PREPARING FOR A BALL—1803.
There was a ladies’ magazine, which began in 1806, called La belle Assemblée; and a very good magazine it is. In it, of course, are numerous fashion plates; but I take it that they were then, much as now, intended to be looked at as indications of the fashion, more than the fashion itself. Certainly, in the contemporaneous prints, I have never met with any costume like them, and I much prefer for accuracy of detail, to go to the pictorial satirist, who, if he did somewhat exaggerate, did so on a given basis, an actual costume; and, moreover, threw some life and expression into his groups, which render them better worth looking at, than the meaningless lay-figures, which serve as pegs, on which to hang the clothes of the fashion-monger.
The next three illustrations, which, although designed by an amateur, are etched by Gillray, give us a glimpse of the mysteries of the toilet such as might be sought for in vain elsewhere; they are particularly valuable, as they are in no way exaggerated, and supply details otherwise unprocurable.
PROGRESS OF THE TOILET. NO. 1.
PROGRESS OF THE TOILET. NO. 3.
After these revelations, no one will be surprised to find that ladies wore false hair. It has been done in all ages: when done, it is no secret, even from casual observers. It was thoroughly understood that it was worn, for was there not always standing witness in the windows of Ross in Bishopsgate Street, and especially in the two bow windows of Cryer, 68, Cornhill—one of which had twenty blocks of gentleman’s, and the other twenty-one of lady’s perukes. One West-end coiffeur thus advertises—Morning Post, March 18, 1800: