Cleavage

Marguerite and Veronica in the early days

Plateau meets Paris - buttoned up meets plunging neckline

Let's start with Veronica. Her look - designed by herself - is a clear departure from the world of her parents. We see a little bit of Zanga influence in her clothes, but overall the design is uniquely her own. When we first meet Veronica, she already has the style that emphasizes her healthy body. A vegetarian and exercise devotee she is the poster child for a health-conscious Plateau lifestyle.

After living with the explorers for a year we see a new look that has all the essential style elements, but with a more pronounced cleavage. After two years the top emphasizes her cleavage even more. She obviously changed the cut of her top to get this more voluptous look. Some fashion experts have speculated that this was influenced by Marguerite Krux and some advanced sewing techniques that she taught Veronica. We respectfully disagree. In clothing matters Veronica has never really asked for advice from anyone, she is her own woman in her search for the perfect look. Our research has shown that two aspects of her life coincided with her plight for more cleavage exposure. The first one is her growing interest in matriarchal religions, most of whom present the female body in their religious artifacts in a fully or partly unclothed state. The second one is her interest in Ned Malone. This charming young man - consistently the man with the best hair on the Plateau - has always been smitten with Veronica, but their relationship has gone through a lot of false starts. Obviously the jungle beauty was hoping that a show of cleavage might get Ned to be more proactive in pursuing her. Unfortunately when he finally did, she decided to dump him and just "be friends". No wonder Ned ran off to find himself. We hope wherever he is he will find a good hair stylist. The man has a reputation to uphold. And Veronica needs a man who appreciates her look and does not show his appreciation of her by trying to poison her with arsenic.

Marguerite Krux is a different matter altogether. Her style is strongly rooted in Parisian fashion and while she is certainly ahead of her time in wearing slacks, she is a far cry from the carefree attitude of Veronica. In her first year on the Plateau Miss Krux showed cleavage only in three situation. She was dressed in native garments, because a crisis situation required it. She was worried about her blouse getting sweaty during a vigorous rowing exercise on the Amazon. And last but not least - she had to clean up a bit after a long hike through the jungle. Some commentators have mentioned to us that Lord John Roxton always seems to be present whenever she takes off her blouse, but we think that this is pure coincidence. Miss Krux knows that an intellectual like Lord Roxton is much more impressed by her linguistic abilities than her outward charms. Although - there is his unfortunate dalliance with Danielle, the Voodoo Queen (see Fashion Hall of Shame), a woman who had some talents for crafts and chemistry, but no style whatsoever. Her use of cleavage deserves a citation! But we digress....

In her second year on the Plateau Marguerite went through a crisis, both from an emotional and fashion point of view. The disappearance of Arthur Summerlee was the first blow. The loss of the kindly old man, who was a lot less judgemental and more accepting of Marguerite than the other Treehouse inhabitants, was very painful for her. The burgeoning relationship with Lord John Roxton also hit a few skids. In a typical display of male relationship angst he started to pursue every Voodoo Queen and Amazon that came along, thus creating feelings of frustration and anger in Marguerite. Let's not forget, the dating pool on the Plateau is fairly limited, once you exclude ape men, trogs and homicidal maniacs. To see an eligible bachelor display such poor taste must have been traumatic for Marguerite.

Marguerite reacted with a full plunge into cleavage. The woman whose clothes were always understated and of a simple elegance suddenly started to unbutton her blouses and show off her white corsets and camisoles. Fashion experts everywhere were concerned. What was happening? Why the blatant style clash between early 20's century style and Veronica-like cleavage? The answer was clear - an obvious expression of an emotional crisis. But Marguerite Krux is a fighter and she worked through her issues and after a few months she was back to her old elegant self. No more exaggerated shows of cleavage, no more peek-a-boo corset moments, all was well again on the Plateau. Some say that it was due to Lord John Roxton finally coming to his senses and focusing his attention fully on Marguerite instead of the Jungle Tart of the Week, but we firmly believe that Marguerite would have mastered this crisis with or without him. She is the Style Queen of the Plateau after all.

Marguerite is not herself.... literally!

The domestic goddess look is a clear indication of sinister forces at work

Marguerite is her old stylish self

Cleavage crisis is over and Lord Roxton is finally as attentive as he should be