Connecticut western news., 1890-03-12
WHO SETS FASHIONS?
A CELEBRATED FRENCH AC.
 TREsS SAYS THE STAGE DOES.
The French Capital Still Leads the
 World in Women's Dress.


 the highest Parsian society as ever there was ill the pa|micst days of the Second Empire. Fashion still reigns supreme in spite of the overturned thrones. and the god has not one in- stant r.linguisi.ed his prerogatives, however madly the people play at bat ard ball with crowns and sceptres.
 Among the Monarchs of Europe here is one whose throne never totters, whose sseptered sway is never dis puted, whose crown is as fixed as the top of Mont Blanc, and whose subjects are etvrnally loyal, devoted, and sub- inissive, that is to say, his or her Ma iesty the Parisian dressmaker. The couturiere of Lute.ia, as a matter of ,ni!h cry fact, makes laws for the civilized society of the world. Ameri- ca comes to her to pay homage and SC for inspiration. Old England has for years been absolutely led by her dictates, and is obedient to the laws and commands by which she says, "Of this shape, and no other, shall be thy :otonde, thy bonnet, thy mantelet, thy wrap or sortie de bal; and thus far and no further shall come tl.y cor sage, thy basque, or thy pelerine." indeed, the supremacy of the French dressmaker is as absolute as the laws of the Medes and Persians, and as un- ,eniable as proposition in Euclid.
 I have often heard it said that, in the days of Napoleon III, the Empress was the undoubted leader of fashion and taste. Now, without wishing to say anything derogatory, I think there must be some mistake ill such state- ment, as it might with truth be asked -:Who, then, took the Empress's place, when events made of Frances unfortunate arbitress in dress politi- cal refugee?" Certainly not Mime. Grevy, who was anything but lady of fashion; and there was no Mime. Gambetta at all.
 The fact is that the Empress, like every other lady ill the land, followed the fashions which had been set by others. Fashicn's edicts were promul- gated in the official gazettes of the ssmodes," and they were obe ,ed as inn plicitly at the Tuileries and in the Fau- bourg, and eventually in England and in the United States, as everywhere, as they are now, when there is no En- pire in France, and the Tuileries is only thing of the past.
 Who, then, sets the fashions2
 From my own experience think the theatre has a great deal more to do with it than any one thing else in the world.
 QUEEN MARIE ANToNETTE.
 In the first place, there were no fashions to speak of in France before Louis XIV, when Moliere in reality first peopled the stage. The rage for itcessant changes in dress is of still more recent growth. It dates in all its frivolous absurdity from the reign of Queen Marie Antoinette. Until her advent the fashions in dress changed but slowly at the Court of France. Anyone knows at a glance the costume of Marie de Medicis, no matter at what period of her life it may have been worn. The great ladies in those days had many dresses, no doubt, and rich ones too; but the cut of them remained unaltered for years. Young ladies, in fact, were re- ceived at Court quite suitably attired in the wedding gowns of their mothers and grandmothers. .....
 Maria Antoinette, however, soon changed all this. She modified the style of her own dresses so often that the ladies of the Court were bewilder- ed by her vagaries. Her whims were initiated by few ladies of the Court. The Princess de Lamballe and Mime. de Polignac distinguished themselves by the fattering completeness of their imitation. Many, however, held aloof, and always appeared clad in the old brocades of the early half of the last century; while the mass of the feminine population remained utterly indifferent to the changes of fashion which were displayed at Court.
 may here state that the Queen was slave to her dressmaker, Mile. Ber- tin. When Marie Anto'nette entered Paris in 1779, Mile. Bertin placed her. self, with thirty of her work-women, conspicuously at her balcony. The Queen, as she passed, was pleased to wave her hand, and exclaimed:- "There is Mile. Bertin pa favour the milliner acknowledged by most ob- sequious curtesy. However the Kings good sense may have been ruffled at the thought that the Queens first atten- tion at his entrance into Paris was paid to her dressmaker, his majesty hum- cured the joke so far as to applaud by beating his ands, which entailed another deep obeisance on the part of the needle-Woman.
 Then, one after ano her, the whole of the members of the Royal Family followed the example set by the King and the Queen, to which curtsey after curtsey was rende. ed from the balcony. But the courtiers in their turn, like true apes, took up the cue from their august masters; and after these again, the entire retinue of satellites, officers, squires, cadets, tigers, and retainers- a procession upwards of mile long to each and all of whom the unfortu- nate woman had to bow in succession, until, exhausted with SO much honor and glory, she finally curtseyed herself into swoon, falling like spent flow ant nymphs.
 THE COURT MILLINER.
 Such public attention on the part of Royalty of course made Mile. Bertin's fortune. She became the fashionable marchande de modes.
 ACTRESSES LEAD THE FASHION.
 Popular actl esses have always proved the most immediate and the most pow erful inculcators of fashion. The in- cOmparable Vestris Uset" at least