Western women readily incorporated Japanese accessories including the fan, the hairpin (kogai), and the ornamental hair comb [Fig. 4]. These women emulated the manners of Japanese women, mimicking the formal ways in which they carried their hands and feet and sporting a “kinked body posture” which was especially evident through the long narrow skirts of Japanese apparel. These slight incorporations of Eastern tendencies “exuded a mysterious, magical aura of Oriental sumptuousness” and provided an escape from Western norms into exotic and new ways of living.
As the appeal for exotic accessories increased, Western jewelers such as Rene Lalique in Paris were challenged to create "objets de vitrine," or "stunningly beautiful display pieces." Lalique's hair comb [Fig. 1] features his love for nature in the shape of six bees in gold and hints at the emergence of the Art Nouveau movement through his use of curvilinear shapes below the bees. Georg Kleemann and Otto Zahn’s comb [Fig. 2], more closely relates to the variety of combs seen in figure 3 because of its flat and wide structure. Most combs produced in the East were decorated on both sides with a variety of materials and naturalistic themes.
