Surrealist Pattern Art

Here's a 1964 painting called "The Son of Man" by surrealist Rene Magritte:

In a 1965 interview, Magritte said of the painting:

...so you have the apparent face, the apple, hiding the visible but hidden, the face of the person...we always want to see what is hidden by what we see. There is an interest in that which is hidden and which the visible does not show us.

And now here's Simplicity 4886, copyright 1966:

Wikipedia claims that Magritte's popularity began to rise in the 1960s, which really makes me wonder if Simplicity's pattern illustrator was directly influenced by the artist's work.  (If so, I like to imagine the illustrator snickering at his or her subversiveness, mocking the bourgeiosie as she/he snuck Surrealist art into something as middlebrow and mainstream as a sewing pattern for capris.)

Take a closer look at the pattern illustration and it gets more bizarre.  At first it seems the models are holding the line drawings to cover their faces, but that's not the case.  They're holding the drawings at chest level, meaning that THEY HAVE NO HEADS!  These are three headless bodies modeling capris for the women of 1960s America!  As much as you may want to "see what is hidden by what [you] see," you can't.  There's nothing behind the apple. 

Three headless women modeling clothing while holding pictures of clothing...if that's not a comment on fashion and consumption, I don't know what it.

Of course, it could all be an interesting coincidence...but wouldn't you love to pick that pattern illustrator's brain?  I know I would...