A Most Beguiling Accomplishment

This English Beauty chilled by the poverty that she meets in Paris, but throwing a proud air, an indifferent regard over the beauties she sees in droves at the Palais Royal, walks with a tone of majesty dressed in a large winter pelisse made of satin trimmed with sable with a long gown with double trims and a long-haired muff. (1785) "Women coiffed à l'ingénue wear a straw hat whose edge is trimmed with a violet ribbon; the crown is high, à l'anglaise , trimmed with violet gauze; a pearl pin in the front; a bow or cockade on the back, whose ends, about two or three inches long, are hanging; on the hat, on the left side, a cluster of four white plumes, surmounted by a large violet plume, called a follette ; on the neck, a cord in the form of a necklace at the end of which hangs a medallion." Journal général de France , 6 December 1785 (later the Cabinet des Modes )

Woman of quality, recently up from her bed,* walking at noon to take the air: the first fruit of a happy marriage makes all her occupation, and augurs a lasting happiness: she is in a large satin pelisse lined and trimmed with sable in two rows, her head is enveloped in a Thérèse of plain taffeta. (1785) The New Accouchée.** - "... The new mother of the capital lacks the most interesting charm which gives to her state a most respectable air: the child in its bassinet and waiting for its first nourishment from the maternal breast.  For a time, women have fed their own children: but this was only a fashion, it has passed.  Life in Paris will always be an obstacle to the accomplishment of this sacred task.  I have remarked that nobody dared to speak of the newborn to the father nor the mother." SEBASTIEN MERCIER , Tableau de Paris , 1783 * The amount of shift sleeve showing (and the time of day) reminds me of the demi-polonaise, and I have to wonder if she is we...

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chiffons and to Poiret's plumes seemed to be included simply out of respect for the old masters and appeared fearfully outdated. This part of the Chanel myth breaks down into two ideas: that pre-1919 looks appeared outdated compared to Chanel, and that the top designers of the 1910s were suddenly displaced. Harper's Bazaar , May 1922, p. 78 ; a selection of fashionable and typical Poiret frocks The latter myth was mainly dealt with in II ( Standing Out from the Crowd ) and IV ( The Sole Survivors ).  The post-war designers were, in the main, the pre-war designers.  Lucile and Poiret are nearly always (if not actually always) the go-to examples to show Chanel's superiority, but as was previously discussed, Poiret had always been strongly in favor of simplicity and plain cuts, and Lucile's exit from her house stemmed from legal issues rather than becoming obsolete.  Paquin, Callot, and Jenny boomed ...

The beautiful and tender woman from Lyons, forgetting everything in order to reflect only on her lover, announces by her bearing how much her heart is worried by his absence as she seems to pay no attention to the tumult at th e Palais-Royal where she is found: she is coiffed with a hat à la Almaviva,*  morning gown and satin mantelet bordered with white fur. (1785) Palais-Royal . - "A unique point on the globe.  Visit London, Amsterdam, Madrid, Vienna, you will see nothing to match it: a prisoner could live there without boredom, and only consider freedom at the end of several years ... It is called the capital of Paris .  Everything is found there; but set a young man of twenty years there, with fifty thousand livres  a year, he would want no more, he could no longer go out of this place of faerie; he would become a Renaud in this palace of Armide; and if this hero lost his time there and almost his glory, our young man will lose his health, and maybe his ...

Pretty Woman walking alone in her garden to avoid all dissipations, she engages herself entirely with sweet ideas that pleasure presents to her; this makes these flattering images which render her an agreeable solitude: she is coiffed with a hat called à la Charlotte; over her long gown she has a pelisse lined with fur with a gauze apron. (1785) " Women's actual outfits, in Paris . - The gowns and fourreaux à l'Anglaise, à la Turque, à la Janseniste,* à la Circassienne , are still in fashion.  When a Lady is in a green fourreau , à la levite , she wears a straw hat with a high crown , trimmed with a violet ribbon, with a cockade bow, the two ends of the ribbon hanging about two or three inches. "Her coiffure is a half- herisson , ended by two hanging curls; the hair hanging behind the ears, à la conselliere : the earrings are large, trembling rings; the kerchief, of trimmed linen; the mantelet of black satin, spotted; the apron of linen; petticoat of viol...

Grand coiffure and outfit à la Caravanne: new Costume which was shown in the Opera of the same name. (1785) "The Caravan of Cairo , an opera in three acts, shown for the first time at the theater of the Court on October 30, is the second work after Didon  which had been a decided success.  The words are by M. Morel and the music by our charming Grêtry ... One has criticized the plan of the poem: one has reproached him that the interest of the action was too much suspended, nearly nothing in the second act; the style seems in general more négligé , sometimes even in a bad tone: but all the enthusiasm which inspired the opera of Didon  has not prevented us from finding in the music of this one much freshness, grace, and sensibility." Correspondence littéraire , October 1783

The brilliant Raimonde, after dinner, makes a round of the Jardin du Luxembourg, persuaded that she will not fail to meet the one who is the slave of her beauty before long: she is coiffed with a hat à la Figaro with a pelisse lined with sable and a gauze apron trimmed à la Panurge. (1785) Panurge on the Isle of Lanterns ,* an opera-comedy in three acts and in verse, words by the comte de Provence and Morel de Chedeville, music by Grêtry , performed at the Opera on January 25, 1785.  While the Journal de Paris  announces that it was strongly applauded, and judges that Grêtry had not yet produced a work "where there was as much musical richness set more properly relative to the spirit of the situation and to the personalities of the characters" and extols "the rich costumes and brilliant decorations", the Journal general  calls "Panurge" a "lyrical bagatelle.  The poetry," it adds, "is of a stunning weakness.  The character of Panu...

The Nymph of slight size, with the appearance of going out alone to winter herself in a public promenade, throws her eyes from side to side to find someone who could give her some new charm and prevent boredom from seizing her.  She is in a hat à la Cherubin*  and a morning dress with a white muff of Siberian sheeps' wool. (1785) " Angora muffs . - These muffs are made with the Beard of goats from Angora, the country where these animals have been for a long time, silky and overall very white; that which is used for men's muffs is of a great beauty.  The price is 120 or 100  livres .  One has them even for 4 louis  or 84 livres ." Notice de l'Almanach sous verre , 1786 * Cherubino is the flirtatious page of Count Almaviva in The Marriage of Figaro .

The young indifferent woman, after having carried despair into the heart of her lover, and made him feel her cruelty to the folly of adorers who obsess over moments without ceasing, walks with no inquietude, coiffed à la Cherubin, having a mantelet à la Circassienne, a muslin gown with a gauze apron. (1785) " Plain satins for gowns . - Violet and grape-green, mixed, glazed; violet and marigold, mixed, glazed; green and marigold, mixed, glazed; grape-green, plain; cashmere, plain. " Gauzes , of Italy, à la d'Artois , à la crème , anglaise , puffed." Journal général de France , 6 December 1785 (later the Galerie des Modes )

One other French designer, Madeleine Vionnet, managed to survive the transition through the war years and become part of the revolution in fashion. The unfortunate truth is that Chanel and Vionnet have come through history with somewhat undeserved reputations.  They are remembered, and are therefore considered to have been the leading two couturiers - because why would they be the only two well-remembered designers of the 1920s if they weren't at the top of the game?  But the idea is easily refuted with a little research. " Longchamp (II), or, She's lost!", Gazette du Bon Ton , 1915; NYPL  824772 (Speaking of research - I keep going back and forth over whether or not I should cite sources. It's more professional to do so, but then, the purpose of citations is to let readers view your sources for themselves.  In an online format, however, a link to the exact page I would have cited streamlines the text and lets the reader skip a step in the process.  So...

The galante Nymph, whose deportment is majestic, noble, and proud, running with tranquility to the Palais Royale, the hazards to which the people of her sex are exposed: she has a cap à la Richard, striped corset, and is dressed in a robe à la Chinoise, pulled up. (1785) "... Oh God! the time and lost expense if it were necessary to abandon the current fashions!  It took several years of reflection, of work, and of experience to perfect them, and you would like us to fall back into barbarism and bad taste!  Ungrateful men, know that it is only for your pleasure that we have changed our manner of dressing.  The coqs are flattering to people with low foreheads, they seem made by the hands of Fairies, they are so adroitly worked; our hair, brought back over our cheeks, hides those which are flat; our curls are in the Roman style, and as they might tarnish diamond earrings, we have substituted little gold chains, which produce a good effect; our fourreaux fall aw...

Young Lady, aimless in appearance, having a tender air, in a public promenade, of the signals that announce what reduces her leisures and daily occupations: her coiffure is a hat à la Minerve and a pulled-up taffeta gown. (1785) " ... In effect, added my father, despite the estimation that I have for Ladies and the fondness that I have for you, I cannot refrain from criticizing their coiffures and yours: it is, in my opinion, entirely disagreeable and the most attractive face in the world would be disgraced by it.  One hardly sees your forehead: your hair offends your eyes and seems to make you squint; your cheeks are shaded and the curls which accompany them render your face square: on the rest I may be wrong; it is necessary that everything be beautiful, since one suffers it without finding to reduce it. "My lover stood aside to let my father leave and added further on this beautiful critique.  He told me obligingly that he only found me pretty, and that the new f...

The Beauty, despairing of the infidelity of her lover who swore to her an inviolable love, announces by her sadness that this affront has been very sore for her, making herself swear nevermore to allow her heart to be overtaken in the future: she is coiffed à la Nicolet* and dressed in a gauze fourreau** with a striped belt. (1785) " The freshest ribbons . - Canary or soft sulfur color striped in three colors, namely: canary tail, grape-green, and bishop's violet; solid grape-green; bishop's violet." Journal général de France , 6 December 1785 (later le Cabinet des Modes ) * Refers to a famous actor  who eventually started his own theater. ** A completely new usage of fourreau, apparently unrelated to either back pleats or children's back-closing garments.

The young adolescent whose heart is occupied by love under the traits of the charming Lindor, searches to dissipate the ennui that must be caused to her by the absence of her love, in returning to captivity the object of her caprice: she is coiffed à l'enfant, trimmed robe anglaise. (1785) " General character of the Girls and Women of Paris. - There are light, frivolous, flirtatious; never has a solid idea entered their heads; they give an equal importance to everything which is a production of the arts: everything that makes money or costs it.  To the eyes of a Parisian woman, a florist, a feather-merchant are men as useful as the agriculturist; the prejudice of rank is almost nothing to her eyes ... "The women of Paris are rarely insolent; she is familiar with her servants and speaks well to them ... They are flirtatious, but this is not a defect of their hearts, it is the inconvenience of their position, in an immense population, surrounded by men without wo...

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 way that this is written, there is an implication of the slender pair of shoulder straps being part of an innovative uncluttered beauty.  However, bared arms and shoulders had been part of ball dress (the most formal evening dress) for a long time. From Le Moniteur de la Mode , February 1855 At first this was achieved with very short sleeves and a broad, low neckline, as the armscye was commonly placed on the upper arm; as the armscye moved up to the top of the shoulder, the sides of the neckline moved as well, exposing the arm to a greater extent. Ball dresses, The Woman's World , 1890, p. 131 The shoulder straps of these gowns were usually constructed in one with the bodice, but one can also find examples of delicate, applied shoulder straps .  These delicate straps became even more common in the 1910s -...

The beauty, engaged by the touching discourse and tender felicitations of an amiable and still more affected Seducer, seeing a casket full of jewels which he presents to her, is ready to surrender herself; her heart wavers between love, interest, and virtue: she is coiffed in a chapeau à la Henri IV, and dressed in a robe à la Marguerite.* (1785) As one has observed in many plates of the Galerie des Modes , from the advent of the reign of Louis XVI the fashions of the time of Henri IV strove to come back into favor; the movement corresponded to a general sympathy for the good king, that one found confirmed in a thousand ways, especially in the theatre.  In 1774, at the same time as The Hunting Party of Henri IV , The Battle of Ivry was shown.  "This is," wrote Grimm, "the adoration which inspires the sole name of Henri IV, this is the hope with which the new reign has filled our hearts, that we find there is a so keen and so touching interest.  It seems that th...

I really dislike making this post, but I'm trying to convince myself that it's not that bad. Here's a creepy picture from an 1861 Godey's to distract you from my awkwardness My life has been tricky lately.  I'm on a long-term temp assignment while trying to find permanent employment.  I'm living at home, but have to move out fairly soon due to Reasons, and so I'm trying to make the new permanent (or semi-permanent, or temporary - I'm not too picky) employment be in the same general area as new lodgings, and all that to be in the same area as some museums, so I can volunteer without having to spend lots more on gas - extensive volunteering being pretty much a necessary step in getting a job in museums, as entry level positions are rare.  I recently had to spend a chunk of change replacing the brake rotors on my car, which was very sad but I was all stoic about it, standing up to adversity etc.  But now the CMOS battery in my laptop, which has bee...