Page:Costume, fanciful, historical, and theatrical (1906).djvu/50

22 hands. The lower part of his body was wrapped in a piece of cloth of gold."

Some severity also marked costume in France at this time, when there was a suggestion of the ecclesiastical in the high guimpe without which no dress was complete. This was a fancy inaugurated by the second wife of Philip III. for the special benefit of her long throat and flat chest; and worn in company with a pointed head-dress and a flowing veil, a closely-fitting long robe of brocade, and an embroidered mantle, the general effect must have been entirely dignified and impressive. Simplicity, however, did not reign here long, and Louis IX. of France appears to have been quite lenient towards extravagance, and to have had a nice taste of his own, judging from the picture which represents him wearing a velvet cap, a tunic open at the neck, and a robe of brown embroidered with red flowers, and possessing long sleeves trimmed with fur. Fur was amongst his weaknesses evidently, for a deep cape of fur covers his shoulders in another picture, where he is wearing a fur-trimmed robe and has indulged himself with red stockings and black shoes. This was the King who urged his courtiers to dress themselves well and neatly, so that their wives would love them the more, and their people esteem them higher.

Philip the Fair, or Unfair, of France decreed that "No damoiselle, if she be not châtelaine or dame owning 2000 levies yearly, shall have more than one pair of gowns per year; and if she be, she shall have two pairs and no more"—an edict which was, of course, defied fearlessly. Sumptuary laws come somehow to be disregarded, proving the