The Evolution of Fashion

by Florence Mary Gardiner

That splendid historian, Stubbs, who has left us such minute particulars of the fashions of his time, quaintly describes the coiffure of the ladies of the Court. He states: "It must be curled, frizzled, crisped, laid out in wreaths and borders from one ear to the other, and lest it should fall down, must be underpropped with forkes and weirs, and ornamented with gold or silver curiously wrought. Such gewgaws, which being unskilful in woman's tearms, I cannot easily recount. Then upon the toppes of their stately turrets, stand their other capital ornaments: a French hood, hatte, cappe, kircher and suchlike, whereof some be of velvet, some of this fashion and some of that. Cauls made of netwire, that the cloth of gold, silver, or tinsel, with which their hair was sometimes covered, might be seen through; and lattice caps with three horns or corners, like the forked caps of popish priests." The Harleian MSS., No. 1776, written in the middle of Elizabeth's reign, refers to an ordinance for the reformation of gentlewomen's head-dress, and says: "None shall wear an ermine or lattice bonnet unless she be a gentlewoman born, having Arms." This latter phrase, we may conclude, refers to armorial bearings, not to physical development.

The wearing of false hair and periwigs was left to the sterner sex for some years after the restoration of the House of Stuart, and women were satisfied with well-brushed ringlets escaping from a bandeau of pearls, or beautified by a single flower. The hair was often arranged in small, flat curls on the forehead, as in the sketch of a Beauty of the Court of Charles II.; and this fashion had a softening effect on the face, and was known as the "Sevigné style."

Dutch fashions naturally prevailed in the Court of William and Mary, and this queen is represented with a high muslin cap, adorned with a series of upright frills, edged with lace, and long lappets falling on the shoulders. Farquhar, in his comedy "Love and the Bottle," alludes to the "high top-knots," and Swift, to the "pinners edged with colberteen," as the lace streamers were called. About this period the hair was once again rolled back from the face, and assumed enormous dimensions, so much so, that in some cases it was found necessary to make doorways broader and higher than they had hitherto been, to allow fashionably-dressed ladies to pass through without displacing the elaborate erections they carried. Stuffed with horsehair, clotted with pomade and powder, and decked with every conceivable ornament, from a miniature man-of-war in full sail, to a cooing dove with outspread wings, presumably sitting on its nest, or a basket of flowers wreathed with ribbons. Naturally, the aid of the barber was called in, as ladies were incapable of constructing and manipulating such a mass of tangled locks. We may imagine, on the score of expense and for other reasons, the hair was not dressed so frequently as cleanliness demanded, for in a book on costume a hairdresser is described as asking one of his customers how long it was since her hair had been opened and repaired. On her replying, "Nine weeks," he mildly suggested that that was as long as a head could well go in summer, "and, therefore, it was proper to deliver it now, as it began to be a little hazarde." Various anecdotes of this nature make us feel that personal hygiene was a matter of secondary importance to our ancestors.

Planché, in his work on British Costume, informs us that powder maintained its ground till 1793, when it was discarded by Her Majesty Queen Charlotte, Consort of George III., and the Princesses.

FASHIONABLE COIFFURE OF AN ELDERLY LADY IN THE 18TH CENTURY.

FASHIONABLE HEAD-DRESSES IN THE TIMES OF THE GEORGES.

Varied, indeed, have been the fashions of the 19th century, the close of which is fast approaching. Only a few of the styles adopted can be briefly touched upon, and, naturally, those will be selected which form the greatest contrast to each other. The belle of 1830 was distinguished by upstanding bows of plain or plaited hair, arranged on the crown of the head, and the front was generally in bands or short ringlets, held in place by tortoise-shell side-combs. The simplicity of this coiffure was compensated for by the enormous size of the hats and bonnets generally worn with it. These had wide and curiously-shaped brims, over which was stretched or gathered silk, satin, aerophane, or similar materials. Garlands and bunches of flowers and feathers were used in profusion, and bows and strings of gauze ribbon floated in the wind. In this bewitching costume were our grandmothers wooed and won by suitors who evidently, from the impassioned love letters still in existence, believed them to be perfect types of loveliness.

Towards the middle of Queen Victoria's reign, the hair was dressed in a simple knot, and the front arranged in ringlets, which fell gracefully on the chest and shoulders. Even youthful married ladies, in the privacy of their homes and for morning dress, were expected, by one of those potent but unwritten laws of the fickle goddess Fashion, to wear muslin or net caps, with lace borders, embellished with ribbons.