Chic Chicago attracted primarily women. But it was also an occasion for a few males. I drew exactly ten men in dresses during those ten months. Six of these chose the red dress. Now, the red dress was a slinky thing in silk crepe and you could wear it like a major expression of your inner lady-in-red, or you could regard it as useless feminine yardgoods. A couple of casual conversational exchanges with the gentleman revealed to me which category I was dealing with: he was either gay, or so straight that this silliness didn’t faze him at all.
Because of the setting—a book store in a museum!—I couldn’t go wild with this work. But when Wayne from Montana sat down and asked me to draw him in the red dress, I knew he was egging me on to come up with something. Hey, full frontal nudity, fine with me, go for it. Right, Wayne, I can do that at 11:00 p.m. at some party where the shoes and ties came off an hour ago, but not here in this pristine, sun-drenched tourist spot that takes itself verrrry seriously.
—————————————So, I did my loincloth compromise. Still pretty funny. His wife Ruby responded with an expression of tolerance. But he loved it…may well have been the highlight of his day.