Symbolic Usage To Represent Wealth
The wearing of spats is often used as symbolic shorthand to represent wealth, eccentricity or both. Fictional characters such as Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot, P. G. Wodehouse's Bertie Wooster, Walt Disney's Scrooge McDuck, Jean de Brunhoff's Babar the Elephant, Jiggs from the comic strip Jiggs and Maggie, Rich Uncle Pennybags the iconic man from the Monopoly board game, the Sixth Doctor from Doctor Who and Bustopher Jones from the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical Cats, among others, have been depicted as wearing spats. In Some Like It Hot, the mob boss is called "Spats" Colombo, because he regularly wears spats. In some cases, these depictions occur long after spats ceased to be a normal part of everyday menswear: for instance The Penguin from Batman is drawn wearing spats along with a suit with tails. Similarly, Irving Berlin's song "Puttin' on the Ritz" mentions spats along with a variety of other elements of formal clothing that were common when it was written.
Read more about this topic: Spats (footwear)
Famous quotes containing the words symbolic, usage, represent and/or wealth:
“The act of bellringing is symbolic of all proselytizing religions. It implies the pointless interference with the quiet of other people.”
—Ezra Pound (1885–1972)
“Girls who put out are tramps. Girls who don’t are ladies. This is, however, a rather archaic usage of the word. Should one of you boys happen upon a girl who doesn’t put out, do not jump to the conclusion that you have found a lady. What you have probably found is a lesbian.”
—Fran Lebowitz (b. 1951)
“I consider it useless and tedious to represent what exists, because nothing that exists satisfies me. Nature is ugly, and I prefer the monsters of my fancy to what is positively trivial.”
—Charles Baudelaire (1821–1867)
“I should say tact was worth much more than wealth as a road to leadership.... I mean that subtle apprehension which teaches a person how to do and say the right thing at the right time. It coexists with very ordinary qualities, and yet many great geniuses are without it. Of all human qualities I consider it the most convenient—not always the highest; yet I would rather have it than many more shining qualities.”
—M. E. W. Sherwood (1826–1903)