A COIFFURE.
Marie Antoinette adored feathers, and the panache flourished under her favour, and boldly survived her mother's reprimand. "You have sent me the picture of an actress, not of a Queen," she wrote, upon receiving a picture of her daughter in a prodigious head-dress of feathers and jewels. Jewels, it is well known, were amongst Marie Antoinette's weaknesses. Did not they inspire that romance of the Queen's necklace which has pursued us for many years in various works of fiction and drama, and is still regarded as vitally interesting?
But let me return to England, and repeat that French fashions were treated with servility, if not with complete success, for somehow the English women were too ponderously exact in their method of adjustment to toy triumphantly with the many accessories of lace, and ribbon, and velvet, and buckles, and ruchings which were essentially the distinguishing features of these styles. And, also, the small feet of the French women encouraged much attention to dainty shoes, with coloured heels and embroidered toes, and to these the national deficiencies or superfluities of the English women were rather a drawback. However, they followed the French fashions at a distance, and bestowed most earnest attention upon hair-dressing, which assumed formidable proportions during this period, and rose higher and ever higher, to be topped by ornaments as incongruous, as hideous. The skilful hair-dresser who could "build" a head was at a premium; the art of hair-dressing being reckoned as one of the most important, and as rare as difficult. No lady's maid, however clever, was entrusted with this difficult task, and very complicated was the work of constructing the popular coiffure, which was piled half a yard high, and decked with pads, and false hair, and curls so stuck down and plastered with pomades that they might hold for weeks without being pulled down. So monumental were these erections that collapsible frames had to be made, so that ladies could pass through doors and get into their sedan-chairs. Windmills and ships in full sail, fruit and balls were added to the pile, and ostrich plumes nodded boldly amongst a profusion of ribbons and flowers.
A VARIETY OF HEAD-DRESSES ADOPTED IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.
The aristocratic was of course the only class that could afford these most elaborate styles, where so much curling and frizzing appeared in large masses in front that iron hairpins were used to keep these in place at the top lest they should fall crushed beneath their own weight.
The hats were worn rather far back to show these curls, and many had long ends of ribbon hanging down at the back, and others had low crowns and wide brims trimmed with flowers. What was known as a "fly" cap was a large butterfly edged with jewels, and crownless hats became the fashion; invented so as not to spoil the high coiffure, they boasted nothing but brim, and were delegated to do duty only in the finest weather. The calash, which resembles comically the hood of a baby's perambulator, could be drawn back or over the face at will, and was tied with strings. Straw hats obtained, as well as those of silk and velvet, and a mob-cap created such a sensation at Ranelagh, the popular resort of the moment, that all the women were crying out for one before the sun had risen and set again. The mob-cap was made of blonde, flowers, ribbons, and muslin; but so great was the craze for hair-dressing and head decoration that every sort of cap and hat gained some attention in turn, and amongst them were hoods of lace or velvet, edged with fur, and crêpe turbans held with jewels, with a group of feathers waving proudly on the top. The famous "Devonshire" hat of black with white feathers showed well the curls and rolls, which extended to the back of the head when it had been realised that the straight clean upward sweep to the top pinnacle of the puffs was a disadvantage to the contour not to be permitted. Of the prettiest of the fashions were the broad-brimmed hats of black chip, and the Rubens hats of black velvet; and the straight-crowned gipsy hats were really quite charming; but the winged Mercury hat received more popularity than it deserved.
A CAP AND HOOD.
The perruques of the men, even when fresh from the embraces of the curl-papers, must have looked very insignificant by the side of the huge erections which towered above the women, who did not scruple in their martyrdom to sit on the floor of a hackney coach so that the head-dress should not be disarranged, or to go to bed with their hair surrounded by a basket, or held in position by pillows and tapes. Happily the dancing of the period was of a stately kind, for the coiffure would have brooked no such frivolities as the "two-step," and the uproarious lancers of to-day would have made short work of the hair-dresser's labour of time and money.