Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1890-09-03
WHO SETS FASHIONS?
A CELEBRATED FRENCH AC.
TREss SAYS THE STAGE DOES.
Tho French Capital Still Leads the
World in Women's Dress.

been without q splendid and luxurious
court, there has been probably as nuch
splendor, luxury. elegance and taste In
the highest Partisan society as ever
there was in the palmiest days OF the
Second Empire. Fashion still feigns
supreme in spite of the overturned
thrones, and the god has not one IN
slant relinguished his prerogatiyes,
however madly the people play at bat
and ball with crowns and sceptres.
Among the Monarchs of Europe
there is one whose throne never totters,
whose sceptered sway Is never dis
puted, whose crown is as fixed as the
top of Mont Blanc, and whose subjects
are etsrnally loyal, devoted, and sub
missive, that is to say, his or her Ma
jesty the Partisan dressmaker- 1he
couturiere of Lutetia, as a matter OF
millinery 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 wears been absolutely led by her
dictates, and is obedieDt to the laws
and commands by which she says, .Of
this shape, and no other, shall be thy
rotonde, thy bonnet, thy mantelet,
thy wrap or sortie de bal; and thus
far and no further shall come thy 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-
| aeniable as a proposition in Euclid.
/ have often Leard il said that, In
the DAYS of Napoleon Ill, the Empress
was the undoubted leader of fashion
and taste. Now, without wishing to
say anything derogatory, think there
must be some mistake in such state
ment. as il might with truth be asked
-"Who, then, took the Empress's
place, when events made Of Frances
| unfortunate arbitress in dress a politi-
cal refugee?" Certainly not Mime.
Grevy, who was anything but a lady
of fashion; and there was no Mime.
Gambetta at all.
The fact is that the Empress, like
every other lady in the land, followed
the fashions which had been set 10y
others. Fashions edicts were promul-
gated in the official gazettes of the
modes" and they were obey ed as i'm
| plicitly Mt 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 fashions?
From my own experience | think the
d eatre has a great deal more TO do
with il than any one thing else in the
| world.
| QUEFS MARIE ANToNETTE.
In the first place, there were no
| fashions to speak of in France before
| Louis NV, when Moliere in reality
| first peopIed the stage. The rage for
| il cessant changes in dress is of still
more recent growth. Ii 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 q glance
the costume of Marie de Medicis, no
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 We're bewilder-
ed by her vagaries. Her whims were
initiated by few ladies of the Court.
The Princess de Lamballe and Nine.
de PoligDac distinguished themselves
by the flattering 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.
| NAV here state that the Queen was
a slave to her dressmaker, Mile. Ber-
tin. When Marie Anto' nette entered
Paris in 1879, Mile. Bertin placed her.
self, with thirty of her work-women
conspicuously at her balcony. The
Queen, as she passed, was pleased tc
wave her hand, and exclaimed: =
There is Mile. Bertin pa favour the
milliner acknowledged by a most OBJ
sequious curtesy. However the King:
good sense NAV have been ruffled a.
the thought that the Queens first atten
ton at his entrance into Paris was paiC
to her dressmaker, his majesty hum
Cured the joke SO far as TO applaud BY
beating his hands, which entaile,
another deep obeisance on the part o.
the needle woman.
Then, one after ano her, the Who'll,
J of the members of the Royal Famil,
followed the example set by the KIM
, and the Queen, to which curtsey sfte
: curtsey was rendered from the balcony
/ But the courtiers in their turn, lik,
7 true apes, took up the cue from thei
} august masters; and after these again
: the entire retinue of satellites, officers
; squires, cadets, tigers, and retsiners-
| a procession upwards of a mile long
to each and all of whom the unfortu
nate woman had to bow in succession
5 until, exhausted with so much homo
and glory, she finally curtseyed hersel
1 into a swoon, falling like a spent flow
1 er into the arms of her thirty attend
r ant nymphs.
= THE COURT MILLTNER. -S
Such public attention on the part o
|, Royalty of course made Mile. Bertin'
fortune. She became the fashionabl
marchande de modes.
: ACTRESSES LEAD THE FASHION.
Q Popular actresses have always prove,
5 the most immediate and the most pow