Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 05.djvu/546

* COSTUME. 468 COSTUME. medallions, and painted enamels of the time, exist in some quantity : and they agree in telling the most extraordinary tale of splendid extrava- gance in the dress of botli sexes. Embroidery vas loaded iiiion bodice and doublet, or was dis- pensed witii only when a very rich brocade was employed ; and laoe, or its earlier forms of cut- work and dravn-^ork, and needle embroidery in pierced patterns like filigree, were used with freedom. Tlie circular ruff, projecting like a dish on which the head seems to lie, appears, but is not yet so popular as the broad and flat laeed collar, sometimes lying on the shoulders, some- times standing stiffly out horizontally, or for women in steep, upward slope behind the head and neck. The fashion of bombasted thigh-cover- ings for the men is identified in artistic history with the reign of Henry IV. of France, but it did not last very long, being replaced by the loose, short trousers of about 1025 and after. No costume in the modern sense is perhaps more graceful and spirited at once than the dress of the gentlemen of the time of Louis XIII., which, ■xith its short trousers, the stocking below cover- ing the calf of the leg, which was concealed by the boots commonly worn out of doors, the doublet, reaching a" little below the waist, and worn loose, generally unlnittoned in front and showing the shirt in its full folds, the short cloak, worn on the left shoulder, except when it was gathered around the body, the flat hat, with very broad brim, and soft falling feather, and the broad, loose collar, is a complete and graceful translation into form of those ideas which the modern worhl has conceived — ideas absolutely contrary to those of antiquity. Simplicity and grace have given place to picturesqiie combina- tion of small details : and here is the new theory, perfectly put into practice. The reign of Louis XIV. had but little influence on this dress of men, except to stiffen it and make it rigid and hard, but the dress of women improved on the -whole in tastefulness throughout the seventeenth century, and as late as IfiTO was introduced that admirable costume which we identify with Jladame de Sevigne, a skirt not very full, over which was worn^ a short upper skirt, open in front; a bodice fitting snugly, but not involving very tight lacing: a stomacher, but not excessive in its "length ; sleeves reaching the elbow, and accompanied by lace ruffles, which partly shroud the lower arm"; the bodice cut low. but not to excess, and a cape worn over the neck and shoul- ders on occasion of going out of doors. The same thing, in simpler stuffs and in graver colors, was worn by the wives of the wealthier hour(]eois, .Tnd this is the dress ■hich we identify with the women of Holland and the English Puritans. _ It is preserved for us in a great number of paint- ings, and in the prints from Hollar's engravings ; and it has impressed itself upon modern design- ers as the most complete t^-pe of womanly cos- tume which we know; but" that is because the richer dress of the time is impossible to realize nowadays — it seems non-human, as if of fairy- land. The eighteenth-century dress in England, which was at times popular and acceptable in decorative design, is a modification of it, not for the better. The fop of 17.50 is less beautifully dressed than the mvpiiet of 1650. and the ladies of 1775. with their enormous hoops, far less charming in appearance than Madame de Sf- vigne a hundred years earlier. The French Revolution in 1789 brought in a number of strange vagaries in dress, red and white striped waistcoats, stockings, striped blue and white in horizontal rings, white cravats wound round and round the neck until they reached the point of the chin, while at the same time the ^^omen wore the lightest and tliinnest costume possible, in fancied imitation of the Romans. Cocked hats of exaggerated shape tor the men alternated with steeple-crowned hats with curly brims; while the female costume was finished by the most elaborate pile of curls and crimps, crowned by an enormous cap, either simply of muslin and lace, or with these com- bined with a sort of hat half concealed with feathers, flowers, and raffles of lace. The mo- mentary prohibition of elegances of this sort under the Revolution led to a change in the dress of both se.xes, which was not to be temporary. exceiJt in details. Thus the dress which we call that of the 'F.mjiire.' the famous 'pink night- goMn.' girded innuediately below the breasts and hanging thence to the ankles, but so close that a woman could hardly walk and was utterly unable to step across a gutter, was worn with low shoes and with an unprotected neck, while the cold of winter was mot by a pelisse, generally worn open in front and affording merely shelter for the shoulders and liack, however richly it might be furred. The men fell immediately into the simple and not impressive dress of a time when the civilian was of little account, and any man who was elegant in his aspirations found some excuse to wear a military or official uni- form. The civilian dress was then merely a Avaisteoat, over which was worn a long-skirted coat, and the pantalon, or tight-fitting breeches reaching to the ankle instead of the knee. The Large and loose white cravat still continued. From these dresses all our modern fashions have followed, succeeding one another through such changes as this — the coat with a round skirt, projecting much from the hips, from 18.30 to 1840; the double-breasted dress coat (habit), from 1840 to 1850. or thereabout, often blue, with gold buttons, often claret-colored or brown ; the very high coat-collar, worn with either or both of these fashions, but disappearing about 1835; trousers succeeding the pantalon, and worn rather close-fitting, and with an immense spread, or 'spring,' at the bottom, covering the boot almost to the toes, succeeding the strapped trousers of an earlier time, and succeeded in turn by the 'bags,' as the English slang term very properly has it, which, since I860, have remained in fashion throughout western Europe and the nations of European settlement, and con- stitute certainly the ugliest article of costume hitherto discovered by mankind. The dress of women, now that we approach our own time, and the changes of every year become known to us, has a relative imjjortance so diverse, with so many and such almost imperceptible changes, that a consideration of this is left for the article F.VSHION. BiBLioGB.vpnY. A general work, containing 500 plates, most of them colored, and an elabo- rate commentary with an analysis of each plate, as well as some essays showing considei-able in- sight, is Racinet, Le costume historiqve (6 vols., P.aris. 1888 K published both in folio and in a more convenient small quarto.