A MAN OF THE TIME OF CHARLES II. (1660-1685)
This shows the dress during the first half of the reign. The feature of groups of ribboning is shown, with the short sleeve, the full shirt, and the petticoat.
Our hats, broad-brimmed and stiff, are loaded with feathers; our little cloaks are barred with silk and lace and gold cord; our shoes are square-toed and high-heeled, and are tied with a long-ended bow of ribbon.
Ribbon reigns triumphant: it ties our periwigs into bunches at the ends; it hangs in loops round our waists; it ties our shirt-sleeves up in several places; it twists itself round our knees. It is on our hats and heads, and necks and arms, and legs and shoes, and it peers out of the tops of our boots. Divines rave, moralists rush into print, to no purpose. The names seem to convey a sense of luxury: dove-coloured silk brocade, Rhingrave breeches, white lutestring seamed all over with scarlet and silver lace, sleeves whipt with a point lace, coat trimmed and figured with silver twist or satin ribbon; canvas, camblet, galloon and shamey, vellam buttons and taffety ribbons. The cannons, those bunches of ribbons round our knees, and the confidents, those bunches of curls by our ladies’ cheeks, do not shake at the thunderings of Mr. Baxter or other moral gentlemen who regard a Maypole as a stinking idol. Mr. Hall writes on ‘The Loathsomeness of Long Hair,’ Mr. Prynne on ‘The Unloveliness of Lovelocks,’ and we do not care a pinch of rappe.
Little moustaches and tiny lip beards grow under careful treatment, and the ladies wear a solar system in patches on their cheeks.
The ladies soon escaped the bondage of the broad Puritan collars, and all these had hid was exposed. The sleeves left the arms bare to the elbow, and, being slit above and joined loosely by ribbons, showed the arm nearly to the shoulder. The sleeves of these dresses also followed the masculine fashion of little cuffs and tied-up linen under-sleeves. The bodices came to a peak in front and were round behind. The skirts were full, satin being favoured, and when held up showed a satin petticoat with a long train. The ladies, for a time, indulged in a peculiar loop of hair on their foreheads, called a ‘fore-top,’ which gave rise to another fashion, less common, called a ‘taure,’ or bull’s head, being an arrangement of hair on the forehead resembling the close curls of a bull. The loose curls on the forehead were called ‘favorites’; the long locks arranged to hang away from the face over the ears were called ‘heart-breakers’; and the curls close to the cheek were called ‘confidents.’ Ladies wore cloaks with baggy hoods for travelling, and for the Mall the same hats as men, loaded with feathers.
