Strange freaks of Louise de Lorraine--One of her adventures--Her
dress at a royal _fête_--Marie de Medici--The distended dresses
of her time--Hair-powder--Costume _à la enfant_--Escapade
of the young Louis--Low dresses of the period--The court of
Louis XIV. of France--High heels, slender waists, and fancy
costumes--The Siamese dress--Charles I. of England--Patches
introduced--Elaborate costumes of the period--Puritanism, its
effect on the fashions--Fashions in Cromwell's time, and the
general prevalence of the practice of tight-lacing--The ladies
of Augsburg described by Hoechstetterus.
Little change appears to have taken place in the prevailing fashions
of England for some considerable time after this period. In France two
opposing influences sprang up. Henry III., as we have seen, was the
slave of fashion, and mainly occupied his time in devising some new
and extravagant article of raiment. His wife, Louise de Lorraine, on
the other hand, although exceedingly handsome, was of a gloomy, stern,
and ascetic disposition, dressing more like a nun than the wife of so
gay a husband. She caused numerous sumptuary laws to be framed, in
order to, if possible, reduce the style of ladies' dress to a standard
nearer her own; and the following anecdote will serve to show the
petty spirit in which her powers were sought to be exercised.
[Illustration: COURT DRESS DURING THE BOYHOOD OF LOUIS
XIII.]
[Illustration: MARIE DE MEDICI.]
A writer on her life says, "She was accustomed to go out on foot with
but a single attendant, both habited plainly in some woollen fabric,
and one day, on entering a mercer's shop in the Rue St. Denis, she
encountered the wife of a president tricked out superbly in the latest
fashions of the day. The subject did not recognise the sovereign,
who inquired her name, and received for answer that she was called
'La Présidente de M.,' the information being given curtly, and with
the additional remark, 'to satisfy your curiosity.' To this the
queen replied, 'But, Madame la Présidente, you are very smart for a
person of your condition.' Still the interrogator was not recognised,
and Madame la Présidente, with that pertness so characteristic of
ordinary womankind, replied, 'At any rate, you did not pay for my
smartness.' Scarcely was this retort completed when it dawned upon
the speaker that it was the queen who had been putting these posing
questions, and then a scene followed of contrite apology on the one
hand, and remonstrance on the frivolity of smart attire on the other,
both very easy to imagine." With all this pretended simplicity and
humility, Queen Louise, on certain occasions, indulged in the most
lavish display of her personal attractions. It is related of her that
on the marriage of her sister Margaret, she attended a magnificent
_fête_ given at the Hôtel de Bourbon, and made her appearance in the
saloon or grand ball-room as the leader of twelve beautiful young
ladies, arrayed as Naiads. The queen wore a dress of silver cloth,
with a tunic of flesh-coloured and silver _crêpes_ over it; on her
head she wore a splendid ornament, composed of triangles of diamonds,
rubies, and various other gems and precious stones. Still the king was
the acknowledged leader of fashion, which the queen did all in her
power to suppress, except when it suited her royal caprice to astonish
the world with her own elegance.
Henry IV. appears to have had no especial inclination for matters
relating to fashion, and the world wagged much as it pleased so far as
he was concerned. On his marrying, however, his second wife, Marie de
Medici, another ardent supporter of all that was splendid, sumptuous,
and magnificent was found. His first wife, indeed, Marguerite de
Valois, had strong fashionable proclivities, but she was utterly
eclipsed by the new star, whose portrait is the subject of the
accompanying illustration, in which it will be seen that the wide
hips and distended form of dress accompany the long and narrow waist.
This style of costume remained popular, as did hair-powder, which was
introduced in consequence of the grey locks of Henry IV., until the
boy-king Louis XIII., who was placed under the control and regency of
his mother, caused by his juvenile appearance a marked change in the
fashions of the time. The men shaved off their whiskers and beards,
and the ladies brushed back their hair _à l'enfant_, and as about this
time Marie showed strong indications of a tendency towards portliness,
the hoops were discarded; and short waists, laced to an extreme
degree of tightness, long trailing skirts, and very high-heeled shoes
were introduced. The dresses of this period of sudden change were
worn excessively low, and it is said of young Louis that he was so
alarmed, enraged, and astonished at the sight of the white shoulders
of a lady of high position that he threw a glass of wine over them,
and precipitately quitted the scene of his discomfiture. The annexed
illustration shows the style of dress after the changes above referred
to.
The next noteworthy changes we shall see taking place during the
reign of Charles I. in England and Louis XIV. of France. The court of
the _Grand Monarque_ was one of extraordinary pomp and magnificence;
flowing ringlets, shoes with heels of extraordinary height, and
waists of extreme slenderness were the rage. Fancy costumes were
also much affected. The accompanying illustration represents a lady
and gentleman of the period equipped for the _chase_, but of what
it would be difficult to say, unless butterflies were considered in
the category of game. The so-called Siamese dress, which became so
generally popular, was worn first during the reign of Louis XIV. Many
of these dresses were extremely rich and elegant; one is described
as having the tunic or upper-skirt composed of scarlet silk with
brocaded gold flowers. The under-skirt was of green and gold, with
frills of exquisite work from the elbow to the wrist. The accompanying
illustration represents a court lady dressed in this style, and that
which follows it a fancy dress of the same period. It was in this
reign that the coloured and ornamented clocks to ladies' stockings
first made their appearance. Patches for the face were first worn in
England during the reign of Charles, although they continued in use
for a great number of years, and the following satirical lines were
written by an old author regarding them and one of their wearers:--
"Your homely face, Flippanta, you disguise
With patches numerous as Argus' eyes;
I own that patching's requisite for you,
For more we're pleased the less your face we view;
Yet I advise, since my advice you ask,
Wear but one patch, and be that patch a mask."
[Illustration: FANCY COSTUMES OF THE TIME OF LOUIS XIV.]
[Illustration: SIAMESE DRESS WORN AT THE COURT OF LOUIS XIV.]
The fashions set by the court of Louis were eagerly seized on by
the whole of Europe. The flowing curls, lace cuffs, and profuse
embroidery in use at the court of Charles of England were all borrowed
from France, but the general licence and laxity of the period for
some short time showed itself in the dress of the ladies, whilst
fickleness and love of change, accompanied by thoughtless luxury and
profusion, prevailed. The following complaint of a lady's serving-man,
dated 1631, will show that the Puritans were not without reason in
condemning the extravagances of the time:--
"Here is a catalogue as tedious as a taylor's bill of all the devices
which I am commanded to provide (_videlicet_):--
"Chains, coronets, pendants, bracelets, and earrings,
Pins, girdles, spangles, embroidaries, and rings,
Shadomes, rebatacs, ribbands, ruffs, cuffs, falls,
Scarfs, feathers, fans, maskes, muffes, laces, cauls,
Thin tiffanies, cobweb lawn, and fardingales,
Sweet sals, vyles, wimples, glasses, crumping pins,
Pots of ointment, combs, with poking-sticks, and bodkins,
Coyfes, gorgets, fringes, rowels, fillets, and hair laces,
Silks, damasks, velvets, tinsels, cloth of gold,
Of tissues with colours a hundredfold,
But in her tyres so new-fangled is she
That which doth with her humour now agree,
To-morrow she dislikes; now doth she swear
That a losse body is the neatest weare,
But ere an hour be gone she will protest
A strait gown graces her proportion best.
"Now calls she for a boisterous fardingale,
Then to her hips she'll have her garments fall.
Now doth she praise a sleeve that's long and wide,
Yet by and by that fashion doth deride;
Sometimes she applauds a pavement-sweeping train,
And presently dispraiseth it again;
Now she commands a shallow band so small
That it may seem scarce any band at all;
But now a new fancy doth she reele,
And calls for one as big as a coach-wheele;
She'll weare a flowry coronet to-day,
The symbol of her beauty's sad decay;
To-morrow she a waving plume will try,
The emblem of all female levitie;
Now in her hat, then in her hair is drest,
Now of all fashions she thinks change the best."
On Puritanism becoming general the style of dress adopted by
the so-called "Roundheads," as a contrast to that of the hated
"Cavaliers," was stiff, prim, and formal to a degree; and during
Cromwell's sway as Protector, small waists, stiff corsets, and very
tight lacing again became the fashion; and Bulwer, who writes in
1653, in speaking of the young ladies of his day, says, "They strive
all they possibly can by streight lacing themselves to attain unto a
wand-like smallness of waist, never thinking themselves fine enough
until they can span their waists." The annexed illustration, adapted
by us from his work, _The Artificial Changeling_, represents a young
lady who has achieved the desired tenuity. He also quotes from
Hoechstetterus, who in his description of "_Auspurge_, the metropolis
of _Swevia_," 1653 (meaning Augsburg, the capital of _Suabia_), "They
are," saith he, describing the virgins of Auspurge, "slender, streight
laced, with '_demisse_' (sloping) shoulders, lest being grosse and
well made they should be thought to have too athletique bodies." So
throughout the length and breadth of Europe the use of tightly-laced
corsets remained general.
[Illustration: YOUNG ENGLISH LADY OF FASHION, 1653.]
[Illustration: FANCY DRESS WORN IN THE REIGN OF LOUIS XV.]