Identifier: xviiithcenturyit00jaco (find matches)
Title: The XVIIIth century; its institutions, customs, and costumes France, 1700-1789
Year: 1875 (1870s)
Authors: Jacob, P. L., 1806-1884
Subjects: Manners and customs
Publisher: London, Bickers & Son
Contributing Library: Harold B. Lee Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Brigham Young University

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as it isnow. You see no dresses surcharged with trimmings, or sleeves withthree rows of lace. A straw-hat with a knot of ribbon, a plainneckerchief, and an apron for house wear have taken the place ofcurls, and frizzles, and falbalas. The men are dressed still moresimply, and have discarded their embroidered coats, and scarves, andepaulettes. The Court dress, with the panniers, the lappets, and the high head-dresses were still worn on state occasions, but outside the Courteverything English and American was brought into vogue. Straw-hats attached with a piece of ribbon, short dresses of some lightmaterial, large aprons, enormous fichus, and shoes without high-heelswere all the rage. Many women belonging to the upper bourgeoisie,and some of those appertaining to the highest classes of society, laidthemselves out to be, or to appear to be very serious, and theyassumed the air, and even, to a certain extent, the costume of theother sex. Mercier, writing in 1788, said : Women actually go
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LIGHT CARRIAGES. II DJ^J^S.^ AND FASinOXS. 4S9 about in male attire ; a frock-coat with three collars, the hair tieda la catogan, a switch-stick in their hands, shoes with low heels, twowatches, and an open waistcoat. The men, as if to outdo theseaustere and incongruous fashions, had taken to the black frock, leftoff powder, and again wore the cocked-hat. They vied with oneanother in their imitations of the English and Americans, and the■ladies went mad over hats a I-Aiiglaisc, and a la yockcy, dressesmade of English poplins, m.oire, tulle, and lawn. Steel and glass-ware had taken the place of diamonds, and French fashion, so richand so magnificent, so capricious and so varied, so elegant andso gracious, had almost disappeared at the dawn of the Revolution.It was a kingdom whose subjects had withdrawn from it theirallegiance.

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