English Costume Part 40

Our wives--bless them!--occasionally treat us to a few bewildering terms, hoping by their gossamer knowledge to present to our gaze a mental picture of a new, adorable, ardently desired--hat. Perhaps those nine proverbial tailors who go to make the one proverbial man, least of his s.e.x, might, by a strenuous effort, confine the history of clothes during this reign into a compact literature of forty volumes.

It would be indecent, as undecorous as the advertis.e.m.e.nts in ladies'

papers, to attempt to fathom the language of the man who endeavoured to read the monumental effigy to the vanity of human desire for adornment. But is it adornment?

Nowadays to be dressed well is not always the same thing as to be well dressed. Often it is far from it. The question of modern clothes is one of great perplexity. It seems that what is beauty one year may be the abomination of desolation the next, because the trick of that beauty has become common property. You puff your hair at the sides, you are in the true sanctum of the mode; you puff your hair at the sides, you are for ever utterly cast out as one having no understanding. I shall not attempt to explain it: it pa.s.ses beyond the realms of explanation into the pure air of Truth. The Truth is simple.

Aristocracy being no longer real, but only a cult, one is afraid of one's servants. Your servant puffs her hair at the sides, and, hang it! she becomes exactly like an aristocrat. Our servant having dropped her _g's_ for many years as well as her _h's_, it behoved us to p.r.o.nounce our _g's_ and our _h's_. Our servants having learned our English, it became necessary for us to drop our _g's_; we seem at present unwilling in the matter of the _h_, but that will come.

To cut the cackle and come to the clothes-horse, let me say that the bunglement of clothes which pa.s.ses all comprehension in King George IV.'s reign is best explained by my cuttings from the book of one who apparently knew. Let the older writer have his, or her, fling in his, or her, words.

'CUROSY REMARKS ON THE LAST NEW FASHIONS.

'The City of London is now, indeed, most splendid in its buildings and extent; London is carried into the country; but never was it more deserted.

'A very, very few years ago, and during the summer, the dresses of the wives and daughters of our opulent tradesmen would furnish subjects for the investigators of fashion.

'Now, if those who chance to remain in London take a day's excursion of about eight or ten miles distance from the Metropolis, they hear the innkeepers deprecating the steamboats, by which they declare they are almost ruined: on Sundays, which would sometimes bring them the clear profits of ten or twenty pounds, they now scarce produce ten shillings.

'No; those of the middle cla.s.s belonging to _c.o.c.kney Island_ must leave town, though the days are short, and even getting cold and comfortless; the steamboats carrying them off by shoals to Margate and its vicinity.

'The pursuit after elegant and superior modes of dress must carry us farther; it is now from the rural retirement of the country seats belonging to the n.o.ble and wealthy that we must collect them.

'Young ladies wear their hair well arranged, but not quite with the simplicity that prevailed last month; during the warmth of the summer months, the braids across the forehead were certainly the best; but now, when neither in fear of heat or damp, the curls again appear in numerous cl.u.s.ters round the face; and some young ladies, who seem to place their chief pride in a fine head of hair, have such a mult.i.tude of small ringlets that give to what is a natural charm all the _poodle-like_ appearance of a wig.

'The bows of hair are elevated on the summit of the head, and confined by a comb of tortoise-sh.e.l.l.

'Caps of the cornette kind are much in fashion, made of blond, and ornamented with flowers, or puffs of coloured gauze; most of the cornettes are small, and tie under the chin, with a bow on one side, of white satin ribbon; those which have ribbons or gauze lappets floating loose have them much shorter than formerly.

'A few dress hats have been seen at dinner-parties and musical amateur meetings in the country, of transparent white c.r.a.pe, ornamented with a small elegant bouquet of marabones.

'When these dress hats are of coloured c.r.a.pe, they are generally ornamented with flowers of the same tint as the hat, in preference to feathers.

'Printed muslins and chintzes are still very much worn in the morning walks, with handsome sashes, having three ends depending down each side, not much beyond the hips.

With one of these dresses we saw a young lady wear a rich black satin pelerine, handsomely trimmed with a very beautiful black blond; it had a very neat effect, as the dress was light.

'White muslin dresses, though they are always worn partially in the country till the winter actually commences, are now seldom seen except on the young: the embroidery on these dresses is exquisite. Dresses of Indian red, either in taffety or chintz, have already made their appearance, and are expected to be much in favour the ensuing winter; the chintzes have much black in their patterns; but this light material will, in course, be soon laid aside for silks, and these, like the taffeties which have partially appeared, will no doubt be plain: with these dresses was worn a Canezon spencer, with long sleeves of white muslin, trimmed with narrow lace.

'Gros de Naples dresses are very general, especially for receiving dinner-parties, and for friendly evening society.

'At private dances, the only kind of ball that has at present taken place, are worn dresses of the white-figured gauze over white satin or gros de Naples; at the theatricals sometimes performed by n.o.ble amateurs, the younger part of the audience, who do not take a part, are generally attired in very clear muslin, over white satin, with drapery scarves of lace, barege, or thick embroidered tulle.

'Cachemire shawls, with a white ground, and a pattern of coloured flowers or green foliage, are now much worn in outdoor costumes, especially for the morning walk; the mornings being rather chilly, these warm envelopes are almost indispensable. We are sorry, however, to find our modern belles so tardy in adopting those coverings, which ought now to succeed to the light appendages of summer costume.

'The muslin Canezon spencer, the silk fichu, and even the lighter barege, are frequently the sole additions to a high dress, or even to one but partially so.

'We have lately seen finished to the order of a lady of rank in the county of Suffolk, a very beautiful pelisse of jonquil-coloured gros de Naples. It fastens close down from the throat to the feet, in front, with large covered b.u.t.tons; at a suitable distance on each side of this fastening are three bias folds, rather narrow, brought close together under the belt, and enlarging as they descend to the border of the skirt. A large pelerine cape is made to take on and off; and the bust from the back of each shoulder is ornamented with the same bias folds, forming a stomacher in front of the waist. The sleeves, _a la Marie_, are puckered a few inches above the wrist, and confined by three straps; each with a large b.u.t.ton. Though long ends are very much in favour with silk pelerines, yet there are quite as many that are quite round; such was the black satin pelerine we cited above.

'Coloured bonnets are now all the rage; we are happy to say that some, though all too large, are in the charming cottage style, and are modestly tied under the chin.

Some bonnets are so excessively large that they are obliged to be placed quite at the back of the head; and as their extensive brims will not support a veil, when they are ornamented with a broad blond, the edge of that just falls over the hair, but does not even conceal the eyes. Leghorn hats are very general; their tr.i.m.m.i.n.gs consist chiefly of ribbons, though some ladies add a few branches of green foliage between the bows or puffs: these are chiefly of the fern; a great improvement to these green branches is the having a few wild roses intermingled.

'The most admired colours are lavender, Esterhazy, olive-green, lilac, marshmallow blossom, and Indian red.

'At rural fetes, the ornaments of the hats generally consist of flowers; these hats are backward in the Arcadian fashion, and discover a wreath of small flowers on the hair, _ex bandeau_. In Paris the most admired colours are ethereal-blue, Hortensia, cameleopard-yellow, pink, gra.s.s-green, jonquil, and Parma-violet.'--_September 1, 1827._

Really this little fashion book is very charming: it recreates, for me, the elegant simpering ladies; it gives, in its style, just that artificial note which conjures this age of ladies with hats--'in the charming cottage style, modestly tied under the chin.'

They had the complete art of languor, these dear creatures; they lisped Italian, and were fine needlewomen; they painted weak little landscapes: nooks or arbours found them dreaming of a Gothic revival--they were all this and more; but through this sweet envelope the delicate refined souls shone: they were true women, often great women; their loops of hair, their cameleopard pelerines, shall not rob them of immortality, cannot destroy their softening influence, which permeated even the outrageous dandyism of the men of their time and steered the three-bottle gentlemen, their husbands and our grandfathers, into a grand old age which we reverence to-day, and wonder at, seeing them as giants against our nerve-shattered, drug-taking generation.

As for the men, look at the innumerable pictures, and collect, for instance, the material for a colossal work upon the stock ties of the time, run your list of varieties into some semblance of order; commence with the varieties of maca.s.sar-brown stocks, pa.s.s on to patent leather stocks, take your man for a walk and cause him to pa.s.s a window full of Hibernian stocks, and let him discourse on the stocks worn by turf enthusiasts, and, when you are approaching the end of your twenty-third volume, give a picture of a country dinner-party, and end your work with a description of the gentlemen under the table being relieved of their stocks by the faithful family butler.

POWDER AND PATCHES

'The affectation of a mole, to set off their beauty, such as Venus had.'

'At the devill's shopps you buy A dresse of powdered hayre.'

From the splendid pageant of history what figures come to you most willingly? Does a great procession go by the window of your mind?

Knights bronzed by the sun of Palestine, kings in chains, emperors in blood-drenched purple, poets clothed like grocers with the souls of angels shining through their eyes, fussy Secretaries of State, informers, spies, inquisitors, Court cards come to life, harlequins, statesmen in great ruffs, wives of Bath in foot-mantles and white wimples, sulky Puritans, laughing Cavaliers, Dutchmen drinking gin and talking politics, men in wide-skirted coats and huge black periwigs--all walking, riding, being carried in coaches, in sedan-chairs, over the face of England. Every step of the procession yields wonderful dreams of colour; in every group there is one who, by the personality of his clothes, can claim the name of beau.

Near the tail of the throng there is a chattering, bowing, rustling crowd, dimmed by a white mist of scented hair-powder. They are headed, I think--for one cannot see too clearly--by the cook of the Comte de Bellemare, a man by name Legros, the great hairdresser. Under his arm is a book, the t.i.tle of which reads, 'Art de la Coiffure des Dames Francaises.' Behind him is a lady in an enormous hoop; her hair is dressed _a la belle Poule_; she is arguing some minute point of the disposition of patches with Monsieur Leonard, another artist in hair.

'What will be the next wear?' she asks. 'A heart near the eye--_l'a.s.sa.s.sine_, eh? Or a star near the lips--_la friponne_? Must I wear a _galante_ on my cheek, an _enjouee_ in my dimple, or _la majestueuse_ on my forehead?' Before we can hear the reply another voice is raised, a guttural German voice; it is John Schnorr, the ironmaster of Erzgebinge. 'The feet stuck in it, I tell you,' he says--'actually stuck! I got from my saddle and looked at the ground.

My horse had carried me on to what proved to be a mine of wealth.

Hair-powder! I sold it in Dresden, in Leipsic; and then, at Meissen, what does Bottcher do but use my hair-powder to make white porcelain!'

And so the chatter goes on. Here is Charles Fox tapping the ground with his red heels and proclaiming, in a voice thick with wine, on the merits of blue hair-powder; here is Brummell, free from hair-powder, free from the obnoxious necessity of going with his regiment to Manchester.

The dressy person and the person who is well dressed--these two showing everywhere. The one is in a screaming hue of woad, the other a quiet note of blue dye; the one in excessive velvet sleeves that he cannot manage, the other controlling a rich amplitude of material with perfect grace. Here a liripipe is extravagantly long; here a gold circlet decorates curled locks with matchless taste. Everywhere the battle between taste and gaudiness. High hennins, steeples of millinery, stick up out of the crowd; below these, the towers of powdered hair bow and sway as the fine ladies patter along. What a rustle and a bustle of silks and satins, of flowered tabbies, rich brocades, cut velvets, superfine cloths, woollens, cloth of gold!

See, there are the square-shouldered Tudors; there are the steel glints of Plantagenet armour; the Eastern-robed followers of Coeur de Lion; the swaggering beribboned Royalists; the ruffs, trunks, and doublets of Elizabethans; the snuffy, wide-skirted coats swaying about Queen Anne. There are the soft, swathed Norman ladies with bound-up chins; the tapestry figures of ladies proclaiming Agincourt; the dignified dames about Elizabeth of York; the playmates of Katherine Howard; the wheels of round farthingales and the high lace collars of King James's Court; the beauties, bare-breasted, of Lely; the Hogarthian women in close caps. And, in front of us, two posturing figures in Dresden china colours, rouged, patched, powdered, perfumed, in hoop skirts, flirting with a fan--the lady; in gold-laced wide coat, solitaire, bagwig, ruffles, and red heels--the gentleman. 'I protest, madam,' he is saying, 'but you flatter me vastly.' 'La, sir,'

she replies, 'I am prodigiously truthful.'

'And how are we to know that all this is true?' the critics ask, guarding the interest of the public. 'We see that your book is full of statements, and there are no, or few, authorities given for your studies. Where,' they ask, 'are the venerable anecdotes which are given a place in every respectable work on your subject?'

To appease the appet.i.tes which are always hungry for skeletons, I give a short list of those books which have proved most useful:

MS. Cotton, Claudius, B. iv.

MS. Harl., 603. Psalter, English, eleventh century.

The Bayeaux Tapestry.

MS. Cotton, Tiberius, C. vi. Psalter.

MS. Trin. Coll., Camb., R. 17, 1. Ill.u.s.trated by Eadwine, a monk, 1130-1174.

MS. Harl. Roll, Y. vi.

MS. Harl., 5102.

Stothard's 'Monumental Effigies.'