been humped. In common with the experience of the other manufacturers, the car attracted fewer buyers than its predecessor or successor and, while Detroit have pursued some other retro-projects with mixed results, none have attempted another reprise of the bustle-back.

Pre and post butt-lift, the 2001 and 2009 BMW 7 Series.

Nor has anyone else.  Although the 2001 BMW 7 Series (E65) is sometimes labelled a bustle-back (or, in more twenty-first century style, a bustle-butt), it really never was although, having allowed a decent interval to elapse so as not to (further) upset the designer, at the first facelift, it was toned down a little.