Galerie des Modes, 23e Cahier, 4e Figure

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Robe à la Lévite with bodice en fourreau, petticoat coupé with flat trim in the color of the gown;* demi-négligée coiffure called à la Picarde, with Italian gauze lappets scalloped with lace. (1779)


ROBE A LA LÉVITE, degraded of its honors.  A young girl, supervised by her mama, never has what she desires.  The one shown in the Print, and who, until best, amuses herself in giving pastilles to her dog, can provide proof.  She has obtained from her mother a Robe à la Lévite; simple, plain, truthful; but it is still a Lévite.  It only lacks a bagatelle to complete the outfit: a belt and a hat.  The inexorable mama has pretended that it was her duty to mitigate a Dress which seemed too galant.**  It was necessary to obey and to be contented with a very bourgeois medium cap, capable only of making the rest of the dress ridiculous, if it were not given to the Youth to embellish all that is around her.

* I believe this means that the body of the petticoat is meant to be a different color, which shows better in the print below.
** Galant is used frequently in the fashion plates, sometimes to mean "gallant", but sometimes more like "pejoratively sexy".


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