The Frenchwoman of the Century; Fashions - Manners - Usages (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: THE MIRROR OF FASHIONS UNDER THE RESTORATION. THE MIRROR OF FASHIONS UNDER THE RESTORATION. RECISELY during the first days of the Restoration, when Napoleon had scarcely yet set foot n the isle of Elba, and Paris, over- whelmed by so many precipitous . was still delivered into the hands of the Allies, a grave question, thoroughly French, was discussed at the Tuileries between Louis XVIII., the Prince de Foix, the Duc de la Chatre, the Marquis de Breze, and different dames of quality on terms of intimacy with the King. Disquiet was theirs about the fashions of thenew France, and people dreamed seriously of making a veritable revolution in the national costume to please all those who were returning from emigration with the manners, ideas, and usages of the ancient order of things. The cut of coats, as well as the shape of dresses, uniforms, and hats, were looked upon almost as affairs of state. Should there be a return to tie-wigs, to powder, to hoop-petticoats, to furbelows, to farthingales ? What was to be the dress of men and women when presented ? What the court dress ? . . . The costume of one hundred and forty ladies chosen from the twelve districts of Paris to offer their homages to Her Royal Highness Madame la Duchesse d'Angouleme, on her entry into the palace of the Tuileries, could not but be provisional and for the occasion; it consisted of a white silk, crape, or muslin dress, a head-dress woven with lilies, and bouquets of lilies. Every one in the royal assembly did his best to present transcendent ideas for a vestiarian counter-revolution to the order of the day; people spoke of banishing the long redingotes, the mob caps, the outer coverings of Indian calico, the lofty hats which smelt of the Convention, the capes with triple collar, and the lon...