A Most Beguiling Accomplishment

November 1, 1786 PLATE III. TWO women's Busts. The first, dressed in a Sky  blue caraco, and her hair done in very-large curls, wears a natural-colored straw hat, lined with a pink satin with wide black stripes, and edged with a black ribbon. The crown of her hat is very-large, and made with a pink gauze with little black stripes. It is tied at the bottom with a wide violet ribbon with green stripes, which forms two large bows, one on the front and the other on the back. On this, the ends of the ribbons fall very-low. This woman wears gold earrings à la Plaquette , and on her neck a kerchief en chemise  of gauze. Now chapeaux-bonnettes  are no longer worn but for those made in gauze striped in two colors: yellow and black, pink and black, black and blue, green and lilac , white and blue, white and pink, white and green, etc. ... The second Woman, dressed in a pink caraco, her hair done in curls, of which one very-large one falls on her chest, wears a hat...

November 1, 1786 Which is the young man who, seeing a woman who has a nice roundness  behind, has not run immediately ahead to see her face? Which of us all is not seduced by the elegant roundness of a young woman, or even a young man whom one has only seen from the back? It is thus more important that we would have thought first to represent a woman who must be seen from behind; were it only to see if her dress made a good effect . One cannot deny that the redingote that the Woman represented in PLATE II wears perfectly fits her shape, and hangs agreeably to her heels. All is fine, all is wide, all is smooth as a whole. The bust is very svelte. The arms are well rounded, very supple; nothing is constrained, nothing is narrow, nothing is strangled . The redigote, with two collars and sleeves à la Marinière , is of water  green cloth, spotted with a darker green. The buttons applied on the pockets, sleeves, fronts, and hips, are gilded copper, all plain. The Woman w...

A little while ago I reported to you that I'd posted thousands of Victorian and early 20th century photographs at the Chapman, where I was working. And they are lovely sources, especially since I gradually added more and more portraits, plus a batch of pattern envelopes from the 1900s and 1910s. Just try out the random image page ! But here is something even more exciting. Ready? Over the past couple of weeks, after doing all of the important photographs and some significant objects, like Civil War amputation kits, I convinced my supervisors that dresses would be a great addition to the website. There are some wedding dresses with good provenance, and others that have an owner attached but no event, and others with no provenance but I thought were great examples. But there really wasn't a good place to dress a mannequin and take a picture. So I devised a solution: I'd take a picture of just the bodice, lying flat, and then draw up a pattern, which would give much of t...

November 1, 1786 ADVICE To renew a Subscription, which ends with this Issue. The reception that the Public gave to the Cabinet des Modes  and the desire that we have of perfecting it engage us, as we change the title to give it a more extensive form and to enrich it with new material. The title of this Journal will be henceforth thus: MAGASIN DES MODES NOUVELLES, FRANCOISES ET ANGLOISES A Nation with which we have made more than once an exchange of opinions, customs, and fashions is zealous to profit from our Enterprise, in publishing in English a Journal, titled: The fashionable Magasine  or Magasin des Modes Angloises . Flattered by this imitation, we will turn it to the profit of Messrs. the Subscribers and the Public, in enjoying all the objects that will be in the English Journal. But here is another precious resource for our Journal: a skillful Designer, maintained at great expense in London, is charged with not letting us ignore any new Fashions whic...

October 15, 1786  PLATE III. "OUR fathers transmitted to us, through familiarity with their habits, their coiffures, their offensive and defensive ARMS, and other ornaments that they loved during their lives: we would well know how to recognize this sort of benefaction, by giving the same to our descendants." If the illustrious Philosopher, Labruyère , whose approval we have reported on several times, and which we will probably report again, made this discourse, and printed it in his time, there is the greatest injustice on the part of our sour Censors, to treat our Work as futile and foolish. This Plate represents an Epée-guard in gold. The coquille  is decorated with four medallions of blue enamel, two above and two below, whose middles are in a little circle in another gold-colored enamel, and whose circumference is trimmed with two rows of pearls. The coquille  is further decorated, by the medallions, with rosettes in green gold. The pommel and circle of the...

October 15, 1786 PLATE II. TWO women's Busts. The first, dressed in a pink caraco , has her hair done with brought-back hair, covered with a large baigneuse , with wide pleats, trimmed with a very-wide green ribbon, forming a very-wide bow on the front. The second, dressed in a gown of apple  green Pekin, has her hair done all in large curls, of which four, placed in a two rows, hang on each side of her chest. On the curls is applied a pouf à la Virginie , in sulfur-colored gauze with violet stripes. This pouf is trimmed with a very-wide pink ribbon with a black selvage, forming a large bow in front, and a large bow in the back. This ribbon is entwined with a garland of artificial flowers, heliotrope, rose, and lilac, shaded. On the left of the pouf rise three large plumes, green mixed with pink, pink mixed with green, and black mixed with blue. This Woman has her neck covered with a kerchief of English gauze, brocaded. -----------------------------------------------...

October 15, 1786 MESDAMES, admit it; while your children are rather little, in order not to make you honest about your age, and not to shut down your coquetry, you take them with you in society, in the promenades, in all the frequented places: and even, when they are pretty, fine, playful, babbling, you glory in showing them off, because your self-esteem loves the praise accorded to them, which necessarily comes back to you; (the fathers truly have this weakness) thus you want them to be elegantly dressed, with taste, in the same fashion; you find that at this age they bring you honor. We therefore only would know best what to do to give you fashion for your children. You would not lead with pleasure children of an age already a little advanced, mainly because they would not longer have this gaiety, this vivacity, this babble capable of attracting all eyes, and of bringing them back to you. Why is this same child, who at four and five years was pretty, bright, bubbly, active, pl...

October 1, 1786 PLATE III. 1. A Woman dressed in a pink caraco. Her neck is covered with a gauze kerchief en chemise , with two large ordinary collars. Her hair is done all in curls, and she wears on her head a pouf à la Chinoise , of linen-gauze. This pouf is wrapped with a diadême * with a black and nakara  ground. It is trimmed with artificial chinese flowers, in the middle of which glow yellow pistils. These flowers form a garland fastened on the left side. The pouf is furthermore decorated with an apple  green ribbon, with fluffy, lilac  selvages. Behind the pouf hangs a thick puff of white linen-gauze.  2. A Woman in a lilac  caraco. On her neck a full kerchief of gauze en chemise , with two large ordinary collars. Her hair is done all in large curls from the middle of the tapet . her head is covered with a toquet à la Virginie . The ruffles of the touquet  are in white english gauze, and the crown is in pink gauze. The crown is separated...

October 1, 1786 PLATE II. A young Man in a Dragoon  green frock coat, decorated with apple  green silk embroidery. This fashion appeared some time ago; but as it had experienced the fate of gold embroidery, which it had succeeded, and which two months had seen born and die, we have not announced it, having other, more marked fashions to describe. Today it is resumed more strongly than ever, we hasten to make known, for fear that, if its second reign is not longer than the first, we are not reproached for for not having indicated it. We say, if its second reign is not longer than the first, because we have observed at all times that plain coats, very fresh, very cut, please further than all the embroidered, burdened coats, which are richer than they are elegant. In examining an embroidered coat, one feels confusion, an entanglement  which displeases the eye, and fatigue. If it is not absolutely that which made embroidery be abandoned, it is that those who have beli...

October 1, 1786 Fashion, whose Detractors have called it light, inconstant, flighty, frivolous, is however fixed in its principles; and we believe, in truth, that it is an injustice to treat it so, irrevocably, with such callousness. We see it as constant in seizing all remarkable events, in appropriating them to itself, in recording them in its annals, in ETERNIZING them in memory. What great event, what great feats of our Warriors, of even our Magistrates has it published? If d'Estang , d'Orvilliers  have won, did it not announce that? did it not want Ladies to dress their heads with symbols in memory of their triumphs, and entering thus through the top of their bodies, doesn't the memory sink deeply into their hearts? Did it not impart the success of Figaro  to the whole of Europe? Under how many forms did it not reproduce  Janot ? Did not M. Cagliostro , more famous for his trial than for his false immortality, see Fashion make his existence known in one and the o...

September 15, 1786 PLATE III. A crystal Sugar bowl, mounted in silver, set on a platter of the same metal, held on four animal feet, and having a handle on each side. This Sugar bowl is in the shape of a slightly rounded vase; it has two handles; it is decorated with garlands of flowers, tied with tassels. On the four sides are represented four amphibious men's faces. The cover is also decorated with flower garlands, tied similarly with cords and tassels; and it is surmounted with a bunch of raspberries, from the bottom of which spread a certain quantity of leaves. This Sugar bowl, of an exquisite taste, is drawn from the workshop of M. Bouty , Merchant Silversmith, rue Saint Eloi , near the Palace, in Paris.

September 15, 1786 PLATE II. ALREADY the pale and somber Autumn has torn away the light coats which befit the summer, and bring forth those of a denser, stronger, softer fabric more fitted to protect from the fury of the frosts. Oh what! the insatiable weather has devoured the  days of our pleasures! no more promenades in the woods! no more merry plains! In an instant, we, sad Stay-at-homes, must wait, in an eternal and tiring repose, for days when, free and liberated from painful ties, we could frolic, play, skip in the somber forests, or in the fields rich with a thousand different flowers! Those few who remain, seize it, enjoy it. The coats which seem to be in fashion this autumn, are coats in puce wool. The Man drawn in this Plate wears one of this color. The lining of his coat is a matching color. To all the edges is attached a little white ribbon, forming the piping. This is a fashion which was not known in the remotest times, when only the lining furnished the pipi...

September 15, 1786 WE represented in the sixteenth Issue  a man ready to ride a horse; we would have perhaps had to represent immediately, in the seventeenth , a Lady equally ready to ride; and in coming back today what we gave in this  seventeenth , we see that we would have the same, because it was never as important to paint the two women in  robes à la Turque , very different, it is true, in taste, but similar in form, that to bring order to our Issues. It is a fault, we confess, and maybe it will not be the last that we commit. Our good faith makes us pardon it. But what is good with us, is that when we feel our wrongs, we rush to repair them. One doesn't believe that we resemble these people who hasten to confess in advance their faults, when they perceive that they are going to be reproached, in order not to be forced to correct them, and in order that their ingenuity becomes them favorably. It would be necessary to read all the archives of the world, alwa...