REIGN OF LOUIS XVI. (CONTINUED).
1780 to 1789.
Peasant dress is universal—Fashion “à la
Marlborough”—Caps—Bonnets—Mdlles. Fredin and Quentin—Ruches—Low
bodices; “postiches”—Costume of Contat-Suzanne—Fashions “à
la Figaro”—Literature and politics signified in dress; the
Princess de Monaco’s pouf—Pouf “à la circonstance;” the
“inoculation” pouf—The “innocence made manifest” caraco—The
“harpy” costume—Coats, cravats, and waistcoats—Sailor jackets
and “pierrots”—Déshabillés; “the lying fichu”—Etiquette in
dress—Seasonable costumes—The queen’s card-table—State of trade
in Paris, _circa_ 1787—“Pinceauteuses,” or female colourers.
In 1780 the ideal of Fashion was the peasant costume. Duchesses playing
at milkmaids in the park at Trianon adored everything rural, and did
their best to resemble shepherdesses. They longed to play the parts of
Mathurine and Nicolette, only their diamonds must still be allowed them.
The Chevalier de Florian was beginning to acquire a reputation as a
writer of pastoral romances, very much to the taste of the ladies of his
time. His novel of “Estelle and Némorin” inculcated bucolic manners and
graces.
But the humblest fashions may be splendidly travestied! Cap-bonnets
were adopted by all the court ladies, but in combination with flowers,
ribbons, and feathers, composing a charming spring-like head-dress.
The smallest caprice of Marie Antoinette was still sedulously copied.
One day she began singing the air of “Marlbrouck,” and all French ladies
immediately dressed “à la Marlborough,” and sung their queen’s favourite
air from morning to night. Mme. Rose Bertin forwarded costumes “à la
Marlborough” to England.
In the previous century, Bachaumont had written as follows:—“Ever since
the song came out, Marlborough has become the hero of every fashion;
everything nowadays is ‘à la Marlborough,’ and all the ladies walk about
the streets, or go to the play, wearing the grotesque hat in which they
are pleased to bury their charms, so great is the empire of novelty.”
Marie Antoinette partially revived the rage for fashions “à la
Marlborough.”
Four years later, Frenchwomen gave up the caps I have mentioned for straw
bonnets from Italy, which were immediately preferred above all others,
and which remained in fashion for above a century. One milliner would
choose a shape with perpendicular crown, hidden under a mass of ribbon;
another would adopt an enormous funnel-shaped brim, loaded with feathers
or flowers.
It has been calculated that in the course of two years, from 1784 to
1786, the shapes of hats were changed seventeen times. There were some
called hat-caps, “chapeau-bonnets,” because their balloon shape resembled
a cap. There were small close shapes in silk, trimmed with feathers and
flowers, worn on one side of the head; and soon afterwards there were
very large bonnets “à l’amiral.” We read in the “Journal des Modes de
Paris,” 1785: “There is a hat on view at Mdlle. Fredin’s, milliner, at
the sign of the ‘Echarpe d’Or’ (Golden Scarf), Rue de la Ferronnerie,
on which is represented a ship, with all her rigging complete, and her
battery of guns.... At Mdlle. Quentin’s, in the Cité, there are ‘pouf’
hats composed of military trophies, the flags and drums arranged on
the brim have a charming effect.” Some hats were so enormously large
that they overshadowed the whole face like a parasol. And some aimed at
satire; they were of black gauze, and called “à la Caisse d’Escompte,”
because they were without crowns (sans fond). This referred to the
wretched state of the public treasury; the Caisse d’Escompte having just
suspended payment.
Gowns, whether of silk or of plain material, continued to be made open
down the front, over an under-skirt of another colour; but for a simple
style of dress, both skirts might be alike.
Gimp trimmings had been succeeded by ruches of muslin or lace, sewn to
the edge of the dress, and arranged like flounces. Sleeves were always
tight and short; fans and bracelets, pearl necklaces, and sometimes a
watch, fastened at the side, were worn also, and immense earrings “à la
créole,” that had been first seen in _Mirza_, a ballet by Gardel. Gowns
were worn rather long, scarcely revealing the satin shoes with buckles,
and the smooth-drawn white stockings.
We may here recall the “calembourg” made by the Marquis de Brévre to
Marie Antoinette: “Madame,” said he, “‘l’univert’ (the universe) is at
your feet.”
By way of compensation for the length of the skirts, bodices were cut so
low that the shoulders were visible.
Paniers were out of date, but “postiches” had taken their place. These
postiches soon became so enormous, that even young and slender women
looked like towers of silk, lace, ribbon, and flowers. Fashionable
marquises wore satin pelisses, white, pink, or sky blue, trimmed with
ermine or miniver, and a muff in winter.
Occasionally, in a fit of simplicity, they contented themselves with a
silk hat, and an elegant caraco, or a satin mantle trimmed with broad
lace.
Sometimes, also, they expressed their literary or political proclivities
by their dress.
The “Philadelphia” cap was intended to commemorate the independence of
the United States, about the time of Franklin’s visit to Paris.
The immense success of _Le Mariage de Figaro_ effected a change in
the fashions, and the costume in which Mdlle. Emilie Contat had been
applauded to the echo in the part of Suzanne became the order of the day.
All that year, the ladies adopted “le déshabillé à la Suzanne,” dressed
their hair “à la Cherubino,” wore their gowns “à la Comtesse,” and their
bonnets and caps “à la Figaro.”
After the performance of _La Brouette du Vinaigrier_, by Mercier, caps “à
la brouette” (wheelbarrow) came into fashion. _La Caravane_, by Grétry,
brought out caps “à la caravane.” _La Veuve du Malabar_, a five-act
tragedy by Lemierre, was so popular, that extraordinary caps were
devised, “à la veuve de Malabar.”
Louis XVI. thought proper, on a certain occasion, to forbid the court
in general to enter the royal carriages in order to follow the hunt. To
ensure greater freedom, he desired the company of real sportsmen only.
The nobles immediately protested, and the Princesse de Monaco expressed
her disapproval of the new regulation through the medium of her “pouf”
hat, on which was displayed the king’s coach in miniature, padlocked, and
two gentlemen in gaiters following the hunt on foot.
On the left side of the “pouf de circonstance,” worn at the accession of
Louis XVI., was a tall cypress, wreathed with purple pansies, a twist of
crape at the foot represented its roots; on the right was a wheatsheaf
lying on a cornucopia, from whence tumbled a profusion of figs, grapes,
and melons, made of feathers.
In honour of the discovery of inoculation for small-pox, Mdlle. Bertin
invented the “pouf à l’inoculation,” viz. a rising sun, and an olive-tree
in full fruit; round this was entwined a serpent bearing a club wreathed
with flowers. The serpent and the club represented medicine, and the art
by which the variolous monster had been vanquished; the rising sun was
emblematic of the young king, in whom were centred all the hopes of the
monarchists; and the olive-tree symbolized the peace and tranquillity
resulting from the operation to which the royal princes had submitted.
The “innocence made manifest” caraco was invented in 1786, in honour
of Marie Françoise Victor Salmon, who had been tried on a charge of
poisoning, and acquitted in the June of that year. The counsel for
the defence was one Cauchois. The same caracos were also called “à la
Cauchois.” They were of lilac pekin, with collars and facings (parements)
of apple-green. They were fastened on one side of the front by four large
mother-of-pearl buttons, and similar buttons were placed on the lapels.
In the catalogue of extraordinary costumes worn in 1783 and 1784 we must
include the “harpy” costume, which owed its existence to the published
account of the discovery in Chili of a two-horned monster, with bat’s
wings, and human face and hair, which was said to devour daily one ox,
or four pigs. A song-writer composed the following lines against the new
fashion:—
“A la harpie on va tout faire,
Rubans, lévites et bonnets;
Mesdames, votre goût s’éclaire:
Vous quittez les colifichets
Pour des habits de caractère.”[48]
An anonymous writer gallantly replied:—
“La harpie est un mauvais choix;
Passons sur ce léger caprice;
Mais dans les modes quelquefois
Le sexe se rend mieux justice,
En suivant de plus dignes lois.
Mesdames, j’ai vu sur vos têtes
Les attributs de nos guerriers;
On peut bien porter des lauriers,
Quand on fait comme eux des conquêtes.”[49]
The epigram did not modify the “instructed” taste of women, who continued
to dress themselves “à la harpie” until the occurrence of some new whim.
Our Frenchwomen, for instance, copied the English, who had introduced
masculine fashions into their dress.
In all our public resorts, ladies were to be seen in coats, with braid
and lapels, double capes, and metal buttons. The most elegant women
were muffled up in cravats, shirt frills, and waistcoats, and wore two
watches with chains, “breloques,” and seals. Some even wore men’s hats,
and carried canes.
The same ideas from across the Channel induced women to wear sailor
jackets and “pierrots.” This latter appellation was given to a
tight-fitting garment, cut low in the neck, and fastening in front,
very open at the bottom; the sleeves were tight, with turned over cuffs
(parements), and the long basques were trimmed with buttons.
A still more eccentric style of dress was that of gowns “à la
Circassienne,” with a fichu or “canezou,” and an undress gown “en
caraco,” so cut as to expose the pit of the stomach, notwithstanding the
immense cambric kerchief that stood out preposterously in front, and was
called by the malicious a “fichu menteur” (a deceitful or lying fichu).
Gowns “à l’Anglaise” and “à la Circassienne” were for occasions of
ceremony; coats, pierrots, and caracos for morning dress.
We may also mention among the whimsicalities of fashion, garments “à
la Montgolfier,” after the invention of balloons, sheath-dresses “à
l’Agnès,” and chemises “à la Jésus.”
The difference between full dress and half dress continued to be strictly
observed; and before proceeding further we may point out that from the
reign of Louis XIV. to the French Revolution the dress of men and women
alike was entirely regulated by etiquette, by which we mean not the code
of courtiers only, but the sanction of recognized custom.
Materials were classified according to the seasons. In winter, dress
was restricted to velvet, satin, ratteen, and cloth. After the fêtes of
Longchamp, which may be considered as the assizes of fashion, the lace
called “point d’Angleterre” made its appearance. Mechlin lace was worn in
summer. In the intermediary seasons of spring and autumn, light cloth,
camlets, light velvets, and silks were habitually worn.
Immediately after the Feast of All Saints, November 1st, all furs were
taken from their cardboard receptacles, and at Easter-tide most ladies
put away their muffs.
Full dress was obligatory for promenades in the Tuileries Gardens.
At court, when a lady had attained her eighth lustre, or, to speak more
prosaically, when she reached the age of forty, she wore a coif of
black lace underneath her cap, and tied it below her chin. The editor
of the “Memoirs of Mme. de Lamballe” tells us that after “the queen’s
card-table” (jeu de la reine) most of the ladies retired to change their
gowns, because the front had been soiled by the gold they had received.
Possibly they did not wish Louis XVI., who disapproved of the “queen’s
card-table,” to perceive that their taste did not correspond with his.
At the close of the eighteenth century, Paris contained 38 master
makers of needles and pins, 542 knitted cap and cuff-makers, 82 female
bouquet-sellers and florists, 262 embroiderers, 1824 shoemakers, 1702
dressmakers, 128 fan-makers, 318 workers in gold and silver stuffs,
&c., 250 glove-makers and perfumers, 73 diamond-cutters, 659 lingères,
143 dancing-masters, 2184 mercers, 700 barbers and male and female
wig-makers, 24 feather-dressers and plume-mounters, 735 ribbon-sellers,
and 1884 cutters-out of coats and gowns.
In 1776 the feather-dressers combined their business with that of
fashionable dressmakers. Mercers sold lace, silks brocaded in gold and
silver, gold braid, gold and silver network, and woollen materials of
various kinds.
Turgot suppressed the guild of female bouquet-vendors, and ruled that
women should pass “masters” in any profession suitable to their sex,
not only as embroiderers and milliners, but also as hair-dressers.
Increased grace and delicacy in feminine attire was the result of this
innovation. Large numbers of skilled mechanics obtained a respectable
livelihood by goldsmiths’ and jewellery work, by skin-dressing, or
working in silk, wool, cloth, and cashmere. Coloured cottons were sold
in great quantities; women were employed in their manufacture, to colour
the material. They were called “pinceauteuses.” Very superior muslin was
produced in France, and the art of dyeing made continual progress, owing
to the efforts of the greatest chemists of the age.
From the princess to the working woman, the fair sex neglected nothing
that might increase their attractions. A moralist has justly observed:
“I have heard of women wanting bread, but never of one who went without
pins.”
We shall meet with some exceptions to this rule during the Revolution;
but they only help to prove it, and were of brief duration.
[Illustration]
[Illustration: Republic from 1790 to 1792
Republic 1793 and 1794]