"Yester-year"; ten centuries of toilette from the French of A. Robida

delight of fine ladies and Americans in the twentieth century.

Nevertheless, as the custom of sea-bathing became more and more diffused, and was about to develop into a regular annual migration of the whole of the middle classes to the Norman

1 Pince-tiiillc.

or Breton coasts, these habitual summer excursions brought about some welcome changes in fashion.

In 1864, short dresses had a brief triumph, which originated at the fashionable sea-bathing places. No more trailing skirts, or long gowns Avith broad Hounces were worn. The crinoline Avas retained, but moderated in its width, and skirts were draj)ed, caught up, and adorned with a great variety of ornamental trimmings, all large and effective.

Fancy, which had been suppressed since 1830, was once more allowed some play. The very smart short skirts displayed very smart and much-adorned boots; thin little boots were these, coming well up above the ankle, and with high clinking heels. For a short time some fine ladies adopted the tall Louis Treize cane at the seaside.

To this period wide handsome mantles with large sleeves, and also the outdoor garment called 'jump-in' (Saute-en-barque) belong. Hats, quite different from the formal tied bonnet, and saucily perched a little on one side, like bull-fighters' liats,^ with big tufts, or feathers, were worn. The hnir was dressed low.

Large Empire mantle.

waved on the forehead, and placed in a long net at the back of the head.

Short skirts, which suited the crinolines so 1 Known in England .1.^ tlie ' pork-pie.'

well, with broad belts and buckles, and all the braid and gimp with which fashionable costume was covered, were, however, speedily displaced by a return to the objectionable long dresses, and fashion immediately lost its smartness.

The crinoline itself was eclipsed for a while, in 1867, when flat, trained gowns, and ' peplum ' bodices (denoting a revival of the taste for tragedy—fragments from the great French tragedies were recited at this time at the Café-Concert), little ' i^late ' bonnets stuck on in front of the big ball-like chignons, with streamers down the back, called by the expressive name of " Follow me, young man ! " became popular. And so the fight between wide skirts and narrow skirts went on ; crinoline, having held out for a few years, was finally beaten and dead. The big-hooped crinoline now belongs to the domain of archaeology ; it is an antique, like the panier and the farthingale.

As width was still desired, the defeated petticoat was succeeded by the 'pouf,' a big bunch of the gown-material tucked up at the

back over the skirt. Fashion was now on the path of anti-crinoline reaction, and the width of skirts was reduced and re(Uiced, until at last gowns were actually moulded on the body, a mode which lasted two or three years, about 1880.^ The fashions of that time were very pretty, very œsthetic; but after a while the least little increase of width was admitted, and soon after came the ' tournure,' or petticoat-bustle.

From the period of ' clinging ' gowns, we still retain the jersey bodices, which mould the bust and the hips very becomingly. The jersey is admirably adapted to Avalking and country costume. For several summers, from one end of Europe to the other, on every beach in England, France, and elsewhere, the jersey was worn as a kind of obligatory uniform ; women, young girls, children, boys or girls, all were dressed in dark blue jerseys, ornamented with gold anchors—every costume was a sailor's. Children still Avear this becominsf 1 'Tied-l)ack' time in Encjland, and convenient garment, and now it is being adopted by tourists and cyclists.

The day of sumptuary edicts, and legislation by governments with the object of restraining luxury, is over. From the time of Philip the Fair to that of Richelieu a long series of edicts were issued ; these were always rigorously applied just at first, before they fell into oblivion, even by kings who exhausted their Treasuries by the extravagance of their Courts. An instance of this is afforded by the bedizened fop, Henry III., who, in one of his fits of repression of other people's lavishness, threw thirty women into the prison of Fort l'Evêque in one day—and they not the least among Parisian ladies—for having defied his prohibition of brocade and silk.

The time of sumptuary prohibitions, of royal rescripts is over. In the general interests of industry and commerce, all that can develop luxury on a large scale must now be fostered. Luxiiry on a small scale ought, on the contrary, to be repiessed as much as possible, or

MODES ]JH PI.AGIi 1S64.

rather, it ought to have been repressed ; the evil was wrought in past times, and it is now past remedy.

Cliugiug gowQ before l'"80.