Galerie des Modes, 61e Cahier, 1ere Figure

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The young Elvire playing with her cat. She is Dressed in a galant Pierrot and Coiffed with a Hat à la d'Hericort.

" ... We have asked ourselves a million times why a beautiful woman always had a pleasing air; why being used to seeing her never renders us indifferent; why the more we see her the more we find her beautiful: all that our fecund imaginations could find, was that a beautiful woman has the gift of always seeming novel. If at our house other Frenchman, people, God knows him, lightly enough, the new man only has the gift of charming, it is necessary that a beautiful woman, who always charms us, has the gift of seeming always novel. We believe that that is an argument in form!

"We give the means of seeming always to have a new éclat; that slightly nears giving the means of seeming ..."

Le Magasin des Modes, 20 May 1787

Comments

  1. ZipZipDecember 5, 2013 at 10:58 AM

    Dear Cassidy,
    What a pretty ensemble. Plus, of course, I am enamoured of the cat.
    Question: do you suppose the pierrot's scalloped bottom hem is bound or just pinked in large scallops? Would you hazard a guess?
    Very best,
    Natalie

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. CassidyDecember 5, 2013 at 5:52 PM

      Tricky to say. I haven't seen anything extant with big scallops cut into it, but given the huge "pinked" edge I've seen on this gown it seems likely that big scallops would have been seen as an acceptable hem treatment. On the other hand, it looks like there might not be a waist seam, meaning that the lining could go down to the hem, and I don't think a lined hem wouldn't be finished.

      (With the cat and dog, I feel like this is the perfect plate for all of us bloggers.)

      Delete

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