One of our favorite longreads of the week is the Awl's deep dive on the history of toile. Writer Colette Shade delves into the fraught class consciousness threaded into its bucolic images of working folk, from shepherd boys tending to goats to bosomy peasant girls hiking up their skirts to better feed the chickens. "It's strange but telling that affluent people continue to decorate their homes with images of happy poor people," writes Shade, whose name sounds like a variety of toile. "Toile seems to hang in stately living rooms as a reminder that everything is okay, showing wealthy people how idyllic poor people's lives can be." [The Awl/Photo via 3275 Washington]
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