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

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

Ah ! if fashion, which is mightier than kings and ministers, than decrees, laws, and edicts, had but ordained the preservation of the old feminine costumes of our provinces, the local modes which were in many instances so graceful and becoming, those rural refinements which Paris has so often borrowed, in the various forms of o^owns, mantles, and head-dresses, the Bressan coifs, the lace caps of Caux, the large Breton coifs, the caps of the women of Aries, &c., &c., Avhat a salvage there would have been !

But fashion did nothing of the kind, and those pretty things have vanished before the influx of sham and shabby finery, the tasteless caricature of Parisian elegance, in the shapeless 'confections' turned out by hundreds, and convo3^ed into the r(motest parts of the country !

Local fashions, and the peculiar individual grace of dress that belongs to special regions, have finally ceded their place to new fashions which are mostly pretentious and ridiculous. The ' costume of the country ' has vanished from all our provinces ; it is lost, and now it is for ' the fashion of the towns ' to indemnify us for the loss by some real grace and elegance.

Fasliion is in a period of transition and experiment ; for lack of new novelties, it is trying imitations of the novelties of the past—those which have grown old enough, as the Empress Josephine's dressmaker said.

Fashion goes from the Louis-Seize or Empire 'cut' to the attire of the Valois, to Louis-Treize bodices, to mediseval sleeves, or else to the leg-of-mutton sleeves of 1830. We shall see what will come of these experiments, and whether, in the case of the art of dress as in that of every other art, the study of the ancient shall bring forth tlie new.

Let us hope that an original fashion, 'fin de siècle,' to use the current phrase, may at last arise. If this be so, the granddaughters of the fair ladies of the present day will be able to form mental pictures of their grandmothers in attire that was really their own, a personal possession, and not in costumes borrowed from all the a^es.

APPENDIX.

BALLADE DES MODES DU TEMPS JADIS.

Du tout premier Vertiigadin, Celui qu'inventa Madame Eve A celui qu'admirons soudain, Que d'autres passant comme rêve ! Combien leur existence est brève ! Tu resplendis toujours pourtant, O beauté changeante sans trêve, Mais où sont les modes d'antan.

Où donc es-tu, riche bliaut Armorié sur chaque maille, Et le peliçon d'Isabeau ? EscofRon de haute taille Pour qui l'on vit mainte chamaille, Hennin qui charma Buridan ? Hélas, ce n'est plus qu'antiquaille— Mais où sont les modes d'antan 1

Oil est la fraise de Margot, Et le surcot doublé d'hermine, Oil sont les manches à gigot ? Habit cavalier d'héroïne Que portait Reine ou baladine. Large panier pompadourant, Et toi-même aussi, crinoline — Mais où sont les modes d'antan !

Envoi.

Dame, il ne fut point de semaine Depuis le temps d'Eve pourtant Qui n'eût caprices par trentaine. Mais où sont les modes d'antan !

NOTES.

Head-gear, etc. See p. 168.

The following lines bear witness, among other matters, to the height of the head-gear in England at this time.

"The buckle then its modest limits knew, Now, like the ocean, dreadful to the view, Hath broke its bounds, and swallowed up the shoe : The wearer's foot, like his once fine estate, Is almost lost, the encumbrance is so great. Ladies may smile—are they not in the plot 1 The bounds of nature have not they forgot ? Were thej'- design'd to be, when jîut together. Made up, like shuttlecocks, of cork and feather ? Their pale-faced grandmammas appeared with grace When dawning blushes rose upon the face ; No blushes now their once-loved station seek ; The foe is in possession of the cheek ! No heads of old, too high in feather'd state, Hinder'd the fair to pass the lowest gate ; A church to enter now, they must be bent, If ever they should try the experiment."

Prologue to Sheridan's Trip to Scarhorwuyh, acted in 1777.

Cadogan. See p. 179.

For the Cadogan (said to be derived from the first Earl of Cadogan, who died in 1726), see Murray s Dictionary. The following quotation is given from Memoirs of Baroness D'Oberkirch,vo\.. ii. chap. ix.—" The Duchess of Bourbon had introduced at the Court of Montbéliard [the fashion] of Cadogans, hitherto worn only by gentlemen." It was a mode of plaiting and looping the hair behind, and has been revived of late years in Paris.

Guillotine. See p. 203.

The guillotine at this time was canonized as " La Sainte Guillotine," and worn on necklaces in place of the cross.

Richard Clay 8; Sons, Limited, London Sf Bungay.

St. Dunstan's House, Fetter Lane,

London, E.C. 1892.

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