Grey second mourning suit lined with black, edged with a black gance, the white vest embroidered with black, fringed manchettes. (1781)
"One knows a point called the precise time that it is necessary to grieve for the loss of a father and mother, grandfather and grandmother, husband and wife, brother and sister. Not only the term is calculated, but also the graduated expression of sadness; all the nuances are laid down and engraved, that is, printed. Mourning has three nearly equal periods. One knows that women may or may not wear diamonds; when men may wear the épée and silver buckles, or have bronze shoes and buckles. The sadness decreases with the color of dress: batiste
manchettes, wool stockings, wool suit, silk suit, embroidered
manchettes, trimmed narrowly, tears more or less abundant! Even the coaches have black harnesses suring the first months, and then they are whitened during the next six weeks. Mourning, for men and horses, lightens in a progressive march, and who has his laws."
Sébastien MERCIER,
Tableau de Paris, edit. 1783
Hi Cassidy! I'm astonished at your depth of knowlege and research! (It makes my feeble blog posts on fashion look like amateur night! Please don't read them! Ha!)
ReplyDeleteI was going to recommend you check out Caroline's blog called "Dressed In Time", but I see you're already following her.
You are certainly on a dedicated path towards becoming an established curator and/or historian. But in cyberspace, you obviously already are.
All best luck!
Andrew
Wow, what a tremendous compliment! I actually started checking out your blog the other night, it's quite interesting.
DeleteSometimes I think I follow everybody. It's almost frightening, how backed up my to-read list gets when I skip a day.
Thank you so much. I was actually feeling very frustrated tonight about, well, most things, and it made me feel immeasurably better to be reminded that I do entertain and educate, so really, thank you.