A Most Beguiling Accomplishment

But it was the androgyny promoted by Chanel that dominated women's fashion in Europe in 1919. ... Once the matchless pace setter of individuality in fashion, Poiret snorted that her clothes resembled 'Cages lacking birds. Hives lacking bees.' The 1910s are not a well-known decade in fashion history.  Despite the success of Downton Abbey, many still contrast the loose dress of the 1920s with fitted gowns and S-bend corsets from the first decade of the twentieth century to determine that a change must have erupted at the very end of the 1910s. Figs. 186-187, The Delineator , Nov. 1902; NYPL 816623 This is, however, a misunderstanding.  By 1909, the silhouette had become less strongly curved; by 1911, the revival of the Regency style was fully fashionable, and women's dress made use of the high waistline and a narrow skirt in imitation.  A prime mover in this shift was Paul Poiret , an ex-employee of the Houses of Worth and Doucet who had created his own

The sensitive Virtuous woman in a robe à l'Anglaise bordered à la Marlborough and in a demi-Balloon hat, only busying herself alone she executes in waiting for a charming duo. (1784) "Someone wrote to us to ask us if fashion is general, and if it is the same for women of thirty and forty years as for the women of eighteen and twenty, and as in the case where there was a difference for middle age, we do know that one could settle in the Provinces.  We respond that fashion is one and that it is the same for all ages; that the greater part of our ladies, well older than forty, do not have difficulty here in following it and that they never appear condemnable." Cabinet des Modes , 1 July 1786.

The false pouter, in a spotted robe à l'Anglaise with a triple collar and a hat à la Caravanne, making signs of returning to the lover that her apparent rigor had forced to leave. (1784) Gloves . - "Ladies wear, with their full parure , glazed gloves from Grenoble, laced and flounced. "One finds them in the first quality at the shop of Mr. Buisson (of Grenoble), merchant of gloves and perfumes in the rue du faubourg Saint-Honoré , near the rue Royale .  All sorts of gloves for men and women are also found there, as well as all sorts of perfumes, essences, soaps, powders, Sultan , rouge, almond paste, and generally everything which is used in the toilette: all of the first quality and at a fair price." Cabinet des Modes , 15 March 1786

The tiresome Finette, in a Juste à la Suzanne and coiffed en Figaro, holding with as much skill as negligence a country rose which is intended to please her. (1784) Here is the costume of Mlle Contat who played the role of Suzanne in the Marriage of Figaro : "Her dress for the first four acts is a white juste with basquines ,* very elegant, the petticoat of the same, with a toque called, ever since, à la Suzanne .  In the party of the fourth act, the count puts on her head a toque with a long veil, with high plumes, and white ribbons.  She wears in the fifth act her mistress's lévite and no ornament on her head." * Long basques; especially associated with Spain.

The prudent Amazon in the full Figaro outfit, advancing with a circumspect air to the grove where she must find her lover: but taking care to be perceived. (1784) "The Marriage of Figaro or the Mad Day , by Beaumarchais, played, with a keen success, for the first time by the actors of the Comédie Française in ordinary to the King on the 27th of April 1784, did not take too long to furnish not only names* but even ideas to the fashions of the day. "It is not difficult to find points of comparison, for example, between this outfit au Grand Figaro and the costume of the barber as was worn by Dazincourt: 'Dress of the spanish major: ... a silk kerchief wrapped loosely on the throat; gilet and breeches of satin, with buttons and silver-fringed buttonholes; a large silk belt; ... vest of a sharp color, with large lapels in the color of the gilet ...' "(* See the juste à la Suzanne and the Figaro coiffure, pl. 185, the gown trimmed à la Figaro , pl. 200

The voluptuous Beauty, taking alternately perfect love* a nd ices, waiting for pleasures more worthy of her: her coiffure is à la Contat,** and her gown à l'Anglaise. (1784) Ices . - "This artificial frozen treat is a tonic, a delicious refreshment: a ice-maker is a veritable artist, who only still exists in the great cities.  Outside of Paris, you must travel a hundred leagues to meet with summer- and autumn-fruit ices, butter ices, kirh-waser ices, bologna ices, almond-milk ices: the true progress in this is made in the capital. "Sieur Duboisson, successor to Procope, is the best who is advised to make ices and sell them all year round.  In the ardent heat of the dog days, at the Palais-Royal, he sells ices for thirteen hundred louis d'or per dozen in cups. "It was Procope who corrected the great lords and poets, the elegants of the court and the writers of the age of Louis XIV, who loyally became drunk at the cabaret: filling them with coffee,

  In November 1919 pictures of Gabrielle Chanel's chemise dress had filled the pages of Vogue : 'A gown that swathes the figure in straight soft folds, falling at the sides in little cascades.'  The editorial commended Chanel's reliance on an uncluttered natural beauty, with a dress that showed only a slender pair of shoulder straps holding it up.  The subsequent single-page spread devoted to Madame Lucile's chiffons and to Poiret's plumes seemed to be included simply out of respect for the old masters and appeared fearfully outdated. ... Once the matchless pace setter of individuality in fashion, Poiret snorted that her clothes resembled 'Cages lacking birds. Hives lacking bees.' One other French designer, Madeleine Vionnet, managed to survive the transition through the war years and become part of the revolution in fashion. Vionnet cleverly amalgamated a still lingering desire for femininity with the wish to dress without the restricting comfort of c

The Flower of the Harvesters walking to contemplate the Summer products without considering anything else: she is in a chemise à la Floricourt,* and coiffed with a hat à la Ceres.** (1784) Trimming made by Mlle Bertin for the Baronne de Benkendorff. "1783, August 4. - A grand robe en chemise of spotted linen batiste, a trimming along the fronts in stylish linen edged with a row of lace, two rows of pleated ruffles around the collar and two at the bottom of the sleeves, the whole edged with lace, a petticoat of English lilac taffeta, covered with a chemise of linen, with a trimming at the bottom edged on two sides with a row of lace, lilac ribbons along the front pieces of the gown and in all the drawstring channels. 220 livres. Dossiers Bertin , Doucet Library * The Memoirs of Floricourt , by Jean Gaspard Dubois-Fontanelle, was originally published in the early 1780s.  The story focused on " the wild and ungovernable impulses of youth ", frequently those

  The nervous Beauty, looking at the hour of the rendez-vous that her lover has asked in the letter she holds: her coiffure is à la Marlborough and she is dressed in a morning gown. (1784) The Marlborough fashions . - The song Marlborough , probably dating to the battle of Malplaquet, became truly popular in France after 1781, the date on which Madame Poitrine [Chest], nurse to the Dauphin, taught it to Marie Antoinette, who made it fashionable.  Everything was soon " à la Marlborough " and Bachaumont made it the subject of the following: "1783, August 14, Madame the duchess of Malborough, grand-daughter of the governor-general of that name, who took him as her husband, learned in the jokes that were made here since last year, when the memory of a man so fatal to France was recalled, wanted to have a collection of all the songs and plays, of all the jokes, of all the jeers and puns that have resulted. "She has at the same time charged Mlle Bertin to send h

The amiable Constance holding the leash of a Lion-Dog and dreaming on that which her heart loves.  Her gown is à la Turque and her hat is à la Montgolfier, positioned on a baigneuse a nd belted with a ribbon fastened with an English buckle and with a panache. (1784) Trimming of a Robe turque made by Mlle Bertin, marchande des modes to the Queen, for Mme de Bercheny. "1785, March 24. - The trim of a Gourgouran robe turque , the fronts trimmed with a pleated strip of gauze with a scalloped bastard blonde lace, a garland of blue and white daisies on the head of the flounce, the white taffeta petticoat covered with a beautiful rich gauze in large pleats, edged at the bottom with a blonde fond d'Angleterre lace, the parements of the gown pleated with a little bordered net, the edges of the gown in bastard blonde lace. 360 livres. Dossier Bertin , Doucet Library.

The young insouciant, playing with her fan and favoring the scent of the rose placed on her chest, she wears a large Hat à la Charlotte over a demi-négligé cap, and is dressed in a very light gown. (1784) Hat à la Charlotte . - Trimmings made by Mlle Bertin, marchande de modes to the Queen, for the Baronne de Benkendorff. "1785, July 14. - A hat en charlotte of white straw edged with net, a pink and white striped ribbon bouillonné around the crown, a striped gauze kerchief forming a coiffure. 48 livres. Trims made for Mme de Bercheny. "1784, March 31. - A charlotte hat in yellow straw, edged on one side à la Baigneuse , a good, flowered lace, a little pleated net and a bouillonné ribbon over the crown, pink and white satined, a bow of the same ribbon behind and a kerchief forming a coiffure. 54 livres. Dossiers Bertin , Doucet Library

The innocent Curious woman, pricking herself on the thorns of a rose whose brilliance and scent please her, and desiring to be able to compare the pains and sweetness of tenderness: she is in a robe à l'Anglaise edged with a streaked ribbon and coiffed with a Globe hat over a demi-cap. (1784) Shoes . - "Our ladies now no longer care to compete in size with men, as we believe that they tended to before.  They leave them today this advantage, that one could say is very indifferent up to a certain point.  They have quitted the shoes with raised heels, which lowers them by nearly two inches.  Who didn't think that they acquired it as a strength which they otherwise lacked?  We do not want to make epigrams here, we only want to say that that are no longer exposed by spinning as they were, wearing heels which are weak if narrowed at the bottom, that they appear balanced.  The heels of their shoes are hardly more raised, nor narrowed, than those of men, proportionately ..

This was perhaps my penultimate patterning trip for the first book I intend to put out.  (The last one I have planned will be on the 28th, but I suppose it's possible that I could come across another venue and make another afterward.)  Yesterday I drove down to Historic Cherry Hill to take the pattern of a pretty pink silk spencer, ca. 1795, and to re-examine the petticoat of a gown I'd patterned before, as I didn't have the shaping of the top quite right.  This pattern may be one of my favorites - I like seeing the differences between similarly-cut gowns and sacques, but it's really nice to take the pattern of something very unlike what's come before, not to mention unlike what's in previously-published books. It has an adorable peplum. Afterward, I went to the Schenectady County Historical Society museum in the lovely stockade district to see Underlying Structures: What Shaped the Victorian Woman?   The exhibition shows a wonderful array of later Vict

Gown en Fourreau with simple train, the sleeves pulled up, the Gown without trim, Fichu-Mantelet.  This Woman is coiffed with a Marlborough Hat trimmed with a Gauze frill and some Flowers. (1784) Cadogan. - The cadogan (see also plate 180) was a man's wig with a single queue tied with a narrow ribbon and forming a bulge at its end.  Women borrowed the cadogan from men and wore it whether simple or, as here, double. On this fashion Bachaumont recounted an amusing anecdote: "Lately the King, on coming back from the hunt, put on a chignon in the manner of women, and went thus to the Queen's apartments.  Her Majesty was taken very much in laughter and she asked him what was the meaning of this masquerade, if he had come back from a carnival.  -Do you find it ugly? said her august spouse.  It is a fashion that I want to bring out, I have never before instituted any.  -Oh! Sire, watch yourself here, it is frightful, replied Her Majesty.  -Nevertheless, Madame, repli

Robe à l'Anglaise, the bodice laced in the back, the skirt is tucked up,* the sleeves of a color different from that of the Gown, the whole edged with a very narrow ribbon of any desired color. (1784) "A woman said: I would go to Rome to seek fashion, if it were required .  What is this fantastic goddess who commands so imperiously?  It is at her very express desire that everything is done, that plumes fall and rise, that hats take all sorts of forms, that the robes à l'anglaise , the chemise gown, the robe à la turque , the pierrot, the caraco have appeared alternately on the scene: that the kerchief that is very full on the neck, called the deceitful kerchief , gave the idea of a protruding throat.  Rebels submitted, or rather there were none in fashion's empire, for the toque and the chignon comb, together with the horsehair cul , could not be escaped in fashion; she gracefully established what was, three months ago, ridiculous." Sébastien MERCIER,

Full Robe Française revived by the Court for the journey to Fontainebleau in 1783. (1784) This plate was taken from the MFA Boston, 44.1581 .

Robe à l'Anglaise, Fichu-en-Mantelet, Gauze Hat . (1784) "The merit of this outfit is to narrow the body as much as possible.  It is necessary that the gown takes in and emphasizes the waist.  It is best to wear tightened stays underneath.  The bodice of the stays and the gown must be fastened very loosely to give the most grace to the body. "The gown is of a lightweight pink satin, and the petticoat of a lightweight white satin.  One can only disagree that this manner of cutting the gown and the petticoat* is not a refinement of elegance: the two colors lend a mutual brilliance which delights the view: but it is necessary that both are fresh ..." Le Cabinet des Modes , March 1, 1786 * see coupé in the Glossary

At the moment my mild-mannered alter ego is a receptionist in a doctor's office, and we are required to show YNN Capital Region all day long.  Yes.  Much of the time it is ignorable, frequently it is appalling, and occasionally it tosses up something of interest. Today, that little gem was a spot on the Albany Institute of History and Art!  It was lovely to see the inside of the vault and the collections again, and it was especially nice to see Tammis Groft, the chief curator.  But part of the point of the spot was that they've created an online collections database , which is the sort of thing we all love to see.  Now I can link you directly to Ariantje Coeymans , one of my favorite portraits out there. "Ariantje Coeymans", Nehemiah Partridge, ca. 1720; AIHA 1938.5 You can also see whole categories of objects, such as (of course) Textiles, Costume, and Accessories .  The whole collection isn't represented, not by a long shot - but what's there is

Gown en Fourreau, turned-up sleeves, the edge of the Gown turned back in front, with cords and a button, from which hangs a tassel. (1784) Hats trimmed with flowers . - Trimmings made by Mlle Bertin for the Princess of Baratinsky. "1782, 8 August. - A high-crowned hat of yellow straw lined with taffeta, a garland of cornflowers and poppies around the crown, a while feather and a bow behind. - 54 livres. "A second hat of yellow straw lined with blue taffeta and edged with a beautiful blonde fond d'Alençon lace, with packets of pink carnations and mignonette, a white feather and a blue ribbon. - 84 livres. "A hat dressed and edged with a garland of scabiosa, with bouillons of white ribbons, two curled plumes and a panache of cut plumes. - 72 livres." Dossiers Bertin , Doucet Library.

Robe truly à l'Anglaise, without trimming, sleeves en Pagodes with Amadis sleeves, the front of the Gown simply turned back, forming a robing . (1784) "It is to avoid being confused with courtesans of all types and overall with their company that women have created the new terms for society such as grand genre , meilleur ton , and the très excellente compagnie .  These words, pronounced very seriously by the comme il faut people , by the roués , by the agreeable people , were invented to establish a total separation, an immeasurable space between the societies where the greatest crime that can be committed in the world would be to dare to say that they could take to everyone, to be equal in agreement , an appalling proposition that one could not imaginably offer to an adorable woman.  It would be best to deny everything that was more evident to the world: the charm of irony , the beauty of caricatures and the sublimeness of banter .  What, suspect that the house nex

Robe à l'Anglaise trimmed with knife pleats edged with a Muslin frill, with cords and buttons matching the Gown, Hat trimmed with a gauze toque negligently fitted with a ribbon. (1784) Watches . - "The fashion was, some time ago, to have two, but I can only assume it remains.  Most of the watches are little, fewer are good, but the singular thing is that every "agreeable person" wants to have one of that sort." CARACCIOLI, Critical dictionary , 1768

Grand Robe Française which was that required for the journey to Fontainebleau in 1783. (1784) Long trains . - "There is nothing lighter, more elegant, newer than what women wear now; and yet you found long trains at court in Louis XIV's time.  These trains remind me of Indian sheep which are driven in enormous trains by a chariot which follows behind them.  Our duchesses walk on the floor with these long gowns, while all the rest of the outfit is absolutely changed.  Why do we retain this train, two ells long, sweeping the dust behind them, if there had been dust on the daily-crowded floor of the court?" Sébastien MERCIER, Tableau de Paris , 1788

Chemise à la Reine seen from the back.  This Woman has a fichu-mantelet over her shoulders, she is coiffed in a flat hat surmounted by a plume , the hair en négligé and with two cadogans, the belt is of black velvet. (1784) Lévites .  "One can predict the downfall of an empire, but who can divine which cap, which ornament women will wear next year?  Who can predict the metamorphoses of fashion?  Ah! who said it, that these majestic gowns, whose folds touched the cobbles of Jerusalem, and which belong specially to the tribe consecrated to the custody of the Arch, entered women's dress, and that the elegant ladies and the petites maîtresses of Paris wore in imitation of the antique and respectable design?" Sébastien MERCIER, Tableau de Paris , 1783

Chemise à la Reine open at the bottom like a Lévite, Elegant evening coiffure covered with a large, pulled-down straw Hat. (1784) "The taste for the parure in which the queen was dressed during the first years of her reign had been replaced by a love of simplicity worn even to an impolitic degree, the splendor and magnificence of the throne being almost to a certain degree separated in France from the interests of the Nation. "Except on the days of the very great assemblies in court, such as January first, February second (devoted to the procession of the order of the Saint-Esprit), and the feasts of Easter, of Pentecost, and Christmas, the queen no longer wore gowns of percale or white Florentine taffeta.  Her coiffure was confined to a hat: the simplest were preferred and diamonds were only taken out of their caskets for the parures which belonged to the days that I indicated." Mme CAMPAN, Memoirs

Today I got the Joann's package I've been waiting for - fabric for a 1920s dress.  On the plus side: nothing ended up being a huge mistake, too heavy or too light, a bad color or weird texture.  Here's the indigo blue twill cotton with a nice little geometric print that I intended for the dress: And here's the soft rayon with an identical print (which I didn't actually realize was exactly the same - also, I thought it was paler) that was intended for an envelope chemise: The problem: I like them both for dress fabric.  Obviously I'd have to check to make sure there's enough fabric in the rayon, but with the heat right now I'm leaning toward lightness.  At the same time, the weight of the twill means it will work better without a lining and, perhaps, hang better on my body. Or .  If you remember my previous post on the subject - what if I were to use the twill for most of the dress, with the rayon (lined or backed, maybe just doub