A Most Beguiling Accomplishment

Young Lady, dressed in a retroussée Circassienne, with Sleeves à l'Espagnole, and coiffed with a Turban of Love. "No-one can deny that our French Ladies adopt their fashions from Ladies of almost every other kingdom; however, we must admit that there are restitutions that they make to almost all. Didn't they borrow, in the last two years, from Polish women, Englishwomen, the Turks, the Chinese? They borrow today from the Spanish. It is true that what they give back is better than what they take; and even to be exact, they only borrow the names and they give things. When they copy, they revise, they embellish. When they imitate, they create. With a very inventive, very fecund imagination for slavishly focusing on their designs, they seize it, they form it. They become, in a word, the masters of their authors." Le Magasin des Modes , 10 January 1787

Circassienne trimmed with Gauze en pouf , the Coiffure un Hérisson girded with a two-colored Ribbon with a Rosette on the left side . (1781) This plate was not in the reprint of Galerie des Modes available from Bunka Gakuen; I found it in the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, 44.1510 .

Circassienne with bands of another color, edged with muslin.  The coiffure is a cap à la Créche belted with a double row of ribbon with a bow on top of the Phisionomie. (1780) False hair - You see the head of this beautiful woman, if remarkable for the edifice of her coiffure and her long hanging hair; you admire its color, its form, its shape and elegance ... Ah well! they do not belong to her ... "However, she boasts of her foreign hair.  She exposes herself to receive the injurious principles that they could still conceal.  In effect, one makes use of necklaces and bracelets of braided hair : the experience decided that it was necessary to abandon them because of the sores that they produce. "But women would rather endure inconvenient itches than abandon their coiffures.  They calm the vivacity of these itches by using a grattoir ... "Independently of false hair, there is used in this coiffure an enormous cushion, stuffed with horsehair, and a for...

Circassienne with a colored ground, with bands of painted fabric and a little band of pleated gauze around it; the petticoat is of another color, and the trim of the petticoat matches that of the gown.   The coiffure is a hat à la Grenade. (1780) THE GRENADIERE: type of Circassienne, which owes its name to the taking of the Isle of Grenada from the English by the Comte d'Estaing. This Gown is very galant : it leaves the chest entirely uncovered; a symbol of the bravery of the French troops, wh o seized Grenada. Funnel sleeves, flounced; second very short sleeves, whose edges , forming the manchette , are held in with a row of pomegranate seed pearls.*  The same ornament decorating the top of the bodice, charged with a ribbon knot, from which escapes gold tassels. Trimmed in borders, with a painted band, the field dotted with flowers, pomegranates, and helichrysum.  Petticoat of a different color, sous-bassée with a field matching that of the Gown. ...

New Circassienne in Italian Gauze, lined with Indian taffeta; it is trimmed in Gauze, pinched in coques with bouquets of delphiniums, the whole edged with an English Ribbon.  The Coiffure is a toque: long hair surmounted with a toque à l'Espagnole, trimmed with Heron plumes and aigrettes. (1780) CIRCASSIENNE A LA PROVENÇALE , of Italian gauze, lined with Indian taffeta, very richly draped and trimmed, which is explained in the caption.  This Gown produces the most brilliant effect when it is worn by a Woman tall, well-made, and pretty.

Young Bourgeois Actress studying her role; she is dressed in a Circassienne, the petticoat trimmed with a band in the color of the gown: all the trims are bordered with a blonde lace, a volant of gauze at the bottom of the band on the petticoat: the sleeves trimmed with gauze. (1780) CIRCASSIENNE FRANÇAISE , thus called because it is hanging and trained like the Robes Françaises . Coupé petticoat, that is to say, of a color different from the Circassienne.  Gown trimming en platitude , in the color of the petticoat, with a frame of gauze; little volant , headed with a flat trim in the color of the Circassienne, with a border of gauze.  Plain mancherons ; short sleeves, in sabot cuffs.

Robe à la Circassienne, the flat trimming edged with gauze: coiffure belted with a ribbon trimmed with pearls, ending in a bow from which hang tassels: the top of the head decorated with flowers. (1780) TAILED CIRCASSIENNE, lightly pulled up on the front with a cord with three tassels; flounced mancherons , parement round or en botte ; the petticoat trimmed with a plain volant , very narrow. Coiffure en herrison , surmounted by curls, and a ribbon trimmed with pearls, ending with tassels à la dragonne .* * a braid tied in a loop on the hilt of a sword, ending in a tassel

Taffeta circassienne with bands of ribbons, with a petticoat of another color trimmed with gauze in little box pleats, and trimmed with three large bands of different colored ribbons. (1779)   CIRCASSIENNE À L'ENFANT ,* trimmed with flat bands: the two sides [of the bands] are accompanied by little gauze bands; "Peasant" sleeves, petticoat matching the Gown, and decorated with two cords de système , holding the watches.   "Genlis" kerchief,** covering the shoulders; "Sailor" shoes, with d'Artois buckles, covering the foot and making it smaller. Hair en chien couchant , with two fashionable curls.   "Cock's comb" cap, having Italian gauze lappets pulled up, with their ends hanging. This costume, stylish, only agrees with the elegance of youth's size and freshness.   This is also the cause of its name. * "Child" circassienne ** Possibly named for Madame de Genlis

Young Lady in a Circassienne of Italian gauze with a petticoat made of the same gauze; the flounce is trimmed with a colored ribbon.  She is coiffed with a kerchief-pouf cap trimmed with pearls, with a plume on the left side in the Asiatic style . (1778) Very elegant circassienne with amadis sleeves;* the bodice is closed, with a trim all around it, higher in the back than the front, and forming a collar or turned-down medicis . The top sleeves, pulled up very high with a tassel, show their differently-colored linings: the amadis sleeves, or under sleeves, are trimmed in a chevron, with lace manchettes like men's.  Three tassels hang in front of the chest, below a neckline trimming over embroidered filet lace matching the manchettes . Very large trimming on the gown, cut by two plain ribbons of another color; the back of the gown is pulled up like a polonaise, except that the tail must be of equal height with the very extended wings. Very high volant on the petti...

This Circassienne of a new taste is of sulphur-colored gauze, the trim of soft lilac gauze; the great flounce and the band which covers the trim are of the same gauze as the gown, the base of the sabot cuffs as well; there are only bands of trim in tuyaux which are lilac, lilac ribbons, the same are in the headdress. (1778)  Circassienne fastened in front until the bottom of the waist, with extended wings; the bodice of these robes must be very fine and with gorgerette of the same material, trimmed in a ruched band, each ruche held with a row of perles en coque ;* the ruched band is accompanied on each side with a little band that is pleated in tuyaux of a different color. These gowns are not pulled up in the front; their wings are lifted only in the back, like polonaises, with tassels or bows interlaced with pearls.  Very simple sabot cuffs, held in at the ends with two barriers of pearls, and trimmed with a little band matching that of the gown. Volant of mediu...

Young Lady in a Polonaise with Circassienne sleeves, trimmed with filet lace manchettes,  and coiffed in a baigneuse with two filet lace lappets. (1778) Naturalists, with their experience, teach us that the mixture of different species only produces monsters: it is not the same in the kingdom of costume, the empire of Fashion.  The alliances between clothes of different genres, of diverse types, often create very agreeable results: it is that which has happened to the mixture one is advised to make between the polonaise and the circassienne; it has resulted in a very graceful gown, which can be seen in this print. The wings and tail are of a polonaise, the body and sleeves are circassienne, with the tassels which hold in the sleeves of the gown and leave uncovered the second sleeves, decorated with filet lace manchettes in two rows; the trimming is in pleated gauze, cut in the center by a large ribbon without pleats or bouillons ; the volant matches the trim, and ...

Young Woman in a Circassienne of puce Italian gauze, with a petticoat of the same gauze covering another pink petticoat trimmed on the bottom with gauze pinned with a blue ribbon attached with Flowers and tassels and bouillonné gauze, and with manchettes of filet lace.  Coiffed with a Hat en coquille, decorated with Flowers and Feathers. (1778) Pretty Woman in a Circassienne, seen from the front; the body is decorated on each side with three gold brandenburgs with their tassels sequined; the gauze gown is pulled up with bunches of flowers holding the tassels; gauze trim is in tubes. The gauze petticoat resembles the gown, and serves as a veil for a petticoat of another color.  The undervest ends in a point and must match the color of the veiled petticoat; the gown's sleeves are very short, trimmed with a border, attached with tassels, and allow the passage of the undervest's sleeves, trimmed with two rows of blonde lace manchettes . The volant is very high, and h...

Young Lady in a Circassienne trimmed with blonde lace, decorated with a streaked ribbon, wearing a romantic Hat and a loose, braided chignon. (1778) Of all the beauties which decorate the seraglio of the Grand Seigneur, there are none that rival those who come from Circassia.  One would be tempted to believe that in that happy country, nature takes pleasure in not forming women except in the most agreeable and perfect models; their dress answers to their charms, and if the Graces were not nude, they would not have adopted any other dress.  But its use is not given to all women: only those of a light and almost airy size should aspire to its advantages. This dress is known under the name " robe à la Circassienne ", or simply " Circassienne ": it is composed of an undervest with long, very tight sleeves, and a gown or overcoat pulled up behind on the sides and in back; very short sleeves, cut like the mouth of a canon, from which the undervest's sleeves s...