The Vancouver independent. (Vancouver, W.T. [Wash.]) 1875-1910, 1878-08-22
WhimS of Dress.

Some amusing facts are given in an
article in lie Sport on the changes which
have taken place in French costumes
since the days of Henry III. Marguerite
de Valois, though she had an abundance
of beautiful black hair, had great fond
ness for golden locks and wore wigs of
her favorite color. She selected as pages
only those lads who had hair of this
color, and did not scruple to have it cut
off when she wanted new perruque
Under Henri w, DAubigne speaks of
no fewer than sixty-four new shades of
color, among them being the dying
Ape the "Seven Capital Sins" the
Dead Man come to Life again." and the
Sick Spaniard." The length of the
sleeves was so great that it was deemed
necessary to invent spoons with very long
handles, in order that ladies might be
able to eat their soup without soiling
their dress. Under Louis XIII, the ladies
of the old schools still retained masks,
but the younger ones merely wore wells
of black Grape, (which served as relief
to the whiteness of their skin" Young
and old alike made plentiful use of per
fumes, powder, rouge, and patches cut to
initiate stars, flowers, and animals. The
perfumed gloves, red, green, and sky
blue stockings and morocco shoes Of diff
ferent colors, also continued to be the
fashion. In Louis XIV's time, the mania
for false hair was so great that learned
theoogian, Jean Baptiste Theirs, wrote "A
long essay to show that artificial hair
was an outrage to God, because it dis
t,rted the person whom he had made in
his own image"
In the eighteenth century France began
to copy from other nations, and in ZIG,
English ladies appeared in Paris with
pannier dresses, the hoops having cir
conference of twelve feet" During the
minority of Louis XIV, the ancient mode
of dress remained in vogue, but Monies
quieu introduced English fashions, and
the redingote (riding-coaU made its APP
pearance in 1880. Adversaries of what
was termed Anglomania met the redta-
gate with the habit a Ia .trancaise and to
show that they were no Puritans, they
covered it with gold and silver lace. AT
this period the ladies dressed in imitation
of state shepherdesses, but, as conces-
SlDu W Hutuie, WoiC stio" ho'S - Z" c"'
tienne with broad brims). There were
as many as forty-tive varieties of wigs,
and Dugue, the chief of the hair dressers,
went his rounds in carriage and pair.
Legros published tteatises upon his art,
founded an academy of hair-dressing,a and
exhibited upon the Cours la Refine and
the Boulevards young women who had
"lent their heads" as the saying was, for
him to experiment upon. Powder was
used in such quantities that the Parlia
ment of Paris declared the practice of
employing -four for its preparation to be
one of the causes which brought about
the scarcity of food, while patches and
rouge was as fashionable as ever. From
this epoch, too, date the in reduction of
the umbrella, the original form of which
was the Oriental parasol held by pages
over the heads of the great Ladies when
they went out on foot The parasol could
not be closed, but in 176S it was modified
into its present form.
The first years of Louis NIV's reign
witnessed great change in the mode of
dress, which became much more simple,
that of men in particular. Ladies wore
ears of corn in their hairs as symbolic of
the plenty which was about to prevail.
The circumference of the hoops increased
to seventeen feet, and in one year as many
as $50 different kinds of trimming for
dresses were invented.