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The Heighth of Fashion

What Alex and his droogs wear in Anthony Burgess' novel, A Clockwork Orange.

"The four of us were dressed in the heighth of fashion,
which in those days was a pair of black very tight tights
with the old jelly mould, as we called it, fitting on the crutch
underneath the tights, this being to protect and also a sort
of a design you could viddy clear enough in a certain light,
so that I had one in the shape of a spider, Pete had a rooker
(a hand, that is), Georgie had a very fancy one of a flower,
and poor old Dim had a very hound-and-horny one of a
clown's litso (face, that is), Dim not ever having much of an
idea of things and being, beyond all shadow of a doubting
thomas, the dimmest of we four. Then we wore waisty
jackets without lapels but with these very big built-up
shoulders ('pletchoes' we called them) which were a kind of
a mockery of having real shoulders like that. Then, my
brothers, we had these off-white cravats which looked like
whipped-up kartoffel or spud with a sort of a design made
on it with a fork. We wore our hair not too long and we had
flip horrorshow boots for kicking." -

by Sacreum February 19, 2024


The Heighth of Fashion

A term used by the character Alex in A Clockwork Orange to describe any individual's given clothing, regardless of what it might be.

The four of us were dressed in the heighth of fashion, which in those days was a pair of black
very tight tights with the old jelly mould, as we called it, fitting on the crotch underneath the tights,
this being to protect and also a sort of a design you could viddy clear enough in a certain light, so
that I had one in the shape of a spider, Pete had a rooker (a hand, that is), Georgie had a very fancy
one of a flower, and poor old Dim had a very hound-and-horny one of a clown’s litso (face, that is).
Dim not ever having much of an idea of things and being, beyond all shadow of a doubting thomas,
the dimmest of we four. Then we wore waisty jackets without lapels but with these very big built-up
shoulders (‘pletchoes’ we called them) which were a kind of a mockery of having real shoulders
like that. Then, my brothers, we had these off-white cravats which looked like whipped-up kartoffel
or spud with a sort of a design made on it with a fork. We wore our hair not too long and we had
flip horrorshow boots for kicking.

by Sacreum July 24, 2024