Fig. 109.—The “flash” of five black ribbons on the collar of the Welsh Fusiliers. A survival from the days of the pigtail.
A survival of the same kind, which takes us back to the time of wigs, is to be seen on the backs of the collars of several court dresses, and it is known technically as the “wig-bag.” It is also, as we have had occasion to mention, to be seen on the back of the collar of the liveries of some servants whose dress is in the old style, and here, as in the case of the Lord Mayor’s coachman, it looks as if it had originated in a bow (see Figure [113]).
[XIV]
SPECIAL DRESSES
FASHIONS KEPT UP BY CEREMONIES—SURVIVALS IN SPECIAL COSTUME—FLOWING GARMENTS
In the foregoing pages we have been concerned chiefly with individual parts of costume, and while showing how various garments have reached their present form, we have busied ourselves with discovering the origin of many important survivals. We have not however hesitated, in dealing with these details, to touch on all kinds of costumes, and here and there we have left civilians’ dress for a moment to take an illustration from that of the soldier or the member of some other profession.
At the same time, we have indicated that on occasions of ceremony, whether religious or otherwise, the dress adopted is, as a rule, more primitive or older in style than that which is customarily worn. This is what might be expected, as, on the one hand, innate conservatism and objection to change come into play, and, on the other, ordinary everyday practical matters being for the time put on one side, it is possible to wear clothes which otherwise would be inconvenient and liable to get damaged.
When we ourselves dress for dinner we go back nearly a century, but nothing could be more primitive than the Court etiquette of certain tribes,[16] where the subjects of the king may only approach him when entirely unclothed. Livingstone was received by the Queen of the Balonde Negroes in South Africa when she was in a state of complete nudity. The women of neighbouring tribes and members of other races, for instance those in Australia, entirely remove their clothing on festive occasions.