A cartoon from the World War II ear depicted two GI's staring through binoculars at a nude woman on a beach. The caption was, "Wouldn't she look great in a sweater!" The author addresses our "cloaking the charged generative centers of our bodies" and the sometimes subtle associated symbolism. Unconscious conflicts are clearly expressed in such "concealments," which the author presents in historical and mythological perspective. The implication is that symbolic components of genital coverings have significant import for all clothing. This brings to mind Anatole France's notion that he had learned more about another civilization from a perusal of its fashion magazines than from an entire array of historical, political, and sociological writings.