Muffing It

A recent conversation over on Fabulon celebrated the ever-perfectly-accessorized Miss Ida Lupino, and in particular - thanks to the trenchant eye of MJ - her penchant for keeping her hands warm...

Which got me thinking about muffs. So practical in one sense, so ridiculous in almost every other...

I mean, surely in that gown, keeping her hands warm is the least of Miss Monroe's problems...

While Persian lamb just doesn't seem warm enough, however much it reinforces the visual message that Judy is perfectly fine, whatever else the readers of Photoplay might have been hearing.

As was so often the case in her pre-Desi career, Lucy seems less to be wearing than being worn by this particular costume...

While William Powell seems to be reacting with an inappropriate alarm when presented with Miss Binnie Barnes's impressive silver fox muff - although it must be admitted that she is wielding it superbly.

They go beyond Hollywood of course - on this important day, Jackie is actually using hers (something of novelty after all the foregoing) to keep her hands warm...

...while here it would seem that it is only the combination of muff, collar, and hat that's keeping the late Princess of Wales from spontaneously combusting on the spot.

Muffs! So versatile, so lovely, and so much of eras past! I trust that Miss MJ will now lead us a characteristically high-toned discussion of their sizes, depths, virtues, and uses.