The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1908-06-28
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lied the ultra fashionable Bal des Victines, al
the Hotel Richelieu, where they set the styles
for the children Of their parents murderers,
vet reserved to themselves the prerogatives ef
the bow a Ia victime, in imitation of the con
vulsive twitch Of the falling bodies Of their
forbears; the couture q Ia victime, which CT
their hair as If in readiness for the grisly,
slanting knife; the very shawl OF red that COM
nemorated the executioner's mercy 10 the mod
ssty Of Charlotte Corday AID Mesdames de St.
Amarante before they mounted the dreadful
scaffold.
They danced there, those rejoicing nymphs,
IN Laconian tUnics, IN chlamys with waving
lines of color, chemises Of finest cambria, gowns
of gauze and lawn, alluring buskIns with dainty
ribbons ascending from insteFr 10 calf.
Lavalette, aide-de-camp TO the brilliant
Junot wrote to q friend of the public recep-
ions:
I have seen. with Ions. dc TaIleyrand IN
wine-colored silk pantalOons at 8arras' feet
while General BOEaparte ate up ms masters
dinner, fifty singers and musicians from the
opera on a raised platform TO the right. and
another to the left a couple Of hundred ladies,
In al the glory Of their youth ana freshness
and nakedness. All these ladies were habited N
white muslin TUNES over tight-ftting silk
neither garments. such as ere worn by opera
dancers, and most OF them sported rings
their toes"
"The Nymph and the MervelIeuse.7 OBJ
serves Uzanne, in his review OF the fashions of
Paris, chose types of period Of deep corrup-
ton and open hbertinage, were the accepted
deities, worshiped on every holiday and at every
Pagan festival of the republic.
Mere plastic beauty theirs. these priest
esses of nudity and of the God OF Pleasure, so
in love with their own bodies that their souls
had forsaken them, their wits zoe all astray in
the wilds of a sham mythology, apilg Greece
for the sake Of its antique beaut-, so as to
Eken themselves to the sculptor's Venus or the
tabled nerolnes OF ancient history
The woman of the Directory. In her morn
ing walk, cast off all superhuOus draperies.
Not only must the dress show the lines,
out the fabric must be transparent The doc
tors wasted OverwOrked lungs IN cautioHing
their patients that the climate Of France. was
not the climate of classic Greece. In vain
famous authority stated that more young girls
persisted of exposure during that reign of
nakedness yelled in gauze than had died during
the two preceding generations.
''Parisian women are enchantingly dressed,
my dear sister, wrote Favieres the dramatic
author IN 1898, to the Cheyenne Bazin.
Sleeves reach only to within five or six inches
of the elbow The short waists add extraor-
dinarily 20 the height even of the shortest
women.
"Almcst everybody goes n foot; many,
decked out like nymphs, lift their petticoats
and gowns at one side, the gathered folds hang
ing gracefully over the arm, the leg uncovered
to the knee IN front, showing rather more than
the calf behind. Shoes are worn low, and
stockings are white silk, with embroidered col
ored satin clocks, pink or lilac. l assure you
that any one who desiz-s to look ike them must
see their attire and copy II"
The shc4'-waisted, soft, clinging gowns
that remain in all the simplicity Of their form.
if not IN the pristine sheen Of their color, bear
witness to fashions imperious sway N repub-
Ecan America.
a shameless and very shameful ancestry.
this of the wicked Directoire gown