Boa
Women’s accessory of aristocratic origin. It descends from the palatine, a fur scarf worn by the sister-in-law of Louis XIV, the Sun King. It is usually associated with an explicit and direct style of female seduction, and with the frivolity of nights during the era of the Belle Époque, and the musicals and vaudevilles dominated by mythical showgirls like Mistinguette, with movie sets and the immortal platinum blond diva Mae West. It is named after the boa constrictor, because, like that snake, it wraps around the neck and shoulders of the person who wears it. It appeared under that name for the first time at the beginning of the 19th century and was used to cover the necklines and naked shoulders of evening dresses. The fur of the original model disappeared, and was replaced by feathers, especially of the cock and the ostrich, which became typical by the end of the 19th and in the early 20th centuries. The 1920s were the period of its maximum splendor, with a revival in the following decade and during the 1960s, the years of the Italian economic boom.