LAST QUARTER OF EIGHTEENTH CENT (TRY. COSTUMES AND SOCIAL LIFE IN FRANCE. THE PSYCHOLOGY OF DRESS BY FRANK ALVAH PARSONS, B. S. PRESIDENT OF NEW YORK SCHOOL OF FINE AND APPLIED ART ILLUSTRATED DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY GARDEN CITY 1921 NEW YORK COPYRIGHT, 1920, BY DOUBLEDAY, PAGE A COMPANY ALL RIGHTS RESERVED, INCLUDING THAT OF TRANSLATION INTO FOREIGN LANGUAGES, INCLUDING THE SCANDINAVIAN TO AMERICAN AND OTHER LADIES WHO ARE INTERESTED IN CAUSE AND EFFECT IN DRESS, THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED. I / . . PREFACE f| APPARENTLY there are two main reasons for writing } the preface to a book. The one, that traditional prac- tice may be duly observed, the other, that the writer may make suitabte apology for what he has done or .perchance fittingly acknowledge the assistance given 'him by his friends. The second, is the reason for this preface. It would be presumptuous to present this book as a History of Costume. It attempts no such colossal task 1 . It is equally absurd to claim for it a thorough, technical, psychological treatment of any one period or group of periods. It makes no such boast. There has been in the last decade a remarkable awak- ening to the relations which exist between man and his works, between the mind and its expression in material ^ objects, and also to how absorbing or dominating ideas and interests colour, if not determine, the entire exter- nalized thought of man in religious, political and social life. It is this that makes history live, that makes psy- chology a vital thing and Art a quality essential to full human expression and inseparable from human life. This is the thought the author has in mind in the se- lection, analysis, and treatment of such European pe- riods as have most directly influenced.our development and that illustrate perhaps, most clearly, the principles which are not only concerned in the development of style in clothes, but in that of the allied arts as well. vii 504 CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE i. Mediaeval Europe 3 H. The Renaissance in Italy (1400 to 1600) ... 47 in. The Renaissance in France and England. The Sixteenth Century 95 iv. The Seventeenth Century hi France, Italy, and England 149 v. The Eighteenth Century in France and Italy . 193 VI. The Eighteenth Century in England and Amer- ica 238 vn. Characteristic Nineteenth Century Styles . . 284 vni. Early Twentieth Century Characteristics . . 318 Index 353 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Last Quarter of Eighteenth Century. Costumes and Social Life in France Frontispiece FACING PAGE Beginning of the Ninth Century. Charlemagne . . 10 End of the Ninth Century. Charles IV of France . 10 About the Middle of the Eleventh Century. Henry I of France 10 Beginning of the Thirteenth Century. Philippe Au- guste of France 10 Early Thirteenth Century. French 18 About the Middle of the Thirteenth Century. Blanche of Castille . 18 Past the Middle of the Thirteenth Century. St. Louis 18 Last Quarter of the Thirteenth Century. Philippe III of France 19 Last Part of the Thirteenth Century. Isabel of Aragon 19 End of the Thirteenth Century. Philippe IV of France 19 Beginning of the Fourteenth Century. Jeanne de Navarre 19 First Quarter of the Fourteenth Century. Louis X of France 26 First Quarter of the Fourteenth Century. Marguerite de Bourgogne Early Fifteenth Century. French , . 27 Near the End of the Fourteenth Century. Charles VI of France 34 Last Half of the Fourteenth Century. Jeanne de Bourbon 34 xi LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS FACING PAGE About theMiddle of the Fifteenth Century. Charles VII 34 Third Quarter of the Fifteenth Century. Louis XI . 34 Last Quarter of the Fifteenth Century. Charles VIII 35 Last Quarter of the Fifteenth Century. Anne of Bre- tagne 35 Early Fourteenth Century. Italian 35 Mid-fourteenth Century. Italian 42 Late Fourteenth Century. Italian 43 Around Fourteen Hundred. Italian. The Fashions of the Late Fourteenth Century 50 Around Fourteen Hundred. Italian. A Good Variety of Costumes 50 Early Fifteenth Century. Italian. Gothic Spirit Mingled with Early Conception of Classic ... 51 Early Fifteenth Century. Religious Scenario with naive Humanism in Manner and in Costumes . . 51 Second Quarter of the Fifteenth Century .... 58 Second Part of the Fifteenth Century. Elemental Im- pulses Seen in Bodies, Faces, Poses, and Costumes . 59 About the Middle of the Fifteenth Century. Cos- tumes Show Mediaeval Pageant Spirit .... 66 About the Middle of the Fifteenth Century. More Clearly Spiritual Feeling Expressed 66 Late Fifteenth Century in Venice. Luxurious Mater- ials and Peculiar Headdresses 67 Last Half of the Fifteenth Century. Costumes Show a Decided Pagan Classic Conception 67 Last Half of the Fifteenth -Century. Pagan Classic Quality of Humanism, and Renaissance Humanism Decoratively Expressed 74 Last Half of the Fifteenth Century. Early Renais- sance Costumes 75 Third Quarter of the Fifteenth Century. Refinement and Simplicity of the Renaissance 82 xii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS FACING PAGE Third Quarter of the Fifteenth Century. The Charm of Unaffected Humanism 82 Late Fifteenth Century. Early Stages of the Renais- sance in Venice 83 Late Fifteenth Century. Interesting Male Costumes in Venice 83 End of the Fifteenth Century. Tuscan Lady of the High Renaissance 90 Last Half of the Fifteenth Century. Florentine Renaissance Lady Simply and Decoratively Dressed . 90 End of the Fifteenth Century. Madonna .... 91 Latter Part of the Fifteenth Century. Renaissance Lady Richly Dressed 91 About Fifteen Hundred. Male Costume .... 94 Early Sixteenth Century. Characteristic Fashions of Florentine Ladies 95 First Half of the Sixteenth Century. Duke of Ferrara 102 Early Sixteenth Century. Italian. Renaissance Cos- tumes Worn by the Courtesans of Venice .... 103 Early Sixteenth Century. Venetian. Costumes Show Harmony with People and their Surroundings . . 106 First Quarter of the Sixteenth Century. Italian. . 107 Second Quarter of the Sixteenth Century. German. Unique Decorative Quality Redeems Lack of Taste and Love of Show 114 Second Quarter of the Sixteenth Century. A Venetian Aristocrat 114 Second Quarter of the Sixteenth Century. Rich and Distinguished Harmony of all Details .... 115 First Half of the Sixteenth Century. Spanish with Italian Influence 115 Second Quarter of the Sixteenth Century. English . 122 Second Quarter of the Sixteenth Century. French. Elegance, Richness and Quality of Decoration well Expressed 123 xiii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS FACING PAGE First Half of the Sixteenth Century. Italian ... 130 Middle of the Sixteenth Century. Florentine. The Compelling Charm of Good Breeding and Culture . 130 Near the Middle of the Sixteenth Century. German . 131 Last Quarter of the Sixteenth Century. Italian . . 131 Last Quarter of the Sixteenth Century. French. The Tenacity of Tradition in Cut Offset by Modern Details 138 Last Half of the Sixteenth Century. French. Per- sistence of the Headdress and Beginning of the Ruff 138 Third Quarter of the Seventeenth Century. Italian . 139 The Third Quarter of the Sixteenth Century. English 139 Last Quarter of the Sixteenth Century. French . . 146 Near the End of the Sixteenth Century. Italian. The Child but the Miniature of the Adult in Dress . . 146 Last Part of the Sixteenth Century. Venetian . . . 147 First Half of Seventeenth Century. Italian. The Gradual Triumph of Material Display over Classic and Aesthetic Ideas in Dress 147 First Half of the Seventeenth Century. Italian. Characteristic Qualities in Masculine and Feminine Apparel 154 Early Part of the Seventeenth Century. French. Marie de Medici 154 First Half of the Seventeenth Century. French. Anne of Austria 155 Second Quarter of the Seventeenth Century. Foreign Possibilities in Style for Infants' Clothes .... 155 First Half of the Seventeenth Century. English. James I 162 Before the Middle of the Seventeenth Century. Ital- ian. Passing of the Ruff and Appearance of the Wide Flat Collar .... .162 Around the Middle of the Seventeenth Century. Flor- entine 163 riv LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS FACING PAGE Around the Middle of the Seventeenth Century. Dutch 163 Middle of the Seventeenth Century. Characteristic Fashions from Northwestern Europe 170 Middle of the Seventeenth Century. German. For- eign Fashion and Decoration Characteristically Worked Out 170 About the Middle of the Seventeenth Century. Span- ish 171 Past the Middle of the Seventeenth Century. French . 171 A Native English Taste Adapting French Fashion on French Ground 178 About the Same Epoch as the Two Preceding Illus- trations. Italian 178 Third Quarter of the Seventeenth Century. Venetian. The Period of Louis XIV in France 179 Late Seventeenth Century. French. Military Social Fashions in the Period of Louis XIV 179 Late Seventeenth Century. Transition to the First of the Eighteenth Century Styles 186 Near the End of the Seventeenth Century. French . 187 The End of the Seventeenth Century. French Ele- gance, Refinement, and Grace 190 Early Eighteenth Century. French. Luxury of the Late Seventeenth Century with Early Louis XV Fashions 191 The Same Period further Developed 198 Portrait of the Pompadour. Expresses the Sanest, Most Elegant, and Distinctively Charming Phase of the Style 199 By the Middle of the Century there was considerable Freedom in Individual Interpretation 202 Early in the Last Quarter of the Century (the period of Louis XVI) Extravagance Reached its Climax . . 203 The Culmination of the Artificial Period 210 xv LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS FACING PAGE About 1775. French. Interpretation in the Style of Louis XVT of a Piedmontese Fashion . . . . 210 Moreau Gives Here the Most Charming Costumes, Spirit and Environment of the Most Fascinating Social Period 211 The Part Played Socially by the Toilet of the King and His Courtiers is Admirably Revealed 211 The Piquant Charm of the Riding Habit and Environ- ment in Perfect Keeping With Personages and Technique 218 Exaggeration in Style and Unrestrained Ornamentation Giving Place to Practical Elegance and Natural Charm 218 Madame Le Brun Expresses Transition from Exag- geration to the Directoire in Costume of Adelaide de Bourbon 219 The Hypocritical Pose of the Monarchic Ideal, with New and Conscious Desire to be Free and Individual Delightfully Combined 219 Enchanting Harmony between Best Traditions of Late Eighteenth Century Social France .... 226 Undoubtedly the Arcadian Point of View had much to do with the Simple Grace and Cultured Aestheticism of these Fashions 226 Fascinating Optimism and Gay Abandon Admirably Repeated in every article of Dress 227 Royal Dictation Supplanted by Individual Expression 227 The Revolution Wiped Out the Grace, Destroyed the Charm, and Arrested at least for a time the Activity of the Aesthetic Creative Power 234 In the Directoire Fashions there are Almost Unlimi- ted Ideas for Modern Use 234 It Was Not Given to the Ladies to Exploit the New and Less Autocratic Phase in Fashion of Dress, but it was Arrested by the Empire 235 xvi LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS FACING PAGE Last Quarter of the Eighteenth Century. Venetian . 235 Last Quarter of the Eighteenth Century. Italian . . 242 About 1785. Venetian. The Fashions of Versailles Interpreted in Italy Have a Charm all their Own . 242 About the Middle of the Eighteenth Century. English 243 About 1760. English. The Early Fashion of Petti- coat Prominence and the Embroidered Apron . . 243 Beginning of the Last Quarter of the Eighteenth Cen- tury. English 250 About the Middle of the Eighteenth Century. New England. Colonial 250 A Little Past the Middle of the Eighteenth Century. Colonial 251 The Third Quarter of the Eighteenth Century. Co- lonial 251 About 1770. Colonial. Wife of the Last Royal Governor of New Hampshire 258 Beginning of the Third Quarter of the Eighteenth Century. English 258 About 1770. English. Distinctly French Influence in the Dressing of the Hair 259 Near the Beginning of the Last Quarter of the Eigh- teenth Century. English. Signs of the Styles Both of Louis XV and Louis XVI 259 Beginning of the Last Quarter of the Eighteenth Cen- tury. English 266 Beginning of the Last Quarter of the Eighteenth Cen- tury. Colonial 266 Last Quarter of the Eighteenth Century. English . . 267 Middle of the Last Quarter of the Eighteenth Cen- tury. English 267 English, at the Height of the Period of Louis XVI in France 270 Another Interpretation of the Style of Louis XVI . . 270 About 1778. English-American 271 xvii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS FACING PAGE About 1780. English. Reflection of the French Rev- olution in England 271 Late Eighteenth Century. Colonial 278 Last Quarter of the Eighteenth Century. English . . 278 Late Eighteenth Century. English 279 Around 1795. English. Influence of the Directoire . 279 English, Around 1790. The "Male Style" for Women thus Interpreted and Worn Brooks no Criticism . 282 Early Nineteenth Century. English. The Empire Style of France Given a Bit of English Conserva- tism 283 A Quaint and Fascinating Directoire Creation of the Last Days of the Eighteenth Century .... 290 The Spirit of the Empire Appears in this Portrait of Mme. Lsetitia Bonaparte, Mother of the Emperor . 290 The Queen of Naples no doubt Dictated the Fashions for Her Court both in Setting and in Costume . . 291 The Individuality of the Princess Pauline is well Shown 291 Richness and Italian Interpretation of Napoleon's Cos- tumes for Men well Exemplified in this Portrait of Prince Borghese 298 Royal Austrian Taste here Coupled with French Em- pire Possibilities in the Costume of Empress Louise 29*9 For less than Royal Personages Simplicity in Ensemble with Peculiarities and Exaggeration in Detail mark the Early Part of this Period 3(J6 Originality, not Taste, was the not infrequent Cause of Fashion's Combinations 30.6 Many Simple, Lovely, and Adaptable Costumes Found Between 1815 and 1825 among People of Taste . . 307 This Portrait (Italian) done in 1829, might almost be but Two Decades Old, or even less, in Some of its Details 307 xviii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS FACING PAGE From 1830 to the Middle of the Century "Caprice Knew no Bounds" 314 Taken from "Journal of Paris Fashions" for the Spring of 1834. Effect more Eloquent than Comment 315 Contrast the Quaint Affectations of This of the Same Date, with the Supreme Ugliness of the Preceding One 322 Our Modern Young Women may Find Solace in Queen Victoria's Attempt to Cover her Ears 322 Of the Fussiness of the Mid-Century, this Portrait of the Queen of Louis Philippe is Convincing . . . 323 While Italy was Possessed with the Desire to Appear Delicate, this Mid-century Portrait Shows the Epoch at its Best 323 For Unparalleled Insipidity of Pose, the Period of about 1862 is Supreme 330 By 1869 Redemption from the Impossible was no longer a Matter for Speculation 331 To Behold in Silence is a Privilege, to Comment Super- fluous and Senseless. (July, 1877) 346 An Example of Fashion Striving for Piquant Originality 347 xix INTRODUCTION IT DOES seem that "there is nothing new under the sun" and "there is nothing either good or bad but think- ing makes it so." Men are fundamentally the same in every land and every clime, having the same appetites and longings, with the same basic motives and vanities, differently proportioned, differently stimulated, there- fore somewhat differently expressed. The intimate connection between mind and material expression is daily becoming more clearly understood and their natural relationships grow the more absorbing as we study from history the various materials and forms through which human conceptions of life and its needs have been expressed. For example : man's primal need for food and shelter have pressed him to conceive not only how this need shall be satisfied, but in what way things necessary to this end shall be made so that they may best answer the demand for which they exist. Another need, just as universal, has urged him to fashion things in such a way that the result shall be (as he sees it) a thing of beauty that is, that the material, form, and colour which he has used shall be so proportioned that the aesthetic sense, as well as the physical appetite, shall be satisfied through" the thing created. The House and Clothes have answered the human requirement for shelter and, whether we will or not, they also express the individual and the national ideal xxi INTRODUCTION of beauty in colour and in form, satisfying in this way the demands of the aesthetic instinct. The degree of satisfaction these things give the cultivated sesthetic sense is the measure of their artistic value, it is not their period, their oddity, or their cost that determines it. These two aspects of function and beauty, in so far as art is concerned, must be observed if a production is to be a success in any field of man's creative genius; but in the matter of clothes or costumes (and we shall use these terms synonymously in this work) there are other considerajtions_wliich affect his work more pro- nouncedly than in other fields, and must therefore be given a place in the examination of each period, and of those cases where a mode endured too short a time for the crystallization of a definite style. The first of these mighty influences we will call fash- ion. While this has doubtless greatly influenced archi- tecture, furniture, manner of painting and of decoration, clothes have undoubtedly felt its power more quickly, more keenly and sometimes more fatally to the criter- ions of good sense and taste. The reasons for this are obvious. First, there is the -*eKgious or eeelesiastical element. Spiritual concepts have found expression in combinations of material, design, and colour which have become fixed or symbolic of religious ideas. At times it has been the fashion to ape these forms so that their use has become general in secular life. By reason of their political control a monarch or his satellites could, throughtRe breadth of their power, so forcibly impress their personal preferences and idiosyn- crasies, first on the ruling class and then, through their xxii INTRODUCTION tendency to imitation, on all classes below them, that they became absolute dictators of fashion. Sometimes this centralized power lasted for a sufficient time and was powerful enough to crystallize the fashion into a fixed form, whereupon it became a style, as in the reign of Francis I, Louis XIV, or Queen Elizabeth. It is in social life, however, that the element of fash- ion has mainly flourished and only as ecclesiastical or political ideals were associated with or contributory to the social order were they prolific sources for fashion's exploitation. Sometimes it has been the whim to be modest, in affected humility; at other times it has pleased social fancy to seem to be "old-fashioned" or mayhap classic in appearance. Either through a de- sire for novelty or a wish to express new thoughts and emotions, an abnormal love for sumptuous display or an apparently unquenchable thirst for the foreign or the grotesque, has appeared with equal frequency. All these and many other motives found in the minds of men have caused them to draw from any source that seemed to give promise of a new material element capa- ble of lending itself to the general expression of a given social order. The results in each period or division of time speak eloquently of the quality of its elements. Second, fashion's most powerful accomplice is now, and undoubtedly always has been, what we term "the commercial interests," i.e. the selfish desire of one man to enrich himself at the expense of the weaknesses of others. Where could a better field be found ? Then, too, the element of personal vanity has not been left out of any one of us. In most of us it seems to outstrip x all else in rapidity of growth and in the devising of ways xxiii INTRODUCTION and means for its satisfaction. Closely associated with this quality is the determination not to be outdone by one's neighbour and the desire to shine by comparison with him. What has this not led man to do? "Commercial interests" have never been unmindful of these and other human weaknesses and while they have flourished, fashion, too, has become incredibly successful in dictating what people should wear and when they should wear it. We need to remind our- selves again and again to what lengths men have gone that fashion might be obeyed and we should carefully calculate the results. In this, surely, everyone will find human interest. The powerful influences of geography, time, social ancP ethical standards, and strong personalities, as well as prin- ciples of art, on the development of clothes as a social art expression, may perhaps be mentioned here, though they are too obvious to require prolonged discussion. Some dominant idea has been developed in every age and by every people. Sometimes it was political, often purely social, though in a very few cases the spiritual ideal seemed for a period to be striving vigorously to appear in what the best minds of the time considered an adequate expression of the ideal. The results in costume, as in other mediums, are but a material record of the great ideals that swayed the nations at the time of their creation. In other words, a man's clothes, like other reactions to his needs, are his material response to a demand for them, and by the results he must stand or fall, whether judged commercially, socially, artistically, ethically, or by a simple standard of common sense. XXIV THE PSYCHOLOGY OF DRESS CHAPTER ONE MEDIEVAL EUROPE THE term " Mediaeval" has been variously inter- preted as a span of time included between established dates, as almost anything not commonly reckoned as modern, or as a vague something quite apart from things intimately concerning us as individuals or as nations. As a matter of fact there is some truth about each of these views but none of them gives the fundamental truth which is after all the most important. Medievalism was first of all an institution, a real, living thing. It had its own ideals, its individual thoughts and feelings, its peculiar practices, and an externalized material expression peculiarly its own, yet somewhat related with all that had gone before, and wholly inseparable from what we know as the modern social order. At first this statement may seem to be a contradic- tion, but it is not. Medievalism may perhaps be lik- ened, in a way, to that period in youth when one's ideals are fresh, romantic, chivalrous, perhaps even mystic; before contact with the cold realities of life has hardened the sensibilities, or the development of reason has supplanted the spontaneous play of the emotions, and before materialism has won an illegiti- mate ascendency over spiritual conception. Everyone 3 . PSYCHOLOGY OF DRESS realizes that there was such a period in his own life and he will find just such another state in the development of the national soul of which he is a part. This is mediae valism. We are particularly interested in this state of mind as it was manifested in Europe (especially in France, Italy, and England), first because of the perfection of its ex- pression there and then because of its direct contribu- tion to what we know as the modern world, or the civili- zation of which we are a part. Considered from the viewpoint of time, this period may be approximately placed between the twelfth and the fifteenth centuries, although some historians in- clude the tenth and eleventh centuries, or the "dark ages," as others term them. The truth is that its be- ginnings are to be found in the birth of Christianity and its youthful growth traced in the decline and decay of Greco-Roman civilization, for in this particular ideal a new conception of the relation of spirit with material was being formed, and the flower of it burst forth in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, being generally known by the somewhat indefinite name of the Gothic period, while its results were classed as Gothic Art. Medievalism can hardly be viewed from the stand- point of antiquity, for it is rather the slow death of the antique ideals or at least the gradual sinking into ob- scurity of the conceptions, practices, and works of the ancients, as the various nations of Christendom slowly espoused the new order, adapting its practices to new conditions, and originating new forms of expression as other needs became manifest. The finest and perhaps the purest expression of this period is found in France, 4 MEDIAEVAL EUROPE certainly when seen from the standpoint of art, Italian expression being more indissolubly mixed with the antique, while England's productions were crude, and less delicately fashioned. The reasons for this will ap- pear as we proceed. If we think of this period as unrelated to ourselves or to modern life, we are reminded that to it we owe not only our most perfect conceptions of western mystic spiritual idealism with its attendant expressions in architecture, clothes, and the decorative arts, but the system of Chivalry with its delightful accessories, which laid the foundation for the deferential elegance of the Renaissance and, in a more indirect way, for the en- chanting charm of the eighteenth-century social order. This period was marked not only as one of spiritual victory for our civilization, but as the era of our social escape from barbarism as well. Not that we have al- ways kept clearly in sight this spiritual exaltation or that we have not, ever and anon, turned to the results of these back-slidings ; indeed, it is in just this fluctua- tion of influences, diversions, and reversions that the intense human interest of the various periods lies, and there is surely no better field in which to trace the devious paths of human thought than in that of clothes, where man has ever given free play to self- expression, in a way which, though not always a credit | to his intelligence, is yet quite true to his innermost self, whether he will acknowledge it or not. It is here that he has forgotten at times the presence of a spiritual ideal, the existence of a faculty called intellect and he seems to have denied or silenced his reason, his ethics, and his common sense; yet even in such periods clothes 5 PSYCHOLOGY OF DRESS as a personal expression are interesting and amusing, if neither sensible nor edifying. Let us look for a moment at the ideal which, when formulated, was expressed in what we know as Medi- aeval Gothic Art. Greek, or Classic civilization sought the exaltation of^materi^lJh^oiigL^sesthetic or-artistic treatment^ and formulated its spiritual and social exist- ence to this end. This conception became for them a religion, and the art expression which resulted showed the highest development of intellectual pure form in material that the world has yet known. We need only recall here how the Roman, modifying this ideal in a less exalted conception of material form, debased pro- portionately his expression, nor need we trace the conse- quent decline and ultimate decay of the whole institu- tion known as Roman civilization. Decayed it was, but not dead, for the spirit lived though the body was inert, and it has appeared and reappeared in new forms, giving the intellectual pure form basis for our greatest succeeding periods and, we may add, the greatest hope for the future. It was the business of medisevalism to displace this ideal for one of its own which incited exaltation of the spirit through neglect of the material, or mortification of the flesh, in the belief that with the attainment of spiritual ecstasy materials would lend themselves to the attempt to express it and that spiritual emotional- ism would find a ready aesthetic reaction. In this it was not mistaken and thus the social expression of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries was second to, and always influenced by, the ecclesiastic ideal. Gradu- ally, however, in the fourteenth and fifteenth cen- 6 MEDIAEVAL EUROPE turies, due in part to the founding of the institution known as Chivalry, secular life began to make its ap- peal felt; over-wrought imagination sought relaxation; the body, through the appetites, re-asserted itself, so that by the beginning of the fifteenth century a death blow to the mediaeval ideal had been dealt (particularly in Italy), a new ideal was already forecast and a new order namely, the Renaissance, or the first period of modern civilization, was initiated. Perhaps it may appear that there is slight need to recall these bare facts in connection with the thought of mediaeval clothes and yet we recollect that man fashions as best he knows, not only clothes but other essentials, according to his state of mind and in such manner as he believes at the time best achieves the -^ satisfaction of his need. Admitting this, there is but one way to understand and appreciate results namely, by investigating and becoming familiar with the causes which underlie the production of these results. Here lies the fascination of approaching any historic art period from the psychological standpoint rather than from that of the chronological or mechanical. If man felt no needs he would have no impulse to create. Feel- ing the need calls for creative thought as to what will satisfy it and involves a demand for material and crafts- manship to give the thought form. But this is not all, the aesthetic sense demands beauty as its rightful satis- faction and this quality, like others, appears in pro- portion to its presence in the mind of him who creates, no more, no less. That is, we shall recognize and ap- preciate exactly as much as we can react to and this is measured by the presence of the like quality in our own 7 PSYCHOLOGY OF DRESS conception of the created thing. If there were no clouds one could always, during the day, find the sun.- Often too much technique, too much fashion, or too much prejudice, may obscure art or perchance the re- verse may be equally true. We shall see this freely illustrated in our study of period clothes, which are not always made for their aesthetic charm any more than they are made to facilitate human movement. It is, however, the state of mind in which they are con- ceived that determines this quality-ratio in the inde- scribable combinations we so often find. Mediaeval art found its fullest and freest expression in the ecclesiastical field. Its churches, its monasteries, and its libraries demanded the greatest builders, the finest sculptors, and the choicest artists to be found. Such costumes as were essential to the ritual of the church claimed the greatest share of attention. This ecclesiastical dominance influenced the kind of ma- terials produced, determined largely the colours used, and dictated not only the design of the pattern but the style of the garments, particularly in the tenth and/ eleventh centuries and later still in France, which was less committed to the old order and more ecstatically fanatical in its religious creative expression. In all countries where Christianity had been accepted and during the positive sway of the feudal system there was a pronounced ecclesiastical mode always more or less influencing even the secular costumes of the social order. Under the feudal system only the great barons and their families wore fine clothes, and these were gener- ally crude and quite individual in their style as they 8 MEDIEVAL EUROPE primarily an answer to the need for protection from e elements, and secondarily a symbolic expression of rank and importance. The individual baron's style grew out of his needs and was formed by his association with other and more elaborately accoutred families as well as by the ecclesiastical models with which he came particularly in contact. Tradition, too, had its ef- fect, especially during the last decades of feudalistic domination, when each family had worked out its own distinguishing characteristics. During the eleventh century the great mediaeval social system known in history as Chivalry was founded in France. This system was destined to revolutionize the ethics, morals, and manners, first of France, then of Italy, England, and other European countries where it found a place in the social fabric. To realize the power, scope, and influence of the new order we must recall something of its nature, as well as its relation to the barbaric feudal system then exist- ing. It was about the middle of the eleventh century, during the reign of Henry I of France, that some nobles, ashamed of their lives of brigandage, consecrated them- selves and their implements of war to God's service, agreeing that in the future they would only "fight for right and benevolence." This was the beginning of what is known as Knight Errantry, or Chivalry, which spread over France, in fact over Europe, with sur- prising rapidity. When fully worked out, every boy of noble birth was trained to knighthood. At the age of seven he was apprenticed to some great lord as page. He attended particularly on the ladies and was taught from the first 1) PSYCHOLOGY OF DRESS to honour God, reverence women, obey promptly, to respect Christianity. At the age of fourteen he came an esquire and was then assigned to service in the various departments of the household of the lord whom he served; for example, one carved at the dinner table and distributed the food to the guests. We read that he was dressed in scarlet, wore a chaplet on his head, a coloured girdle around his waist, that he hung a horn around his neck, and carried a white wand. In manner he must be exact, respectful, attentive, and always alert. Another esquire had charge of the stables, attended the horses, assisted his lord to mount and dismount, and directed the stable service. He was dressed in brown and white, but when abroad with his master wore blue and white, or sometimes gold and white. There was another called an armour-bearer. He performed for his lord the duties now performed by a valet, carried the armour, and accompanied his lord on expeditions of pleasure or war, as did the shield-bearer, who acted in a somewhat similar capacity. Each lord had regular masters to teach his pages and esquires their respective duties, and they were also taught to sing, play the harp and lute, to dance, hunt, to salute properly, and to wait upon the ladies of the household. In some cases they were even expected to read and compose verses. At the age of twenty-one the esquire became a knight and was entitled to be called "Sir" and his wife, if he had one, to be called "Lady." His flag was the pennon. When a knight committed an offense against another he was tried and punished with great severity. His sword was broken, his 10 B u o < |s s << EH H P5 02 OD fa j, t? sS5 ggs^ H | S 3 o S I H 03 Z P PD i ^ s 3 MEDIEVAL EUROPE taken, and other public disgraces heaped upon him, un- til he was permanently eliminated from his social class. Not long after the establishment of this system a re- markable change was observed in the manners, tastes, amusements, and general pursuits of the social unit. ^Refinement, elegance, and delicacy characterized their lives. Chastity, politeness, chivalry, and truth were the watchwords of the time. This stimulated the aes- thetic and poetic instincts and changed the character of literature; at the same tune the elaborately set social system caused a great trade revival. Invention was stimulated, towns became important, and a working middle class was evolved, eventually undermining the feudal system where but two classes, lords and serfs, existed. The manufacture of armour and fine materials for clothes, the training of horses, and the general exchange of necessities and luxuries opened up communication between distant parts of the country as well as between France and other countries. The mode of domestic life increased the number of servants, the desire for luxuries multiplied, and the effect of comfort and af- fluence was apparent everywhere. We cannot believe, however, that even with the high ideals embodied in the institution of Chivalry, the ideal state really existed. Many were slow to practice the code which they publicly espoused. Tradition was strong, the people were still human, selfish, vain, and somewhat undeveloped; yet this system may properly be said to have sounded the death knell of heathen bar- barism and to have marked the beginning of Christian civilization as we know it to-day. 11 PSYCHOLOGY OF DRESS In the last decade of the eleventh century began the Crusades, or religious wars, between the Christians of the West and the Mohammedans of the East for the domination of Palestine. At first the claim made was only for the right to visit the holy sepulchre, but as the Christian West gradually lost its distinctive idealism and became increasingly ambitious, it determined to own and to rule the whole of the Holy Land. With the detailed success of the first crusade "through fire and sword," with the strifes and hardships and partial successes and failures of the succeeding expeditions, we are not here particularly concerned, but in the ef- fect of these wars on western thought and consequently upon western practices we have a particular interest, when they are seen in relation to the new order of Chivalry, and to the general life expression of the twelfth and succeeding centuries of mediae valism. Many men consecrated their lives to these expeditions, first selling their estates to the middle classes for ready money. These tradesmen, thousands in number, in- creased the bourgeoisie and changed the balance of in- fluence from the nobles to the middle class; this state of things in turn reacted, raising the serfs to the former position of the middle class and assisting further to dis- place the old order. Experience in sea travel stimulated ship building. The crusaders saw life from another angle by virtue of their new associations. Their respect for science and literature was increased. Their ideas on agricul- ture and commerce were broadened, and their minds were filled with new conceptions and new expressions for old ones. They brought back new and strange 12 MEDIAEVAL EUROPE clothes of fantastic and gorgeous patterns, gems and precious jewels, ornaments wrought in a curious man- ner, implements and garments strangely fashioned. All this and much more was added to the already well- established social expression of the period of Chivalry: A rapid development in manufactures increased the size of towns until the feudal estates gave place to them in power. During the reign of Louis VI (1108 to 1137) the first Charter of Communities was granted to Laon and Amiens. Other grants soon followed and thus autocratic power was moved from the feudal lord to the town community. This communal interest cre- ated in the minds of the masses a civic ideal, with com- mon aims, a pride in personal endeavour, soon manifes t in the development of the Craft Guilds, and a desire for the fundamental liberties and privileges of citizenship never conceived under the feudal system. All this was a direct stimulus to the creative faculty of the time as well as a development of the ideal of civilization. Its effects were first seen in the number and style of eccles- iastical buildings that came into being during the next century. It was not long, however, before the creative impulse began to react on the new social order, until, by the first half of the thirteenth century, its results claimed a large share of attention from those who ruled and those who had grown rich through domestic trade, or commerce with the East and the Mediterran- ean countries. In the reign of Louis VII, the third quarter of the twelth century, a copy of the "Institutes," or the laws of Justinian, was discovered. This institution, simple in itself, soon changed the educational current 13 PSYCHOLOGY OF DRESS in all Christendom. Universities sprang up, the study of law became a mania, and a new code of civil law dis- placed, or rather made over, the feudal laws, adding the imperial Roman idea of civil jurisprudence to the new phase of civilization. Formerly trial was by combat or appeals to God and finally to arms, but from this time pleaders and juries were appointed and a crude scale of punishment in proportion to the offence was estab- lished. These steps taken within a century tjiejnrth. of Chivalry, the Crusades, the Charter of Communities, and the revival of civil law form the foundation upon which was matured the system known as Medisevalism. In the reign of Philip II (1180 to 1223) we find the de- velopment of these elements and their crystallization into an institution which really functioned. In fact Philip Augustus is said to have done for France what Caesar did for Rome. The narrow conventionalism and the rigid formalism of the eleventh and twelfth jcenturies gave way before the new order. We read that during the reign of Philippe tourna- ments were often given. Not only were the guests of noble origin, but there were crowds of troubadours with their instruments, minstrels, fools, jugglers, dan- cers, and other strange and amusing people. Booths and tents were raised around the castle gate and mer- chants of all sorts hastened thither with their wares of cloth-of-gold and silver, velvets and silks, stuffs of all kinds, ermine and other furs, silver cups, gold clasps, ornaments of great variety for lords and ladies, cutlery, armour, and embroidered articles of personal adorn- ment, as well as trifles for amusement. Flags, banners, pennants, and lovely tapestries hung and fluttered from 14 MEDIAEVAL EUROPE the windows and balconies of the chateaux. These tournaments persisted, growing in number and gorgeous sumptuousness throughout the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. The helmet worn at the close of the twelfth century was a flat top steel one, with a steel hoop under the chin and a sort of grate over the face. When this was removed the knight put on a velvet cap the colour of which matched his garments. This was ornamented with jewels and the plumes were such that when the knights assembled on the battlefield nothing could equal the splendour of their costumes. Robes of bril- liant scarlet, ornaments of gold, silver, and precious stones, fine furs, the finest silks, the most costly armour, were theirs by law. Their gaily decked horses formed an inconceivable mass of splendour. Each knight was attended by his esquire and a troop of troubadours and fools decked in the most gorgeous finery. It is interesting to note that with all the huge chat- eaux, the wealth of gorgeous material, the sumptuous and luxurious ensemble of colour, pattern, and gems, domestic essentials and comforts of life were almost un- known. The rooms were large, with no ceiling but a vaulted roof. The sides were bare and decorated with armour, swords, helmets, battle-axes- and knives. Banners and tapestries were hung about, while the floor was covered thick with straw and rushes. Tables and benches were crude. Dining tables were covered with damask cloth and the place of each guest marked by a small loaf of bread covered by a napkin, a knife being sometimes placed with it. Forks were unknown, and before the twelfth century the girdle dagger was used 15 PSYCHOLOGY OF DRESS in place of a knife. The dishes consisted of wooden platters, pewter trenchers, and silver drinking vessels done in fantastic designs. One writer has said: "In the twelfth and thirteenth centuries when love was a duty, a universal thing, ladies were much more frank and open than they are now. They were all taught the apothecary's art, their duty being to nurse the wounded knight. No doubt this intercourse often led to mutual attachment, but it does not appear to have been abused by the chivalrous spirits of that romantic age." Literature was of course limited, few even of the nobles being able to read or write. It is related that Philip II on state occasions wore a wide tunic of purple silk confined at the waist by a golden girdle from which hung his sword. The neck and sleeves were tied with gold, while over his shoulders was flung a crimson mantle of silk lined with ermine. The train fell in ample folds upon the floor. On his head he wore a jewelled cap of crimson velvet, his long hair falling below his shoulders. The same authority tells us that the nobles, toward the close of the twelfth century were regally clothed. Their mantles were broader than in the preceding part of the century, their decorations were more magnificent and the stuff they wore much more gorgeous. The borders of the tunic and mantles were indented. They wore stockings with sandals of purple trimmed with gold, and they bandaged their legs. Their embroidered gloves had jewelled backs, and under the cap of velvet on their heads their hair, curled with crisping irons, hung, bound with ribbons, yet they wore beards and moustaches. 16 MEDIAEVAL EUROPE In this reign women were less extravagant. Enor- mous cuffs were dropped, sleeves were made tight, terminating at the wrist. Green was the fashionable colour and robes were lined with sendal silk instead of fur, and were embroidered. A sort of veil was wrapped about the head and bound to the forehead by a jewelled fillet. Though shoes were worn, the robe was made so long that only the toes could be seen. Particular mention is made of the costumes in the reign of Philippe le Bel (1285 to 1314). One authority says: "The costumes in the reign of Philippe le Bel were very graceful. Gentlemen, except in camps, wore long tunics and capes. Ladies wore a high tight bodice fitting the shape, and over it an open robe trimmed with gold or blue. The size of the cloak and robe, breadth of the trimming, and the number of stuffs each person was permitted to possess were regulated by law. The higher the rank, the greater the variety allowed, the larger the cloak and robe, and the broader their trim- mings. Hoods were universal, but their size and shape was not left to the caprice of their owners. The nobles wore large hoods hanging to their heels, the common people little sugar-loafed cowls." As we read these restrictions and regulations we are reminded of those devised by our Puritan New England ancestors in the seventeenth century, when the size of one's fortune and the percentage of it contributed to the church, determined the material of which his clothes might be made, as well as the kind and amount of lace permitted in their decoration. The ideals of medisevalism and the life which they inspired in France reached their highest development by 17 PSYCHOLOGY OF DRESS the end of the thirteenth century, when a gradual dis- integration set in, which by 1350 became well defined. This process was hastened by the Hundred Years' War, so that by the time France made peace, in 1453, medi- aeval ideals and practices were no longer operative. Al- ready unmistakable signs of the new order were mak- ing their appearance as they had a century or more earlier in Italy, in which country it was at this time definitely established. The last half of the fourteenth century contributed first a distinct change in military costumes. Romance, picturesqueness, and luxurious display gave place to heaviness, formality, and practicability. One writer has this to say of general conditions: "The city of Paris at this period was inferior in extent to many of the capi- tals of Europe. Only a few of the streets were paved. All were so narrow that not more than three could ride abreast in any of them, and every by-street was filled with ordure and filth which was never removed except when rain swept them into the Seine. The houses for the most part were mean wooden houses, but here and there towered amongst them some princely castle, magnificent abbey, or highly decorated church. The streets were filled with beggars of every class and con- dition." Petrarch, in writing of the fourteenth-century customs and manners of the French, says of their military life: "When you enter their company you might fancy yourself in a tavern. The soldiers are eat- ing, drinking, and revelling wholly without control. If a trumpet sounds the men obey or not just as they please, and resemble a flight of bees driven from the hive more than a disciplined army. They fight, not 18 EARLY THIRTEENTH CENTURY. FRENCH. THE QUIET BUT DIGNI- FIED ASSURANCE OF THESE EARLY THIRTEENTH CENTURY PER- SONAGES, WITH THE SIMPLE, RHYTHMIC CHARM OF THEIR COSTUME DRAPERIES, VERY NEARLY APPROACHES THE SPIRITUAL QUALITY, THROUGH AN APPEAL TO THE AESTHETIC SENSE. >H a 4, K o H g S S s. 2 - vi w o i> w m a ^ H W * AGON. ECORAG fa H tf P O ^ ^ a fa O H g fa < JH H J g W ^ P < a ^ H < SS 02 < ^ 3g x OD H , 'URY. ^EVALI fa ^ w d g P a w HH H S MEDIEVAL EUROPE for love of country, but for vanity, money, or caprice." These quotations from contemporary writers give a fairly vivid picture of the decadence of spirit, and the lack of organization and concerted action in the first decades of the decline of mediaeval idealism. The military costumes of this period were noble. A crested helmet was generally worn but in actual war- fare the visored basinet was used. A magnificent short close coat called a jupon, decorated with the arms of the wearer, and a gorgeous military belt formed the distinguishing garb of the period. By 1370 plated armour was general throughout the army, being adopted because it was of lighter weight than the chain mail armour of the preceding century. Various plate armours were designed for the limbs, feet, and arms. Leather gauntlets were worn the backs of which were covered by overlapping plates. The horse was armour covered, nothing being visible but his eyes and feet, and this armour plate was cov- ered with a housing of horse cloth gorgeously orna- mented with embroidery and sometimes precious stones. Of the following reign, that ojaiaj^eVJ1364 to 1380), Brewer writes: "We can glean from contempcfl torians and poets a pretty faithful picture of the man- ners and habits of the times. The king rose at six, attended matins at seven, dined at eleven, attended ves- pers at three, and retired to bed at sunset; and there is every reason to believe that these habits were in accord with the general habits of the day. "After matins the king gave advice. After dinner received his ministers, and after vespers devoted him- self to his family. He dined off one single dish, though 19 YCHOLOGY OF DRESS the well-to-do had three dishes for dinner. He dressed with very great simplicity in a long, dark-coloured cloak turned up with black velvet and confined around the waist by a rope girdle. Contrary to the customs of the times he wore neither sword, dagger, nor other distinc- tive marks of nobility. His only decoration was a small gold circlet of fleurs de lis around his black velvet cap." From the "Romance of the Rose" we gather much about general conditions and customs. In this poem the poet rebukes women for their arrogance and tells them that they should learn to return a salute even from subordinates. He says: "They should not scam- per about the streets nor turn around and stare." He advises against peeping into private windows and says that ladies of rank should walk orderly and se- dately, particularly in going to church. He rebukes them especially for giggling and joking at mass and adds that such of them as can read should read their prayers and those who cared to should learn them by heart. He adjures them: "To keep their nails clean, not talk loud at dinner or indulge in horse laugh, and not to grease their fingers at meals." He further tells them to wipe their lips on the tablecloth but not their noses, even if it is the custom. He says: "Never steal nor tell wilful falsehoods." Men come in for their share of advice also. The poet speaks against big boots terminating in a point like a bird's bill and pro- truding in the back like a claw. He reminds them that a man is not a bird and asks why he should attempt to resemble one. Some phases of costume seem to have changed for 20 MEDIAEVAL EUROPE the better. In the preceding quarter of the century gentlefolk had worn long robes with hoods hanging down their backs, but in this time both hood and robe were discarded, and men (particularly younger ones) wore short jackets perfectly fitting the figure; though, then as now, fashion changed from reign to reign and sometimes from season to season. Strange and grotesque fashions are quite likely to accompany or follow the perils and ravages of war. While severity and practicality dominate military changes, fantasy and grotesqueness generally influence social costumes. This period was no exception. Still further light is given us by one historian who, chron- icling the reign of Charles VII (1422 to 1461) in his de- scription of the costumes of women, says: "By far the most remarkable part of ladies' dress in this reign was their head gear which consisted of two horns like those of an ox, sometimes spread out for two feet or more on both sides of the head, sometimes towering up above it, and sometinjes branching out obliquely but in all cases supporting a veil or curtain. Other ladies wore monster mitre hats, others sugar-loaf hoods with clus- ters of hair high over against the head dress shaped like a heart, and some few large Turkish turbans with the folds puffed out." The church raved bitterly against these things and a popular preacher employed boys to chase the women in the streets, tearing off their horns and braying like an ass. The same authority says of men: "The sleeves were slashed at the shoulder and when a gentleman took a walk he tied his sleeves in a knot that he might not stumble over them. The hair was worn long. The hat was of cloth, very fantas- 21 i PSYCHOLOGY OF DRESS tic in shape, and decorated in front with a feather. The shoes were peaked extending six inches in front of the foot for common men, one foot for gentlemen, and two feet for noblemen. Trousers fitted tight and every gentleman wore a huge gold chain about his neck." Louis XI came to the throne in 1461 and died in 1483. This reign marked the culmination of the medi- aeval ideal in France. The feudalism of the tenth and eleventh centuries, the reign of chivalry in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, and the decline of the spirit of mediae valism in the fourteenth, was fol- owed by the gradual decay and death of the ideal, as mediaeval intelligence became effete, and its ideals were gradually superseded by the ideas and conceptions that had already become established facts in Italy. Feudalism and its practices in Italy had a distinctive local flavour, for in the sense of a modern state, mediaeval Italy did not exist. In the twelfth century it consisted of small towns entirely separate in their govern- ment and quite unlike in their domestic and social life. In the north there was a constant warfare between in- dividual barons, between the towns themselves, and between the empire and the church, not to mention invasions from the north and the invasion of the Saracens. This disturbed condition made anything like a crystallized social order in the tenth and eleventh centuries impossible. Mediaeval social life in Italy may be described as definitely set to religion. This was the land of the Popes, of St. Francis and St. Dominic, of Dante and of Savonarola; of the struggle of monasticism to depose the old Roman order, while it was subject to constant MEDIAEVAL EUROPE filtering influences from the East. Here also took place the greatest struggles between the early developed monastic ideals of social life and the incipient conception of temporal political and social domination, at the same time that the gradually awakening consciousness of a classic origin led to the embrace of ideals and practices of the ancients, giving birth to the new order known as the Renaissance. All this made Italy of particular interest and gave to its art a variety and a local colour quite individual. The struggle between the established order of religious monastic domination and the new temporal political and social attitude came to the front with the appearance of Federico Barbarossa in 1152. He was the exponent of the new conception of chivalry as it was then visioned in Italy. By 1167, with the founding of the "Lombard League," a more stable basis for society was established and through Henry VI (1190 to 1197) the power of the empire was shifted from Germany to Italy. With the Pope definitely assigned to spiritual domination only, the foundation for a more united Italy seemed about to be laid. Henry died in 1197, however, and the great Innocent III ascended the papal throne in 1198. His legacy to Italy was its partition between the Church and the Empire. Thus the scene was set by him for the wonderful development of social Italy in the thirteenth century. As in France so in Italy, the first and prime considera- tion of life was self preservation, consequently the design of the house and clothes had reference before everything to this requirement. A second and very important factor was the selection of only such person- 23 PSYCHOLOGY OF DRESS all things as could be easily cared for and easily moved in case of flight for safety. The increasing use of colour, fine stuffs, and other material in church ritual, with the quickened imagination of the eleventh century and the tendency toward a more stabilized condition in the twelfth century, each contributed its part toward determining the kind and quality of materials used in the social We expression. ssentially committed to a religious scenario a very decided ecclesiastic influence was naturally exerted over the style of costumes, the materials out of which they were made, and the manner in which they were worn. The nearness of Italy to the Orient, intimate relations with the Byzantine Church, and the natural love of the Latin for pageant display, also contributed something to the choice and use which distinguished mediaeval costume in Italy. That a conscious connection may exist in our minds between this particular religious monastic social ideal with its many influencing ramifications, and the social art which resulted, and that we may feel keenly the closeness of relation between the house, clothes and the ideals of We prevalent at the time, let us examine the documents relating to these matters as they appeared in the thirteenth century. Sedgwick, in his "Italyjn the Thirteenth Century," says: "The great square was the centre of town life. Upon it fronted the cathedral, the bishop's palace, the baptistery, the town hall perhaps, and the houses of eminent families. The square itself was the real home of people whom blue skies urged out of doors; it was the unroofed family room for the whole city. There 24 MEDIAEVAL EUROPE tournaments were held, candidates for knighthood exercised their hospitalites, singers, ballad-mongers, mountebanks exhibited their accomplishments, friars preached, pedlars cried their wares, heralds trumpeted and shouted their proclamations, hucksters chaffered, young men and boys played their games, trainbands drilled, the general council of citizens assembled, children romped and made mud pies; altogether, knights in armour, prelates in vestments, public messengers in red jackets, heralds on horseback, friars in corded smocks, merchants in robes, shopkeepers in leathern jackets, artisans in jerkin and hose, rich women clad in scarlet cloth, poor women in green, young women with fillets round their heads, mothers with swaddled babies on their backs, horses, mules, asses, cows, goats, chickens, dogs, cats, and pigs, with bells clanging and all the population talking at once, must have been a very gay and jolly scene. "The piazza was also a great public school. There the people met every day, bargained, haggled, disputed, discussed, listened to monks, pilgrims, or troubadours from afar, heard the news of the Pope, of the Emperor, of Ezzelino da Romano, of Bro. Elias, and argued on this side or on that. It was the debating forum, the assembly room, the outdoor club, for all the citizens. There they rubbed off the rudeness of earlier times, and acquired a quickness of wit, a readiness of speech, and an ingenuity that distinguished them broadly from the country folk. The piazza ranks with the guilds as a factor in the development of Italian civilization." In speaking particularly of clothes in the same century he says: "Fashionable women wore fine linen, 25 PSYCHOLOGY OF DRESS silks, and brocades, trinkets of silver and gold, jewellery of all sorts, trimmings and gewgaws. Their gowns were cut low in the neck, to the scandal of the austere; they wore false hair and painted and powdered to a most reprehensible degree; they laced and they fasted in order to make their figures fashionably slim." The Church discountenanced this extravagance and did what she could to stop it. Pope Gregory X., for in- stance, bade women give up pearls, ornaments of feath- ers, and gold and silver fringe, during Lent. Cardinal Latino, sent by Nicholas III as legate to Lombardy and Romagna, went still further. Brother Salimbene gives an account of his attempts at reform: "He disturbed all the women by a set of regulations that women should wear dresses only to the ground or barely a hands- breadth longer. And the legate had these regulations proclaimed in the churches and bade the women obey, under injunction that, unless they did, no priest should absolve them; and this was bitterer to the women than any death. One woman said familiarly to me, 'that her train was dearer to her than any other garment she had on.' And, besides, Cardinal Latino in the same regula- tions bade all women girls, young ladies, married women, widows, matrons, wear veils of jineji and silk, shot with a gold thread, in which they appeared ten times better-looking, and drew the eyes of those that saw them still more towards wanton thoughts." Concerning the growth of extravagance he says: "With the increase of wealth, comforts and luxuries increased, and instead of ministering only to the pleasure of a few nobles, spread to the upper mercantile class. It is hard to tell how great this increase was. 26 O E4 B B B EARLY FIFTEENTH CENTURY. FRENCH. MEDIAEVAL CHIVALRY IN SOCIAL LIFE IS HERE INTERPRETED THROUGH GOTHIC MIND, RESULTING IN A QUAINT DECORATIVE ENSEMBLE WITH ROMANTIC PERSONS AND NAIVE COSTUMES, SHOWING FASHION'S EARLY POWER MEDLEVAL EUROPE Dante, Villani, Riccobaldi of Ferrara, and Bro. Francis Pipin have left pictures of what they believed to be the simple, plain, sober, and virtuous mode of life of earlier generations." This may perhaps be taken with a grain of salt since one is likely in retrospection of this kind to find contrasts with his own times favourable to the idea which he desires to maintain. Perhaps a fairly good idea of the social setting of the castle home in the thirteenth century may be obtained from Boulting's description in his book called "Woman in Italy." "What kind of a home would the young bride be taken to? " he asks. " In the thirteenth century a maiden of rank would ride to some grim fortress, perched like an aerie high up on a mountain-spur. She would be admitted through a massive gateway, cross a courtyard with a well at its centre, and enter a great low hall, furnished with a huge table and benches covered with coarse cloth; if it were winter enormous logs would be a-blazing in the open fireplace; if night, torches would flame in their cressets and fill the room with smoke; the table might, if the castle belonged to a wealthy noble, be set with a few silver-gilt utensils holding painted candles, and there might be a few beakers of precious metal. Narrow, deep-set windows would be closed with oiled linen to keep out rain and draught, and by day a doubtful light would strive to penetrate the room. Around, storied arras would tell of Arthur and his round-table or of the great fight at Roncesvalles, or there might be strange tapestries brought from Egypt. Baked meats would be pushed through holes in the wall from the adjoining kitchen at meal times." As early as 1250 we find a Genoese artist employed in 27 PSYCHOLOGY OF DRESS that city to paint the walls of a room with red roses on a white ground and white roses on a red ground a mode of adornment probably copied from those mural paintings of Roman villas which still remain so fresh. The instinct for flowered wall coverings seems to have made its appearance early; " Art," however, only began to be generally employed in the decoration of the home in the fifteenth century and, for long, masterpieces were only to be found in churches and public buildings. Bare spaces on the walls were sometimes covered with neatly written quotations and mottoes, the hall, however, was by that time adorned with arabesques or frescoes. By the end of the thirteenth century the castle would have been modernized or rebuilt; part of the year was always spent in the city, and the country castle was only used in "villegiatura," except in Piedmont, where the nobility despised town-life. Feudal days were over and re- tainers no longer lodged hi the castle which was, there- fore, of very modest dimensions. The rude furniture of former tunes had given way to things of great ele- gance but not a whit more comfortable. We read that in 1285 a certain fine house at Bologna contained for furniture, "one coffer, one walnut wood copper pot, a wine press, a vessel for wine, a quilt, a bolster, two sheets and an alcove bed." In 1297 an inventory of the entire possessions of a man named Gabo was given to a Sienese court. There are enu- merated a barrel, a frying pan, three wine sacks, an iron tripod, a deep cooking pot, three bowls, a dish, two measures, two baskets, a pan for carrying bread, four knives, three daggers, a staff, a bow and arrows, a chequer board, two chests for papers, nine mattresses, 28 MEDIAEVAL EUROPE eight sets of books, a shaker iron, two linen cloths, two fancy quilts, two straw beds, with tripods, seven straw beds, six trays of tripods, three bolsters, one pair of linen sheets." A strange medley of furniture and furnishings for the house of a gentleman, certainly. The rapid increase of wealth, however, in the early four- teenth century was accompanied by a somewhat rising standard of comfort and luxury, particularly when feuds became less frequent, society more stabilized, and the danger of losing one's possessions by exile, theft, or arson diminished. Giovanni de' Mucci writing in 1388 says that in 1320 a cooking fire was made in the room and everybody stood around it for warmth in winter, and in 1368 the same practice obtained in Rome. Haywood tells us these fireplaces did not come into general use for a long time. The same attention to good manners seems to have been paid by the clergy of Italy as by those of France, in the fourteenth century. Fra Bonvicino in 1290 urges the wiping of the mouth with the table cloth after drinking, and suggests that "those who would be deemed well bred should not make a noise when they use a spoon in company, nor blow the nose without us- ing a cloth, or lick nor blow on the fingers, nor re- mark on the cooking of the food. Also they will wash the hands a little after each meal to take off the grease. Table napkins came into use in the fourteenth century. Boulting further tells us that: "In the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries the habits of a citizen's household were very simple, and his wife usually dispensed with the luxury of a servant r Agnello of Pisa, who could afford to pay 30,000 florins for troops to capture the 29 PSYCHOLOGY OF DRESS city for him, kept one young servant-girl only. Ser Lapo Mazzei, the notary, had none, and his wife had to mend her boy's hose, even when she was not well. In 1378 we find wealthy Francesco Rinuccini of Florence and his family of six sons, one daughter, three daughters- in-law and four grandsons four families, therefore dwelling under one roof, served by two maids, a wet nurse and a waiting maid, and a gardener, who lived out of the house with his wife and son; there were eight horses to attend to also." It seems the farms and processes of civilization were much the same in France as in Italy, but France was fully a century behind Italy in development and each had its own well defined national, or rather individual, characteristics, giving flavour and sometimes amuse- ment to the process and the results. Odom in his "History of Italian Furniture" quotes an authority writing in the time of Dante who states that: "In the last half of the thirteenth century the manners of the Italians were rude. A man and his wife ate off the same plate. The clothes of men were of leather. Scarcely any gold or silver was seen on their dress. The portions of women were small, and their dress evei^after marriage was simple." And then he continues:] "In the early fourteenth century frugality has been changed to sumptuousness. Everything ex- quisite is sought after in dress, gold, silver, pearls, silks, and rich furs." This description is confirmed by Hallam and by other testimony of nearly the same date. The conquest of Naples by Charles of Anjou in 1266 seems to have marked the beginning of a period of in- 30 MEDIAEVAL EUROPE creasing luxury throughout Italy. First, provengal knights with their plumes, helmets, and golden collars; their chariots, the furnishings of which were covered with blue velvet and sprinkled with lilies of gold, aston- ished the citizens of Naples. Provence had enjoyed a long tranquillity, the natural source of luxurious mag- nificence, and Italy, now liberated from the yoke of her enemies, soon reaped the harvest of a condition easier and more peaceful than had been her lot for several centuries. xtravagance became so universal and the railings of the church against inordinate display so vociferous, that certain statutes, called Sumptuary Laws, were passed to curb the ostentatious display of the newly richT^These laws, partly clerical and partly secular, unitedTto make all comfort as well as luxury odious in the eyes of the world. France and England during the fourteenth century extended these laws to the table as well as to apparel. Hallam writes that sumptuary laws in France were as old as Charlemagne and that "these attempts to restrain what cannot be restrained continued even down to 1700." We might add they have continued ever since in one form or another, under the name of radical propaganda, welfare work, social uplift, and the like, each and all of which seem to be about as success- ful in regulating human emotional display as were their forerunners, the Sumptuary Laws, early in the four- teenth century. Mediaeval France was the cradle of civilization as it was expressed in terms of the polite amenities of life. Here it was that the social system of Chivalry flourished in its finest form, and bred the courteous manners and 31 PSYCHOLOGY OF DRESS attention to details of etiquette which became a part of French consciousness in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, and which, despite the vicissitudes of the centuries following, never lost their place in what we know as the French mind expressed in social life. How civilized nations have since sought to imitate the French social ideals needs simply to be recalled. [i^^Sppearance was the important thing, involving ro- mance and even luxury as they appealed to the senses, comfort being secondary. It was not until the eighteenth century that there seemed to be an awakening to the possibilites of the house as a place to live in, and even then from the Anglo-Saxon point of view it lacked much in this regard. Mediaeval Italy, too, true to its Roman traditions, particularly in the central part and the south, conceived the house first as a fortress, then a monument, and later as a ponderous setting for the spectacular per- formance of the necessary duties attendant upon semi- public life, rather than as a comfortable, useful, domestic environment, in which to develop the home life ideal. This ideal was England's contribution to civilization and it was the function of the English mediaeval mind to organize it and establish an order that is yet operative and that still constitutes, the backbone of the Anglo- Saxon social order as we know it. This must not be understood as minimizing in the slightest degree the home ideals of either France or Italy, but rather as pointing out how they differ from those of England, and how this difference affected the development of the house as a stage for the play of 32 MEDIEVAL EUROPE social life, and in turn reacted on the costumes of the time, necessary for staging the play successfully. In contrasting the point of view in France from that of England in the twelfth century it is interesting to study the conditions of the institution of Chivalry in the reign of Stephen about the middle of the century. Turner in his history of England in the Middle Ages quotes John of Salisbury on the qualifications and training of a knight in Chivalry, as follows: "They must learn from the beginning to labour alone, carry weights, and bear the sun and dust; to use sparing and rustic food, and live in the open air, and sometimes in tents, and thus to practice to use of arms." A different picture surely from that of the training for knighthood in France; and he helps us to see why England was slow to accept the gentle arts of politeness and courtesy, and why the costumes of the English people were, like their manners, made of sterner stuff in a more practical style and less charming in detail. Where these gentle arts appeared in social life they were modified greatly by the changed attitude of the people toward religion, politics, and the social system. Perhaps it is only fair at this point to quote what one writer has said in regard to the tendency toward effeminacy in knighthood during the reign of Henry II, at which time he says this order was beginning to degenerate. In his criticism he says: "The true merit of a knight is to fight well, to conduct a troop well, to do his excercise well, to be well armed, to ride his horse well, to present himself with good grace at court, and to render himself agreeable," and he adds, "Seldom are all these qualities united." This seems quite in keeping 33 PSYCHOLOGY OF DRESS when we consider that the courteous elegancies of social life at court would not be compatible with a people in a half civilized state leading a strict and vigor- ous life. In contrasting this standard of true merit with the state of things after this effeminate tendency became manifest, he writes: "Some say that military glory consists in this, that they shine in elegant dress, that they make their clothes tight to their bodies, and so bind on their linen or silken garments as to seem a skin colour like their flesh. If they are sitting softly on their ambling horses they think themselves so many Apollos, but if you make an army of them you will have a com- pany of Thais not of Hannibal. Each is politest in the banquet hall but in the battle everyone desires to be the last. When they return home without a scar they sing triumphantly of their battles and boast of the thousand deaths that were in their temples face. They have the first place at supper, they feast every day splendidly but shun exercises like a dog." The Norman Conquest found England, in 1066, a land of rugged, unprepared, domestic, half-civilized people committed to the soil, satisfied in their prospects of life and happiness, but undeveloped, as a natural result of their isolation. They were a gentle, simple people, essentially do- mestic in their ideals and particularly devoted to isolated family life. In the eleventh and twelfth centuries the homes of the masses were generally built of wood, in a crude style. The manor house was little better, but these and nobler dwellings were entirely unfortified, and so bespoke respect for a man's right to life and goods, not found elsewhere. The essential ele- 34 EARLY FOURTEENTH CENTURY. ITALIAN. MEDIAE- VAL SPIRITUAL SYMBOLISM EXPRESSED THROUGH MOTHER AND CHILI). COSTUMES CONCEIVED IN THE SAME CONSCIOUS SPIRIT, WITH NATIVE FEELING FOR DECORATIVE DESIGN ALSO OI'KK ATI VE. MEDIAEVAL EUROPE ment is the Anglo-Saxon attitude to his domestic life, and the rights of his neighbour to enjoy the same. The story of the change wrought in a century need not be recounted, but the effect of the new ideals was manifest in the cold, dismal, forbidding stone castle which became the home of the newly established barons; in the gradual separation of the classes as their life in the castle, in the manor house, in the cottage, or in the hut became established facts and determined the character of the material in which the life of mediaeval England was to be set, dictating largely what the cos- tumes should be in this new social experience. Sparrow, in his new book, "The English House," writes: "Of course an Anglo-Saxon * house-place' had its own shortcomings; it looked unkempt like peasant cottages as late as the fourteenth century, but it was a home in which yeomen and peasants evolved their own ideals, and from which they would not budge. Even in towns, where efforts were made to restrain them, people kept resolutely to the slow development of old wooden sheds and halls; and it is also worth noting that timberwork of the twelfth century appears to have been in essentials what it was a hundred years later, during the long reign of Henry III. "A yeoman's sleeping-room under the thatched roof was entered by a ladder, or rude staircase, as a rule in- side the hall; but sometimes it may have been put out- side, and protected from the wet by a timber awning. The furniture was very simple a few benches and a chest or two, some wooden platters, and a tripod for cooking purposes. The walls seem to have been coloured with archil and whitewash, and along them on 35 PSYCHOLOGY OF DRESS wooden pegs some farm implements dangled. The floor was littered with dirty grass and rushes, a bacon-rack swung from the roof -beams, a fire crackled on a hob of clay at some distance from the fragile walls, and wood and peat smoke disinfected an atmosphere which was ever tain ted, and drove away some of the innumerable vermin. Chimneys were unknown, except in castles and in manor- houses." He also relates that clothing was usually home-made and not thick enough to keep out the cold. In studying the English type we need to consider how early and in what way, as compared with other European countries, the people began to recognize the necessity for comfort and convenience. In 1189 a set of building rules, known as the "Assize" was compiled, a remote forerunner of the building laws of our day. Among other things it provided that a stone wall of a certain thickness be built between adjacent houses on the city street, and it must be of a prescribed height; the drainage on either side was also regulated. In 1212 ordinances were passed prescribing the kind of roofs houses might have, and with what they should be covered. Wages were fixed by law and city officials might destroy the houses of those who failed to provide against fire or neglected the sanitary laws. Consider, if you will, this view of the Anglo-Saxon mind and compare it with what seemed to be the es- sential character of the French or Italian ideals of the same century. It is easy to see how different the re- sults of their efforts would be, expressed in terms of art. On the other hand, into this Anglo-Saxon ideal was poured that of the Norman baron of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, whose idea of a house was a de- 36 MEDIAEVAL EUROPE fence monument built to his strength and glory. His ideal differed from that of Italy in that defence was his first thought, and so his monument meant strength and an impregnable retreat built to awe by its appear- ance, while in Italy the aesthetic side of the monument, even in the thirteenth century, was as important, and more so, than the defence aspect; for the Italian, never losing consciousness of his Roman heritage aimed, in building, at beauty and grandeur as well as utility. "A Norman castle was the negation of comfort and convenience," writes Sparrow, and he adds: "There is something cowardly and ignoble in the look of a feudal castle, something that invites contempt, because the very men who called themselves warriors, and who from the age of seven were taught to be brave as soldiers, were yet so afraid to be killed that they feared to let in the light of day to their rooms, lest arrows should enter by the same windows as the necessary sun. Near the ground windows were forbidden, and those high up the walls were little better than the slits that venti- lated barns and kept hay from sweating itself into a fever. Indoors, where a fitful dusk lasted all day long from dawn to sunset, the seneschal lived on the second and third stories, always distressed by bad ventilation. Between him and the outside air was a wall from twelve to fourteen feet in thickness, a thing most wonderfully at odds with any danger which could threaten it during a time of siege." Not a pleasant picture of domestic comfort or happiness surely, and in no way akin to the idea of the Saxon. The rooms were so few in number and the conven- iences for keeping clothes so limited that luxury, except 37 PSYCHOLOGY OF DRESS as it related to military display, found little place in thirteenth century costumes. We are told of coarse, woollen cloth used in the habits of the middle classes, and even the barons did not scorn to wear it. Heavy velvets brought from the East and a heavy silk damask, partic- ularly in green with gold, are frequently mentioned in de- scriptions of the great ladies of the thirteenth century. In considering the costumes we must remember the vigorous climate of England and what that meant in the development of mediaeval art. It was not until well past the middle of the fourteenth century that fireplaces with chimneys came into general use, even among the barons. In mediaeval days the fire was made in the centre of the great hall. By it the family warmed themselves, upon it food was cooked; and al- though there was a flue in the roof constructed so that the smoke might escape, much of it was forced to remain in the room, which, one writer assures us, "was ruinous to the clothes of the fair sex who even in these days desired to wear clothes made of fine stuffs like velvet, which was not compatible with the conditions pro- duced by the fire smoke and vermin." No less insistent, it seems, were the vanities, among mediaeval ladies, however, than among their more mod- ern sisters, but the road to their satisfaction was a bit more difficult in the earlier period. The clergy led the satirists and purists in an onslaught against the up- rising of primitive instincts, against this "vanity of soul," but even they had their own trials among their immediate families, for we find St. Bernard thus be- rating his sister, who was paying him a friendly visit, arrayed in "richest clothing with pearls and precious 38 MEDIAEVAL EUROPE stones." "Suster, yet ye love youre bodi by reson ye shuid beter love youre soule : wene ye not that ye dis- please God and his aungels to see in you suche pompe and pride to adorn suche a carion as is youre body. . . . Whi thenke ye not that the pore peple that deyen for hungir and colde, that for the sixte part of youre gay arraye XI persones might be clothed, re- freshed, and kepte from the colde?" St. Edith, daughter of King Edgar, evidently less meek than her sisters, when upbraided by her brother for her "sin of pride" stingingly replied: "God's doom, that may not fail, is pleased only with conscience. Therefore I trow that as clean a soul may be under those clothes that are arrayed with gold as under thy slight fur-skins." During the long reign of Henry III (1217 to 1272) much was done for domestic environment, although progress seems to have been stayed by his death. He consulted with Italian architects, thus tending to ele- vate taste in architecture, and he may be termed the first real patron of art in England as it related to such domestic expression as the house and costume. In the first place he was passionately fond of colour and through his example brought into England's cold and cheerless climate a healthy and more exhilarating at- mosphere. He loved polychrome effects, particularly gold with green, and gold stars on purple. The Tower of London cast a gloom upon him so he ordered that the walls of the queen's chamber should be painted with flowers. This clue is important in tracing the beginning of frescoed walls in England, and the feminine touch in decoration as it was afterward expressed in the house. 39 PSYCHOLOGY OF DRESS England was swarming with Italian priests who were steeped in polychrome and who sought a chance to make money and achieve fame by distributing colour decorations which soon became fashionable and readily found their way into the permanent household posses- sions of the lords. Panelled rooms came into vogue and painted friezes were a part of the decoration, mostly religious in significance, although occasionally showing traces of Greek and Roman influence, probably intro- duced unconsciously for the most part. Amidst all this we remember, however, that the floors were still of earth or stone, that "rushes and reeds and green fodder covered the floors, that bones and other refuse was daily mixed with the rushes, and that it was not till the fifteenth century that carpets of any kind became well known." Naturally woollen cloth was the most suitable for general use in mediaeval England and she, with her ever-present commercial foresight, showed her appre- ciation of this fact. "The thirteenth century writer," says Hallam, in his "State of Europe," "asserts that all the world was clothed from English wool wrought in Flanders." One historian avers that mediaeval lords and ladies put little money on their floors, but much more upon their backs, and then goes on to tell how the heavy woollen robes gave place to velvet ones, the sleeves sometimes lined with silk, sometimes with fur, while in some cases they were embroidered with jewels. The church attacked this "vain and inglorious thing" but among the laymen lavishness was said to threaten ruin to the finances of those whose wives were committing these extravagances. 40 MEDIAEVAL EUROPE At the end of the thirteenth century in England we find that the knights, clothed always in heavy armour during the day, discarded their burden at night and put on a loose robe of cloth (generally of wool). In bad weather or when it was very cold a loose coat was worn over this, which reached to the waist and was made with loose sleeves and a big hood. This also was of coarse cloth as a rule but in a few cases "an imported stuff from the East" was seen. Out of doors they wore a soft hat, and their shoes were long and peaked. We read of women who followed this ideal of com- fort an undergo wn, very long, full and loose at the waist had sleeves which were tight, and buttoned from the elbow to the wrist. The upper, or outer gown was fastened in the back, fitting the figure roughly, and the train was very long. Around the throat was worn a white linen cloth called a gorget, which was pulled up at the sides and attached to wads of hair over each ear; a protection from the cold, perhaps, but an ugly ar- rangement, not in line with the comfort we read that they sought in their fashions. An interesting example ,of the costume of this time is seen in the effigy of Queen Eleanor which is in Westminster Abbey. The women, all in loose tunics and gowns, loose coaTs, hoods and wimples, brightly coloured and homely, made a background on pageant days for the few excep- tions to the general plainness, for at Kenilworth we hear of one hundred lords and ladies, everyone clothed in silk, seated at the table at once, though geographical conditions, the mental attitude of domesticity, the war- like strain of chivalry and many other contributing causes prevented the development in England of cos- 41 PSYCHOLOGY OF DRESS tumes as gorgeous as those found almost commonly in France and Italy. There seems to have been very little commerce be- tween England and southern Europe or the East until the early part of the fourteenth century, although Italy began to make silk at Palermo in 1148. This accounts in part for the lack of velvet and other fine stuffs in ear- lier centuries with the exception of the little that found its way through the crusaders and through small pri- vate enterprise. Hallam says that "throughout the fourteenth century there continued to be a rapid but steady progress in England of what we may denominate elegance, im- provement, or luxury, just before the breaking of the English wars." He states that an expanding fondness for dress was not confined to the higher ranks of the burghers, whose foolish emulations at least indicated their circumstances; then he calls attention to the fact that "dress does not deserve his particular account, but it does show the universal prevalence of great wealth widely diffused," and he begs us to remember the in- vectives bestowed by the clergy on the fantastic ex- travagance of fashion. Verily people are always the same, with the same impulses, the same vanities, the same hypocricies and the same absurdities. The mediaeval woman fared no better and probably did no worse than her sister of to-day, individual manifesta- tions in costume were a little different, that is all. We read of a knight, near the end of the fourteenth century, attempting to discourage his daughters from the "superfluity of dress" by telling them of another knight who went to a certain hermit-saint to ascertain 42 MID-FOURTEENTH CENTURY. ITALIAN. A SPIRITUAL CONCEPT CLOTHED AND SET WITH GOTHIC TASTE, IN WHICH THE ROYAL IDEA OF DIVINE MATERNITY IS A FEATURE OF THE ILLUSTRA- TION, INSTEAD OF THE POVERTY OF THE MANGER. MEDIAEVAL EUROPE if the soul of his wife, who had recently died, was surely saved. ' The hermit, after many prayers, dreamed that he saw Seint Michelle & the develle that had her in a balaunce, & alle her good dedes in the same balaunce, & a develle & alle her evelle dedes in that other bal- aunce. & the most that grevid her was her good & gay clothing, & furres of gray menivere & letuse; & the develle cried & saide, Seint Michelle, this woman had tenne diverse gownes & as mani cotes; & thou wost welle lesse myghte have suffised her after the lawe of God; . . . & he toke all her juellys & rynges. . . . & caste hem in the balaunce with her evelle dedes. The evelle dedes passed the good, & weyed downe & over- came her good dedes. & there the develle toke her, & bare her away, & putte her clothes & aray brennyng in the flawme on her with the fire of helle, & kist her doune into the pitte of helle; ... & the pore soul cried, & made moche sorughe & pite . . . but it boted not." By 1325 the men had dropped their loose garments and we find them in " cotehardies," something very like a vest, made of silk. The hood was lengthened to a peak touching the ground and fashion busied herself trying to invent new ways to wind this about the head and body in a decorative way. About this time appeared the mode of dividing the body in halves vertically by using entirely different colours; belts also came into general use and hats were trimmed with fur. While the men made all these changes we learn that there was practically no alteration in the costumes of women. There were three parts to the dress: an 43 PSYCHOLOGY OF DRESS under-gown, loose and made with a very long train; a short over-dress, to the knees, had short wide sleeves and was full skirted; thrown over all this was a kind of surcoat, like a man's, with cut out holes for the arms. On the head was worn a wimple and about the neck a gorget. It is curious that for half a century Dame Fashion seems to have played with the fancies of these austere male "barbarians" and left the ladies uncor- rupted, for toward the end of the century we see men still following the general vogue. " Nearly every man," we read, "is alike in one respect, is clean shaven, with long hair to his neck, curled at his ears and on the fore- head. Round the hips of every man is a leather belt from which hangs a purse." The knights of this time are described as all wearing parti-coloured clothes, striped vertically, horizontally, and diagonally, and all in velvet, silk, and woollen stuffs. Finally the women fell, for in 1400 we find this de- scription: "If ever women were led by the nose by the demon fashion it was at this time. Not only were their clothes ill-suited to them, but they abused their crowning glory, their hair." Evidently the gay knight kept the lead, however, for at the end of the first quarter of the fifteenth century the same authority writes: "Still, among all these gen- tlemen, clothed, as it were secondhand, we have the fine fellow, the dandy he to whom dress is a religion, to whom stuffs are sonnets, cuts are lyrical, and tailors are the poets of their age. Such a man will have his tunic neatly pleated, rejecting the chance folds of the easy -fitting houppelande, the folds of which were deter- mined by the buckling of the belt. His folds will be 44 MEDIEVAL EUROPE regular and precise, his collar will be very stiff, with a rolled top; his shoes will match his hose, and be of two colours; his turban hat will be cocked at a jaunty angle; his sleeves will be of a monstrous length and width. He will hang a chain about his neck, and load his fingers with rings. A fellow to him, one of his own kidney, will wear the skirt of his tunic a little longer, and will cause it to be cut up the middle; his sleeves will not be pendant, like drooping wings, but will be swollen like full-blown bagpipes. An inner sleeve, very finely em- broidered, will peep under the upper cuff. His collar is cropped in the new manner, like a priest's without a tonsure; his hat is of the queer sugar-bag shape, and it flops in a drowsy elegance over the stuffed brim. As for his shoes, they are two fingers long beyond his toes." After all, even in England, fundamental human impulses seem to have been active; the same vanities and illusions abounded, while the male sex appears to have been first to show pride in brilliant plumage, and to have succeeded in exploiting it/ the only difference between this phase of costume expression and that of Italy and France being due to the quality of the aes- thetic sense, the materials attainable, geographic position and restricted cultural development. / In writing of mediaeval Europe one historian de- clares that "No other country [speaking of Italy] could exhibit so fair a picture of middle life. In France the burghers and even the inferior gentry were in a state of poverty at this period, which they concealed by an affectation of ornament leading to display. Our Eng- lish yeomanry and tradesmen were more anxious to in- vigorate their bodies by a generous diet than to dwell 45 PSYCHOLOGY OF DRESS in well-furnished houses or to find comfort in cleanliness or elegance." And this as late as 1400. From such accounts it would appear that Italy, "fair and brilliant " to the end, even in the mediaeval period developed a somewhat democratic attitude to the arts, which a century later had so affected the thoughts and lives of the people that it was said that "no ugly thing was created even in the humblest form or of the coarsest material." It seems also that France, torn by war and discour- aged with domestic problems, was true to form and sought to convey the impression of decorative appear- ance whatever the conditions might be under the surface, while England saw as clearly as ever the part played by good diet, and was no less cognizant of the presence of the material body and the necessity that it be well made, than she is now or ever has been. By 1400 the hour of mediaeval life had struck, and consequently of mediaeval art. Its shadow lingered for near a century in the west but the expression was abnormal, for it was insincere. The spirit was dead and the body, robbed of its soul, refused to function and began slowly to crumble away. In Italy a new soul was already born, and a new body quickly made its appearance. Into France and into England this new spirit gradually made its way in the last half of the century and, raising its voice amidst the ruin of Europe's mediaeval ideals, bade the people awake to hear the message of a new order and to create anew in its image and likeness. This struggle of the new spirit for recognition, appreciation, and expression is the history of the Renaissance. 46 CHAPTER TWO THE RENAISSANCE IN ITALY IF Medievalism was an institution the Renaissance was certainly no less one. In truth i\ was more in the nature of its elements and in the complexity of its ap- plication that it differed from the system that it dis- placed, than it was in its general aims or its function. It had its own beliefs, ideals, and practices, its own particular focal thought around which the life of the period was built, and out of this grew an art expression which may justly be called the beginning of modern art, as the institution itself was the beginning of mod- ern civilization. / Medievalism was dead at the dawn of the fourteenth century; its ideals were shattered, its practices out- grown, and its spontaneous expression no longer possi- ble, yet its shadow has always hung over and about the haunts of its birth and the environment wherein it was manifest. The surrender of its power to the ever- progressing tide of human evolution was slow and hesi- tating. Its ideals, which have become an integral part of the consciousness of European We, will never be altogether lost although they are, more and more, becoming relegated to our subconsciousness. While they do, and always will, colour to some degree the quality of our thought, they are no longer susceptible 47 PSYCHOLOGY OF DRESS of complete focalization and therefore are incapable of a complete expression. It was in Italy that the Renaissance was born, nur- tured, developed, and perfected. Here it was indigenous and here it produced first and most rapidly its fullest expression; here also its decline and decay may be most fully comprehended. The reason for this will appear more clearly as we attempt very briefly to outline what the Renaissance was and why it was, leading to an ap- preciation of some of its most important accomplish- ments. Perhaps it would be well to try to sense anew the nature and meaning of this new form of experience in order the better to comprehend its power, its scope, and its manifestation in the material world. To do this necessitates our recalling once more the origin of the Renaissance and what each of its component ele- ments really sought to express. First we must anew see clearly .the essence of mediaeval mind, its ideal of religious domination, in which the spirit soughllo control and finally to eliminate the body, through mortification and discipline; its over- wrought imaginings, its artistic triumphs, and its system of honour, military control, and social intercourse. A life completely set to religion was the ideal of mediaeval consciousness and its attainment was sought through a determination to destroy the desire for, and delight in, material things, particularly as these things constituted a response to the appetites. This was the atmosphere, or rather the sieve, through which the second element of the Renaissance was to pass as it merged into the new order. 48 THE RENAISSANCE IN ITALY The second element we know as Classicism, which embodied the ideals and practices of the ancients. Of this we have spoken in Chapter I and need only recall how entirely different was its spirit, which sought the elevation and perfection of human life through the conception of natural beauty. Life was built around this idea, which regulated the appetites, amusements, and Me work, all to one end. Greek art was the result, and Roman art its practical application to the great political social system which still lacked the spiritual consciousness developed by medisevalism. The third eleinentwas the conscious acceptance of the appetites as something to be satisfied, at first legiti- mately, but finally, as they grew in importance in the Renaissance mind, furnishing the dominating impulse in life's endeavours, and determining its destiny. This third element may be called, in the broadest sense, Humanism, which involves the recognition of human rights and possibilities as opposed to spiritual domina- tion. These three ideals may be briefly described as the classic or aesthetic, the mediaeval or spiritual, and the humanistic, or the sensuous and material. The Renaissance then, was the rebirth of classic ideals and practices filtered through a mediaeval Gothic mind with the constantly growing urge of the redis- covered and liberated sense appetites which claimed more and more attention and satisfaction until the Baroque was reached and exploited. The gradual development and maturity of this idea is the history of the social art expression of this period. "The spirit of chivalry left behind it a more valuable successor. The character of knight gradually subsided 49 PSYCHOLOGY OF DRESS in that of gentleman ; and the one distinguishes European society in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries as much as the other did in the preceding ages," writes Hal- lam. How the old ideal was gradually merged in the new and how the leaven of humanism slowly made itself felt at first, and finally became the absorbing interest in life, with the decline and decay that always follows the abso- lute surrender of reason and restraint to the appetites and materialism, is well summed up by him in the following description: "A jealous sense of honour less romantic but equally elevated, a ceremonious gallantry and politeness, a strictness in devotional observances, a high pride of birth and feeling of dependence upon any sovereign for the dignity it gave, a sympathy for martial honour though more subdued by civil habits." This is followed by the comment: : 'Time has effaced much of this gentlemanly as it did before the chivalrous character from the latter part of the seventeenth century, its figure and beauty have undergone a tacit decay and yielded perhaps in every country of increas- ing commercial wealth more diffused instruction, the spirit of general liberty in some, of servile obsequious- ness in others, the modes of life in great cities and the levelling custom of social intercourse." Little art was produced in the fourteenth century that was not religious, a notable exception being the costumes, which very early felt the influence of the decline in religious fervour and responded quickly. In the fifteenth century art was chiefly religious in its con- ception, but its spirit often betrayed the growth of the humanistic idea, which became more and more em- phasized in the minds of the people and appeared in an 50 II THE RENAISSANCE IN ITALY altered phase of art, particularly as it was expressed in the house, in the inventions of fashion and as it related to costumes and personal ornamentation. A contemporary writer tells us that the decrease of severe religious convictions was accompanied by laxity of morals, so it is not surprising that ladies of doubtful reputation but great beauty were selected by artists as models for Madonnas and other religious pictures. This in part accounts for the growing tendency in the fifteenth century to portray female saints arrayed in all ( the gorgeous trappings of the most noble ladies and the most notorious courtesans of the time, and it also ac- counts in part, at least, for the mixed ecclesiastic and secular modes appearing in the clothes represented in Renaissance painting in the early decades of the century. Except in a complete treatment of this subject it is not safe to attempt a division of the period into any- thing but centuries, and even then one epoch overlaps another in its development, and one ideal fades into another in such a way that classification is difficult, if not impossible. All that we can do is to fall back upon the time-worn practice of saying: "it depends upon the point of view." The architect loves to date the Renaissance from Brunelleschi (1379 to 1446) or from his dome on the cathedral of Florence; on the other hand the sculptor talks of Pisano and his work at Pisa and Siena; while the painter sees the Renaissance idea, in embryo at least, in the works of Cimabue, Giotto, and Orcagna. Literary men regard the decay of the Eastern, empire and the migration to Italy of Greek scholars with their old manuscripts and models as marking the birth of the 51 PSYCHOLOGY OF DRESS Renaissance; but no one of these views can satisfy us if we are to think broadly of the ideal to be expressed, how this ideal was formulated and how it was externalized in material social form. We shall therefore not attempt a chronological arrangement or try to fix exact dates as to what is generally known as the early and the high Renaissance and its period of decline, but shall think in terms of Renaissance elements: the Early, in which the Gothic ecclesiastic spirit is in the ascendency; the High, with the noble, grand, and slightly autocratic social ideal dominating the ecclesiastic; and the De- cline, which sought by an inordinately grandiose and sumptuous luxuriousness to thrill and satisfy the already satiated senses. The culmination of this last "is known as the Baroque, which had its climax at Venice and in Rome. Social lite during the Renaissance was centred around the house instead of the church. . At first the gloomy barrack castles were refurnished or more completely furnished, as the growth of humanistic ideas created a desire for greater and wider practices of the social arts, with a growing admiration for luxury and display. After 1450, however, noble palaces arose in Florence, in the sixteenth century in Rome, and later in Venice, while the feudal castles at Ferrara, Milan, Mantua, and Urbino were either added to, or new and more comfortable buildings were erected in their places. Boulting describes general conditions in these terms: "Need we describe the noble elevation of the palaces that arose during the Renaissance; how powerful yet how light they looked; or the glowing harmony of 52 THE RENAISSANCE IN ITALY delicate colour set off by gold, within doors, every room different from all the others, and full of invention? The furniture, never too crowded, was nobly carved, the sideboards supported plate exquisitely graven; elegant lamps hung from the ceiling or sprang in beauti- ful curves from the walls; priceless books were gathered together in the library. There were great shining copper vessels to cool the wines; musical instruments lay about; there was profusion of glass and majolica and, here and there, quiet altars of delicate workmanship. Lace was used for the adornment of wondrous bedsteads before it became an article of personal dress. Great importance was attached to the occupation of a bed as splendid as it was unwholesome and funereally solemn. When Giovanni Andrea d'Oria received the Duchess of Loreno in 1579 he provided for her use an elaborately carved bed adorned with the richest gold fringe. From the end of the fifteenth century leather hangings were often used instead of arras and tapestries; they were originally an Italian product, though Spaniards and French learned the art of making them. Great ladies Sat on uncomfortable sofas or great stiff chairs with armorial bearings and a shelter for the head." Crowds of servants replaced the feudal retainers. Renee of Ferrara had, of her own separate household in 1529, four secretaries, a chief lady and seven maids of honour, an almoner, two choristers, six maids of the bedchamber, six equerries, doctors, and altogether, about two hundred attendants and servants. The greatest artists were employed in painting the walls in fresco, in designing the furniture, and in modelling pieces of plate. In the sixteenth century Michael 53 PSYCHOLOGY OF DRESS Angelo did not disdain to bestow his genius on a salt' cellar. Sansovini, who wrote near the end of the sixteenth century, tells us he is unable to describe the richness of the interior of the Venetian palaces. Another writer declares that one is utterly dumbfounded at the in- teriors, which are filled with beautiful pictures, sculp- tures, ornaments, tapestries, gold, silver, and other precious adornments, so that if he attempted to tell about them all men would call him a liar. The costumes of the first three quarters of the fifteenth century show admirably how strongly in- trenched was the ecclesiastic influence that constituted mediaeval idealism, as indeed do some of the frescoes of even the last quarter of the century. So long as the painter's craft was mainly employed in the decoration of churches or other ecclesiastical buildings the spirit of the early ideal influenced immensely the costumes of the figures portrayed and these in turn reacted on the fashions exploited in the social world. Even Angelico, Masaccio, Orcagna, Fabriano, Gozzoli, and the elder Lippi illustrate this spirit, while old documents show the same trend of thought in secular life. Just as soon, however, as social life assumed more im- portance than religious idealism a change took place and by 1500 clothes for saints conceived according to a spiritual ideal were a thing of the past, for instead of saints being regarded as models for fine ladies and others, fine ladies and others became models for saints, until even saints were dressed as women saw fit to dictate. The most interesting psychological process of this epoch is found in the complete change in the 54 THE RENAISSANCE IN ITALY general appearance and in the costumes of the female saints, as humanism displaced medievalism and the surrender of humanism to sense appetite took place. Old pictures from 1400 to 1475 furnish the finest costume documents of that period, while those of the next century are the most illuminating as to the psychological change, for the type which they represent is that of the real woman instead of the ideal one, the great lady or the most notorious courtesan being substituted for the imaginary saint. As wealth increased and human requirements became more important, lavishness of display in art extended to the most natural family functions and events. Eleo- nora of Aragon, wife of Ercole I. of Ferrara, in 1474 ordered for the cradle four woollen mattresses and a bolster, all to be covered with azure blue taffeta, white damask hangings and a silk coverlet of white damask lined with taffeta. At the birth of the young prince, son of Lodovico Sforza and Beatrice d'Este, in 1493, a maid of honour writes this most wonderful account of the event and its setting: "On the eve of the young prince's birth, the sump- tuous cradle and layette prepared for his reception were shown to the Ambassadors, chief magistrates, and nobles of Milan, and displayed on tables covered with gold and crimson brocade, lined with Spanish cat, in the Sala del Tesoro, adjoining Beatrice's rooms. All through the next fortnight costly gifts for the young duchess and her new-born babe were received from the magistrates of Milan and the chief towns of the duchy, and principal courtiers. On Sunday, the 4th of February, the 55 PSYCHOLOGY OF DRESS ambassadors, councillors, magistrates, and court offi- cials, together with many noble Milanese ladies were invited to present their congratulations to Beatrice, and that evening the gifts presented to her were publicly displayed in the Sala del Tesoro. The doors of the shelves along the walls were thrown open, and the splendid gold and silver plate, the massive jars, bowls, vases, and dishes, which they contained, were ranged in tiers on a stand, protected by iron bars and guarded by two men-at-arrns wearing ducal liveries. "There they were received by stewards clad in silver brocade, who led them through a suite of rooms adorned with gilded columns and hung with white damask curtains richly embroidered with equestrian figures and other Sforzesque devices, into the presence of the duchess. This chamber was still more richly decorated than the others. "Indeed, it is calculated," writes the admiring maid of honour, "the tapestries and hangings here are worth 70,000 ducats. Two pages guarded the doors, and within, near the fireplace, Duchess Leonora sat at her daughter's bedside, accompanied by two or three ladies. Beatrice's own couch was gorgeously adorned with draperies of mulberrry colour and gold, and a crimson canopy bearing the names of Lodovico and Beatrice in massive gold, with red and white rosettes and a fringe of golden balls which alone was valued at 8,000 ducats." Another document relates that when a Milanese priest was visiting Venice at the end of the fifteenth century, he was invited to call upon a lady, the mother of a young child, and that there were in the chamber at the time twenty-five damsels each more beautiful than 56 THE RENAISSANCE IN ITALY the other. They showed not above four or six fingers, breadth of naked flesh below the shoulder, in front and behind. The bed must have cost 500 ducats, while the jewels of the visitors cost 29 times that sum, and he remarks that "all of their faces were very well painted." It seems that function had no more relation with fitness then than now, and that if no occasion for display presented itself the ladies of the Renaissance could make one to order. Up to the late decades of the fifteenth century travel from one place to another was uniformly on horseback, excepting that occasionally a litter was used for very highborn ladies. Caterina Sforza in 1495 is found riding in a sort of carriage, but it was in 1509 that Cardinal Ippolito d'Este brought from Hungary the first cumbrous coach, while by the end of the first quarter of the sixteenth century we read that in the broad, well-paved streets of Milan "there are so many superb carriages ornamented with the finest gilding and carved so richly, drawn by four magnificent horses (some had three or four horses, and an incredible number had two, all with the richest coverings of silk and gold prinking of various designs) so that when the ladies take the air in the country it is like a Roman triumph." The climax of the Renaissance was reached about 1500, and for the following three decades its luxury, grandeur, and magnificence had no parallel, certainly since the height of the Roman Empire, perhaps not even then. Humanism, which was but a feeling, evident only in spots during the fourteenth century, grew and blossomed into an orderly institution in the fifteenth 57 PSYCHOLOGY OF DRESS century. The period of the ecclesiastical setting had passed, the church itself embraced the humanistic ideal and by 1500 was furnishing some of the greatest humanists from its clergy, and even among its popes. While the change of mental attitude was gradual, it was none the less complete. The distinct mediaeval flavour that permeated the art of the earliest Renaissance was slowly becoming little more than a vapour of suggestion and was finally practically lost. The worship of the ancients too, was growing, with more and more enthusiasm. Study of them and their works fostered the spirit of culture and increased the spread of learning everywhere, which had the effect of influencing, though not entirely dominating, the art of the High Renaissance. Living for the sake of life itself, as expressed in material things, became the criterion. With it came the surrender to the appetites through the senses, which by 1600 may be said to have been complete, after which came the decline and resulting decay. By far the most important part of the period to us is the High Renaissance, when humanistic ideas became supreme, while the Gothic spirit hovered near, soft- ening it and giving it soul, and while the pure form ideals of the ancients provided restraint with grandeur, gave sincerity to luxury and consistency to magnifi- cence. It was this epoch that produced Bramante, Peruzzi, Michael Angelo, Leonardo, and Raphael, with the host of artist craftsmen who created ceaselessly and joyously for such great patrons of art as Lorenzo the Magnificent and others at Florence; for the dukes of Urbino, Ferrara, Milan, and Mantua; and for such great ladies as the Duchess Isabella d'Este, Duchess 58 SECOND PART OF THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY. THE ELEMENTAL IMPULSES SEEN IN THE BODIES, FACES, POSES, AND COSTUMES, ALTHOUGH THE IDEA TO BE EXPRESSED IS A SPIRITUAL ONE. ATTENTION IS DIRECTED TO THE BOUDOIR CAP AND THE OPERA CAPE. THE RENAISSANCE IN ITALY Beatrice of Milan, Duchess Leonora of Ferrara, Duchess Elizabeth of Urbino, Lucrezia Borgia, Vittoria Colonna, and others. The luxury and grandeur of the northern countries and the restrained magnificence of Florence were echoed in a less decided manner in the cities and towns that felt these influences through proximity or by other association. Increase in wealth and also in learning brought about a lively commerce with the East, as new and rich materials, larger and rarer gems, were required to set properly the superb stage upon which this brilliant and cultured social life-play was being enacted. We recall that this ideal had been taking consistent form in Italy and that France and England were still clinging to the old traditions of mediae valism, trying to adjust the formulae to changed political conceptions, to cooled religious fervour and to the progress of the social idea. Very little knowledge of conditions in Italy had found its way into France and the surprise and amazement of Charles VIII and his army when they passed through Piedmont and Lombardy in 1494 on their way to Naples can be imagined. Staley, in his "Lords and Ladies of the Italian Lakes, " gives us a most charming and altogether enlightening account of this visit of Charles, as follows: "He and his courtiers were amazed at the magni- ficence of their reception, and particularly at the gorgeousness of the Duchess's apparel. Her jewels greatly outnumbered Charles's; she was weighed down with chains and collars of solid gold and flashing gems; and her fingers were completely covered with fine rings. She wore upon her head a Ducal crown of gold, 59 PSYCHOLOGY OF DRESS studded with huge diamonds and rubies. The Duchess's robes were of cloth of gold and silver tissue worn over the richest petticoats of costly green silk velvet; her train was a mass of curious embroidery in cabalistic figures and designs of witchcraft, so at least they seemed to be to the French visitors. " One day, mounted on a pure white steed caparisoned in cloth of gold, and a lace chemisette open at the breast, her well curled hair was tied with gold cord and pearls, and tied with silk ribbons floating down her back. She wore a crimson wide brimmed felt hat turned up at the side, with six red feathers and a jewelled brooch. She sat astride, as did her suite of twenty beautiful girls, each attired like herself. Six chariots followed, lined with cloth of gold and green velvet, filled with ladies of her court magnificently dressed. "At dinner in the evening the Duchess again wel- comed the king clothed in lustrous green satin. The body, back, and front was stitched thickly with flashing jewels and had the appearance of a cuirass. The sleeves were tight, but puffed on the shoulder and entwined with bands of rubies. Her bosom was bare, the chemisette merely covering her corset, and round her throat she wore the biggest pearls Charles had ever seen. Upon her head Beatrice had a jaunty little red velvet cap, after the French fashion, with an aigrette of green feathers, and a great pear-shaped pearl sur- rounded with diamonds and rubies." Lorenzo de' Medici more than any other man may be said to be the greatest patron of art and learning of the Renaissance period. The democratic form of govern- ment at Florence, the restrained and sober temper of 60 THE RENAISSANCE IN ITALY its people, the wealth and importance of many of its most prominent families, with the financial and social power of the Medici family, all contributed something to every branch of life that was in any way related to the humanistic idea, as portrayed by the old chron- iclers. His annual expenditure for books alone was something like $300,000 of our money. It is said that emissaries were constantly searching the Orient and other countries for manuscripts, and that a certain man at one time brought back two hundred Greek works, of which more than eighty had never been seen in Italy before. He endowed the Greek Academy at Florence, be- stowed favours and money lavishly on all leaders in any field of learning and yearly allotted certain sums to antiquarian research. As a patron of art he was no less intent. Ghirlandajo and Botticelli worked for him for a long period; the master craftsmen in every field were called upon to create and execute not only for him directly, but for those who fell under the spell of this giant in art appreciation. This was the psychological moment for such encouragement and patronage, for the zenith of glory in the High Renaissance was approach- ing. Verocchio, Botticelli, Ghirlandajo, Perugino, Leonardo, Lippi, and Lorenzo di Credi were all at Florence, Bellini and Carpaccio at Venice, Mantegna at Mantua, Francia at Bologna, and Pinturicchio at Peru- gia; while Luini, Bartolomeo, Michael Angelo, Titian, Andrea del Sarto, and Raphael were approaching their debut in the great constellation of master-painters. In other branches of art a similar list of immortals might be given, each of whom contributed a share to the full- ness of glory of this grand epoch. 61 PSYCHOLOGY OF DRESS To the frescoes and portraits of these artists we may go for the most faithful of all records so far as costumes are concerned. Botticelli, that rare spirit of fanciful medisevalism, with an overwhelming sense and un- derstanding of classic significance clothed his women in late fifteenth century dress of exquisite design, with all the charm of classic interpretation. Ghirlandajo, the master of magnificent realism and detail, has given the most illuminating portrayal of the grandeur and dignity of the Florentine ladies of the time. Titian's records of the Magnificent Ones of Venice, del Sarto's sensuous beauties, and Raphael's per- fectly good and winsome ladies are too important to be lightly passed as social expressions of their time; faithful documents all of them, giving us in the most intimate detail, each a master's record of a type of Renaissance lady enlarged and ennobled by the favoured interpretation of one of the world's greatest painters. As a devoted patron of art, among women, Isabella d' Este, Duchess of Mantua was undoubtedly the fore- most. She was to the north of Italy what Lorenzo di Medici was to Florence, and it was the greatest of honours to be called by her to artistic service. Her devotion to art was by no means confined to the visual arts. She was a great musician and was pos- sessed of much literary genius. Her knowledge of and interest in the work of the ancients was broad and comprehensive, while she patronized with a most lavish hand the artist craftsmen of her time, in every field. Perhaps something of the feeling of the social life during the High Renaissance may be obtained through THE RENAISSANCE IN ITALY a brief discussion of her palace at Mantua, of its furnish- ings, of her costumes and of her relations with the courts of Ferrara, Urbino, and Milan. Besides this, her life (1474 to 1535) covers the most important epoch of the entire Renaissance. Brought up from infancy in an atmosphere of art in the court of Ferrara, where her mother, the Duchess Leonora, was herself an ardent patron of art, Isabella at sixteen years of age was married to Duke Francesco Gonzaga of Mantua. Mrs. Cartwright tells us in her "Life of Isabella d'Este" that all through the months preceding the wedding great painters, goldsmiths, and carvers were very busy preparing the trousseau. " Early in 1489," she says, "Ercole Roberti was sent to Venice to buy gold-leaf and ultramarine for the decoration of the wedding chests. On his return he painted thirteen cassoni, for which he employed eleven thousand gold leaves, and designed the nuptial bed, and a magnificent chariot and gilded bucentaur which the Duke presented to his daughter. The tapestries and hangings for her rooms were made in Venice, seals and buttons and silver boxes for her use were engraved by Ferrarese artists, and a portable silver altar, richly chased and embossed, together with ornaments and office-books to match, were ordered from the skilled Milanese gold- smith Fra Rocco. The girdle or ma j estate, worn by royal brides and elaborately worked in gold and silver, was also ordered from Fra Rocco, who devoted many months to the task, and received 600 ducats from the Duke. "The wedding was celebrated at Ferrara on the llth of February, 1490, and after the ceremony in the ducal 63 PSYCHOLOGY OF DRESS chapel, the bride rode through the streets of the city in her fine new chariot draped with cloth of gold, with the Duke of Urbino on horseback on her right and the Ambassador of Naples on her left. The banquet which followed was one of the most sumptuous ever held in the Castello of Ferrara. The walls of the Sala Grande were hung with the Arras tapestries brought from Naples by Duchess Leonora, including the 'Queen of Sheba's Visit to Solomon,' and six pieces known as 'La Pastourelle,' worked by hand in gold and silver and coloured silks of exquisite delicacy. "The magnificent dinner-service used at Isabella's wedding had been made in Venice by a renowned gold- smith, Georgio da Ragusa, from Cosimo Tura's designs. Crystal flagons and dishes of gold and enamel were supported by griffins and satyrs, dolphins and satyrs; the handles of golden bowls and cornucopias laden with fruit were adorned with genii or the eagles of the house of Este, while two hundred and fifty little banners, painted by Ferrara artists with the Este and Gonzaga arms, adorned the temples and pyramids of gilt and coloured sugar that were a triumph of the confectioner's art. "The streets were hung with brocades and garlands of flowers. At the Porta Pradella a choir of white- robed children welcomed the bride with songs and recitations. At the Ponte S. Jacopo, on the Piazza in front of Alberti's church of S. Andrea, at the gates of the park, and on the drawbridge of the Castello, pageants and musical entertainments were prepared in her honour. At one point the seven planets and nine ranks of angelic orders welcomed her coming, and a 64 THE RENAISSANCE IN ITALY fair boy with angel wings recited an epithalamium, composed for the occasion, at the foot of the grand staircase of the Castello di Corte. There Elizabeth Gonzaga received the bride, and the princely guests sat down to a banquet in the state rooms, while the im- mense crowds assembled on the piazza outside were feasted at the public expense." Of the palace at Mantua and the life of the duchess there, Odom, in his "History of Italian Furniture," gives us this illuminating and delightful picture: "At the court of Mantua the art of the High Renais- sance found its most sympathetic and enthusiastic patron in Isabella d'Este, the Duchess of Mantua. Rarefied by Renaissance legend, materialized by d'Annunzio, and called by Niccolo' da Correggio the first lady of the world, Leonardo and Titian painted her portrait, Mantegna decorated her room, Aldo Manuzio sent her new editions of the classics as soon as they were printed, and Ariosto read her the first draft of his 'Orlando Furioso.' Mantua had long been ranked high among the seats of culture and autocratic social life, but with the coming of Isabella it became not only the centre of the greatest taste and refinement of this period, 'the envy of the civilized world,' but the criterion of fashion as well. "Toward the end of the century Isabella abandoned the mediaeval fortress, the Castello Vecchio, after she had done much to dispel the ancient gloom by remodelling and adding to its furnishings fine works of art. Besides the furniture she ordered she collected rare tapestries, pic- tures by the greatest masters, precious crystals, antique marbles, enamels, musical instruments, and manuscripts. 65 PSYCHOLOGY OF DRESS "After the death of Duke Francesco, 1519, Giulio Romano was ordered to alter for her a wing in the castle, to be arranged for living apartments in addition to those most perfect and famous interiors of the Renaissance, the 'Appartamento Paradiso.' These were three small jewel-like rooms, the symphonic work of painter, woodcarver and intarsia worker of the early sixteenth century. The exquisite wood carved ceilings are still intact, while the music room retains even more of its original beauty. Its well-preserved ceiling is diagonalled with carved bands with pendant-like ros- ettes placed at the intersections, forming panels that enclose delicate foliage and emblems on a blue ground. Less fortunate is the wainscoting, retaining only parts of its intarsia executed by Antonio and Paolo della Mola above which were once inserted, in exquisite rectangular panels, masterpieces by Mantegna, Perugino, and Lorenzo Costa, treasures now hanging in the Italian Gallery of the Louvre. But of the furniture, tapestries, and other objets d'art of these apartments, not a piece is known to exist." Isabella's apartment which she occupied during the greater part of her married life was in the piano nobile of the tower of the castle, close to the Camera Dipinta or nuptial chamber. This was decorated by Andrea. A staircase led from it to the duke's apartment below. Piero Saranzo relates how after being conducted through endless apartments filled with artistic treasures they were ushered into the private suite of the duke. Here they found him "reclining on a couch by the hearth of a richly adorned room with his pet dwarf clad in gold brocade and three greyhounds lying at his 66 ABOUT THE MIDDLE OF THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY. COSTUMES SHOW MEDLEVAL PAGEANT SPIRIT WITH PERSONAGES OF EARLY RENAISSANCE IDEALS. O Q LATE FIFTEENTH CENTURY IN VENICE. ATTENTION IS DIRECTED TO THE LUXURIOUS MATERIALS AND THE PECULIAR HEADDRESSES. THESE ARE MORE EASTERN IN FEELING. LAST HALF OF THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY. COSTUMES SHOW A DE- CIDED PAGAN CLASSIC CONCEPTION IN LINE AND IN THE VERY IM- AGINATIVE ACCENTUATION INSTEAD OF CONCEALMENT OF THE FORM OF THE BODY. THE RENAISSANCE IN ITALY feet, three pages stood by waving large fans lest even a hair should fall upon him; a quantity of falcons and hawks in leash were in the room, and the walls were hung with pictures of his favourite dogs and horses." The beauty and extent of the gardens and the magnifi- cent view from the loggia greatly impressed the visitors. Under Austrian rule of one hundred and fifty years these apartments were stripped of most of their decora- tions, but one little room of the suite still retains something of its original appearance. Here are some traces of gilding and ultramarine on the blue vaulted ceiling and also Gonzaga devices carved on the delicately inlaid woodwork of the frieze. It is only natural that one who bestowed so much thought, time, and money upon collections and the decoration of her palace should have a corresponding interest in the costumes which would not only express the taste of one of the greatest patrons of Renaissance art, but which would at once mark the wearer as fitted to express the particular rank of autocratic social leader, which she was; for not only was she supreme in her own duchy, but the fame of her taste, learning, and beauty was well diffused in Milan, Venice, Urbino, and Florence, while even Rome and the Vatican had occasion more than once to feel her power. Some little idea of her extravagance in the particular of clothing is given in the discussion of her trousseau at the time of her marriage, and her collection of robes, jewels, and finely wrought materials is said to have kept pace with her indefatigable search for other art treasures. On a visit to Milan it is recorded that the young Duchess was determined to make a brave show on 67 PSYCHOLOGY OF DRESS this occasion, and all the merchants in Venice and Ferrara were required to ransack their stores and supply her with furs, brocades, and jewels. Zorzo Brognolo, the Gonzaga's trusted agent in Venice, was desired to search all the shops in Venice for eighty of the very finest sables to make a sbernia or mantle. ''Try to find one skin with the head of the animal," Isabella adds, "to make a muff, which I can carry in my hands. Never mind if it costs as much as ten ducats; I will give the money gladly as long as it is really a fine fur. You must also buy eight yards of the best crimson satin which you can find in Venice to line the said sbernia, and for God's sake use all your accustomed diligence, for nothing, I assure you, will give me greater pleasure." A few days later she entreats Giacomo Trotti, the Duke of Ferrara's ambassador at Milan, to send her two skins of Spanish cat, the best and finest that are to be found in that city, to trim this sumptuous mantle; and in January, 1491, when she had already started on her journey, she writes to Genoa and orders another sbernia of costly brocade to be sent by express courier to await her arrival at Pa via. Her extravagance and her desire to exceed all others in the number and quality of her personal adornments, that amounted almost to a mania, is clearly and amusingly shown in a letter written to an agent of her father who was going to France to buy objects of art. "I send you a hundred ducats," she writes, "and wish you to understand that you are not to return the money if any of it is left, after buying the things which I want, but are to spend it in buying some gold chain or anything else that is new and elegant. And if more is 68 THE RENAISSANCE IN ITALY required, spend that too, for I had rather be in your debt so long as you bring me the latest novelties. But these are the kind of things that I wish to have en- graved amethysts, rosaries of black amber and gold, blue cloth for a camora, black cloth for a mantle, such as shall be without a rival in the world, even if it costs ten ducats a yard; as long as it is of real excellence, never mind! If it is only as good as those which I see other people wear, I had rather be without it." The psychology here is enlightening even if it is intensely amusing, perhaps a little unexpected from so cultivated a source, yet how human and strangely familiar. She besought an envoy in Venice at one time to get her immediately silks, velvets of oriental make, brocades patterned all over with leopards, doves, and eagles, rare perfumes, Murano glass, silver, very fine Rheims linen (finer than any sample), bracelets, and finely wrought rings. These and countless other art novelties were sought after by her emissaries in all the known markets of the world. Toward the latter part of her life, however, we find the Duchess thinking less of clothes and more of the other arts, while, as we shall see, many of the other great ladies seemed never to lose the intense longing for personal adornment. A similar ratio is always found, it seems, in any clearly expressed period of social art. On the feast of St. George Isabella paid a visit to her father at Ferrara, and while she was there received an urgent summons from her lord to lend him some of her finest jewels with which to adorn his person at the fetes about to be held in Milan, to celebrate the arrival of the Imperial Ambassador and the investiture of Lodovico 69 PSYCHOLOGY OF DRESS Sforza with the ducal crown. Already, a year before, when the Duchess was at Urbino, she had, at Fran- cesco's desire, pledged many of her jewels in order to raise a sum of money with which to obtain his brother Sigismondo's advancement to the dignity of Cardinal. "One of the greatest wishes that I have in the world," she wrote, "is to see Monsignore a Cardinal, so I am much pleased to hear that this affair is about to be ar- ranged. I send Alberto da Bologna with the keys of my jewel boxes, that he may give you whatever you wish, since I would not only give my treasure, but my blood, for your honour and for your house." Now, like a good wife, she sent her most precious ornaments her big diamonds and large rubies, and her collar of a hundred links all but her golden girdle, which had been lately seen on her person at Milan, and which she had now lent one of her father's courtiers to wear at a masque. All her other jewels, as she gently reminded the Duke, were in pawn in Venice. A further word of description here may help us to connect the humanistic movement in the church with its social interpretation, and at the same time add another interesting picture of luxury and extravagance in costumes and other decorative settings. In Odom's "History of Italian Furniture" we find this comment on the art of the High Renaissance: "The art of this era, decidedly more social than that of the Early Renaissance, contributed even more of its riches to the aggrandizement of the 'Magnificent Ones' as well as to the strengthening of the 'policy of culture' to the papacy. In a former period social expression was under the influence of the ecclesiastical, but with 70 THE RENAISSANCE IN ITALY the Cinquecento secular expression dominated and by the end of the century, even in ecclesiastical work, beauty of line, form, and colour were considered suf- ficient symbols of holiness." Rome was the last of the great Renaissance centres to develop. It reached the height of its glory in the first quarter of the sixteenth century. The brilliance and luxury then prevalent were cut off and their ma- terial expression was either disseminated or destroyed by the invasion of the Imperial Army of Germans and Spaniards in 1527. The Sack of Rome may be said really to mark the end of the upward trend of the purely Renaissance idea, the decline and subsequent decay in- cident to a new complete surrender to the senses dating from this event. It was about this time (1502) that the notorious Borgia filled the papal chair and that his much dis- cussed daughter Lucrezia, about whom there have been more varieties of opinion written than of any woman of that century, married the young duke, Alfonso of Ferrara. The Borgias were of Spanish origin, the family dating from the early fourteenth century. They were prom- inent in the Spanish invasion of Italian life, for Alfonso Borgia, made a Cardinal in 1444, was chosen as Pope in 1455, assuming the name of Calixtus III. He con- ferred the purple upon Rodrigo Borgia, his nephew, in 1456 and he in turn became Pope in 1492, assuming the name of Alexander VI. Lucrezia, born into the most turbulent period of political despotism, was twelve years old when her father was elected to the papacy. The religion of the time was altogether material, social 71 PSYCHOLOGY OF DRESS immorality was universal, in short sensuous indulgence and ostentatious magnificence were forging a chain with which the Renaissance ideal was ultimately strangled, and Rome, the most mature of all the Italian cities, played no small part in its execution. During the sway of the Borgias over the papal court and other centres where the influence of the papacy was dominant, hordes of Spaniards flocked to Italy, not only occupying positions of trust in the govern- ments but exercising power in matters of religion, while in commercial matters also they took an active part. This explains somewhat the distinctly Spanish feeling in much of the art of Italy during the last half of the sixteenth century. Lucrezia was born, so said the astrologer who cast her horoscope at birth, to a brilliant and successful career and when her origin, birth, training, and associations are considered it seems that she has never really been quite fairly dealt with. Gregorovius writes of Lucrezia and her wedding portion: "The portion will consist of three hundred thousand ducats, not counting the presents which Ma- donna will receive from time to time. First a hundred thousand ducats are to be paid in money in install- ments in Ferrara. Then there will be silverware to the value of three thousand ducats; jewels, fine linen, costly trappings for horses and mules, together worth another hundred thousand. In her wardrobe she has a trimmed dress worth more than fifteen thousand ducats, and two hundred costly shifts, some of which are worth a hundred ducats apiece; the sleeves alone of some of them cost thirty ducats each, being trimmed 72 THE RENAISSANCE IN ITALY with gold fringe." Another person reported to the Duchess Isabella that Lucrezia had one dress worth twenty thousand ducats, and a hat valued at ten thousand. "It is said," so the Mantuan agent writes, "that more gold has been prepared and sold here in Naples in six months than has been used heretofore in years. She brings her husband another hundred thousand ducats, the value of the castles (Cento and Pieve), and will also secure the remission of Ferrara's tribute. The number of horses and persons the Pope will place at his daughter's disposal will amount to a thousand. There will be two hundred carriages among them some of French make, if there is time and with these will come the escort which is to take her." Describing her escort of five hundred nobles from Ferrara, he says: " These gentlemen, magnificently clad, and with heavy gold chains about their necks, mounted on beautiful horses, left Ferrara December ninth, with thirteen trumpeters and eight fifes at their head; and thus this wedding cavalcade, led by a worldly Cardinal, rode noisily forth upon their journey. In our time such an aggregation might easily be mis- taken for a troop of trick riders. Nowhere did this brave company of knights pay their reckoning; in the domain of Ferrara they lived on the duke; in other words, at the expense of his subjects. In the lands of other lords they did the same, and in the territory of the Church the cities they visited were required to provide for them." Then follows a description of the reception of the nobles in Rome: "Leaning on the arm of an elderly cavalier dressed in black velvet, with a golden chain 73 PSYCHOLOGY OF DRESS about his neck, Lucrezia went as far as the entrance of her palace to greet them. According to the pre- arranged ceremonial she did not kiss her brothers-in- law, but merely bowed to them, following the French custom. She wore a dress of some white material embroidered in gold, over which was a garment of dark brown velvet trimmed with sable. The sleeves were of white and gold brocade, tight, and barred in the Span- ish fashion. Her head-dress was of a green gauze, with a fine gold band and two rows of pearls. About her neck was a heavy chain of pearls with a ruby pendant. Refreshments were served, and Lucrezia distributed small gifts the work of Roman jewellers among those present. The princes departed highly pleased with their reception. 'This much I know,' wrote El Prete, 'that the eyes of Cardinal Ippolito sparkled, as much as to say, She is an enchanting and exceedingly gracious lady." Cardinal Ippolito was instructed by his sister, Isa- bella of Mantua, as indeed was a special agent sent with the party to Rome, to give a detailed account, not only of the wedding festivities, but of the decorations and costumes worn by everybody. The Cardinal as well as the special emissary wrote a description, said by a recent writer to have been as complete an account as the best reporter from a modern daily paper would have written. Finally January sixth was set as the date for Lu- crezia to leave for Ferrara. Her father was determined that her departure should be a magnificent spectacle. She was accompanied by the Cardinal and many nobles, men and women, not to mention an exceedingly 74 LAST HALF OF THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY. COSTUMES, EARLY RENAISSANCE WITH CLASSIC FEELING IN LINE AND MOVEMENT LESS EMPHASIZED THAN IN THE LAST TWO ILLUSTRATIONS. THE RENAISSANCE IN ITALY large number of ladies in attendance with their ser- vants. There were two hundred cavaliers, with musi- cians and buffoons for entertainment. Many prov- inces were represented in her entourage and there were also Spaniards, Frenchmen, and other foreigners, while her personal retinue numbered two hundred people. A number of vehicles which the Pope had bought and a hundred and fifty mules carried the trousseau. When someone suggested an inventory the Pope remarked, " 1 desire that the duchess shall do with her property as she wishes," with which he presented her with nine hundred ducats to clothe herself and her servants, and a beautiful Sedan chair, in which the Duchess of Urbino was to sit beside her when she joined the procession. It does not require a much quickened imagination to complete the picture of ostentatious magnificence, inconceivable under modern conditions. In contrast to this, one has always to keep in mind the poverty of the masses and the state of semi-comfort accorded a large number of hangers-on at every court, as well as the lesser luxury of a small class of nobles who com- pleted the households of the "Magnificent Ones." Gregorovius gives us a thrilling picture of the passing of the gorgeous cavalcade on its way to Ferrara. Don Alfonso came out to Torre della Fossa to meet his bride, and the procession started. "At its head were seventy-five mounted archers in the livery of the house of Este white and red who were accompanied by eighty trumpeters and a number of fifes. Then came the nobility of Ferrara without regard to rank, followed by the members of the courts of the Marchioness of Mantua, who remained behind in the palace, and of 75 PSYCHOLOGY OF DRESS the Duchess of Urbino. Behind them rode Alfonso, with his brother-in-law, Annibale Bentivoglio, at his side, and accompanied by eight pages, he was dressed in red velvet in the French fashion, and on his head he wore a black velvet biretta, upon which was an orna- ment of wrought gold. He wore small red boots and French gaiters of black velvet. His bay horse was ca- parisoned in crimson and gold. "On the way to Ferrara Don Alfonso did not ride by the side of his consort as this would have been con- trary to the etiquette of the day. The bridegroom led the procession, near the middle of which was the bride, while the father-in-law came last. This arrangement was intended to indicate that Lucrezia was the chief personage in the parade. Just behind Alfonso came her escort, pages and court officials, among whom were several Spanish cavaliers; then five bishops, followed by the ambassadors according to rank; the four deputies of Rome, mounted upon beautiful horses and wearing long brocade cloaks and black birettas coming next. These were followed by six tambourines and two of Lucrezia's favourite clowns. "Then came the bride herself, radiantly beautiful and happy, mounted upon a white jennet with scarlet trappings, and followed by her master of horse. Lucre- zia was dressed in a loose-sleeved camera of black velvet with a narrow gold border, and a cape of gold bro- cade trimmed with ermine. On her head she wore a sort of net glittering with diamonds and gold a present from her father-in-law. She did not wear a diadem. About her neck she had a chain of pearls and rubies which had once belonged to the duchess of 76 THE RENAISSANCE IN ITALY Ferrara as Isabella noticed with tears in her eyes. Her beautiful hair fell down unconfined on her shoul- ders. She rode beneath a purple baldachin, which the doctors of Ferrara that is, the members of the facul- ties of law, medicine, and mathematics supported in turn. "Behind Lucrezia came the duke, in black velvet, on a dark horse with trappings of the same material. On his right was the Duchess of Urbino clad in a dark vel- vet gown. "Behind them came fourteen floats upon which were seated a number of the noble women of Ferrara, beau- tifully dressed, including the twelve young ladies who had been allotted to Lucrezia as maids of honour. Then followed two white mules and two white horses decked with velvet and silk and costly gold trappings. Eighty- six mules accompanied the train bearing the bride's trousseau and jewels. "Lucrezia was received at the castle by Isabella Gonzaga and all the prominent ladies of the realm. It was night now and the palace was illuminated. The sound of music was heard. The reception halls were opened, and the bride was formally introduced to the court officials, the ambassadors, the princes and prin- cesses of the realm, invited guests, the courtiers and church dignitaries." The wedding festivities lasted six days and it is a description of these that perhaps gives one a most complete picture of the social life of the times. On the occasion of Beatrice's visit to Venice in 1493 with her mother, the Duchess of Ferrara and "Ma- donna Anna Sforza," a member of the family in writing 77 PSYCHOLOGY OF DRESS to Isabella, Duchess of Mantua, says: "I will not at- tempt to describe the gowns and ornaments worn by these duchesses and Madonna Anna, this being quite out of my line, and will only tell you that all three of them appeared resplendent with the most precious jewels." Fortunately this omission was supplied by one of Beatrice's secretaries, Niccolo' de' Negri, who, in a letter to Lodovico, informed him that the duchess on the day of her arrival at Venice "wore her gold brocade, embroidered with crimson doves, with a jew- elled feather in her cap, and a rope of pearls and dia- monds round her neck, to which the priceless ruby known as El Spigo was attached as pendant." She herself writes in a letter to her husband concern- ing the same visit, as follows : " When we came out of the Treasury, we went on the Piazza of St. Mark, among the shops of the Ascensiontide fair which is still going on, and found such a magnificent show of beautiful Vene- tian glass, that we were fairly bewildered, and were obliged to remain there for a long time. And as we walked along from shop to shop, everyone turned to look at the jewels which I wore in the velvet cap on my head, and on the vest embroidered with the towers of the Port of Genoa, and especially at the large diamond which I wore at my breast. And I heard people saying one to the other 'That is the wife of Signor Lodovico. Look what fine jewels she wears ! What splendid rubies and diamonds she has." On October 11, 1493, the Duchess Leonora, mother of Beatrice, died at Ferrara, and in an old letter is found this description of the latter's mourning costume: "Her Excellency is clad in a robe of black cloth, with sleeves of 78 THE RENAISSANCE IN ITALY the same, and a very long mantle, also of black cloth, and wears on her head a black silk cap with muslin folds, which are neither gray nor yellow, but pure white. She hardly ever leaves her room, and Signor Lodovico spends most of his time with her, and they two and Messer Galeaz have their meals alone in their rooms." A fortnight later in the same autumn Beatrice was called upon to lay aside this style of dress and assist at a most notable function, the marriage of Maximil- ian, the new Emperor of Germany, to Bianca Sforza, a niece of Lodovico. In preparation for this she wrote to her sister Isabella, asking her permission to use one of her designs for the wedding toilet. She says: "I cannot remember if your Highness has yet carried out the idea of that pattern of linked tracery which Messer Niccolo da Correggio suggested to you when we were last together. If you have not yet ordered the execu- tion of this design, I am thinking of having his inven- tion carried out in massive gold, on a 'camora' of purple velvet, to wear on the day of Madonna Bianca's wed- ding, since my husband desires the whole court to lay aside mourning for that one day and to appear in col- ours. This being the case, I cannot refrain from wear- ing colours on this occasion, although the heavy loss we have had in our dear mother's death has left me with little care for new inventions. But since this is neces- sary, I have decided to make a trial of this pattern, if your Highness has not yet made use of it, and send the present courier, begging you not to detain him, but to let me know at once if you have yet tried this new de- sign or not." In another letter to Isabella she writes of the wedding: 79 PSYCHOLOGY OF DRESS "On the last day of the past month the nuptials took place, and in preparation for this solemnity, a portico was erected in front of the Chiesa Maggiore of the city of Milan, with pillars on either side, supporting a purple canopy, embroidered with doves. Within the church, the aisles were hung with brocade as far as the choir, in front of which a triumphal arch had been erected on massive pillars. This was entirely painted, and bore in the centre an effigy of Duke Francesco on horseback, in his ducal robes, with the ducal arms and those of the King of the Romans above. This triumphal arch was square in shape, and ornamented with pictures of antique feasts, and the imperial insignia and the arms of my husband were placed on the side toward the high altar. Beyond this arch were steps that led up to a great tribunal erected in front of the high altar. On the left was a small tribunal from which the Gospel was sung, hung with gold brocade; on the right was another adorned with silver brocade; and behind these tribunals were seats ranged in order and covered with draperies, for the councillors and other feudatories and gentlemen. In the extreme corners of the choir were two raised stages, one for the singers, the other for the trumpeters, and in the space between were seated the doctors of law and medicine, with their birettas and capes lined with fur, each according to his rank. The altar itself was sumptuously adorned with all the silver vases and images of saints which you saw in the Rochetta when you were at Milan. "The street leading to the Duomo was beautifully decorated. There were columns wreathed with ivy all the way from the bastions of the Castello to the end 80 THE RENAISSANCE IN ITALY of the piazza, and between the columns were festoons of boughs bearing antique devices, and round shields with the imperial arms and those of our house, and Sforzesca draperies were hung above the street all the way from the Castello to the Duomo. Many of the doors had their pillars wreathed with ivy and green boughs, so that the season seemed to be May-time rather than November. On both sides of the street, the walls were hung with satin, excepting those houses which have lately been adorned with frescoes, and which are no less beautiful than tapestries. "The queen wore a vest of crimson satin, embroidered in gold thread and covered with jewels. Her train was immensely long, and the sleeves were made to look like two wings, which had a very fine appearance. On her head she wore an ornament of magnificent diamonds and pearls. And to add to the solemnity of the occa- sion, Messer Galeazzo Pallavicino carried the train, and Count Conrado de' Lando and Count Manfredo Torniello each of them supported one of the sleeves. Before the bride walked all the chamberlains, courtiers, officials, gentlemen, feudatories, and last of all the coun- cillors. The queen seated herself in the centre of the car, the Duchess Isabella being on her right, and myself on her left. The said duchess wore a 'camora ' of crim- son satin, with gold cords looped over it, as in my gray cloth 'camora' which you must remember; and I wore my purple velvet 'camora', with the purple pattern of the links worked in massive gold and green and white enamel, about six inches deep on the front and back of my bodice, and on both sleeves. The 'camora' was lined with cloth of gold, and with it I wore a girdle of 81 PSYCHOLOGY OF DRESS St. Francis made of large pearls, with a beautiful clear- cut ruby for clasp." She goes on to describe in great detail the grand per- sonages participating and the twelve chariots of gold and crimson velvet, filled with noble women clad in the most gorgeous and sumptuous manner, including the ladies of the queen in her livery with tan coloured "camoras "and mantles of bright green satin. Then fol- lows an account of the marriage ceremony in detail, describing the magnificent vestments of the clergy, the music, the blare of trumpets, the peal of the organ, the ringing of bells; and after the ceremony everyone walked to the gates of the Duomo with the great dignitaries carrying the train and sleeves of the queen. She rode under a baldacchino of white damask and gold, lined throughout with ermine. After this a mar- vellously apparelled procession of clergy, foreign diplo- mats, Milanese gentry, courtiers, ladies of the queen followed by their ladies and others, all making the most splendid show. One writer has it that "Nothing but silver brocade could be seen and the worst dressed per- son there was, wore crimson velvet, and that all this with the great abundance of lace and gold chains worn by the knights, made a magnificent appearance." The trousseau of the bride was valued at 100,000 du- cats. It consisted of the most elaborate robes, expen- sive jewels, gold and silver plate, altar fittings, bed hangings, mirrors, perfumes, linens, carpets, house trappings, and other personal and house adornments. All this seems impossible to conceive as representing one only of the several autocratic court centres of north- ern Italy about the time of the discovery of America by 82 THIRD QUARTER OF FIFTEENTH CENTURY. COSTUMES ARE EX- CELLENT EXAMPLES OF THE REFINEMENT AND SIMPLICITY OF THE RENAISSANCE, WHERE NEITHER CLASSIC NOR MEDLEVAL INFLU- ENCE IS VERY APPARENT. THIRD QUARTER OF THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY. FURTHER EX- AMPLES OF THE CHARM OF UNAFFECTED HUMANISM BEFORE THE DESIRE FOR SHOW DISPLACED TASTE. " LATE FIFTEENTH CENTURY, SHOWING EARLY STAGES OF THE RH- NAISSANCE IN VENICE, WHICH WAS A HALF CENTURY LATER THAN FLORENCE IN ITS EXPRESSION. OBSERVE EMPIRE SUGGESTION IN CUT. LATE FIFTEENTH CENTURY. INTERESTING MALE COSTUMES OF THIS PERIOD IN VENICE. PLEASING DETAILS MAY BE ADAPTED TO DRESS FOR MODERN WOMEN. THE RENAISSANCE IN ITALY Columbus, the expulsion of the Moors from Spain, the death of Lorenzo the Magnificent at Florence and the accession of Louis XII of France. More than this we are assured that every article designed and used in this period of the Renaissance was not only wonderful in workmanship but rich and beautiful in design. The court of the Duke of Urbino was perhaps the most aristocratic of all the Renaissance centres. It certainly represented the most perfect balance of art and learning, with a cultivation of the most ideal social manners and customs of the time. Isabella, writing to her husband of a visit there, says: "This palace is far finer than I ever expected. Besides the natural beauty of the place, it is very richly furnished with tapestries, hangings, and silver plate; and I must tell you that in all the different rooms which I have occu- pied in this Duke's different homes, the hangings have never been moved from one place to another, and from the first moment when I arrived at Gubbio until now, I have been entertained more and more sumptu- ously every day; indeed I could not have been more highly honoured if I had been a bride! I have re- peatedly begged my hosts to reduce these expenses and treat me in a more familiar way but they will not listen to this. This is, no doubt, the doing of the Duke, who is the most generous of men. He holds a fine court now, and lives in royal splendour, and governs the state with great wisdom and humanity, to the satis- faction of all his subjects." Toward the close of the High Renaissance (1528) Isabella went to her old home at Ferrara to assist in the triumphant entry of her nephew Ercole and his 83 PSYCHOLOGY OF DRESS bride, the Princess Renee, who was the daughter of Louis XII, on their return from France after their marriage. The festivities at Modena included a fort- night of parties, pageants, balls, and hunting fetes, after which the royal pair went to their summer palace, Belvedere, the description of which gives an idea of the summer palaces of the ducal families and the social results of humanism at the end of the first quarter of the sixteenth century. This, of course, is but one of sev- eral gorgeous palaces belonging to one of the many dukes of the small north Italian states, each of which was of sufficient importance to maintain its own ac- credited ambassadors to the great powers such as Spain, France, and England. Bordoni wrote for Isabella: "This wonderful summer palace with its halls and chapels decorated by Dossi, its stately terraces and stairs leading down to the river, and delicious gardens planted with orange groves and box hedges, and adorned with marble loggias and fountains." . Here the bridal pair spent a night before actually entering the city of Ferrara. "The streets were hung with red, green, and white draperies; and a hundred pages in black satin livery, with rose-coloured caps and stockings, preceded by the Spanish court jester, Diego, riding on a dromedary, led the way. The bride followed, borne in a crimson litter under a golden baldacchino, and attended by Madame de Soudise on horseback, and fourteen French ladies in a chariot." The plague had lately ravaged Ferrara, and the chronicler's description of the misery of its inhabitants forms a melancholy contrast to the splendour of the bridal procession. . . . 84 THE RENAISSANCE IN ITALY "Here Marchesa Isabella was awaiting the bride at the foot of the grand marble staircase of the Este Pal- ace, and led her by the hand into the Sala Grande, which was hung with priceless gold and silver tapestries. Here the ambassadors presented her with gifts of brocades and velvets and damasks, and the chief citizens brought oxen and calves, cheese, and capons for her acceptance. Renee wore her wedding robe of gold brocade with a necklace of enormous pearls and a gold crown on her head." Venice should contribute, and does, a characteristic note in the psychology of costume as unique and allur- ing as the enchanting island city itself. Apart from the real world, linked with the Orient, haughty, dominating, and enticing, she was always a law unto herself. Mol- menti tells us that by the middle of the fifteenth cen- tury the love of sumptuous dress stimulated a vigorous commerce between Venice and all the rest of the known world. He mentions strange stuffs from Persia, Dam- ascus, and Ormutz; webs of silk from Florence, Milan, and the south; fine linens from France, rich and costly velvets from Armenia, camelotto from Arabia, and coarser* stuffs for the common people from Slavonia and Servia. There were furs, too, from Russia and the north; lambskin, fox, lynx, sable, marten, vair, and er- mine; all of which were made up into robes, collars, and lapels. There were also gems and precious stones, strange and costly, from the East and from neighbouring states. Buttons are described as very plentiful and made of gold, silver, enamel, amber, crystals, and pearls; gold and jewelled clasps also of marvellous workmanship are 85 PSYCHOLOGY OF DRESS repeatedly mentioned, as are countless belts made of filagree of silver and gold. The neck was adorned with strings of pearls and heavy chains made in East- ern fashion. Gloves of leather, chamois, or silk were universally worn by the nobles, and foot-gear is de- scribed in many shapes, colours, and materials: cloth- of-gold with red embroidery, silk or leather, for slippers, and sometimes velvet ornamented with jewels; and there were sandals for the common people made of cork or wood. We read of one lady of quality in Venice about 1486 who owned robes of crimson velvet embroidered with pearls and sapphires, also a green figured velvet mantle lined with ermine, bodices of richest silk and finest linen embroidered in gorgeous oriental fashion, with separate sleeves for each of her robes; a petticoat of exquisite Alexandrian coloured satin and green Floren- tine brocade, scarlet waist and belts fringed with rare gems in many colours; belts, too, of damascened silver lined with green; cloth caps set off with silver and gold scales, red shoes, coloured hose to be worn with slippers of peacock blue satin worked with gold embroidery and jewels; different gems for each robe, to be worn on her head, hands, and about her neck. It is interesting to see how the range of colour (gen- erally primitive) in intensity used by the Venetians seems to agree with the vari-hued intensities of the sky, water, and general surroundings of the city itself. This is undoubtedly due to the natural desire for colour stimulent inherent in the Venetians because of their environment, though it may also be attributed to the feeling that the individual expressing an idea must out- 86 THE RENAISSANCE IN ITALY do his surroundings in colour splendour, or be passed by unnoticed. It may then be assumed to be the result of an over-stimulated colour appetite, encouraged by the vanity of self exposition. Molmenti declares, however, that even in this period the Venetians cared only for the outward appearance of luxury, and he scathingly denounces them for their lack of cleanliness and inattention to their personal linen. In the last quarter of the century, about 1476, the most stringent sumptuary laws were passed regulating the cost of robes, the kinds of buttons and belts, length of trains, value of jewels, amount and kinds of furs. They even limited the cost of foods, and bed-hangings, in a frantic attempt to curb the growing tendency to "ruin- ous extravagance." The Doge and his family only were exempt, but as always happens, ways and means were found to evade the law, and one writer declares that "the sumptuous show went on" as if nothing had been done to stay it; yet how perfectly is even this pic- ture of wealth and sumptuousness in accord with the feeling and appearance of this wonder-city and its surroundings. In the first quarter of the sixteenth century the sumptuary laws being relaxed, commerce having taken a fresh start, wealth was greatly increased, luxury and the love of amusement being still more rampant. Molmenti has this to say of the gorgeous spectacle created by the costumes of the Venetian aristocracy: "Clothed in the splendour of these gorgeous stuffs and wearing such exquisite jewellery, the great ladies of Venice appeared with the majesty and grace of so many queens 87 PSYCHOLOGY OF DRESS . . . By the light of the candles in the palace halls, by the light of the sun on the promenade at San Marco or Santo Stefano, these golden ornaments, these gems, the yellow taffetas, the velvets of crimson, green, pale blue, the silks of cardinal red, 'all' alessandrina,' the damasks figured in gold or silver, turquoise blue, olive- green, carnation-rose, the murrey-coloured brocade with gold and crimson patterns, the silvery camlets with purple stripes, the watered silks shot with green and purple, the pure white, or lapis lazuli or pomegran- ate dyes of the cloth, furnished a pageant of colour such as Venice alone could display. "The very personification of this feminine sumptu- ousness was, of course, the Dogaressa herself; she had her place in the great public ceremonies, where she ap- peared in the Piazza surrounded by her ladies and gen- tlemen-in- waiting; her robes were of gold brocade lined with ermine, her train was of enormous length, and she wore a ducal bonnet of gold studded with gems, from which a light veil of silk fell over her shoulders; her bosom was ablaze with diamonds and pearls." ^ About this time earrings were invented and for kinds and style, a writer tells us no object of feminine adorn- ment ever was so widely employed. A complete rev- olution in dress was produced by the invention of lace, which has been called "the most aristocratic of per- sonal adornment." This at once assumed its place as a graceful accessory to garments, even to gloves, shoes, dressing-gowns, chemises, petticoats, hose, hand- kerchiefs, and other articles of underclothing. Hand- kerchiefs made of finest linen were striped with gold thread and fringed with lace; silk gloves of various col- 88 THE RENAISSANCE IN ITALY ours were embroidered with gold thread and often with gems and precious stones. Finally gloves wholly made of lace appeared, and later the buttons of shoes were made of the same material. Ruffs were trimmed with rosettes of pearls, clocks embroidered with golden bosses, fastenings for robes and bodices were studded with gems and the mountings of fans were gilded and set with jewels. Methods of arranging the hair were constantly under- going change. In the Cinquecento fashion required that the forehead should be left bare and an informant observes: "The hair was for the most part false at that, bought from the country folks." It was combed in various ways, curled, plaited, dressed like a crescent moon with its horns turned up, or twisted into the form of a pyramid. In the middle of the sixteenth century a towering tupe came into vogue. Great pains were taken to achieve the blond tygejaxuljill sorts of hair bleaches were invented for that purpose. ""Yariety of fashion in dressing the hair brought in also a great variety of head-dresses. There were caps of lace, coifs with two lace lapels hanging to the shoulders, set with pearls, and gemmed coifs of gold and silver thread; hoods stiffened with wire, frontlets for the forehead embroidered with pearls in pear form and tiaras of gold and precious stones. Men's costumes on the other hand were simpler, less subject to changes of fashion, retaining something of their earlier serious and dignified quality. They were, however, made of the richest stuffs, and presented, even when worn by the middle classes, a magnificent appear- ance. 89 PSYCHOLOGY OF DRESS When we remember all the wealth of art expressed in the High Renaissance, its majesty of conception, its richness in expression and the perfection of its execution, and when we consider also the mighty ideals that gave this expression birth, we welcome the thought that the world was much the same then as it is now, only differ- ing somewhat in the proportion of its active elements. Authentic documents tell us that during the last two decades of the fifteenth century and the first decade of the sixteenth, the women of Italy paid more attention to v fashion than any others in Europe, partly because of their wealth and love of display, and partly because they believed each new fashion made them more attrac- tive than any other had. One writer has it: "The people was and is vain, and even some serious men among it actually looked on a handsome and becoming costume as an element in the perfection of an in- dividual." In Florence it is said, however, that well into the sixteenth Century the most cultured women created their own fashions to suit their particular talents; and we might add that these styles probably suited as well their own conceptions of their appearance. This double ideal in regard to dress surely belongs to cultured people only. A little later we find an author bewailing the tendency to destroy art and class distinction, saying, "There is no longer any difference in the appearance of the wives of the nobles and the burghers," a condition akin to what most of us are beholding in these opening decades of the twentieth century. In Venice one wo- man, a baker's wife, is berated for wearing a gold em- broidered dress entirely fit for a duchess. Just how 90 END OF THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY. TUSCAN LADY OF THE HIGH RENAISSANCE. NOTICE PARTICULARLY THE METHOD OF DRESS- ING THE HAIR AND THE MATERIALS OF THE DRESS. LAST HALF OF THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY. FLORENTINE RENAIS- SANCE LADY SIMPLY AND DECORATIVELY DRESSED. END OF THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY. MADONNA, SHOWING HOW IN CONCEPTION, EXPRESSION, AND COSTUME THE HUMANISTIC IDEA HAS SUPPLANTED THE SPIRITUAL. LATTER PART OF THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY. RENAISSANCE LADY RICHLY DRESSED. PARTICULAR ATTENTION IS CALLED TO THE KIND AND QUALITY OF THE JEWELS WORN, ALSO TO THE ARRANGEMENT OF THE HAIR AND TO THE DRESS MATERIALS. THE RENAISSANCE IN ITALY much like a duchess she actually was, or looked, when thus clothed, we are not told. An active imagination and present data may help us, however. In another document the writer bewails the senseless and ludicrous idolatry of whatever comes from France, though the fashions which were received from the French were said to have been seen first in Italy. In describing women Burckhardt, in his "Civilization of the Renaissance," remarks: "We may note in par- ticular the efforts of the women to alter their appearance by all the means which the toilet could afford. In no country of Europe since the fall of the Roman Empire was so much trouble taken to modify the face, colour of the skin, and the growth of the hair, as in Italy at this time. All tended to the formation of a conventional type, at the cost of the most striking and transparent deceptions. " No sort of ornament was more in use than false hair, often made of white or yellow silk. The law de- nounced and forbade it in vain. . . . "The ideal colour sought for both in natural and arti- ficial hair, was blond. And as the sun was supposed to have the power of making the hair of this colour, many ladies would pass their whole time in the open air on sunshiny days. Dyes and other mixtures were also freely used for the same purpose. Besides all these we meet with an endless list of beautifying waters, plasters, and paints for every single part of the face even for the teeth and eyelids of which in our day we can form no conception." Against this extravagance and "ungodly exploita- tion of themselves" the great church reformers hurled PSYCHOLOGY OF DRESS their anathemas and condemnations, and undoubtedly the uplift societies of their time gave them able as- sistance. "O women, by the unspeakable length of your trains, by your painted faces, your unseemly behaviour in holy places, your immodesty, etc.," thun- dered Fra Bernardino, and then he goes on to consign the people assisting in the practices or in the spread of these infections, to such places as he thought suited their particular needs. Both he and Savonarola had scaffold altars built in the public squares with a statue of the devil upon them, and they besought the people to become cleansed and saved by throwing their idols upon the altars, that they might be publicly burned. Many hundreds responded and in their "holy frenzy" committed their "earthly trumpery" to the flames. Frenzied conversions seemed to be of doubtful stability, however, for even in this case, all of Savonarola's elo- quence availed but for a very brief season, and we are assured that not only was his own downfall contingent upon, or greatly hastened by, his stand in this matter, but still worse, that these very converts soon became "wilder than before" and that "their shamelessness" was copied by many others who before had only looked on. As the madness for ornament increased we find ladies "spending their hours at their mirrors when they should have been attending to domestic duties." Others, we are told, were hours each day with a special- is't who treated and painted their faces and "frizzled and curled their hair." Lucrezia Borgia often spent c the entire day at her toilet, that she might surely out- shine any of her competitors when they assembled for their amusements in the evening. 92 THE RENAISSANCE IN ITALY A great lady, Caterina Sforza, collected more than five hundred recipes, more than one third of which were "magically charmed lotions" for the complexion. She highly recommends one of them a bath in the liquid obtained by the distillation of a whole dove with its feathers on, prepared with incantations. Ladies used vine-water, bean-water, rosemary, verjuice, verdigris, and oil of talc on their faces and the exposed parts of their necks and arms. This makes modern beauty specialists seem tame indeed. In Venice it is recorded that ladies were never at a loss for means to preserve the softness and beauty of their skin. They applied a slice of raw veal to their cheeks at night, after it had been soaked in fresh milk for several hours before using, and sometimes in alum water, extract of peach-stones, beans, lemon-seeds, breadcrumbs, and vinegar. A thousand rules existed to soften the hands and to make the nails rosy. The passion for perfumes developed into a mania. Every article of clothing, even for mourning, was per fumed and at festivals the horses and mules were highly scented. Venice records the universal use of musk- amber, aloes, myrrh, peppermint, jonquil, Indian plum, cinnamon, ammonum, cloves, and other scents for baths and lotions, and also for pouring about in public places. At about this time the first books on the toilet were published, and practitioners appeared, to relieve those who could afford it of the onerous duties of self make-up. This innovation is commented on as a great relief to the fine ladies who were already so "worn" by the ar- duous duties of self preparation that they were unable 93 PSYCHOLOGY OF DRESS to rise to the social responsibilities of amusement and enjoyment. Homage and thanks are undoubtedly forthcoming in every age for these delicate inventions which have relieved us from personal responsibility in such im- portant matters, that we may be entirely free to rest, meditate, and make ready for events of greater mo- ment. Another debt of gratitude to the Renaissance. It is obvious that although the consciousness of the High Renaissance was saturated with the highest ideals of culture, refinement and beauty, its appreciation and its creation, there were also present in the minds of men the same appetites, vanities, idolatries, and sense grat- ifications, peculiarly human and quite universal; and, as in previous and subsequent periods, these foibles and vanities found their most ready field for exploitation in matters pertaining to the costumes of the period, domi- nated as they were in the earlier part by sincerity, charm, and beauty; in the middle part by luxury, dig- nity, and richness ; and in the later decades by sumptuous- ness, show, and affectation. This last aspect was the beginning of the end so far as the pure ideal of the Renaissance could be expressed. It therefore remained for the rest of the century to prove the decline and spe- cific decay of this ideal and for the subsequent century to effect its dissemination, throughout Europe, and finally throughout the civilized world. ABOUT FIFTEEN HUNDRED. MALE COSTUME. NOTE POSSIBILITIES FOR ADAPTATION IN CUT AND MATERIALS AND IN THE HAT. EARLY SIXTEENTH CENTURY. CHARACTERISTIC FASHIONS OF THE FLORENTINE LADIES OF THIS PERIOD. CHAPTER THREE THE RENAISSANCE IN FRANCE AND ENGLAND UNCONSCIOUSLY at first and then consciously the great new force of humanism had by the middle of the fifteenth century become the all controlling urge of social life in Italy. Its expression was correspondingly subject to the consideration of convenience and com- fort, as well as luxury and show, as a natural sequence of the conscious knowledge of the physical needs and possibilities of the body in its relation to the material universe. Looked at from this angle of vision a new view of life became universal, the natural consequence being the organization of a different social expression that de- veloped so rapidly as to reach complete fruition in the first quarter of the next century. Alone and quite iso- lated from other countries this new institution sprang up and developed in Italy, based on the creeds of the ancients, interpreted in the new light of humanism, where the intellect and senses were finding an equal satisfaction, and the mediaeval spiritual idea lan- quished. It was, however, very different in the rest of Europe. We read of England as, by comparison with Italy, "a barbaric country, in which food and warlike prowess were the chief concerns of men." In France, 95 PYSCHOLOGY OF DRESS devastated by wars, with its spiritual ecstasy broken and no longer a source of power, the old system was still in a death struggle with newly awakened, unformu- lated, and unexpressed desires. The period of Louis XI (1461-1483) witnessed the final combat the details of which are perhaps too well in mind to require repetition. The contest between liberty and servitude, relics and reality, justice and revenge, reached its climax during the half frenzied reign of this, the strangest of all French kings, in whose time there was no firmly established social order to be expressed, though as in all evolution, every event was in reality a step in social progress toward the general ideal, since it was both a displacement of the old and a sug- gestion of the new. At the death of Louis XI in 1483, Charles VIII was but fourteen years old and wholly un- acquainted with conditions at home or elsewhere. For five years, while his sister Anne acted as Regent and his two brothers-in-law (one of whom, the Duke of Orleans, was appointed President of the Council) fought for supremacy in the state, Charles attempted to familiarize himself with the powers and possibilities of his new position. In 1488 he threw off the yoke of bondage to his sister, married Anne of Brittany, and tlms added the Duchy of Brittany to the French crown. Charles, still practically ignorant of the details of state, extremely imaginative and romantic, was, writes an admirer: "the sweetest prince that ever lived, but irresolute and impressionable"; a splendid subject to play the part in the Renaissance which he was destined to take. It was this monarch and his army of courtiers on the way to conquer Naples and win it back to the 96 THE RENAISSANCE IN FRANCE AND ENGLAND house of Anjou, to whom it had once belonged, who in passing through Milan found the Renaissance at its height at the court of Beatrice d'Este, learning and the arts supreme at Florence, and the church of Rome about convinced that a new aesthetic phase of holiness would prove vastly advantageous. Picture for a moment the surprise and amazement of these men, born and reared in the austere conditions under which the subjects of Louis XI lived, introduced as if by magic into the transcendent splendour and cul- ture of the High Renaissance in Italy. An interesting picture of the spiritual and economic conditions in the great cities of Italy is given us by Mary Duclaux in her short history of France, where she says: "There reigned a great wickedness in the beautiful cities of Italy and the people took the French for an army of de- liverers." Let us not only take the testimony of the French, but also quote as witnesses the words of Marin Sanudo, Venetian secretary: "There is no city in Italy, not Rome or Naples, not Milan, Florence, Bologna, Ferrara, nay not my own Venice even that is holier than the cities of the plain. But how beautiful were Sodom and Gomorrah! What angels were painted in the chapels of Florence where Savonarola in the pulpit welcomed with his fiery eloquence the coming of the French ! and Milan with the frescoes of Leonardo fresh upon the walls! And Ariosto at Ferrara! And Venice where the girl Madonnas of Gian Bellini were not yet all begun! And the pope at Rome was Borgia! and the preacher at Florence was Savonarola!" Amidst all this strange extravagance of beauty, vice, and virtue, the king of France moved like a 97 PSYCHOLOGY OF DRESS " quaint elfin child." Mary Duclaux goes on to tell how the French soldiers shied stones at Leonardo's study of Duke Sforza, and how the masses of common people praised the French for their deliverance, and how they wept with emotional delight. Women gave their jewels to pay the soldiers, and the men threw open the gates of the cities, that there might be no opposition to their taking whatever they chose, so worn and tired were they with the tyranny of the nobles that had made possible the poverty and the sumptuousness of this epoch. The effect was electrifying and the example contagious. While they marvelled they tried to un- derstand. With the brief success of Charles and his hasty return to France we are not concerned, but in the ideas, feelings, and actual materials which his soldiers took back with them to France, we have a deep interest, for this constituted the entering wedge that brought about the complete collapse of the old structure in France, so soon afterward followed by the enthusiastic reception and development of the Renaissance idea by Francis I and his court at the beginning of the sixteenth century. We recall that it was in France that the art called Gothic was indigenous, that here the idea of mediaeval- ism as an imaginative spiritual expression was most nobly and beautifully comprehended and externalized. An art, somewhat grave and to one who thinks in terms of purely human reality, perhaps a bit austere. Asceticism had developed the theory that the very existence of matter should be ignored. Painters and sculptors attenuated bodies until they represented an idea, not a reality. Clothes delicately draped upon the 98 THE RENAISSANCE IN FRANCE AND ENGLAND figures had the one purpose of serving to immaterialize the body. Greek art on the other hand sought to express by the body itself, its positions, its actions, and its draperies, all that was possible of natural material beauty. The Renaissance in Italy sought the union and balance of these two aims; but in its practices it showed what was likely to happen when human appetites and senses gave battle to the Greek spirit, which required sub- servience to the ideal of beautiful material development, instead of a mastery of both the spiritual and aesthetic ideals of mediae valism and of the Greeks. France, more thoroughly impregnated with the spirit of asceticism, more practically committed to the institution of Chivalry, and less influenced in the Middle Ages by the lives of the ancients, was like a disabled and partly wrecked ship, tossed about and lacking ob- jective, rudder, or wheel. The old formulas were dis- placed, no longer functioning, and the new were un- known, but the people themselves were keen, sensitive, and abnormally creative. The king, Charles VIII, went over heart, soul, and body to the vanities of the world. Official court life in France was given up to the pursuit of sensuous luxury, sumptuousness, frippery, and appetite enjoyment, to the despair of the Platonists or adherents to the classic, who immediately espoused the Greek conception of material culture rather than the Baroque ideal of Venice and Milan. Castiglione was, however, not very much moved by this failure of the French to grasp what he thought was the true sense of the Renaissance, for he says, "there are fools everywhere," and he might truthfully 99 PSYCHOLOGY OF DRESS have added in every time and concerned with every subject. Both of these conceptions were, however, trans- planted by Charles VIII and his army. Both were planted securely in France and both have developed in mortal combat with each other there and everywhere they have come together since; first one rising into prominence and dominating the creative and construc- tive thought, and then the other. How strongly every period is influenced by its literature, and how clearly literature shows the trend of thought in the period, we are aware. The enormous effect of the classic manuscripts of Italy, and the popularity of certain authors, was but hinted at in our treatment of the Renaissance in the last chapter. It seems that if we would understand the social art ex- pression of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries in France, or comprehend the peculiar charm of that of the eighteenth century, a particular reference to at least one writer among the Ancients is imperative. This is partly because of his ideal political scheme, but more particularly because of his theory of "Platonic love," which seemed to be exactly what the people both in Italy and France were looking for to express their new conceptions and to provide an unlimited field for personal experiment. Space here limits any considerable discussion of this theory, but necessity seemingly compels us to take its influence into full account in forming our conception of the transformation of all domestic relations, while a knowledge of its meaning and power is essential to an ordinary working imagination, in an attempt to con- 100 THE RENAISSANCE IN FRANCE AND ENGLAND ceive the Renaissance idea in France and its effect on social life. It is obvious that the visit of Charles VIII and his courtiers to Italy, particularly to the court of Lodovico at Milan, and to the republic of Florence, was important in opening the way for the development that soon came. Charles died in 1498, and Louis XII ascended the throne, which he occupied until 1515, when the ac- cession of Francis I took place. He, too, laid claim to the dukedom of Milan and sent an army to make good his demand. This was another link in the chain of circumstances which made the French familiar with the results of Renaissance life, before they had even con- ceived its idea. They, at the same time, saw some- thing of the workings of the ideal at close range and, contrasted with the somewhat antiquated and out- grown institutions under which they lived, it made an irresistible appeal both to their imagination and to their senses. In 1509 Venice fell to the French, and no doubt its luxury, its sumptuous follies, and its grandiose expression made a distinct appeal to those who never before had thought in such terms. It must be remembered at this point that the dis- covery of America in 1492, by diverting the trade of Spain, France, and England from the east to the west, effected the final ruin of the Italian states, Venice and Genoa in particular. This made them an easy prey to foreign invasion, and explains their loss of power and consequent decline of influence, which by the eighteenth century resulted in transferring creative art inspiration to France, whose art mode dominated civilized Europe. For his third wife Louis XII married Mary, daughter 101 PSYCHOLOGY OF DRESS of Henry VII (Tudor) of England. We may connect the movement in the two countries in this way, although no notable effect was felt in England until well into the reign of Henry VIII. A glimpse of the contagion of the idea of dress for personal effect, in France, may be had from a quotation which Ely, in his "Women of the Renaissance," attributes to Anne of France. "She was sure," he says, "that simplicity formerly had been pushed too far. To neglect to study appearance, to cultivate false modesty, is to commit an unseemly and most dishonest act. To dress must be considered a duty, said she." Another incident reveals the power of fashion and the benefits that accrue to him who follows or contributes thereto. From Italy came the mandate, high-necked ruffs only might be worn. The complexion and hands became objects of great care. The hair, before sadly neglected in France, was treated, and in the "mode of Venice." One historian tells us of the kindly ihought of Providence in furnishing Mary of England wim natural golden locks, thus saving her the trouble of making them so, and by this same ingratiating her into the hearts of all, because of this courtesy. It is related that by 1512 "fashion was omnipotent," in fact, we find Anne of France by this time violently rebelling against the mandate of "slim figures and insufficient coverings, stifling in summer and freezing in winter." She speaks of health and even life itself as being no longer con- sidered, and believed that if this should continue no woman could be long considered in her right mind. Another lady of the same court is made to say of fashion's power: "To the natural graces of a lady now 102 FIRST HALF OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY. DUKE OF FERRARA, SHOWING COSTUME OF A NOBLE OF THE HIGH RENAISSANCE. EARLY SIXTEENTH CENTURY. ITALIAN. RENAISSANCE COSTUMES WORN BY THE COURTESANS OF VENICE. THE SUGGESTION OF THE EMPIRE IN CUT, THE TREATMENT OF THE HAIR AND OF THE SLEEVES SHOULD BE OF PARTICULAR INTEREST. THE RENAISSANCE IN FRANCE AND ENGLAND they prefer a stuffed and padded ideal, for alas the majority of women a dialogue of Plato could not hold a candle to a conversation with a dressmaker," a remark that might find application later than the sixteenth century. More gradually, but as surely, the intellectuals gained in number, following the theory of Plato that the soul should be clothed instead of the body that is, he affirmed a relation between colour, form, and texture and the soul quality, or the quality of personality. His followers besought men to develop a soul personality and to express this in their clothes. This ideal was surely higher than the decadent conception of Venice, making a stronger appeal to the imagination and aesthetic sense of the best of the French people. It was consequently successful in the reign of Francis I, espoused by Madame d'Etampes and Dianne de Poitiers and other great ladies who formed the central group in determining the form of culture in the court of this great monarch. While not minimizing the importance of the work of Charles VIII and Louis XII in introducing France to the Renaissance, we remember that it was then in reality only an introduction to the practices and the crystallized results, not to the idea that produced them. It was at the court of Francis I (1515 to 1547) and of Henry II (1547 to 1559) that the newly presented ideal was nursed and grew up. Contemporary with Francis I was Charles V, Em- peror of Germany, King of Spain, Count of Flanders, and lord of all Italy. He was also controller of the wealth of the Indies, Peru and Mexico, while his 103 PSYCHOLOGY OF DRESS court was the richest in the world and his power tre- mendous. Henry VIII of England came to the throne in 1509, and was the third most important monarch in Christen- dom during this great period. The sixteenth century is the history of the development of complete political autocracy and of the adaptation of the Renaissance idea of social life to these countries, with the aid of all that was opened up by the discovery and exploration of the new world with its untold resources and its contribution of new materials and ideas. All the countries were closely associated with Rome through the Vatican. Leo X, a son of Lorenzo the Magnificent, was Pope, and he was no less committed to humanism and its practices than was his illustrious father, the only particular difference being that his was a more material humanism. This influence assisted in the dissemination of humanis- tic ideas. The court of Francis I was remarkable for its variety, brilliance, splendour, and its astonishing gaiety and freedom. An atmosphere of reserve, formality, and dignity had lingered even through the entire reign of Louis XII, but with the accession of Francis I full rein was given to the spread of the new imported ideas and the practices they inculcated. At this court were to be, found such literary geniuses as Clement Marot, the satirist and poet, who was valet de chambre to the king, and who was himself surrounded by other wits of lesser note of French and Italian origin. Marot himself has been called both the Spencer and the Chaucer of France. It is in this period, too, that Francois Rabelais lived and wrote his satirical romances 104 THE RENAISSANCE IN FRANCE AND ENGLAND in which he castigated the court and unmercifully pounded the clergy and the nobles for their vanity, frivolity, and unmanly conduct. His "History of Gargantua and Pantagruel" may be extravagant in its execution, but it seems to open the way to a somewhat transparent judgment of social conditions during his reign. This reign and that of Henry II are so closely associ- ated that they cannot be entirely divorced even from the first. The young Dauphin, Henry, at a very early age married Catherine de' Medici, of vivid memory, who was the daughter of Lorenzo de' Medici, Duke of Urbino, great grand daughter of Lorenzo the Magnifi- cent, and therefore closely related to two popes: Clement VII, who died two years after her marriage, and Leo X, both of whom were of the immediate family. Her marriage was arranged by the former, who used her in an intrigue with Charles V. Undoubtedly one of the cleverest, most sensible and most determined women in history, she was still a "woman of the bourgeoisie," hated by the French for her Italian origin as well as for her lowly birth, and wholly out of sym- pathy with the French mind and with the character of their newly adopted practices. In telling us of the tact and shrewdness of Catherine in gaining the confidence and esteem of the king, Noel Williams, in "Henry II, his Court and Time," writes: "At her urgent entreaty, he enrolled her in the * Petite Bande' that little company of beautiful, witty, and complaisant ladies, of whom Madame d'Etampes was the acknowledged chief, whose privilege it was to accompany the King on his visits to his differ- ent country-seats, to follow him in the chase, to dine and 105 PSYCHOLOGY OF DRESS sup at his table, to bandy jests with him (most of which, we fear, would scarcely bear repetition in a modern drawing-room) and, generally, to do their best to make him forget that he was now a middle-aged man in very indifferent health. From that time Catherine was seldom free from his Majesty's side, and was soon firmly established in the royal favour. "It is probable that Catherine's success with the King was facilitated by the fact that she had had the wit to insinuate herself into the good graces of two persons who possessed more influence with Frangois than all the rest of the Court combined. One was the Queen of Navarre, to whose kind heart the lonely, un- loved girl made an irresistible appeal, and whose sym- pathy, once enlisted on her side, she was careful to pre- serve by a skillful appearance of deference. The other was the reigning favourite, Madame d'Etampes, dame d* honneur to the princesses, without whose sanction no lady was ever admitted to the King's intimate circle." Catherine brought to France a dot of one hundred thousand crowns, besides an additional portion of thirty thousand crowns, added by Pope Clement VTI in return for her renunciation to him of all claims to the duchy of Urbino. She also inherited from her mother, a French woman, estates valued at ten thousand crowns a year. It is illuminating to find that one, Strozzi by name, loaned the pope eighty thousand crowns and took as security several pieces of jewellery, one of which was a "magnificent jewel," used as a clasp for the pontifical cope, which was made from a design by Collini. The next pope, Paul III, demanded that these 106 FIRST QUARTER OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY. ITALIAN. CHARM- ING DETAILS SUCH AS THE HAT, BODICE AND SLEEVES, REMIND US OF AN EPOCH IN ITALY WHEN NOTHING UGLY WAS CREATED. THE RENAISSANCE IN FRANCE AND ENGLAND be returned to the crown, since they were not personal property but belonged to the church. She also had a "magnificent trousseau" all stipulated in the marriage contract. "As to the trousseau," reads the contract, "'the Supreme Pontiff will, at his own discretion, furnish his illustrious relative with clothing, ornaments, and jewels. The jewels will also be valued, and a record of them preserved, in order that, in the event of her surviving her husband, he may be able to recover them or the price of them.' "Among these jewels were a set of immense pear- shaped pearls, which contemporary writers declare to have been worth a kingdom; but as a matter of fact, they had been purchased from a Lyons merchant, and were only valued at 900 crowns. These pearls were, many years later, given by Catherine to her daughter- in-law, Mary Stuart. . . . "The destiny of these pearls was a singular one, as after Mary's untimely end they were appropriated by Queen Elizabeth, who wore them without a blush, not- withstanding that they had originally come from a Pope, and had been blessed and consecrated by him." Upon the trousseau properly so called gowns, lingerie, and so forth no expense was spared, and everything was of the most regal magnificence. The praises bestowed by some historians upon the Pope's munificence toward his kinswoman are, however, scarcely deserved, since a considerable part of the ex- pense incurred appears to have been defrayed by the unfortunate Florentines. The social art of these two epochs was in the first half of the century centred around three women: Madame 107 PSYCHOLOGY OF DRESS d'Etampes, for many years the mistress of Francis I, and Dianne de Poitiers, who was first mistress of Francis I and then of Henry II both as Dauphin and as king, and Catherine de' Medici, the lawful wife of the Dauphin, and afterward queen of France. This phase of court life furnishes one of the most fascinating chapters in the history of French society between 1525 and 1550, looked at from any point of view. To this brilliant and, according to previously ac- cepted ideals, most profligate of courts, came the most beautiful and talented women of France, the most distinguished Italian philosophers, artists, poets, and great diplomats ; musicians and courtiers from Italy and from Spain, together with a great medley of social phenomena, never before assembled even in the most brilliant and spectacular days of Chivalry. Culture became a mania, the starved imagination and senses of France revelling in a newly found means of satisfaction. Very early in the period the court became divided into two distinct parties, called the "Lilacs" and the "Blues." The leader and chief exponent of the former was Madame d'Etampes, who collected about her a very liberal, luxurious and worldly set of followers. These es- poused the Renaissance for its freedom in religious and social matters and for the sense pleasure it afforded. The leader of the "Blues" was Dianne de Poitiers who though rigidly religious, and a woman of unusual intel- lect, great poise and beauty, showed a remarkable pre- dilection for luxury. She was shrewd and determined, was twenty years older than the Dauphin, and as un- principled as she was cultured and religious. The path of her ascendency over Madame d'Etampes and Cath- 108 THE RENAISSANCE IN FRANCE AND ENGLAND erine has been the subject of many books. Her influ- ence on the art of the Renaissance in France can scarcely be imagined. The Dauphin, naturally one of her strongest adherents, being insignificant and incapa- ble, left the social side of his court entirely to these two estimable women to develop. Catherine, before the death of Frances I was practi- J^ cally powerless so far as self expression was concerned, but she was no less determined on her course, no less prepared to make herself felt when the time arrived, nor was she one whit less committed to the Italian idea than when she arrived in France. Constantly sur- rounded by strictly Italian influences she established a set with a taste for Italian forms wholly outside of the two French interpretations of the Italian conception that were developing side by side with her version of it. The last decade of the reign of Henry II saw this idea begin to dominate, and after his death, while Catherine in actuality was the ruler of France, till the accession of Henry IV in 1589, it completely held the court. It is not possible to divorce costumes from the life of this great era, or from the palace which was the setting for the costumes, they in turn being the more intimate settings for the beautiful and brilliant women who directed the development of the period. It was in 1530, during this reign, that the hoop for the yo of men, or at least of the great majority, the use of white paint and rouge makes them hideous and disgusting; and that rouge by itself, both ages and disguises them/ We are not told that it made any difference whatever what the men thought, and from our own experience we "imagine there was nothing to tell. The probability is they painted on, increasing in skill, and that in the end the stern sex bowed submissively to fashion's mandate and woman's whim even if naught of nature remained by which a human being could be identified. Mme. de Sevigne describes a dress given to Mme. de Montespan as "a gown of gold upon gold material, in gold, bor- dered with gold upon which was a band of gold mixed with a particular kind of gold, and forming the most divine material that could ever be imagined." This is interesting to contrast with a description given of Mile, de la Valliere in 1660, who was dressed in white, "simply embroidered with gold stars and leaves in Persian stitches, and a pale blue sash tied in a large knot below the bosom. In her fair waving hair, falling in 165 PSYCHOLOGY OF DRESS profusion about her neck and shoulders, she wore flow- ers and pearls mixed together. Two large emeralds shone in her ears, and her arms were bare and encircled above the elbow by a gold open work bracelet set with opals." By 1670 women of rank were all wearing an under- skirt of glace satin, with an overskirt trailing behind and carried over the left arm. Sleeves were short, puffed, and trimmed profusely with lace and ribbon. Bodices reached to the hips, fitting at the waist. The underskirts had two rows of trimming and the overskirt one. As the century progressed costumes became more and more a symbol of rank, and less and less individual in their conception, so that by 1683, or the beginning of the third period in the development of this grand style, the court became weary of ceremonial restrictions. By 1700 these were boring them to extinction as well as the heavy and hypocritical "outward observances" inaugurated by Mme. de Maintenon and rigidly in- sisted on after her marriage to the king, by which she, through the king, sought to control not only the con- science of the court but the outward manifestation of life as well. She thought perchance to atone through "precise observance" for a part of the wrongs already committed. This wrote the final chapter in this par- ticular manifestation of seventeenth century material- ism. "Towards 1700," writes Michelet, "the women of the time no longer show the classic features of a Ninon, or a Montespan, nor the rich development that they so freely displayed. But, the devil was no loser. If backs and shoulders are concealed from our gaze, the 166 SEVENTEENTH CENTURY: ITALY small portion that we are permitted to admire, and that is, as it were, offered to our inspection, is but the more attractive. There is a sort of audacity about the un- covered brow, the hair drawn back so as to show its every root, the high comb, or the diadem-cap, that seems little in harmony with the soft and childish feat- ures of the day. This childishness, so devoid of inno- cence, combined with the masculine Steinkirk, gives them the appearance of pets of the seraglio, or of impu- dent pages who have stolen women's garments." The social life of this, the great period, of Louis XIV, was well founded on a system of ceremonial formalism, and its expression was adequately crystallized in terms of gorgeous materialism, awesome and grandiose, but without soul, and at its end without even the attraction of individual or personal charm. The story of the seventeenth century in Italy is a recital of the epidemic in art expression known as the Baroque. The art expression of the sixteenth century was idealistic and optimistic even if it was sometimes heavy and gorgeous, while that of the seventeenth cen- tury was pompous and fanatically materialistic. It had its birth in the gradual decay of the ideals of the Renaissance . and in the general revolt of individualism against classicism. Vernon thus describes this arrog- ant new manifestation of flamboyant materialism: "It signified a revolt of individualism against classic rules, a craving after novelty, an avoidance of simplicity at whatever cost, too often merely culminating in the bizarre. . . . Classical fronts are put to old churches, the architraves often without any building behind them; the orders of architecture are hopelessly 167 PSYCHOLOGY OF DRESS mixed ; columns of fantastic shapes are painted or decor- ated with bronze; sometimes they are broken, some- times appear to fall, but are supported by a muscular angel. In one case at least they stand upside down. There are crooked lines, uneven angles, ornaments used as supports, the heavy parts made to appear light. Painted imitations of marble vaunt themselves shame- lessly. The colossal is admired simply on account of its size. And it is all over-loaded with decoration; statues stand at every corner, sit on cornices, peep under arches. Fat, simpering angels sprawl and wave fluttering inscriptions. Poly chromic decoration is im- mensely popular; its apotheosis is reached in the Chapel in S. Lorenzo built as their family mausoleum by the Medici Dukes, and covered all over with patterns in coloured marble and precious stones. Sculpture and painting show the same tendency to frenzied agitation, strained attitudes, flying garments, over-loaded detail. Some artists incline toward false sentimentality, others toward a disagreeable realism, loving to depict the horrors of martyrdom, and ministering to the most depraved tastes under the pretence of aiding devotion." The Baroque was found in any place where the church or social life stood panting for a new sensation, and creative invention promised to satisfy its demand. It flourished most, perhaps, at Rome, Venice, and Naples, although there are some other local manifesta- tions quite as individual and just as interesting. Rome is, however, usually called "the cradle of the Baroque style." During the first half of the century Italy was practi- cally in the hands of Spain, which had an ever-increasing 168 SEVENTEENTH CENTURY: ITALY influence until about 1650, at which time French influ- ence began to make itself felt, becoming, by the end of the century, or at least early in the eighteenth cen- tury, practically supreme. Naturally, then, the first half of the century was a struggle to express in terms of material the half Italian, half Spanish, stilted and grandiose life which had grown up in Italy under Span- ish rule, and to do so in such a manner as to conform to the prevailing anti-classic attitude. "Ingenious invention" was ever active and in the decorative excesses and blatant extravagance of this period may be discovered the motifs which formed the basis for most of the decorative designs throughout Europe, during this and a part of the eighteenth century. Beyond this there was still in Italian consciousness that sensitiveness to beauty, that experience of the Renaissance with its exquisite taste development and that inborn respect and love for the best, that forbade even Venice a complete surrender to the sweeping hurricane of the Baroque. Molmenti has this to say of the matter: "But in Venice, even in the Seicento, in the midst of the flood of barocco which threatened to sweep all be- fore it, we may still discover a limpid stream of purest taste. The early art found its votaries, and the works of the old masters and antique objects of virtu were sought for and collected with loving discrimination by patricians, prelates, bankers, and merchants. "This rich store of precious objects began to stimulate the cupidity of foreign amateurs, and to rouse the greed of gain in the breasts of certain degenerate Ven- etians, and there came into being that trafficking in 169 PSYCHOLOGY OF DRESS works of art which the Republic endeavoured with some success to hold in check." At the close of the century a demand arose for the formation of an academy to preserve the art treasures of Venice from foreign spoliation, and we are told to our gratification that when England, France, or other countries wanted to acquire and use Venetian art masterpieces, Venice saw to it that they paid a good round price for the thing which they could not them- selves produce. Notwithstanding the influence of Spain in Italy, Venice, "the majestic city of the sea," continued well toward the middle of the seventeenth century, to hold a position of individuality because of her geographic position, form of government, and her traditions re- garding wealth, fashion, and amusement. The city was filled with places of entertainment to suit the taste of every type of mind and "every degree of moral shadow." It is said that every "satiated rake" in Europe found his way at some time during the year to Venice, where no matter what his state of mind, it was sure to find a new channel and to experience a new sensation. This condition of abandon to sense enjoy- ment, perhaps the most complete yet seen, is to be considered as contrasted against a background of art and culture of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, and in the light also of an all too evident truth that Venice had reached the zenith of her power, and that already the slow decay and disintegration of this great and ancient civilization had set in, although for a century or more yet the laugh and revel went on loud and ever more hectic, until by the end of the eighteenth 170 MIDDLE OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. CHARACTERISTIC FASH- IONS OF THIS PERIOD FROM NORTHWESTERN EUROPE. MIDDLE OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. GERMAN. THE AP- PLICATION OF FOREIGN FASHION AND DECORATION CHARACTERIS- TICALLY WORKED OUT. ABOUT THE MIDDLE OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. SPANISH. THIS ILLUSTRATION SHOULD BE COMPARED WITH EACH OF THE FIVE PRECEDING ONES. PAST THE MIDDLE OF THE - SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. FRENCH. CONSIDER THE SUBTLE RELATIONSHIP AND THE RESTORATION OF THE IDEA OF A HUMAN BODY TO CLOTHE INSTEAD OF TO HANG MATERIALS ON. SEVENTEENTH CENTURY: ITALY century it had entirely spent itself. The manifestation of this great civilization in the form of architecture and other visual arts alone remains to awe us, &nd to stimu- late an imagination seeking in vain to comprehend the "glory that was hers," and the vast range of semi- barbarism, culture, and sensuality that she had lived through and contributed to some extent to other peoples less finely strung, less fortunately situated, less richly endowed, and less self-indulgent. Amidst all this the fact remains that an art sense lingered still, active in spite of the triumph of sensual- ism. It is this fact that lends a charm, a positive fascination, in fact, to the Venetian social arts, material as they are, that is perhaps wanting in the same material expression of the seventeenth century in France and absent entirely in that of England, particularly in that pertaining to the first half of the century. French and Spanish fashions came into Venice after the middle of the century. At first they were accepted in principle only, but rendered in terms of Venetian feeling and appreciation, the same magnificent materials exquisitely used, the same gorgeous colours combined in the same taste. The established habits of class distinc- tion, too, seem to have been little disturbed at first. Gradually, however, as the pompous and stilted power of the new Spanish aristocracy made itself felt, and as the magnificent machine of Louis XIV began to func- tion, extending its influence to every country of Europe, the fashions of Spain and France were accepted in letter as well as spirit, and imitations of foreign man- ners, customs, and habits were followed by an earnest attelnpt at imitation in dress. 171 PSYCHOLOGY OF DRESS Molmenti says that "the gown or toga always re- mained obligatory for the patricians, though it gradu- ally lost its popularity in spite of its becomingness." The nobles adopted the fashion of leaving the black toga open in front, to show off their gay and highly coloured garments underneath, and later in the century they threw it off as soon as they left the council chamber that their finery might be visible; in this is seen the complete surrender by the Venetian aristocracy to fashion's dictates and folly's whims. Another author- ity says: "Fashion in fact became more and even more licentious, until a writer of the Seicento expresses a doubt whether the young men of Italy intend to change their sex altogether." Another satirist paints "the young bloods of Venice" in most discouraging terms of complete capitulation to the senses and to the vulgar show of effeminacy. The Venetian nun, Arcangela Tarabotti, tells us that the men were far vainer than the women and decked themselves out in plush, velvet, and damask, in shirts of the finest linen trimmed with Mechlin lace, "all bedizened with braid, with gold and silver tags, with lace, with rings, English hose, tight shoes which gave them small feet, and at the points enormous rosettes, embroidered sashes around their waists and with braces to keep up their breeches." After the middle of the century when the French fashions had begun to make themselves felt we read "that effeminate French costumes of doublet and J waistcoat" were coming into fashion. They were made of embroidered silk and were worn with white silk stockings and shoes, with gold or silver buckles, a 172 SEVENTEENTH CENTURY: ITALY three cornered hat, and ruffles of lace at the wrists and breast. The coat was made of silk or cloth. This fashion in its entirety was adopted both by the nobles and by the middle class who vied with the nobles for "a first place in ostentation." It seems that in Venice as in France young people began to plaster their hair with pomatum and also to cover it with powder, a practice which was character- ized as "scarlet and wanton." Only a little later they were found with "silver back combs, rouge pots, scissors, pins, curling irons, brushes, soap and looking glasses, and a thousand other accessories to cope with feminine neatness." Tarabotti rebukes those who curl their beards and moustaches with curling tongs and paste them shiny with citron. Another writer declares that "a man without a beard is hardly worthy of the name of man, his beard being the greatest proof of his manhood." In 1657 one, Foscari, was berated for being such a boor, an ancient and one opposed to all progress because he still wore a beard and cut his hair. These several comments oh the fashions of the sterner sex are recorded to vary the monotony of always illustrating the trend of style by the idiosyncrasies of the ladies of the day, and also because the decades of the last half of the century in their completeness, as enriched by the ancient grandeur of Venice, are better seen from this angle. The change from the haughty grandeur of the fifteenth and sixteenth century nobles, and the calm and dignified simplicity of the middle classes, to the sensuous materialistic deca- dence of the seventeenth century marks one of the strang- est swings of nature's pendulum recorded in history. 173 PSYCHOLOGY OF DRESS Of amusements the Venetians were inordinately fond. Much time was spent by them in music, the- atricals, and dancing. Feasting and gaming of all sorts were universal. Dining-tables were always set for un- expected guests who might come in at any time, nobles vying with one another to see who could have the most noted visitors and produce the most "costly and succulent meals." In the country villas of the patricians life was as gay as in Venice itself. Molmenti thus describes one of these entertainments : "In the Seicento the Procurator Marco Contarini gave a series of simply amazing theatrical performances in his villa at Piazzola. In November, 1679, Dr. Piccioli's drama, Le Amazzoni nelle Isole Fortunate, set to music by Carlo Pallivincino, was put on the stage; and the following year and in the same month the Berenice Vendicativa, set to music by Domenico Freschi. Invitations were issued to princes, both foreign and Italian, to ambassadors, nobles, Venetian ladies and gentlemen of the mainland. The hall was capable of holding a thousand persons, and was lit with wax candles; the boxes were adorned with gilded stucco and mirrors, while on each side of the stage stood two great statues of elephants. The curtain was of crimson vel- vet with gold lace for the first performance and of gold- coloured velvet for the second. When the curtain rose, all the lights were extinguished in the hall, and the stage alone appeared brilliantly illuminated. There were three hundred performers, and coaches, tri- umphal cars, and as many as one hundred horses crowded the stage." 174 SEVENTEENTH CENTURY: ENGLAND We read with amazement of the hosts of coaches, berlins, sedan chairs, carved and gilded, with the coachman and other lackeys in brilliant liveries of gold colour and lace. Coaches were lined with velvet and damask and some were set with precious stones. To picture in imagination these villas with their enchanting gardens, their gaily decorated rooms, and the care-free people seeking only amusement, sense enjoyment, and appetite satisfaction through show and more show, is to sense in part the quality of the particular brand of materialism that Venice contributed to that powerful wave which completely engulfed the ideal of the Renaissance, matured to ripeness the mad conceptions of the Baroque, and prepared this city and its people for the wild orgies in which they completely lost them- selves during the social development of the eighteenth century. To attempt to trace the Baroque in Rome, or in any other large city of Italy, would require a chapter by it- self. Suffice it to say that the principles involved were the same in all cases, the results identical in quality though differing in material, and that while trying to reach the spirit through the senses, the church has left us a record of its success in its bombastic churches, papal tombs, Baroque accessories to the ceremonial, and in the records of the lives of those who participated in the development of this ideal. NC In spite of Spanish and Italian influences during the reign of Henry VIII, with German and Flemish in the days of Elizabeth, England was, at the beginning of the seventeenth century, still just about as English as she was a century before. True, the country had accepted 175 PSYCHOLOGY OF DRESS some of the new culture as developed under Renaissance influence, and these ideas had slowly percolated into the lives of the nobles, taking some hold on the minds of the middle classes, particularly the intellectuals and the great traders. This was not, however, wholehearted as it was in France. These ideas were not allowed to displace natural traditions in an organized form. This last fact, that is, the determination of British mind to preserve inviolate not only British ideas and traditions but British ideals of individual liberty of thought and of action, is clearly seen. That is the principal reason for the lack of organized development in Britain which many critics have noted, and is also the real reason for the special, individual high lights in some forms of British art, as well as for the in- different and clumsy art attitude of the masses of the people, be they high or low in the social scale. This same individual ideal, in part at least, accounts also for the failure to crystallize a monarchic social life so that the art expression of it should be a homo- geneous organized unit. Instead, the buying of art objects is left to an expert with a keen intellectual sense of their intrinsic and money value (even unto this day) while foreign fashions are accepted, and foreign objects of art are used to express their ideas of fashionable social life. In 1603 the Tudor dynasty was finished. James I, the first of the Stuarts, ascended the throne. From this reign on we connect in an intimate way the develop- ment of American Colonial life with the life of the older European countries, particularly with England and France, both of whose ideals were to play an im- 176 SEVENTEENTH CENTURY: ENGLAND portant part, but in which those of England were to become dominant. This, too, is the reign in which Shakespeare died, Bacon was active, the Thirty Years War was begun in England, and most important of all, the contest between the religious factions Romanists, the established church, and the Protestant dissenters which lasted in one form or another for a century or more, greatly influenced social life, and consequently its expression in clothes. For James I himself there is nothing agreeable to say, for his queen nothing either way, so that any social development within the court worthy of note was im- possible. An English writer of fashion says: "The reign of James the First is not very fertile in fashions, and that monarch did not introduce a single new one into England. He himself cared not for adorn- ing his person; on the contrary, a love of ease and com- fort seems to have banished from his mind all wish for vain attire. His usual costume was a doublet, quilted so thick that it could resist the thrust of a dagger, and his lower garments were plaited and stuffed to the ut- most extent. But when out hunting, his favourite dress much resembled modern trousers. The ruff, too, was not forgotten, and he sometimes wore a hat and feather, but was highly incensed when one of his attendants wished him to wear a Spanish hat, and also with the prevailing mode of placing roses on the shoes, which he said made him look like a ruff-footed dove." It is said that when James came to the throne there was in the wardrobe of royalty in the Tower of London an im- mense stock of dresses belonging to many of the ancient kings, but that he in his parsimony and bad taste dis- 177 PSYCHOLOGY OF DRESS posed of them all, much to the disgust of those for whom they had either a "sentimental or a curious" interest. These two adjectives are illuminating, as well as the incident of James's disposition of the royal wardrobe. The quality of the ruler, however, did not prevent the natural vanities of the people from some manifestation in the matter of costume. We find them wearing silk garters, puffed in great knots below the knees, with yellow silk stockings, and their cloaks were embroidered heavily. On the other hand they did away with ex- pensive ruffs and took to broad square pointed linen collars without plaits or lace, as ugly no doubt as the ideals that inspired them. These were starched with a yellow starch imported from France. One of the events of the reign was the marriage of the Princess Elizabeth to the Prince Palatine. We find her clothed very simply on this occasion in "white vestments" with her hair hanging down her back, and only one ornament, a diamond set in jewels. In contrast to this simplicity is the description of the costume of a man who went as ambassador to the court of France after the death of Louis XIII, in 1610: "The cloak and hose were of fine beaver, richly em- broidered in silver and gold, particularly the cloak, within and without, nearly to the cape. The doublet was cloth of gold, embroidered so thick that it could not be discerned, and a white beaver hat, suitable, full of embroidery above and below." One important thing shows that even this court at- titude could not wholly control the longing for an idol to exploit. This is shown by the introduction of foreign lace which by the end of the reign became a mania, 178 SAME EPOCH AS THE PRECEDING ILLUSTRATION. A NATIVE ENGLISH TASTE ADAPTING FRENCH FASHION ON FRENCH GROUND. COM- PARE WITH PRECEDING FOR FEELING. ABOUT THE SAME EPOCH AS THE TWO PRECEDING ILLUSTRATIONS, WITH WHICH THIS ONE SHOULD BE SEEN. ITALIAN. THIRD QUARTER OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. VENETIAN. THE PERIOD OF LOUIS XIV IN FRANCE, WITH VENETIAN AND EASTERN MATERIALS AND FEELING. LATE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. FRENCH. MILITARY SOCIAL FASH- IONS AT A TIME IN THE PERIOD OF LOUIS XIV ARE WELL PICTURED HERE. SEVENTEENTH CENTURY: ENGLAND lasting well through the century, as evidenced by the costumes of the reign of Charles I and Charles II, and by Vandyke's portraits. The amount of lace used, and the detailed way in which it is treated, show how im- portant this item of apparel was then considered. If the period of James I lacked the inspiration of art or fashion, that of Charles I beginning in 1625 made up for lost time. The king himself, a fashionable devotee, married Henrietta of France, daughter of Marie de' Medici, whose inherited taste and early training were not calculated to curtail the king's desire for sumptuous show or extravagant display. The French court now became the seat of manners and the source of fashions. The idiosyncrasies of the English king and his favourites were the avenues for its infiltration. About the end of the last reign appeared the fashion for men of wearing ear-rings and also "roses stuck in the ears." The fashion was carried over and fitted the mental state of this reign very well. Many great changes also came about. The hair, for example, was worn well down on the forehead, well parted, and the notorious "love-lock" (a curl on the left side of the head longer than the rest of the hair) was invented by the king himself. This innovation it is said caused more commotion among the "staid people of the country" than anything the king had done thus far. With the adoption of this queer fashion beards began to disappear and the faces were finally clean shaven. This is a comfort when we remember the love-lock. In general the old stiff collars went and the new soft falling collars of the Vandyke style came in their place. Doublets were still fashionable, slashed, puffed, and 179 PSYCHOLOGY OF DRESS embroidered. The sleeves were also slashed and bright coloured satins were puffed in. Lace dangled at the wrists. The most striking fashion, though, was the introduction of the trunk hose which an authority thus describes: "At the time when trunk hose came in fashion, some young men used to stuff them so with rags and other like things, that you might find some that used such inventions to extend them in compass with certainly as great eagerness as the women of all classes did take pleasure to wear enormous, great, and stately verding- ales; for this was the same affectation, being a kind of verdingale hose." The sugar loaf hat was worn, powders and perfumes were adopted and the " delights of feminine toilet" be- came the fashion for men. John Bulwer quotes this comment on the dressing of the hair: "Our gallant witty noddles are put into such a pure witty trim, the dislocations of every hair so exactly set, the whole bush so curiously candied, and (what is most prodigious) the natural jet of some of them so exalted into a perfect azure, that their familiar friends have much to do to own their faces; for by their powdered heads you would take them to be meal- men." Peck, the antiquarian, says that he has a portrait of Charles I and adds that the costume portrayed was the usual dress of men with the addition of "thin flimsy Spanish leather boots." His description follows: "He wore a falling band, a short green doublet, the arm-part towards the shoulders wide and slashed, zig- zag, turned-up ruffles, very long green breeches, tied far 180 SEVENTEENTH CENTURY: ENGLAND below the knee with long yellow ribbons, red stockings, great shoe-roses, and a short red cloak, lined with blue, with a star on the shoulder." The fashionable peculiarities of the ladies of the period are pretty well embodied in the following rather extraordinary questions propounded by one of the con- temporary writers of the time: "Why do they adorn themselves, with so many colours of herbs, fictitious flowers, curious needle- workes, quaint devices, sweet-smelling odours; with those inestimable riches of precious stones, pearls, rubies, diamonds, emeralds, etc.? Why do they crown themselves with gold and silver, use coronets and tires of several fashions, deck themselves with pendants, bracelets, ear-rings, chains, girdles, rings, pins, spangles, embroideries, shadows, rebatoes, versicolour ribands? Why do they make such glorious shows with their scarfs, feathers, fans, masks, furs, laces, tiffanies, ruffs, falls, calls, cuffs, damasks, velvets, tinsels, cloths of gold and silver tissue? . . . It is hard," continues the same writer, "to derive the abominable pedigree of cobweb lawn, yellow-starched ruffs, which so much disfigured our nation, and render them so ridiculous and fantastical." Gowns had very long trains and left the shoulders entirely bare. Heels of shoes were so high that Cowley declares that ladies of quality can no longer walk except some one lead them. Earrings, bracelets, necklaces, rings, and every kind of jewellery are frequently men- tioned; buttons set in diamonds, emeralds, and rubies were used, and one man is rebuked for having no less than twenty-five suits of clothes with far too much fine 181 PSYCHOLOGY OF DRESS lace upon them, and for bedecking himself with sundry jewels. These are some among other extravagant and queer exhibitions of an inordinate appetite for material dis- y, without judgment or reason. They are the distinctly recognizable echoes of the French court ' during the influence of Marie de' Medici, and the sensu- ous ideas and mannerism from far-off Venice, whose fashions yet found some place in English taste. But all this was not English. It was but the mate- rialism of the century, epidemic and infectious, brewed and disseminated throughout Christendom, and ex- pressed by each nation and each individual in its own peculiar way, with its own particular weakness, and with its own avenues of filtration for the ideas which others were expressing. The reign of Charles I happened to furnish the avenue for French infiltration, and the quality of the court consciousness provided the particular character- istics necessary for a weak imitation of this imported expression. Puritanism was still alive in England and at this juncture saw its golden opportunity in the execution of Charles I in 1649. As it was then conceived it was well embodied in Cromwell, Bunyan, Milton, and other intellectual, religious, and political aspirants. The history of the next ten or twelve years tells the story of the struggle, political, religious, and social, between the two opposing ideals of Charles I and Oliver Cromwell, Lord Protector of England. The latter is described as a very frugal and devout man, modest in his clothes and simple in his habits, and we would respectfully add, 18-2 SEVENTEENTH CENTURY: ENGLAND without a sign of aesthetic sense (if such a thing may be) and with no respect whatever for the beautiful expres- sion of any other idea than his own, and none for that, for it had none. He usually wore black or gray with trunk hose, a scarf around his waist, long top-boots and a gray hat. We notice, however, with regret, that he always preferred velvet to cloth. Worldly tastes of the old days lingered, however, for one of the courtiers complains bitterly that since Cromwell came, the costumes are entirely despoiled of puffings, slashings, ribbands, and jewels. He might find comfort, though, in remembering that the matter of costume was not the only one in which the Lord Pro- tector indulged in indiscriminate spoliation. One courtier persisted and wore a buff very highly orna- mented coat with silver trimmings, slashed sleeves stuffed with satin, trunk hose trimmed with lace, and russet boots, a costly lace collar and a sash of gold lace. Thus did the vanity of man survive even the mandates of puritanism. A portrait of a lady, done in 1652, shows the hair combed flat, braided in the back and fastened with a knot. Her neck is covered with a richly ornamented handkerchief with deep lace, and her cuffs are of the same. She has slashed sleeves and a large fan. The affectation of a modest and simple humility was, how- ever, the general rule, and right becoming it was to many a person no doubt, as it had been to a limited few in periods before, and has been in later epochs in the march of human development. Again the pendulum swung as Charles II returned to England in 1660. From this date to his death in 1685, 183 PSYCHOLOGY OF DRESS and really to the flight of James II in 1688 (which period may also be discussed in general terms with that of Charles II), the climax of French influence was reached, a complete surrender to fashion took place and the extravagance of the country was more excessive than at any other time. This leaves but one decade of the seventeenth century yet unexpressed. If the costumes of the period called Charles I were French styles filtered through English mind and ex- pressed in gorgeous fashion quite un-English, those of Charles II certainly were no less French, but the British mind had become appreciably less dominant. One's conception of the period is stretched to the very point of the grotesque, as one tries in vain to comprehend the relation between the type of human being clothed, and the clothes that were hung upon it. Particularly is this true of the gentleman of that time. As early as 1658 the "petticoat breeches," already the vogue at Versailles, crossed the Channel and invaded the realm of Cromwellianism, which was still floundering in the aftermath of the French fashions of Charles I and his court. This garment, it is said, was not so far removed from the Scotch kilts of our day and genera- tion, and therefore of course was "picturesque and perfectly reasonable," but, as a contemporary writer remarks, when they began to ornament them heavily with ribbands up to the pockets and around the waist, wearing a ruffled under petticoat with the lace hanging down below, and the shirt hanging over the outside of this, it was too much for the stolid and well mannered English to bear even when worn by one of the "Ex- quisites," a by-product of about 1670. It is only fair 184 SEVENTEENTH CENTURY: ENGLAND to say at this point that the fashion disappeared before the close of the reign, and even Charles is described as wearing a suit all of one colour except the waistcoat, and with scarcely any lace. This was after the "Self- denial" period of Mme. de Maintenon was inaugurated at Versailles, however, which no doubt somewhat in- fluenced the impressionable Charles and his satellites. A contemporary historian tells us the "Noblemen, gentlemen, learned divines, military heroes, grave judges and elderly lawyers all followed eagerly in the steps of fashion." Lady Fanshaw thus describes the costume of her husband, who was ambassador and was received in audience by Philip IV of Spain: "Then came my husband in a very rich suit of clothes of a dark phillamot brocade, laced with silver and gold lace, nine laces, every one as broad as my hand, and a little silver and gold lace laid between them, both of very curious workmanship. His suit was trimmed with scarlet taffeta ribbands; his stockings of white silk, upon long scarlet silk ones; his shoes black, with scarlet shoe- strings, and garters. His linen very fine, laced with rich Flanders' lace. A black beaver buttoned on the left side, with a jewel of 1200 1. value. A rich, upright, curious gold chain, made at the Indies, at which hung the king his master's picture, richly set with diamonds, and cost 300 L, which his majesty in his grace and favour had been pleased to give him on his coming from Portugal. On his fingers he wore two rich rings. His gloves were trimmed with the same ribbands as his clothes, and his family were richly clothed, according to their several qualities." Pepys' diary, however, describes a coat of the same 185 PSYCHOLOGY OF DRESS time as quite like those of our day, and he speaks of a suit of clothes all of one material. This seems to be a decided reaction from the accepted mode. "Paint and powder were supreme," writes a critic, and "noth- ing is really fashionable unless it comes from France." Another writer declared that "we are so much addicted to strange apparel that there is scarcely anything Eng- lish about us." This man seems to have struck the nail practically on the head. Not only was there not anything English in the fashions, the materials, or their uses, but there was no strictly English sense or feeling in their adoption or exploitation of these things, and herein lies the psychological interest in the phe- nomenon. The same writer goes on to say: "And how much girdles, gorgets, wimples, cauls, crispings, pins, veils, rails, frontlets, bonnets, bracelets, necklaces, slops, slip- pers, round-tires, sweet-balls, rings, earrings, mufflers, glasses, hoods, lawn, musks, civets, rose-powders, gessamy butter, complexion waters, do cost in our days many a sighing husband doth know by the year's ac- count," which sensation evidently doth reappear from time to time unto this day. Many gowns at this time began to resemble draperies and were worn very low over the shoulders and in front, with slashed sleeves and plenty of jewels. The head was trimmed with ribbands, jewel bands, and a long curled lock of hair called a "heart-breaker." Consider if you please this "heart-breaker" and the "love-lock" of the gentlemen, and an odd impression results. Doublets >f gold and silver tissue, robes of blue and crimson interwoven with gold or silver and ornamented 186 LATE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. THE TRANSITION TO THE FIRST OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY STYLES IS WELL GIVEN IN MATERIAL, CUT, AND LACK OF HEAVY ORNAMENTATION. NEAR THE END OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. FRENCH. THE TRANSITION IS CLEARLY MADE HERE TO CLOTHES DESIGNED FOR THE HUMAN FIGURE, WITH A DECORATIVE SENSE. SEVENTEENTH CENTURY: ENGLAND in gold patterns, long mantles of richest silk adorned with precious stones and caps of velvet with heavy flung plumes are often mentioned as belonging to the general dress of the nobles in this age of splendid show. After a time the gentlemen and ladies both so completely out- stripped the fashionable Charles at his own game that he made a solemn and public declaration of what he himself would wear in the future, thinking thus no doubt to curb in some measure the headlong extravagance of his people. Let us see what Evelyn says in his diary of the king's good resolution in standardizing his clothes : "1666, October 18th. To court. It being the first time his majesty put himself solemnly into the Eastern fashion of vest, after the Persian mode, with girdle and straps, and shoe-strings and garters into bouckles, of which some were set with precious stones, resolving never to alter it, and to leave the French mode, which had hitherto obtained to our great expense and re- proach. Upon which divers courtiers and gentlemen gave his majesty gold, by way of wager, that he would not persist in this resolution." It is not recorded that he was altogether successful until the English fashion of "preserving an outward appearance of restraint" in material show began to take effect, then its spirit was caught somewhat, as other fashions were. Very soon, however, a new influence was injected into the situation under the reign of William and Mary, when another combination of causes produced different results. Under James II there were detailed changes of ex- pression but little change in mental attitude, and thus the Stuart line went out, with a record for lack of cul- 187 PSYCHOLOGY OF DRESS ture as expressed in classicism, but an admiration for the material things of life expressed in terms of fashion, frivolity, and splendour as un-British as it was unprofit- able to a conception of well rounded national develop- ment, but no more materialistic, though about as much so, as the ideals and expression of Italy, France, and most of the lesser European states. Following the flight of James and his queen, Mary of Modena, to the French court, came the arrival in 1688 of William of Orange with his wife Mary, who was the daughter of James. He was crowned king of England in 1689. This brief reign, to 1702, with that of Queen Anne, sister of Mary (1702 to 1714) comprises the period of Dutch influence in England, which marked also the beginning of modern English life. It seems that in this period there was in general a continuance of the fashions of the time of Charles II with some few "Dutch peculiarities" and slight addi- tions in mutters of detail. The very high head-dress which came into style in 1696 had reached such an excess and had become so universally worn that the church began a concerted campaign against it. A preacher by the name of John Edwards thus delivered himself in a sermon against the sin of pride : "This is the pride which reigns amongst our very ordinary women of this^ day, they think themselves highly advanced by this climbing foretop. All their rigging is nothing worth without this wagging topsail; and in defiance of our Saviour's words, they endeavour, as it were, to add a cubit to their stature. With their exalted heads they do, as it were, attempt a superiority over mankind; nay, their Babel builders seem, with 188 SEVENTEENTH CENTURY: ENGLAND their lofty towers, to threaten the skies and even to defy heaven itself." Another preacher in evident despair observes: "Women in all ages have taken more pains than men to adorn the outside of their heads; and indeed I very much admire that those female architects, who raise such wonderful structures out of ribbands, lace, and wire, have not been recorded for their respective inventions. It is certain there has been as many orders in these kinds of building, as in those which have been made of marble. Sometimes they rise in the shape of a pyra- mid, sometimes like a tower, and sometimes like a steeple." Hoops also had such a vogue that a contemporary observes that if men should adopt the old-fashioned trunk hose a man and his wife would fill any one single pew in church. The following amusing account of the hoop craze is taken from the "Spectator": "Since your withdrawing from this place, the fair sex are run into great extravagancies. Their petticoats, which began to heave and swell before you left us, are now blown up into a most enormous concave, and rise every day more and more. In short, sir, since our women know themselves to be out of the eye of the Spectator, they will be kept within no compass. You praised them a little too soon for the modesty of their head-dresses; for as the humour of a sick person is often driven out of one limb into another, their superfluity of ornaments, instead of being entirely banished, seem only fallen from their heads upon their parts. What they have lost in height they make up in breadth, and contrary to all rules of architecture widen the 189 PSYCHOLOGY OF DRESS foundations at the same time they shorten the super- structure." Styles in petticoats were censured as indeed were shoes, gloves, and "too many curly locks." In fact, by 1714 when the death of Anne took place, an era was begun lacking originality, in complete slavery to fashion, and devoted to imitation of foreign costumes. There was also a revolt going on in the English mind against accepting a crystallized monarchic dictation in any of the social arts, for absolute dictation from the court as a principle, had already run its course in Eng- land. In France it lingered a whole century, as we shall see, but individualism was born in England and its growth and general acceptance in matters of art was remark- able. We have dwelt at great length upon the different manifestations of fashion in England during the seven- teenth century, perhaps at too great length, yet even though this book is not a .history of fashion, it is a discussion of some different period ideals, expressed in different countries under different circumstances, a fact which justifies in some measure this treatment. At no time in her history has Britain given us so good a chance to observe how she gradually but completely submitted her perfectly regulated mind to the influ- ences of fashion, and to foreign ones at that. In this, her seventeenth century is unique. Louis XIV died in 1715, Queen Anne in 1714. Venice had by this time, exhausted herself in Baroque splendour and, panting for breath, was looking about for some sign by which she might seize upon new and untried emotional fields 190 THE END OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. FRENCH ELEGANCE, REFINEMENT, AND GRACE ARE HERE COMBINED WITH THE EARLY EIGHTEENTH CENTURY IDEAS OF COSTUME AS IT RELATES TO SOCIAL LIFE. EARLY EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. FRENCH. THE LUXURY OF THE LATE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY IN MATERIALS AND THE AMPLITUDE OF CUT IS SHOWN HERE WITH THE EARLY LOUIS XV, FASHION IN HATRDRESSING AND IN THE ARRANGEMENT OF THE NECK. SEVENTEENTH CENTURY: ENGLAND in which to spend her last gasp of enthusiasm and creative instinct, before she finally resigned herself to the obscure and disastrous destiny which was rapidly coming upon her. France only had succeeded in developing a great institutional structure, an autocracy of state, religion, and social practices, so imposing, perfect and effective when seen from the outside only, that she easily com- manded not only the attention but the outward respect of all Christendom. Only the democratic forces of puritanism and of republican politics were against her, and they were not powerful enough to make themselves felt much except in England and in the United States of America, or in the Colonies, as they were then called. It is, however, a sad commentary that even there the principles of liberty of thought and action and a strict adherence to modesty and humility in social life (which causes were devoutly espoused by the colonists), seemingly existed mostly in the minds rather than in the practices of the people, for we shall see in the next century how eagerly the good folks of the Colonies accepted their first opportunity to "serve God and Mammon" simultaneously in a burst of hallelujah at the privilege. Spain had fallen into decadence; her successes in the new world had spent themselves in gorgeous ostentation at home. Holland had begun to taste the exhilaration of commercial success abroad, and Italy was wasting in play and riotous living the little remaining strength she possessed, while the rest of Europe was still busy finding suitable materials and methods by which and through which to rise to material international prominence. 191 PSYCHOLOGY OF DRESS At the end of the century two great social ideals presented themselves for eighteenth century solution. The cultured, amusing, and pleasure-loving autocracy of French social life, and the individual, democratic, com- mercial and domestic social life of England. Both nations had at the opening of the century at least one inheritance in common, namely, a century of national life committed to the ideal of materialistic ambition, with unbridled display in exploiting it; all this per- chance to the total neglect of many of the essentials of national development. 192 CHAPTER FIVE THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY IN FRANCE AND ITALY IT WAS the particular function of the eighteenth century to develop the institution of social life to its highest possibilities. Power and pleasure through cultured interests subtle characteristics, and personal charm were the avowed aims of society's autocrats at the beginning of this epoch; and we shall see how and when the sense of individualism broke the autocratic spell and extended its influence to the middle classes, and with what results. In realizing its aims the century was successful, and France was still the most important field for the development and spread of this eighteenth century type of social idealism. We recall also that France offered the principal theatre for the staging of medievalism, although its primary element, Christianity, was of foreign origin. It took the institution of Chivalry, as France conceived it, however, to lay the foundation for what finally developed into social criteria for all Christendom. The incorporation of this with the early spiritual ideal was the first great step in the movement which, by the end of the sixteenth century, had led the consciousness of civil- ized Europe far afield in the paths of pure materialism by making both spirit and body contribute to the ideal. 193 PSYCHOLOGY OF DRESS Italy, never wholly accepting the French conception of medievalism, was, even in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, being slowly brought to a state of conscious- ness fitted for the birth of a new ideal. During the fourteenth century it came into being. This was the Renaissance. Around this wonderful ideal of culture a new social order grew up, a new phase of life was to be expressed, and in Italy its conception entered into the lives of the people and was externalized in a perfection very difficult to realize in these commercial, material- istic, and practical days. Adopted by other countries in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, exploited from every possible angle, exhausted and depleted, its ideals no longer capable of functioning, it was calmly laid away and the new world, grown to greater stature, conscious of more of its powers, desires, and possibilities, embarked upon a century of experience in which social life (somewhat extended to the middle and bourgeois classes) was the avowed object of existence, with the spiritual ideal of medievalism, the cultural ideals of the Renaissance and the material hypocrisy of the tenth century, shadows only, or memories, calculated it is true to influence, but in no sense to dominate the mental urge of this new century. France again became the theatre of development and the main source whence sprung the inspiration for the refinements of social intercourse. Italy, the home of the ancients and of the Renaissance, made her contribution of culture both to France and England. England worked out the practical amenities in social setting, and the new world furnished much of the 194 EIGHTEENTH CENTURY: FRANCE AND ITALY material through which the work of this century was accomplished. Louis XIV died in 1715 after a reign of seventy-two years. His death was welcomed with a real sense of relief and enthusiasm, not only by the court but by the nation at large. The poor attributed their poverty to his extravagance; the court felt that their emancipa- tion from the restraints imposed by the King and Mme. de Maintenon had been accomplished, and that they were at liberty at last to give unbridled expression to their wild passion for amusement and sensual enjoyment. They craved excitement. Their senses clamoured for stimulation, and the pendulum swung to complete abandon to the gratification of their desires with an un- blushing frankness that beggars description. During the long reign of Louis XIV social life had, in spite of the autocracy of the court, made wonderful gains in the intelligence of its conceptions. This was due for the most part to the influence of the great minds of the men and women who lived at that time and extended their influence through writing, or contributed in other ways to the general knowledge and culture of the century. Prominent among these we must recall here such names as Corneille, Racine, and Moliere; La Fontaine, Boileau, and Rousseau; Voiture, Balsac, and Madame de Sevigne, besides Lenotre, Mansard, and other architects and artists, each of whom had no small part both in directing thought, and in creating in all fields to give these thoughts expression. Louis XV, the great grandson of the old king, was five years old when called to the throne, and the Regency was vested in Philippe, Duke of Orleans, 195 PSYCHOLOGY OF DRESS nephew of Louis XIV. With his personal scandals and those of the court we have no special concern here, since by comparison with what was to come they may be seen merely as a prologue. It is therefore sufficient for our purpose to class the whole period from 1715 to 1774 as the period of Louis XV, and to trace in it the develop- ment of a new style, perhaps the most surprising as well as the most unique, in all history. In calling up a picture of this entirely social period it is necessary to think in terms of ideals first. The theory of the ancients had been debased in actual practice, becoming merely an excuse for supreme appe- tite satisfaction, in which refinement of manner replaced the spirit of the original idea. The theory of mediaeval- ism was forgotten in proportion to the extent to which materialism of any kind had been associated with spiritual longings. The process of displacement in France was practically complete; ethical standards were changed, the old moral standards were gone, and agnosticism in religion was no more fashionable nor universal than was contempt for the old ethical and moral order. This left two possible impulses to be stimulated, and two ends only for which to live. The one, cultivation of the wits or bringing the intellect to its highest point of development so that x sensation and indulgence in mental combat became a life interest; the other, the cultivation of the five physical appetites to their highest degree of efficiency, in the meantime bending every energy toward the creation of means by which to satisfy these appetites, and all with charm of manner and perfect abandon. "The art of conversation was held 196 EIGHTEENTH CENTURY: FRANCE AND ITALY above all other accomplishments," and we are told that "manners, were essential, morals optional." We are not disposed to question the truth of this assertion from any documentary or other evidence obtainable. In the second aim society was, if anything, more successful than in the first, and in this fact lies the key to the atmosphere of the social life of this period, therefore to the quality of the costumes and other settings for this peculiarly brilliant and fascinating if profligate and extravagant manifestation. The court, with these accepted and avowed ideals, was the social centre from which emanated costumes, manners, and fashions which practically controlled social life for the greater part of the eighteenth century, not only in France, but throughout the civilized world. So far as the general art expression of the period is con- cerned it may be called the legacy (twice removed) of the Baroque style in Italy, of which Bernini may be said to be the father. By him it was imported into France in the days of the Grande Monarque. This style, which flourished in the seventeenth century in Italy, exhausting itself in effulgent and grotesque demonstration there, by 1700 was tempered in a remarkable degree in France by a strong classic bias, particularly in architecture. The great palaces, and even the churches built in the reign of Louis XIV, are remarkable for the classic ideas which they embody. Even the most elaborate and ornate decorative material, generally sustained by classic mouldings, was otherwise held in the composed space in such a manner as to suggest control. This mixed idea of Baroque grandeur and classic formality / 197' PSYCHOLOGY OF DRESS is exactly what saved the art of the period from gorgeous and blatant tawdriness. In furniture and clothes more of the Baroque and less of classic restraint is felt. The element of formality, so important in court etiquette, no doubt, partly explains the French Baroque style, since the mind determines the externalized quality. With the passing of this, and the abandonment of all restraint and of all pretence of propriety or even de- cency, respect for and even understanding of the classic ideal, or its manifestation in decoration, was removed. One of the strangest phenomena of history is that shown in this period by the architects of France who were committed to the interpretation of classic ideals solely, in their work, and at the same time manifested a total abandonment of all classic motifs in the decorative arts and in designs for social costumes. Out of the Baroque style of Louis XIV grew a system of decoration known as Rocaille, the forms of which were variations of the shell motif, so common in the previous period. This rocaille, contorted, distorted and twisted, formed the basis for the strange but sometimes remarkable beauty of the decorations of this period, the counterpart of which has never been seen, and the emotional aesthetic possibility of which seems only to have been equalled by the Gothic fancies of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, the latter of course a spiritual conception and the former simply carnal. The purely aesthetic, or in common parlance,, artistic, quality of these two examples sometimes seems very similar, while the spirit and material of the two periods in 198 THIS ILLUSTRATION SHOWS THE SAME PERIOD FURTHER DE- VELOPED. THE STRICTLY LOUIS XV MATERIAL, THE TRIMMINGS OF THE SAME STUFF ARRANGED IN HALF ROCAILLE , MOVEMENT, AND THE CUT, ARE ALL DISTINCTLY CHARACTERISTIC. THE UPPER PART OF THE WAIST IS EVIDENTLY OF LATER ORIGIN. THIS PORTRAIT OF THE POMPADOUR EXPRESSES IN MATERIAL, CUT, AND DETAIL, THE SANEST, MOST ELEGANT, AND MOST DISTINC- TIVELY CHARMING PHASE OF THE STYLE. EIGHTEENTH CENTURY: FRANCE AND ITALY art expression are entirely different. This anomaly is a very interesting field for psychological specula- tion. The theatric formalism of the former period in social life being removed, society reacted not only in its ideals and customs, but also in its conception of the home and its relation to social intercourse. In the older period personal parade was the ideal, hence the large, for- mal and public appearance of all the rooms as well as the decorations and furnishings. The new ideal of privacy and intimate personal intercourse made smaller rooms necessary, more of them, and each one so ar- ranged as to be capable of private use. This completely revolutionized the room plans of the house as well as the palace. The effect on the wardrobe was analogous. A greater variety of clothes, some for public, others for semi-public or private use was essential. This relaxed the pressure for splendid display, and liberated creative genius to work for greater charm, more human, and therefore more becoming effects, thereby advancing the art of dress to another plane, in harmony with the ideals that were to dominate eighteenth century develop- ment. Thus another element was bequeathed to us, helping us in a measure to understand the point of view of the twentieth century, which is but the composite of all that has gone before. The court of Louis XIV not only was the centre, but practically defined the limit of ideas which controlled the customs of French social life during the greater part of the seventeenth century. The aristocracy obeyed its mandates without question; the bourgeoisie followed when permitted, and as they were able. The masses 199 PSYCHOLOGY OF DRESS had no time, money, nor opportunity to think in terms of social life. During the reign of Louis XV the court was no less the centre from which social France took its cue but it was, particularly after the first half century, by no means the limit of ideas and fashions, or of original customs and habits. "Divine Right" dies hard, and traditions and old practices were perhaps subconsciously effective after disbelief and even open rebellion were rife everywhere outside of Versailles. This explains in part the somewhat individual development, the social charm, and the worth of inventions made during this period. Though it was a period of complete aristocratic domination, creating a class living on the labours of other classes, yet it was left for this period to develop the finer social amenities by virtue of this very class distinction. The queen, Marie Leckzinski, was spoken of as a "good woman and not too uncomely," which seems encourag- ing, although she played little or no part in establishing a standard of social life. So far as the morality of the court is concerned it matters little here, except that the fickleness of the king brought into prominence a number of women, each in her turn serving as his mistress and each having a large share in the dictation of manners and styles. The most charming of these was doubtless the Duchesse de Chateauroux, the most important Madame de Pompadour, and the most astonishing Madame du Barry. The historian, Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, thus describes court manners in speaking of these women: "The manners of the court, in this long reign, under- went three distinct phases. In the early part of the 200 EIGHTEENTH CENTURY: FRANCE AND ITALY reign, when the passions of the king were under some restraint, there was a slight shew of decorum preserved in his presence, but the style of conversation was coarse and blunt. "The writings of Voltaire and Rousseau brought into ' fashion an hypocritical cant and mock modesty. Virtue was universally extolled; decorum was paraded; everyone professed to be enamoured of rigid morality and rustic innocence of life; but the love was scarcely skin deep; and those who praised them most, were living in the practice of all ungodliness. "Towards the close of the reign, under the auspices of Madame du Barry, all pretence to morality, religion, and decency, was given up. An air of dissolute frivolity, a care-for-nobody swagger, and mocking supercilious- ness, were the airs affected by the great." And he has this to say of the various mistresses: "She was suc- ceeded [speaking of Mme. de Chateauroux] in the post of royal favourite, by Madame de Pompadour, the daughter of a butcher, and wife of a wealthy farmer-of- taxes, whom she abandoned for the king. Graceful and beautiful, animated and accomplished, Madame de Pompadour directed all her powers to amuse and please the king, but selfishness and ambition were the springs of her actions. . . . She named bishops and generals, as well as ministers, judges, and am- bassadors, but her choice was almost uniformly unfortun- ate. Voltaire sang her praises; Maria Theresa of Austria disdained not to flatter her; and all who hoped for promotion bowed down before her. "In the court, the old noblesse were cast into the shade by a new moneyed aristocracy sprung from the 201 PSYCHOLOGY OF DRESS middle classes. Bad taste and frivolity characterize the period. Women of position amused themselves by breaking plates and glasses; and men, by embroidery or card painting. Even magistrates on their benches, and grave officials, might be seen pulling the string of some dancing figure, called a patin. . . . "Louis XV was getting old when Madame de Pompa- dour died. All the handsome and unprincipled court ladies strove by their blandishments to become her successor but a common courtesan, Madame du Barry, the daughter of a gatekeeper at one of the Paris barriers, was preferred to the disgraceful honour. . . . "Madame du Barry was a voluptuous beauty, all dimples. Her skin fair, mouth small and rosy, eyes sparkling and languishing, hair a light chestnut colour and admirably curled. At the death of the king, she retired from Court and lived unknown till the Revolu- tion, when she was guillotined for aiding the escape of emigrants." Authorities disagree in some particulars with this severe and reverend historian, but in the main his views are apparently shared by people in general. Paris and Versailles were the France of Louis XV and his court, and because of their excesses in habits and in fashions the whole period is undoubtedly too severely criticized by some. We , find various critics railing at the "tawdry fashions," the "unblushing immorality," the "bad taste of over-dress, endless rouge," and the "audacity of expense," but all these are too familiar assertions concerning other and earlier periods to im- press us very deeply, for after all everything is relative, and people are still railing. 203 BY THE MIDDLE OF THE CENTURY THERE WAS CONSIDERABLE FREE- DOM IN INDIVIDUAL INTERPRETATION. ATTENTION IS DIRECTED TO THE OCCULT BALANCE IN CUT AND ARRANGEMENT WHICH IS STRICTLY IN ACCORD WITH THE DECORATIVE TASTE EVOLVED AT THIS TIME. EARLY IN THE LAST QUARTER OF THE CENTURY (THE PERIOD OF LOUIS XVI ) EXTRAVAGANCE IN MATERIAL, STYLE, AND ORNA- MENTATION REACHED ITS CLIMAX. IN THIS THE QUEEN LED. EIGHTEENTH CENTURY: FRANCE AND ITALY Outside of Paris and Versailles quantities of the most delightful provincial furniture and decorative objects were made, and doubtless the exquisite follies of the court in dress were so modified elsewhere as to take their place among the art treasures of historic costumes, as indeed were some of the follies themselves. There are so many of these beautiful things to be found in museums and private collections and so many illustrations in documentary form are obtainable that it seems unnecessary, perhaps superfluous, to speak of costumes individually or in detail. We cannot refrain, however, from recalling the delicious brocades, the / exquisite taffetas, the priceless laces, and the countless little toilet accessories, so rare and so alluring as to j *^ leave us doubting whether ever before there was so ' Q* enchanting an exterior effect coming from so bewilder/^y ing a set of unbelievable causes. ^ It was in this period, too, that sensuous refinement in colour reached its climax; hues, values, and intensities were so subtle, fascinating, and harmonious, yet so varied and illusive. In no form of expression, not even in that of orna- ment, did there seem to be a trace discernible of the classic qualities of simplicity and restraint, so com- pletely luscious and sensuous did the colour become. During the last few years of Louis XV the classic reaction had taken so strong a hold that its effect on architecture was complete. Furniture and the decora- tive arts responded slowly, while fashion, catering as she always has to the most sensitive and insatiable of human desires, was very slow to yield to classic influ- ence. In fact, in the next reign the interpretation 203 PSYCHOLOGY OF DRESS would indicate that no part of the classic spirit was ever really sensed by the makers of fashion in clothes, as it was sensed in painting, architecture, furniture, and the lesser decorative fields. This is not strange when we remember how flippant, keen, and material the French mind was at this time and how strong must have been the urge not only for a new sensation, but for a peculiar one. Admitting this, we see unmistakable signs in the last decade of this period that lighter colour values, clearer and less subtle intensities, and a simpler hue spectrum were beginning to make their appeal. While in the field of design fabrics were a little less richly conceived, plain and striped taffetas came in. Cherubs and flowers seemed a little less determined to appear ripe and full grown, while some of the gowns were freer from decorative idiosyncrasies and the en- cumbrance of enormous hoops. Some of the great ladies showed a delightful simplicity in dressing their hair, when compared with the previous fashion or with the prevailing mode of the next reign. Actually the dictation of fashions in the period of Louis XV was wholly in the hands of women and the motto of their creation was evidently "all for pleasure." During the Regency dress was light in material ; gowns were cut with a basque and pagoda sleeves. They were also much trimmed with ribbon bows. In 1718 paniers were worn and very soon their circumference reached eighteen feet. While the ladies themselves seemed to like these, the clergy and the satirists opened war on them. Books were written, sermons preached, and plays performed, all given over to the idea that nothing but discomfort and physical disfigurement, to 204 EIGHTEENTH CENTURY: FRANCE AND ITALY say nothing of waste and extravagance, could be seen in this "most disgusting of all foreign and imported fashions." Ridicule and religious contumely, however, were as powerless as the sumptuary laws of old had been, and the panier persisted as a distinguishing feature of this period until well past the middle of the century. About 1730 the "Robe Volante," a loose dress with- out a belt, also came into fashion. This piece was gen- erally of silk, white or rose, and was worn mostly by young girls who also wore silk gauze frocks over col- oured silk slips. Women wore the smallest possible shoes and carried parasols. Among the accessories of dress may be mentioned necklaces, bags, eyeglasses mounted in gold or enamel, needlecases and crosses of gold. The hair was powdered and the face painted in red and white, the paint being often so thick as to form a perfect crust over the face. Patches and paint were employed, it is said, even in the last toilet for the tomb, and when this occasioned re- monstrance patches appeared in greater numbers "seeming to glory in their triumph over every oppo- sition." For a short period, about 1730, the fashion of exceed- ingly high head-dresses prevailed. Lady Mary Mon- tague, who visited Paris about this time, says of the ladies: "Their woolly white hair and fiery faces make them look more like skinned sheep than human beings." About 1760 much simpler gowns appeared, hair was more plainly dressed, but corsets would persist not- withstanding the efforts of the doctors and critics to displace them. Up to the very end of the reign, how- 205 PSYCHOLOGY OF DRESS ever, the Pompadour and du Barry, together with their satellites, who either aspired to positions in the king's favour, and through this to social prestige, or had other favours to ask, remained absolutely true to the arti- ficial and superficial in all things. The sort of refined harem-art of house and toilet that hypnotized all Eu- rope then, has by no means lost its grip even on some very respectable ladies of our day, who persist in believ- ing that even now the flippant art snobbery of the king's mistress in home and clothes is a true expression of the modern lady. Unhappily they (most of them) haven't the refinement, the taste, or the power of a Pompadour, nor are there artists who can or will pander to their whims, and besides, the antique dealer and the costumer are merciless, with no fear of the wrath of a king. This is perhaps a sad conclusion but it is self- evident even though disappointing to those who would see their time as one of a great social taste revival, to equal which one enthusiast writes, "no period since the Renaissance could aspire." This period like all others is but a recital of increasing desires for novelty on the part of the people, and of new and wonderful creations of fashion to satisfy every one of these desires. It shows also, even in its utter aban- don in the matter of moral and ethical standards, the same disposition to prate on, the part of the church and the moralists against some special indulgence in fash- ion's whim, with the same result of increasing a demand for the pet sin, in direct ratio to the opposition given it, and the invention of others more unacceptable than the first. In 1774, after a sixty year reign of incredible abandon 206 EIGHTEENTH CENTURY: FRANCE AND ITALY to sense gratification, and a corresponding inattention to matters of state and of international development, Louis XV died of smallpox, unlamented and almost un- noticed. A tribute, however, should be rendered to his memory for his good sense in retaining Gabriel to build the little Trianon. This was constructed for one of his courtesans, though he gave it to Marie An- toinette as a private dwelling when she married his grandson, who afterward became Louis XVI. The classic and simple charm of this little palace, with the restricted and informal social practices which it en- tailed, no doubt influenced to a considerable degree the social ideals which developed during the reign that fol- lowed. Louis XVI, who was twenty years old, amiable, ir- resolute, of "unblemished character," and wholly un- interested in any form of social We, was destined to pay the penalty after eighteen years for all the oppression, extravagance, and debauchery of the two previous cen- turies. So far as his own influence on social life was concerned it was nil. His young queen, the Austrian Marie Antoinette, made her full contribution, however, partly because there were no mistresses in this reign to dictate court life (and the court must have a leader), and partly because she, in her somewhat dual nature, was personally fitted to make such contribution. Either through shrewdness, inclination, or a yielding to the sweep of the tide, she encouraged the new attitude to the classic revival. This greatly increased admiration for Greek ideas, practices, and forms, and was the means of inspiring artists to create with these qualities in mind. 207 PSYCHOLOGY OF DRESS In the second place she was above all things else frivolous and pleasure loving, and, it seems to us, some- what sentimental and affected, particularly in the first ten years of the reign. These characteristics were in- dicated in the natural flowers, the love birds, bow-knots, hearts and arrows, cupids, cornucopias, and other mo- tifs that soon found their way into the decorations; many of them also were used in the textiles. This queer mixture of miniature play-classicism with sentimental girlish realism or naturalism was the foundation for the art of the period of Louis XVI, particularly at court, or wherever the court influence was at all pronounced. Because of the court opposition to du Barry and her brood of charlatans at the palace, Marie Antoinette had, before the death of Louis XV in 1774, begun to be considered almost the sole criterion of fashion in dress. After her accession her sway became absolute so far as any one element could reach the disturbed mental state of France. An instance of how quickly her ideas were taken up and copied is found in the following an- necdote taken from a history of French fashion: "One day, in 1775, the new queen took up from her dressing- table two peacock feathers, and placed them with sev- eral little ostrich plumes in her hair. Louis XVI came in and greatly admired his wife, saying he had never seen her look so well. Almost immediately feathers came into fashion, not in France only, but throughout Europe. But when, shortly afterward, Marie Antoin- ette sent a portrait of herself, wearing large feathers as a head-dress, to her mother, the Empress Maria Theresa returned it. 'There has been, no doubt, some mistake,' wrote Maria Theresa; 'I received the portrait of an ac- 208 EIGHTEENTH CENTURY: FRANCE AND ITALY tress, not that of a queen; I am expecting the right one.' This inordinate tendency to make the head ridiculous is one of the most peculiar of all the queer fashions of this brief but hectic reign. In 1778 the queen herself invented what was known as the "hedge-hog" style of hair dressing. This huge mass of frizzled hair tied on with ribbons, and its successor called the "half hedge-hog," lasted for several years, by which time the invention of new and stranger forms became a mania with the queen and he/ devoted followers. Such terms as "Spaniel's ears," "forest," "enamelled meadows," "butterfly," "milk-sop," "commode," "cabriolet," and "mad-dog" were given these grotesque inventions, and flowers, fruits, wires, ribbons and other materials were freely used in building the structure which was often left for days without rearrangement. This is apparently an instance of fashion's vagaries where it is more satisfactory to accept the fact, without requiring the imagination to picture its results. "The scaffolding of gauze, flowers, and feathers was raised to such a height that no carriages could be found lofty enough for ladies' use. The occupants were obliged either to put their heads out of the windows, or to kneel on the carriage floor, so as to protect the fragile structures." The police chief of Paris wrote the man- ager of a theatre that there were constant complaints of huge head-dresses, hats loaded with plumes, flowers, fruits, and ribbons built so high that they obstructed the view of those in the pit. We do not find it recorded that any great change took place in the size or quality of these headpieces, however. PSYCHOLOGY OF DRESS Some high born ladies in Paris and elsewhere, with the mothers and husbands of young women of the no- bility, objected somewhat to these extremes in feathers and plumes, and tried to foster simpler fashions, with small success, but we read that at the birth of one of the little princes the queen cut her hair short, after which everybody adopted the "baby head-dress" at once, sacrificing beautiful hair to fashion's dictates without a murmur. When Marie Antoinette conceived the idea of playing at farming or living the simple life, the great ladies all flew to imitate her so that they might appear with their hair "a la laitiere," in imitation of the queen. On one occasion, in 1775, the queen adopted a chest- nut brown colour for her gown. This colour pleased the king and it is written that every lady in court had on a dress of that colour the following day. This seems rather quick for universal adoption, even in our day of swift racing to ape the clothes and manners of some- one who has succeeded in hypnotizing the public into a belief in her superiority of some sort. Gowns trimmed with one material only were much used; straw-coloured satin was very popular. These dresses were trimmed in various ways, either with lace, gauze, or fur. There were numberless varieties of trim- ming, besides brocaded or pain ted satin, and each had a special name. The most fashionable tint for satin was either "stifled sigh" or "the lively shepherdess," the latter being apple-green with white stripes. Some of the names given to trimmings are curious, such as "indiscreet complaints," "great reputation," "an unfulfilled wish," "the feeling," "the vapours," 210 /THE PROMINENCE GIVEN TO DRESSING THE HAIR AND ONE OF THE QUEER BUT FLEETING FASHIONS IN WAISTS IS WELL ILLUSTRATED IN THIS PORTRAIT OF A DUCHESS. THIS FASHION MARKS THE CULMINATION OF THE ARTIFICIAL PERIOD. ABOUT 1775. FRENCH. THIS COSTUME IS A FRENCH INTERPRE- TATION IN THE STYLE OF LOUIS XVI OF A PIEDMONTESE FASHION. MOREAU GIVES WONDERFULLY HERE NOT ONLY CHARMING COS- TUMES OF THIS TIME, BUT THE SPIRIT AND ENVIRONMENT OF THE MOST FASCINATING SOCIAL PERIOD IN HISTORY. THE PART PLAYED SOCIALLY BY THE TOILET OF THE KING AND HIS COURTIERS IS ADMIRABLY REVEALED IN THE ACCOMPANYING IL- LUSTRATION. THE SPIRIT OF THE SETTING IS ALSO PERFECT. EIGHTEENTH CENTURY: FRANCE AND ITALY "preference," "agitation," "the sweet smile," "re- grets," and many others. Paniers were generally small, but padded at the top. Shoes being embroidered in diamonds, women's feet might be compared to jewel-cases. Long narrow shoes, with the seam at the heel studded wiih emeralds, were called in the trade "come and see." Women wore over their shoulders an arrangement of lace, gauze, or blond, closely gathered, which was called "Archduchesse," or "Medicis," or "collet monte." Tulle was in great demand, and was manufactured everywhere. As for ribbons, the most fashionable were called "a sign of hope," "attention," "a sunken eye," "an in- stant," "the sigh of Venice," and "a conviction." Sashes were worn "a la Praxitele" after an opera by Devismes. By 1780 the rural peasant idea was adopted by all Versailles. The costumes were a mixed peasant, dia- mond tiara, and ostrich feather combination amusing and ridiculous. Fashion in fact seemed as excited and unstable as was the political and social mind. From 1784 to 1786 (only two years) the fashion in hats, for instance, changed seventeen times. Every new play, each new pastoral idea at the Trianon, brought out a new fashion in hair, hats, or gowns, and these like the earlier fashions, took on the names of the players, the playwrights, the heathen gods or pastoral nymphs who happened to be featured. Hectic fancies and follies multiplied over night, and as a contemporary moralist observes: "I have indeed heard of women going without bread, but never without pins and feathers." PSYCHOLOGY OF DRESS Such was the condition and arbitrary sway of fashion in 1789 when the crash of the Revolution came and all was changed. At once everything became serious, even ominous. Arcadia with its little laughing fairy peoples, nymphs, and shepherdesses, its affected make-believes from classic lore, its brooks and trees and flowers that actually danced and played in harmony with the frivolous and hare-brained ladies and gentlemen of the court, all were silent. A great hush had fallen on the play of life in France while the pendulum swung to the other extreme of its arc once more. Women appeared in public with stern faces, clothed in great coats and black hats, carrying a cane or a whip in their hands. Their hats were like helmets. The more feminine of these women assumed the role of mid- dle-aged matrons, wearing long trailing gowns of sombre hue, a dark cape, and a little cap. The cockade appeared everywhere. Gowns were simple, with the arms generally covered by tight sleeves. Caps, small and simple, trimmed with bows of ribbon, were popular. Some bonnets of straw appeared and,these were trimmed with naval or war trophies. Everyone, however, car- ried a fan and an embroidered handkerchief, simple and inoffensive relics of the past. Paint, powder, and patches went with the gods and goddesses; feathers and artificial fruits with the Ar- cadian dreamers, and by 1795 scarcely a trace of the semi-classic, semi-naturalistic, miniature style of Louis XVI remained, either in costumes or in any of the decorative and social arts. Each step of the Revolution was followed by its EIGHTEENTH CENTURY: FRANCE AND ITALY own peculiar response in fashion which expressed the ddminant idea of the particular part of the convulsion which it represented. To annihilate not only the old monarchic ideas and practices, but every vestige of its externalized forms, was the aim of this period, and in no other one is a clearer psychological response of ma- terials to the power of ideas traceable, than in that of the French Revolution. Fashion responded as readily and as completely to human desires and instincts as they expressed themselves in this period, as they had in any other, and strange and wonderful were some of the things she did. With the passing of the "Terror" and the dawn of the "Directoire" in 1795 a reaction to the styles of Louis XV seemed for a short time to be a possibility, so great was the relief when the intense strain of the preceding six years gave way. This revival of the fashions did not actually occur, however, though much of the charm, artistic quality, and simple richness did reappear, and the Directoire, one of the most fascin- < ating of all French periods, was the outcome. This style in an adapted form should make a strong appeal under modern conditions. It is interesting, perhaps enlightening here, to see how an eminent Englishman, Henry Swinburne, Es- quire, who was in Paris much of the time between 1788 and 1797, looked upon the excesses of the court in dress, and what he thought of conditions brought about by the Directoire after the Revolution. He says: "The extravagance of the French is scarcely credible and nothing in Europe ever equalled it, at least that I ever heard of. The trousseau of Mile, de 213 PSYCHOLOGY OF DRESS Mantignon who is going to marry the Baron de Mont- morency, is to cost a hundred thousand crowns. There are to be a hundred dozen of shifts, and so on in propor- tion. The expenses here of rigging out a bride is equal to a handsome fortune in England; five thousand pounds worth of lace, linen, and gowns is a common thing." He tells of the idiosyncrasies of the queen, among them of her withdrawal at a grand ball to play trictrac with someone in another part of the palace, of how she hated orange-colour and would receive none who had that colour on their persons, and how she was appar- ently more interested in the players than in her court ladies or gentlemen. Of a morning concert given in 1797 by one, Monsieur Senovert, he says: "The company assembled at two. The men were clean, many in English dresses, but there were also a good many extravagants . . . that is, with their hair plaited and done up very tight behind, like an old-fashioned chignon, and in front two curls or tresses a foot long, just parted in the middle of the forehead and hanging down the cheeks upon the waistcoat. Two of them I remarked as being particu- larly ridiculous; one side only was in curls hanging down, the other drawn back with the hair behind. "The women were all in wigs, generally as different as possible from the true colour of their hair: their faces almost totally obscured. Their caps and hats had much gold and velvet, and very small feathers; their waists were immoderately short, their faces daubed, their necks covered, their gowns muslin, with a profusion of gold spangles and gold fringes." Our day 214 EIGHTEENTH CENTURY: FRANCE AND ITALY is evidently not the first period in which paint, feathers, gold and spangles found favour in the morning toilet, and the analogy between the type of persons addicted to such fashions is probably even closer than that of the practice. The classic Greek mania of 1796 brought out some costumes which were from one point of view grotesque caricatures they seem to us and the Anglo-mania of 1797 was declared by a contemporary to be " bourgeois to a frightful degree and in hideous bad taste." We agree, but it was in the adaptations of the classic that the height of the ridiculous was reached, yet simplicity and a certain amount of grace was attained in this way. This classic dress is described as a simple piece of linen, slightly laced before, leaving the waist loose and serving as a corset. If a robe was worn which was not left open in front, no petticoat was worn. When dressed for a ball those who danced commonly put on a tunic, and then a petticoat became a necessity but not a choice. Pockets were not used as they encumbered the person. A small purse concealed in the bosom held money, and also a gold watch, unless it was hung around the neck. A fan was stuck in the girdle. Simple silks, linens, and muslins were favourite materials, and over these light coloured or white gowns brilliant cashmere shawls were worn. Hair was cut short and wigs were used. Shoes were copied from the antique and gowns were as transparent as they were simple in cut. With the revival under the Directoire of a belief in taste, a respect for the classic, and a disposition to create anew, a good foundation was 215 PSYCHOLOGY OF DRESS laid for the development of the Empire, the first and most important of all the nineteenth century styles. In the first half of the eighteenth century Italy was the scene of important European wars, which greatly affected the social life of the whole peninsula. The persistent aggression of Louis XIV on the west, the struggle of the papacy to retain international political power, the determination of Spain not to be driven from the scene of her established triumphs, and the ever increasing demands of Austria (which threatened to destroy any power that might become established), came to a head in 1714 when France and Austria made peace at Rastatt. By the terms of this peace Venice, surrounded by Austrian provinces, could never again assert her real independence as she had in the past. The papacy was not even asked to take part in the con- ference of peace and her claims were therefore ignored. Spain was allowed nominal rights in the south, but she had long since ceased to bully by aggressive action, and now such power as was left to her rapidly declined. Such cities as Florence, Parma, Piacenza, Modena arid others were under Austrian domination, as indeed were Milan and Naples in reality. Savoy, whose cause had been espoused by England, alone remained virtually her own master. Austria, not Spain, npw held the balance of power, and the history of the next half century is a record of her attempt to retain it, while France and Spain, each one alone, and acting together under "family compact," attempted to gain the ascendency. The story of bargaining away princes and princesses, Bourbon, Austrian-Hapsburg, and Spanish-Hapsburg, EIGHTEENTH CENTURY: FRANCE AND ITALY with native Italian petty rulers is one of the most fas- cinating of intrigues; it seems also to explain the intro- duction into Italian states of the customs and practices of social life in foreign countries. France, however, with a better organized social regime, a more attractive and amusing manner of life and a more completely ex- pressed form of art and culture, made not only a stronger appeal but a more suitable one to the inde- structible art and pleasure sense of the Italian descend- ants of Ancient Rome and of the Renaissance. The Italians regarded the Spanish as civilized, well mannered persons, and although their political and so- cial domination was felt to be a disgrace, they accepted the social forms as a "graceful tyranny" well acted. On the other hand the Austrians were called "tipsy, uncivilized barbarians," and their manners and customs were not only resisted, but hated as vigorously as were the Austrians themselves. This attitude of mind had a very strong bearing on the almost universal acceptance socially of the manners, customs, and fashions of the French court throughout the whole century, and offers a brief explanation for the Italian expression in furni- ture and decorative arts of the periods of Louis XV and XVI, which are just now becoming a matter of world wide interest and quite the fashion (particularly in the United States of America and in England), among con- noisseurs of high rank. The second half of the century was more peaceful. New ideas of religion, philosophy, politics, and social life that developed in France were readily filtered into Italy through the various little courts connected with the ruling Bourbon house, and also through new ave- 217 PSYCHOLOGY OF DRESS nues of commercial interest opened up by conditions of peace and the desire of France for rich materials and for artists to work out the necessary expression for the French social setting. Thus it was that Italian imita- tion of the French began in earnest, and thus it was that the indigenous eighteenth century styles of France became the adopted styles of Italy, just as the Renais- sance styles indigenous to Italy were adopted by France in the sixteenth century, two hundred years earlier. Earlier in the century the theatre became the chief centre of social amusement. Its popularity grew until it may be said to have so impressed its quota of make- believe on the Italian mind, as to determine its point of view; consequently the appearance of things became a fact, the artificial was real, and sensation took, for them, the place of the truth. Superficial and unintelligent education (a relic of Jesuit domination), theatrical and artificial conventions, effusive and vacuous frivolity, luxurious and non-pro- ductive energy, universally marked conditions in which the second half of the century was to develop. In this mental atmosphere was to be set the social life and cus- toms of the court at Versailles, and here the final strug- gle of ancient noblesse and grandeur against effete mentality and the perverted senses was to take place. The days, too, of Baroque art and its strivings after the astonishing, the blatant, the exaggerated, and the pompous were past, for in its place had come the Rococo style with its dainty, unreal, and well-behaved Arcadians and its little elegant and affected deities. Vanity took the place of reason, nude figures became naked, the toilet was the favourite motif in painting and as one 218 THE PIQUANTE CHARM OF THE RIDING HABIT AND THE ENVIRONMENT IN WHICH IT IS SHOWN ARE IN PERFECT KEEPING WITH THE PER- SONAGES AND WITH THE TECHNIQUE OF THIS LOVELY PAINTING. AS THE PERIOD WANED, IF EXTRAVAGANCE IN MATERIALS PER- SISTED, EXAGGERATION IN STYLE AND UNRESTRAINED ORNAMENTA- TION WERE OBVIOUSLY GIVING PLACE TO PRACTICAL ELEGANCE AND NATURAL CHARM. MADAME LE BRUN EXPRESSES WELL THE FEELING OF THE TRAN- SITION FROM THE EXAGGERATION OF THE DECADE FROM 1778 TO THE DIRECTOIRE IN THIS ADAPTABLE COSTUME OF ADELAIDE DE BOURBON, AS- SHE HAS IN THE TWO PRECEDING ILLUSTRATIONS. IN THE LITTLE PASTEL PORTRAIT OF LOUIS XVII THE HYPOCRITICAL POSE OF THE MONARCHIC IDEA AND THE NEW AND CONSCIOUS DESIRE TO BE FREE AND INDIVIDUAL SEEM TO BE DELIGHTFULLY COMBINED. EIGHTEENTH CENTURY: FRANCE AND ITALY critic says: "There was nothing spiritual in art, not even the Madonna who tried to be like the Pompadour." In other words the refinements of the "harem-art" of the French court were becoming supreme in Italy, particularly in Venice and the northern provinces. In proportion to its acceptance all ideas of the real or actual in art expression were displaced, and with it went individuality of thought, desire and initiative, except such as contributed to one end, the excessive and un- questioned imitation of whatever was accepted as the vogue at the centre of dictation. The author believes thoroughly that this complete surrender in the eighteenth century in matters of the useful and social arts to the dictates of the king's mis- tresses (their taste in some cases being no better than their reputations) has persisted to this day, not only in France, but in England and in the United States as well. This is in no small degree the reason for the help- less and often pitiful acceptance by many, of any sort of thing so long as some social dictator or self -aggrand- ized connoisseur has arrested the development of in- dividual taste, while the exaggerated and bedizened trappings of the worst of all of the French social arts have been so long and so eagerly sought after that the simpler and saner things, which after all have the real charm, have been almost entirely neglected. This seems to be the result of an effort to emulate the Pompadour and du Barry on the part of all those who would be regarded as doing the correct thing in social art. One does ultimately become what his ideals dic- tate, and his choice is naturally in accordance with what he has actually become. Admitting with critics 219 PSYCHOLOGY OF DRESS of this period its evident weaknesses, its frivolities, its unrealities, and even its effeminacy, it was still an era of amusing piquancy where much of the objectionable is lost sight of on account of the artistic qualities and the spontaneity of the Italian manner. Vernon gives such a splendid summing up of these characteristics and their relation to the house and cos- tumes that we venture to quote verbatim: "Contem- porary society was reflected in its dwellings; the elabor- ate beds are suggestive of late rising, the profusion of mirrors typifies vanity and levity, and points out the undue attention to toilet. The large reception rooms suggest the habitual occupation of society, their decora- tions its elaboration and conventionality. But, in spite of the want of sincerity and of force, we must ad- mit that there is no little charm in the dainty Dresden china and the pretty marble statuettes, the gilded, splendid clocks and candelabra, the lacquered and painted furniture, the intarsia work in tortoise-shell and metal. With them we find the frieze of stucco, the frescoed ceiling, the gilt-framed mirrors. All these call up images of ladies in hoops, weird head-dresses, powder patches, and high heels, waving exquisite fans, and of gentlemen in wigs, embroidered suits, and gilded swords, who bow low, hat in hand, as the violins begin the lan- guid music of the Minuet." A curious morbid convention which grew up in Venice at this time had a strong influence on the social trend, and no doubt tended greatly to weaken, if not to under- mine, the general social structure and through this the social art expression. This was the established social custom that every lady should select some man to be a 220 EIGHTEENTH CENTURY: FRANCE AND ITALY sort of cavaliere servente, who should be in constant attendance upon her as a friend, protector, and source of intimate companionship. This is perhaps a curious situation to explain, if seen only from the viewpoint of the twentieth century with its habits and methods of squaring appearances with facts, but if we take into consideration Italian spontaneity, eighteenth century theatrical mannerisms and the total abandon of the period to idleness and amusement, it is not so inex- plicable as it seems at first, and we are assured by the critics of morals of that day that this inseparable com- panionship did not lead to greatly increased immoral- ity; that it was, on the contrary, frequently a barrier against it, since the cicisbeo himself (not always too attractive) assumed and felt a responsibility in the protection of his lady from any unseemly attentions. Sometimes this man was chosen by the lady, some- times by her husband, and not infrequently he was a part of the marriage contract. His position, however, was not a permanent one, and we must admit that we find a tendency to variety in accord with human fickle- ness. The delegation of the natural rights of the hus- band to another did undoubtedly hasten the crumbling of the social order, and it developed besides a group of idle and useless men who finally contributed through their non-productiveness to the general social collapse. The cicisbeo was first of all perfect in his own toilet, and this being complete, his next duty was to attend upon the toilet of his lady. After this he went with her to mass and then to the promenade. At mass he gave her holy water on his finger tips, and he carried about her fan and other feminine accessories. He dined with her 221 PSYCHOLOGY OF DRESS and accompanied her to receptions, where he danced with her. At the theatre he was always present, and here they took chocolate, flirted and gossiped, paying no attention at all to the music. These men were gen- erally the older sons of the aristocracy; the younger ones became lawyers, or took holy orders if they seemed unfit for law. Such was the social training of the young men of Venice in the eighteenth century. Coffee houses were very numerous. Here male so- ciety assembled to discuss vapid scandals, the latest operas, and to while away full time until such an hour as their presence was essential to some other form of idle and amorous pleasure. Austria dominated Milan and Florence and the aristocracy were satisfied with the constant amusement which the petty courts continuously maintained to keep the people quiet. France contributed the same kind of party -life through its Bourbon court at Naples, a medium through which much of the French manner was introduced into Italy. Paralleling the Rococo development in Italy (begin- ning about the middle of the century) was started what is known as the Classic Revival. The discovery of Pompeii and Herculaneum in 1738, the paintings in the baths of Titus at Rome and the finding of the ruins of Psestum in 1752, turned art into an entirely different channel. Winckelmann and his followers at Rome sought the why of the works of the ancients as well as their aesthetic feeling. Mengs, his friend, spread the work in Italy and people flocked from France and Eng- land to study and absorb the "new classic idea." This modelled the art conception of both countries during 222 EIGHTEENTH CENTURY: FRANCE AND ITALY the last decades of the century, and the reflex through England was distinctly felt in the United States of America. The classic revival of the second half of the century, the home of which was Rome and Naples, be- came doubly operative in Italy as it was passed on to France and then back again to Italy through French in- fluence. * In literature the Arcadian style, named for the Acad- emy at Rome, which was founded in the days of Baroque expression, was much in vogue. This gave the characteristics of conventionality and artificiality both to verse and prose, which fitted well the temper of the social element. Gentlemen at toilet were wont to have read aloud to them selections from a rhymed cook book. Improvising became popular socially on such subjects as physics, chemistry, agriculture, and mathematics, any one of which had, of course, no real interest or meaning for those who assumed a concern with them. A great number of plays were written, some dull, others amusing. We recall with interest the great Metastasio who embodied so well the general feeling of the period in his work; Goldoni and Alfieri, who represented present conditions combined with a prophecy of what was to come. Goldoni more than any other seemed to see life in its aristocratic as well as its middle class aspect, and to fear nothing in revealing character as it was. He scathingly showed up the aristocracy, clearly exposing the vices and frailties of so- ciety as well as accusing it of being bourgeois, some- times a desirable quality. Gozzi was his antithesis, violently opposing the vulgarity of dealing with or- dinary incidents in the lives of common people, thus 223 PSYCHOLOGY OF DRESS degrading literature as an art. He evidently consid- ered that all rights to strange practices and vain follies should be reserved for the aristocracy to which he be- longed, and he preferred to invest all this with the charming illusion of a fairy tale. The feud between these two representatives of the Italian theatre finally drove Goldoni to Paris, where his plays were very well received and where he was generously rewarded. We cannot imagine the last half of the century in Italy as being complete without the charming Rococo frescoes of Tiepolo with their throngs of allegorical figures, their too much foreshortened accessories and their lovely colour; nor without the fascinating records of Venetian everyday life of Longhi, the formal work of Canaletto, and the softer and more sympathetic canvases of Angelica Kauffman. In every field of en- deavour, the Rococo with its unrestraint and pretty frivolous diversions is seen acting and reacting, with the classic spirit reserved and measured, sometimes stiff and formal, and yet powerless to dominate a life al- ready committed to sensuous exaggerations. As in other periods and in other lands, so it was in Italy in the eighteenth century in regard to costume, though perhaps there was more individual initiative, certainly more than in France. Here at least freedom for individual self indulgence was unchanged by the verses of the satirists, the theories of the classicists, or the philosophy of culture, and that the most was made of this situation by the inhabitants of Venice we have ample assurance. At the beginning of the century we are told that the "insatiable desire for richness and show in dress in- 224 EIGHTEENTH CENTURY: FRANCE AND ITALY jured the elegance of costumes." Gowns became stiff and ample, the material ever growing richer and richer. Ladies appeared in dresses flounced and ruffled in lace and heavy silk, until the lines of the body were entirely lost. Hoops, corsets, long pointed bodices, paniers, bustles, and crinolines are constantly mentioned. Flam- boyant colours, "audacious cuts," and "foreign paints" are charged to the toilet of all great ladies, but with all this, a certain charm characterized the dress of the ladies of Venice in the first quarter of the century, for the materialism of the seventeenth century had al- ways been tempered with artistic sense, and an appar- ent triumphal joyousness in every new and spectacular effect. This quality raised all their efforts above the ordinary. There are so many and such extravagant and lengthy accounts of the costumes of the Venetian ladies, and such varieties in fashion and material that we may perhaps, because of limited space, get a better idea of all this if we quote exactly one inventory of the trousseau belonging to a certain Venetian lady in 1744 instead of selecting elements from a variety of places. This account may be taken as fairly represen- tative of general conditions: "A complete dress of brocade, with cloth of gold petticoat, embroidered in silver thread, with brilliants and flowers embroidered and enamelled. Another complete dress of embroidered cloth, a light brown colour, trimmed deep with silver lace flounces, with enamels of many colours and silver filigree flowers. Robe and train of white, embroidered in gold, silver, and flowers. Robe and train of French gray, embroidered in gold, silver, and flowers. Robe and train of rose- PSYCHOLOGY OF DRESS coloured velvet and false petticoat, with deep flounces of gold lace and enamelled flowers. Robe and train of silver satin, quilted and embroidered in gold and flow- ers, petticoat to match the robe. Robe and train of white cloth flowered in enamel, gold, silver, and bril- liants. Robe and train of pale green flowered in silver. Robe and train, quite plain, with rose-coloured petti- coat shaded and flowered. Robe and train without silver, embroidered in a peculiar pattern and flowered. Robe and train of muslin of many colours. Robe and mantle, rose-coloured, and sham petticoat flounced in silver lace. Pale blue robe with tassels and little silver. Robe of black velvet. Robe of black watered silk. Robe woven in stripes and patterns. Robe of Holland Possue, trimmed with Spanish point. A patrician's robe of black, embroidered and trimmed with lace. A patrician's robe with lace flounces. A black Bella- cossa with tassels. Mantle and petticoat of black vel- vet. Another woven in stripes. A black patrician's mantle and petticoat, with embroidery and lace. A lemon-coloured Milordino with little silver trimming, and cloth-of-silver incisions, and petticoat to match. A sacque or Milordino, rose-coloured and embroidered, with petticoat to match, richly embroidered in silver. A dressing-gown with train, of plain dark stuff embroid- ered with flowers. A blue camelot riding-habit em- broidered in gold and silver, with bodice of cloth of silver glace trimmed with gold. A wrapper of black velvet lined with Canadian marten. A wrapper of pale blue velvet lined with ermine and vair. A wrapper of gold-green cloth and silver bosses, lined with Canadian marten, with separate sleeves that will allow it to be 226 AN ALMOST ENCHANTING HARMONY EXISTS HERE BETWEEN THE BEST TRADITIONS OF LATE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY SOCIAL FRANCE, ITS PEOPLE, THEIR COSTUMES, AND THE ROOMS IN WHICH THEIR LIVES WERE PASSED. UNDOUBTEDLY THE ARCADIAN POINT OF VIEW HAD MUCH TO DO WITH THE SIMPLE GRACE AND THE CULTURED ^STHETICISM OF THESE FASHIONS. THE FASCINATING OPTIMISM AND GAY ABANDON OF THIS YOUNG WOMAN ARE ADMIRABLY REPEATED IN EVERY ARTICLE OF DRESS THAT SHE HAS CHOSEN. IT IS A REAL LESSON IN PERSONALITY EXPRESSION. ROYAL DICTATION IS SUPPLANTED BY INDIVIDUAL EXPRESSION AND SUPERFICIAL EXTRAVAGANCE BY AFFECTED SIMPLICITY. EIGHTEENTH CENTURY: FRANCE AND ITALY turned into a robe. Cloak and domino of gray embroid- ered in silver. Petticoats of white camelot embroidered in gold and silver with bodice to match, of green richly embroidered in gold. Another bodice of beaver em- broidered with gold and flowers. Another of limousine camelot with silver braid, rose-coloured with deep silver lace trimming. Another blue with silver embroidery. Plain white stays. Several corsets, white embroidered in gold, with herring-bone sewing; rose-coloured with silver stitching and silver lace trimming. Beaver drawers, trimmed in gold, with burnished clasps; rose- coIouTeTl' cloth embroidered with silver; pale blue damask embroidered in silver; black velvet embroid- ered with gold; of rose-coloured cloth trimmed with sil- ver; of patrician black. Five hooped skirts, rose, white, pale blue, and roedeer skin, five in all. A lace bauta. An embroidered lawn bauta. Two English hats. Cloaks of camelot embroidered in gold; with silver lace. A patrician's cloak embroidered. Little cloaks of black velvet with Spanish point trimmings; of crape with black lace trimming. Paris cloaks with silver embroidery; with flower embroidery; a gray travelling-cloak em- broidered and lined with rose-coloured plush and silver incisions : of rose-coloured velvet trimmed with Russian ermine, and lined with vair, with silver incisions. A boa with its round clasp in gold and silver. Another with clasp of silver and enamelled flowers. Another in cloth of silver with little gold embroidery and flow- ered. Others of light cloth of silver, of silver lace, em- broidered in blue flowers. Colliers wrought in gold and silver with silk tassels of various colours. Two white lace handkerchiefs from Sessa and two from Vi- 227 PSYCHOLOGY OF DRESS enna, one of white lawn with gold embroidery and flowers, the other with plain flowers. A large muff em- broidered in gold and silver. Another of rose-coloured velvet with silver cords." Then follows a list of chemises, ruffles, caps, coifs, neck cloths with precious lace, silk stockings, embroidered slippers, shoes of vel- vet and fur, fans studded with brilliants and diamonds, satin cloaks with gold and silver embroidery, sables, black fox, ermine, wolf, and beaver. By the middle of the century French fashions were brought into Venice every Ascensiontide. At this time the milliners dressed up huge dolls in all the latest modes and finery and exposed them in public places. This custom of a fashion show prevailed until the Revolution in France, when classic garments became the vogue and Venice responded quickly to the French temper. A contemporary writer tells us that in Venice the ex- travagance of the dresses was matched by the absurdi- ties of the hats which were, according to one, Businello, "cultivated like a garden," and we find Gozzi ridiculing hats that looked "like baskets of cabbages." It seems as if we had found here the immediate forerunners of some of the present styles in which vegetables, fruits, flowers, and feathers make common cause on one head. It is likely, too, that the same state of mind inspired them then as now. Alas the court of Marie Antoinette could do no worse with the hair than could the hair-dresser of Venice. Even at the risk of repeating too many of Molmenti's not too delicate comments we must state what he says in regard to the hairdresser and his products: "The hairdresser combed out, curled, and waved the locks, 228 EIGHTEENTH CENTURY: FRANCE AND ITALY added false hair, gathered it all up into the fantastic towers of the tupe (conzieri or cimieri in Venetian), and then powdered the whole; the use of powder in the seventeenth century had become an essential in both male and female hairdressing. Ladies of fashion wore huge mob caps, feathers, lace, cupidons, butterflies, stuffed birds, ears of corn, flowers, fruit, on their heads. A writer of the Seicento remarks that ' the face compared with its elaborate setting of hair seemed like the earth in comparison with the circumambient sky,' another writer of the same epoch declares that it would have required a whole volume to describe a head-dress with its jewels and its flowers; and no wonder, for it had emptied the purse of the unfortunate husband to build it up." We find as many different shapes here as at Versailles, and that this invention was further ornamented with portraits of the wearer's father, lovers, canaries, and pet dogs. We note with amusement that no mention is made of the husband except as he became responsible for the expense, which seems to have been enormous and, so far as is recorded, was borne with becoming silence. It seems very peculiar that the Venetians in the presence of so much water failed to use any for washing purposes. Ladies sponged their faces but immediately covered them with rouge and paint and it is related "they soaked their clothes, from their chemi- ses to their gloves, in perfume that scented the air three miles off." These perfumes were supposed to possess medicinal properties. Balsam and musk diluted in water were considered an effective remedy for heart disease and dropsy. They used pills made of soap to cure headache and stomach-ache. Toward the end of 229 PSYCHOLOGY OF DRESS the century patches on the face were so universal that they were used as symbols in expressing ideas. A patch on the nose was called sfrontta, one at the cor- ner of the eye passionate, on the lip gallante, near the eye irresistibile, in the middle of the forehead maestosa, and at the corner of the mouth assassina. Underclothing is described as rich and elegant but not especially clean. Finest linen bordered with silver lace and other rich materials was generally used. Handker- chiefs were richly ornamented and were rare. Women adopted the use of coloured ones as soon as the taking of snuff became an established custom. Curious com- ments these on the state of mind even in those days of decadence. Jewels abounded. The head, neck, arms, and fingers were covered sometimes with real gems, but as Goldoni assures us, more often with imitation ones, particularly just before the outbreak of the French Revolution when things were most exaggerated and most unreal. Num- berless chains, eyeglasses, snuff boxes, clocks, and other things were worn or carried by both men and women, and fans were the most elaborate, varied, and universal of all toilet accessories. Goldoni 's assurance should give comfort to such of our friends as were too greatly shocked upon the death of a lady who was a recognized social leader a few years , since, when her pearls were found to be but imitations of the real thing. The women of the middle classes were not willing to be outdone by their more fortunate sisters, so they copied their clothes and insisted that they must be present at certain places of amusement, and be recog- nized as fit to be there. 230 EIGHTEENTH CENTURY: FRANCE AND ITALY The women of the people although they are said to have adopted strange fashions, were less desirous of imitating the patrician class and therefore proved more interesting and picturesque. They wore gowns of flaming colours; scarlet bodies, highly embroidered aprons, gold chains on their necks, many coloured ribbons in their hair and white shoes. The costumes of the men were not less varied nor less extravagant than those of the women. After ex- /' patiating on the gorgeous "plumage-like clothes" of / men and the effeminacy to which all men were com-/ mitted, a contemporary writer said that clothes then were made of silks and velvets covered in embroidery, that white silk stockings were also embroidered, and hats with plumes and precious stones were getting to be universal! He mentions shoes with gold and silver buckles set in precious stones, ruffles of lace at the breast and wrists, and faces powdered, painted, and patched so that they were "worse got up" than the women whom they attended. We quote here a translation of what seems to be half satirical counsel given to the young bloods of Venice who were going to the fair of San Antonio at Padua in 1751. This will at least indicate many of the points essential to the practices of the time in so far at least as the patricians are concerned. "Rules necessary to a Noble and polished Youth for making a brilliant appearance at the coming Fete of the patron Saint of Padua, 1751 in thirty chapters: 1. Embroidered coat to the value of about 200 Sequins. 2. Two other Coats in good taste, and fashionable to wear during the day. 3. Breeches to match the coats 231 PSYCHOLOGY OF DRESS or with a fastening of three gold Buckles. 4. Superfine Shirts with English point, and superfine Flanders laces, and should be changed every day. 5. Silk stockings with two Tassels from Paris, with a lead seal at two Sequins a pair. 6. Belt pendents of gold embroidered silk with five gold Clasps. 7. Steel Sword mounted in gold, with white ribbon worked in gold, and tassels. 8. Black shoes with leather soles and gold Buckles. 9. Peruke of M. su Taquel with a toupee a verze and its little ornamented bag. 10. Col- lars held by gold Clasps, changed twice a day. 11. A plain English Hat weighing three ounces. 12. Two White Handkerchiefs, one for paring Fruit, the otheiTEo serve the Lady when she takes a Sherbet, Coffee or Chocolate: two others for the Nose, of tree bark, and all sprinkled with spirits of Lavender. 13. Silkjsponges for wiping off the perspiration. 14. Two pairs of white Gloves from Rome, one pair in the hand the other in the pocket with two pairs of Ladies' gloves of different sizes, for any contingency that might occur, making sure that they have no odour. 15. Snuff boxes, one of gold for Spanish Tobacco, the other of red papier mache of M. su Marsian for Tobacco of the Country. 16. A case with its fittings and instruments all of gold. 17. A small gold Case with his spoon and Hanover powder. 18. A Stand mounted in gold with perfumed spirits of the latest mode. 19. Another Stand divided in two by Neapolitan Devils and Imps. 20. A mirror, Memorandum book, Brushes, Pins, of various sorts, Strings, Adzes, Silk of various colours in two little boxes. 21. Opera glass with its Tortoise-shell and gold case. 22. Repeating Clock, on one side an enamel face 232 EIGHTEENTH CENTURY: FRANCE AND ITALY with French time, and on the other one of gold with Italian time. 23. Two packages of French and Italian Paper. 24. Fans with white Ribbon which one places between the inner folds of the Velada for protecting the Lady from the sun, 'offering her the arm after the usage of Sinigalia. 25. Two rings, one a Ruby and the other a Brilliant, two little souvenirs, one with small brilli- ants, and the other may be real pinchbeck, which may serve as a remembrance and as a specific. 26. A Purse of silk net with gold Coins and in it some large pieces of money in quite new silver, to pay for anything the Lady happens to need if by chance she should lose at play, and a hundred Sequins more in specie of the reigning Doge. 27. He should always have in his pocket candied Fruits in a gilded box, pieces of Choco- late, Pistachio, Chestnuts, Pickles, Imps and other trifles pertaining to gallantry. 28. A groom and a knavish Lackey, who will be skillful on occasions which might arise for fleeing the City to go to a Villa. 29. Gilded Cabriolet with two fine Horses. 30. A box with Assafceteda in reality, which will serve for the Lady if she suffers a hysterical Attack; this comes for the most part compounded with good scents. When the K. r is fitted out in this manner he can, without any doubt, according to the expressed opinion of the most judicious, the authorized protectors of the grand mode, make his appearance in good society with a Lady, and may always hope to draw the applause of the Lady, it remaining only to point out to him that he should often interrupt his graceful conversation with some French Song; this he can learn in the famous book entitled: 'L'Amor de Palajo RoieV 233 PSYCHOLOGY OF DRESS Of course the government, alarmed lest a universal bankruptcy should come upon the land, legislated ever and anon, and in 1781 made a most vigorous attempt to check the mad extravagance in clothes, but always with one result namely, a more vigorous and deter- mined effort on the part of all classes to "invent anew and spend the more." Corresponding with the salon in France was the conversazione of Italy. This was woman's kingdom. Goldoni says: "It is enough to make you die of laughing to go to a conversazione. There are the ladies with their cavalieri serventi; they sit there stiff as statues, waiting to be adored; her lover sighs over the shoulder of one, or kneels at her feet; another hands the tea, or picks up a handkerchief, or kisses a hand, or offers his arm, or plays the secretary, the footman, the hair- dresser, the perfumer, or fondles or follows about like a dog." The great halls of the palaces were frequently opened also for balls and concerts, where the greatest antics were performed. Often the conversazione began after these fetes, sometimes at two o'clock in the morning, and lasted till well after the light of day had broken. Amid the clatter of" conversation, the flutter of fans, the rustle of silks and the flirtations of the patricians and their cicisbei, there filtered into Italy political seditions, religious agnosticism and the social unrest which was gradually undermining the old order in France and which at last culminated in the Revolution in 1789. ^ The philosophy of Voltaire and Rousseau, the theo- ries of paganism in regard to the marriage contract, individual rights of man and the meaning of nature 234 ' THE REVOLUTION WIPED OUT THE GRACE, DESTROYED THE CHARM, AND ARRESTED, AT LEAST FOR A TIME, THE ACTIVITY OF THE AES- THETIC CREATIVE POWER. IN THE D1KECTOIRE FASHIONS THERE ARE ALMOST UNLIMITED IDEAS FOR MODERN USE; RATHER SIMPLE, QUITE PRACTICAL, SOME- TIMES CHIC AND EVEN, IN MANY INSTANCES, jESTHETiqALLY CON- CEIVED. IT WAS NOT GIVEN TO THE LADIES ALONE TO EXPLOIT THE NEW AND LESS AUTOCRATIC PHASE IN FASHION OF DRESS AS IT WAS EXPRESSED BY THE EMPIRE. LAST QUARTER OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. VENETIAN. IF ALL ELSE IN VENICE WAS ARTIFICIAL, THIS FAMILY GROUP WAS SIM- PLE, NATURAL, AND PICTURESQUE IN ITS PERSONALITIES AND ITS COSTUMES. EIGHTEENTH CENTURY: FRANCE AND ITALY were flippantly discussed over the coffee cup and amidst the surroundings which were the natural setting of the ~ conversazione the opera and the coffee house. Gradu- ally but surely society was imbibing the ideas that were destined after they had sufficiently penetrated general consciousness, to revolutionize thought and then life. The development of the particular style called Louis Seize in France was practically dictated from Ver- sailles. Paris rebelled at the autocratic mandates but copied them in self defense. The outlying provinces took their ideals from the same source, for Versailles was still France, at least in theory. In Italy it was different. Italy was not a unit. Venice was a world alone, Rome a law unto herself; Florence austere and dull under the grand Duke Peter Leopold thought in terms totally unlike sophisticated Milan or impulsive Naples. Each and every quarter of Italy was individual and the art of Louis Seize was an adopted fashion taken on after it was formulated, and re-expressed by individual states as differently as it would be by totally different nations, or by two very unlike individuals of the same nation. This is its charm. ^Lombardy was one of the progressive states and Milan a culture centre. Here as in Venice the middle and lower classes were as imbued with culture and art {/ as were the nobles. An English woman who wrote from Milan in 1771 said: "We had the pleasure of seeing how extremely opulent the citizens and their families appear even down to the lowest mechanics, though I cannot say I liked to see blacksmiths and shoemakers 235 PSYCHOLOGY OF DRESS with gold and silver stuffs in waistcoats, long swords and embroidered knots; tailors in brocade and fine laced ruffles, etc. This is carrying opulence into luxury. At the same time, waving their ridiculous excesses, I was rejoiced to see everybody appear rich and happy. The noblesse and great ladies dress in a more noble style than in Paris and have a very genteel air and manner: their clothes are of the richest materials: and better made than any I have yet seen in Italy." This is enlightening when compared with the ex- cesses of Venice, and with the individual peculiarities of the other states. Rome was autocratic and the luxury and extravagance of the families of the popes and of the great cardinals is a matter of historic record as is the poverty and degradation of the masses there during this period. Contrasting Venice, however, with other states, in his "History of Italian Furniture" Odom beautifully and comprehensively says of Venice: "Under no foreign restraint she gaily fted herself to disaster with wealth amassed by her patricians in the days of their commercial supremacy. . . . Still insatiable in the desire for new fashions Venice frivolously and charmingly patterned her painted furniture and the decorations of her interiors after the Louis Seize style in France, modifying them by her own desire for sensuous colour, while blending antique ideas with classically tempered motifs retained from her graceful Rococo style." Her own peculiar abandon to sensation and novelty was even more clearly seen in her surrender to them in matters of costume, the art which, after all, more than 236 EIGHTEENTH CENTURY: FRANCE AND ITALY any other, is the expression of an unquenchable passion for a new sensation, an untried adventure and a more personal display for purposes of attraction, which really was the means through which their choicest aims in social life were to be accomplished. 237 CHAPTER SIX THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY IN ENGLAND AND THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA IT IS not very strange that one is accustomed to think of his own mental ancestors of the Middle Ages and of the Renaissance also, as so far removed as to be viewed as chronological curiosities rather than as real con- tributors to one's present state of mind. A closer acquaintance, however, seems to establish pretty clearly the fact that they are not so different from us as we imagine, and that the more we know of them the better we understand not only them, but ourselves. The closer the contact, too, the more fully we appreciate the fundamental instincts, impulses, and powers of the human mind, and the more deeply we are impressed with the importance of a complete knowledge of facts and circumstances before passing final judgment. The eighteenth century, however, does not appear to us so far away. We seem to be able to realize without much difficulty the sensual abandon of the court of Louis XV, the artificial and unstable times of Marie Antoinette and the awful retribution of the French Revolution. To one with the rudiments of an imagina- tion it\is not difficult to picture proud and gorgeous Venice, dominated but not debased, sensuous but not sensual, decadent but not licentious, frittering away 38 EIGHTEENTH CENTURY: ENGLAND AND U. S. her remaining substance, and thus gradually sapping the very life energy of her people. An examination, too, of the art expression of any of these groups seems to reveal to us again the unmistakable quality relations that always exist between man and his works, or in other words between the mental conception and the externalized thought. It is easy for us to see relation- ships here because more of our own ideas, ideals, and practices are recognizable in eighteenth century life as they are less obscured by the more fundamental require- ments and aspirations of the earlier periods. To us whose lot has fallen in the United States of America, France and Italy are of vital interest, no matter what our origin or training, for they are the centres from which has emanated much that we our- selves are, and still more of what we live in. To a large proportion of us much has come from these sources by indirect filtration through other national ideals, being in some measure modified by the mental current through which it has passed. With England and its particular interpretation of these ideals, with the addition of its own peculiarly British contribution, we are even more closely as- sociated from this period on, for by the beginning of the eighteenth century England had begun to dominate the civilization of the Colonies, and by the middle of the century this process was to all intents and purposes complete. Even in the third quarter of the century, after the independence of the Colonies permanently severed them from political domination, in spite of the very important influx of French ideas during, and immediately after, PSYCHOLOGY OF DRESS the Revolution, the social ideals of the United States of America were about as English as those of England it- self, and the setting for these ideals called the Colonial style, was but a youth's interpretation of his father's manner of doing things. This ties the psychology and the art expression of England and the United States in a common knot during the eighteenth century, rendering an interrelation between them essential to our discussion of their social life and its expression. Even a brief summary of the political history of England and the United States of America during the eighteenth century would seem superfluous here, it being so well known, its results but a century away, some of them in sooth but a decade, so we need only now and then correlate certain related ideas, and perhaps designate the monarchs and other persons with whose names we have more or less associated events and historical documents of all sorts, both in England and at home. The century in England was ushered in by the period of Queen Anne, whose reign may be said to express the last gasp of monarchic autocracy in the art of England. Unlike France, committed at this time soul and body to the autocracy of kings in all matters of manners, morals, and expression, England, for centuries the cradle of individualism, was the logical home for the rebirth, or rather the reassertion, of the spirit in matters of art. While the art of the period was called Queen Anne, it seems improbable that the influence of the queen, or of the court for that matter, had any considerable bearing upon the trend of art or even upon fashion. In the reigns that followed it would be inconceivable to connect 240 EIGHTEENTH CENTURY: ENGLAND AND U. S. even for a moment the German Georges, much less their still more German queens, with the ideals of England as they were expressed in the various social art fields. Although in discussing fashion in costumes we shall need to speak of it in connection with the variety of Georges whose reigns completed the century, we shall be thinking in general terms of the new power, for instance, of such great architects as Paine, Taylor, Chambers, and Adams, working according to their ideals, gentlemen for gentlemen. Each of these had taste, and was doubtless interested in the classic revival of architecture with no thought of what the attitude of the court might be on the subject. There were Chip- pendale, Hepplewhite, Sheraton and other great cab- inet-makers who comprehended individual expression, and who had the power to develop their conceptions in the broadest way, which resulted in the formation of styles in the essential furnishings of a house quite unlike each other, perhaps less aesthetically conceived and executed than those of autocratic France, but thought out with regard to function no less effectively, and surely no less perfect in matters of technical carpentry or joinery than the most exacting of critics could desire. The point is that another and very different idea was being crystallized and expressed than that which came out of the French or the Italian mind in this, the greatest social century of our development. It was the old idea of liberty in thought and action born in a new body, social this time, instead of religious v or political, as was the case in the previous centuries of our development. In this England led the civilized 241 PSYCHOLOGY OF DRESS nations of the world, and in this the very nature of the United States was conceived. Young and conscious only of a part of her powers, she undoubtedly, con- sciously and subconsciously, copied in large measure up to 1776, the very manners, customs, and expressions of her parent as completely as possible, considering distance, the difficulty of communication, her own limitations and the undeveloped means of transporting things from the mother country. Her aim was none the less clearly defined: to be like her parent at all costs, and when able to do so to be even more English than the older folk across the sea. This must be re- membered when we discuss eighteenth century fashions either in England or in the United States, for we were not so plain, so humble, nor so modest in our dress as is generally supposed. We find even France conscious of this individual initiative, and see her in turn, near the close of the century, attempting to copy the ideas and practices of | England with a frenzy that earned the well deserved name of Anglomania; and, truth to tell, Italy was no less concerned in imitating her at about the same time. An interesting estimate of the English mind as seen by an Italian Jesuit who visited England about the middle of the century, is found in one of his letters to a Reverend brother at Rome, He says: "Nothing is so frequently met with as discontent in the manners and expressions of the English people, and nothing so un- common as that disposition amongst the French; a Briton growls at his situation in life all day long, and a Frenchman seems pleased with his; and yet, the former extols the mode of his government beyond all others in 242 ABOUT 1785. VENETIAN. THE FASHIONS OF VERSAILLES INTER- PRETED IN ITALY HAVE A CHARM ALL THEIR OWN, MADE MORE INTERESTING THROUGH THEIR PERSONAL QUALITY. ABOUT THE MIDDLE OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. ENGLISH. CHARMING FROCK OF ENGLISH SILK MADE IN A SIMPLE FASHION. ABOUT 1760. ENGLISH. THE EARLY FASHION OF PETTICOAT PROMI- NENCE AND THE EMBROIDERED APRON. THIS WAS WIDELY COPIED IN THE COLONIES. NOTICE THE FASHION OF THE NECK AND SLEEVES. EIGHTEENTH CENTURY: ENGLAND AND U. S. Europe, and affirms, that England is the only land of liberty and happiness. If we examine the waywardness of an Englishman the little inclination he has to follow any opinion but his own, whether conceived to be right, or preferred because he would have it so, we shall find something in him not to be found in a Frenchman. This same cause is the source of discontent as well as waywardness." The difference in point of view is in this case the key to the whole situation and explains at once the mode of progress of the individual idea and its struggles, as well as the possibilities of personal con- tent where one's present and future states of conscious- ness are all settled for him. May we be pardoned if we illustrate this attitude with one more quotation from another letter of this same gentleman: "No creature on the globe has half the arrogance of the Quaker; he accosts the king him- self as 'Friend George,' the minister as 'Neighbour William,' and this without the least reluctance, distrust of himself, or mark of confusion." A situation surely unthought of and incredible where the power of divine right did not approach being completely broken. Let us return for a moment to the period of Queen Anne, when the crown had neutralized some of the unpopularity brought upon it by William and Mary, and when a slight outward appearance of respect between it and the church and the people was at least discernible, and endeavour to see what was the underlying cause of the disintegration of its power during the first half of the century and hence what really made possible the out- burst of individualism about the middle of the century. The Treaty of Utrecht had forced England to aban- 243 PSYCHOLOGY OF DRESS don her hitherto unchallenged position of isolation, com- pelling her to become more openly and interestedly associated with the other great European powers. The rapid growth of the Colonies in America and their accumulation of wealth, with their corresponding aspirations to be both seen and heard at home and abroad was making commercial interests and the possibilities in new materials and newly acquired wealth a problem. Religious tangles were in no wise straightened out as they constantly became more in- volved with political problems. This had a weakening effect and resulted in many complications. The spirit of religion suffered and became so weakened that by the middle of the century it seemed sometimes inoperative. In the midst of all this (in 1714) George I was called to the English throne, which he occupied until 1727, his successor George II reigning until 1760. This epoch, "lain out by an all wise Providence" as a writer has it (and by the way there is more than a sense of humour in this), may be thought of as one modified perhaps in its ideals by the peculiarities of the two German queens. The latter and more interesting one seems to have, at least for a time, obliged her royal spouse to obey his minister, who happened up to 1742 to be none other than the great Horace Walpole. These facts are only mentioned as an assistance in recalling the picture of a political, religious, social situation in which individu- alism flourished. In a period so fraught with events and so intimately associated with the names of individuals who created public opinion as well as of those who created objects in answer to the expressed needs of the public, it is neither 244 EIGHTEENTH CENTURY: ENGLAND AND U. S. needful nor seemly to attempt to correlate the arts as we have done in earlier periods where the facts and persons were less clearly in mind, so we will confine our- selves mainly to the art of costume, to fashion and to the social state of mind that produced them. To begin with, Goldsmith gives us his opinion of the English lady of this period, compared with her clothes, in an essay where he says : ' ' Foreigners observe that there v are no ladies in the world more beautiful or more ill- dressed than those of England. Our countrywomen have been compared to those pictures where the face is the work of a Raphael, but the draperies thrown out by some empty pretender, destitute of taste, and entirely unacquainted with designs ... If I were a poet I might observe, on this occasion, that so much beauty, set off with all the advantages of dress, would be too powerful an antagonist for the opposite sex; and there- fore it was wisely ordered that our ladies should want taste, lest their admirers should entirely want reason." Another English writer says of the same ladies, how- ever, that "It has always been, and is still, a stock saying with foreigners that English women are ill- dressed, but the saying has little point in it, since the majority of English fashions still come from abroad. On the comparatively rare occasions when the English women rely upon their own invention, taste, and judgment, they appear better dressed than the women of any European country." He forgets though that an Aztec woman may not look well-dressed in the fashions of the French court, nor the French lady necessarily well-dressed in the best fashions of Aztec land, since the 245 PSYCHOLOGY OF DRESS harmony of the individual with his clothes is as impor- tant as the source of the fashion. Every sidelight as to the point of view is interesting when attempting to see relationships, and nowhere is there to be found more diverse and amusing estimates than those relating to England at this time. An Italian priest finds so great a difference in tem- perament and in family life between England and Italy that he thus writes a friend at Rome about the middle of the century: "That women have separate delights than those of a husband's company, is nothing surpris- ing to an Italian: but that there should be so little conversation between men and their wives when they are not disagreeable to each other, is somewhat singular. It is no uncommon thing in London, perhaps it is the most common, for a couple to live together on very good terms, who have not the least real love for each other: if their condition of life supplies them with money enough, each person has his separate pleasures. . . . When either one dies the survivor makes a handsome funeral and looks out for another partner." Too familiar a doctrine no doubt to need repetition here, but a manifestation of individualism in social life new to the writer if old to us. This same personage's insistence in another letter that the reason even the English esteem the ladies of Italy and France so much more highly than those of England, is due to the fact that the latter have so little practice in training the young men in the art of love- making that they neglect to cultivate their minds to a point of perfectness where they can understand them. He tells how English youth spend the years from thir- 246 EIGHTEENTH CENTURY: ENGLAND AND U. S. teen to twenty-four or five in the university, instructed by men, while the ladies sit and wait or frivol away their time, while in France the youth of thirteen is turned over to the women of the social set, and he is_/ instructed by these ladies in manner as befits his future occupation of social amusement. This the writer in- sists necessitates a "female mind" so complete and so trained as to be able to do honour to the calling which has fallen to her lot. Perchance we had all noticed the difference he points out but had not seen it exactly from this point of view before. Some good sound advice was being given about dress j along with the satire, wit, and other criticism of the ( time. From "The Ladies Library" published in 1739 we take the following: "Affectation in Dress always' misses the End it aims at, and raises Contempt instead of Admiration. Negligence is on the other hand an Error that ought to be corrected; Neatness, Proportion, and Decency of Dress, are always commendable. Virtue it- self is disagreeable in a Sloven; and that lady who takes no Care of herself will find no body will care for her. The Fault is the Excess: Mind your Persons, but mind your Understandings too. . . . Let Ladies, above all things, consult Decency and Ease; never to expose nor torture Nature, Fashion is always aiming at Perfec- tion, but never finds it, or never stops where it should: 'Tis always mending, but never improving: A true Labour in vain; and consequently those that follow it, are guilty of the highest Folly and Madness. To change for the sake of Changing, is to submit to the Government of Caprice; and that Man or Woman that is given up to it, will surely be as whimsical in the other 247 PSYCHOLOGY OF DRESS parts of their Conduct. Is it sufficient for a reasonable Mind, to like a thing purely because 'tis new, or to dis- like it because it is not? Must a foolish Fashion please me, for that 'tis a Novelty, and a good one displease, be- cause I have try'd it and found it so? If Fops reckon wise Men out of their Wits when they are out of the Fashion, wise Men have certainly much more ground to think them mad when they are in it." From the same source we get "If Dress, as we are told in Scripture, was to cover Nakedness, it seems in our Days not to answer the End of it, especially with the Ladies; who, one would imagine by their Dress, are so far from reckoning themselves obliged to their Mother Eve, for dressing them, that they are for throwing away the very Fig-leaves; they have already uncovered their Shoulders and Breasts, and as they have gone so far in a few Months, what may they not do in Years?" Let us see how all this variety of opinion really worked out when it was aggregated, assimilated and submitted to fashion and her demands for a compromise and afterward an expression in clothes. The assuming of French fashions in manners and in clothes presents quite a problem to any nation not French, to whom, in consequence, these manners or clothes are not a heri- tage. The more remotely related in ideas those were who espoused the alien expression, the more grotesque the appearance and the more unnatural the affilia- tion. By no stretch of the imagination could anybody fancy even a fairly intelligent Englishman assuming success- fully the role of a French dandy, and no doubt that is the reason why all historians of costume, as well as 248 EIGHTEENTH CENTURY: ENGLAND AND U. S. satirists and wits, seem to have selected this species for special exploitation. It is not to be wondered at when we reflect what the product must have been like. "Fancy the beaux thronging the chocolate houses, tapping their snuffboxes as they issue thence, their periwig appearing over the red curtains. We find our- selves willingly discussing the shoes of the King of France with a crowd of powdered beaux, those shoes, the dandyism of which has never been surpassed, the heels if you please painted by Vandermeulen, with scenes from Rhenish victories, or we go to the toy shops in Fleet Street where we make assignations or buy us a mask. Everywhere the beaux. He rides the world like a cockhorse or like Og the giant rode the Ark of Noah steering it with his feet, getting his washing for nothing and his meals passed up to him out of the chimney. Here the beaux, the everlasting beaux in * gold lace, wide cuffs, full skirts, swinging cane, a scarf of flashing colour, the coats embroidered with flowers and butterflies, the cuffs a mass of fine sewing, the three cornered hats cocked at a jaunty angle, the stockings rolled above the knees, lacquer hilted swords, paste buckles, gold and silver snuffboxes flashing in the sun." This, taken directly from a History of English Costume, shows this particular type in a not too ob- noxious manner. In 1768 the beau with his muff was thus satirized in " Lionel and Clarissa, " a comic opera: "A coxcomb, a fop, a dainty milk-sop; Who, essenc'd and dizen'd from bottom to top, Looks just like a doll for a milliner's shop. 249 PSYCHOLOGY OF DRESS A thing full of prate, and pride and conceit, All fashion, no weight; Who shrugs and takes snuff; and carries a muff; A minnikin, finicking, French powder-puff." A non-productive existence through social blandish- ments seems not to have been so respected a vocation in England as it was in other lands, yet it flourished there to prove the old adage that "it takes all kinds to make a world" and convinces us that no specimen is, was, or ever has been entirely missing. The finishing touch is given this phase by a lady who writes : "Foppery in dress has been so well ridiculed by men of wit that we are less troubled with it than ever. While it was a sin only, and was ranked under the heads of Pride and Vanity, while Damnation was the only Punishment, it flourished amain ! but now it is become a Jest, and the Fop is sure to be laughed at, he avoids that for the sake of his character, which he would not have avoided for the Sake of his Salvation." Severe arraignments these for individual freedom in expressing one's personal inter- pretation of foreign ideas in borrowed fashions. ., The costumes in general during the period of George I y are not Over-interesting, but these observations may be helpful in sensing the general and the particular states of mind and the consequent point of view as to fashion y and its practical application. Shoemakers, milliners, v and dressmakers were generally French importations. When they did not work in London their creations were imported in great quantities, and we see the native creators of costumes hard at work copying those that had successfully crossed the Channel. 250 BEGINNING OF THE LAST QUARTER OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. ENGLISH. A BROCADE GOWN WITH QUILTED SILK PETTICOAT AND CALASH HEADPIECE. SHOWS FRENCH INFLUENCE IN CUT. THIS WAS ALSO COPIED IN THE COLONIES. ABOUT THE MIDDLE OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. NEW ENGLAND COLONIAL (WIFE OF A MERCHANT). AN EXCELLENT EXAMPLE OF THE RESULTS OF PURITAN IDEALS IN DRESS AFTER ONE CENTURY OF DEVELOPMENT. A LITTLE PAST THE MIDDLE OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. COLO- NIAL. NO TRACE OF PURITAN RESTRAINT, NO INDICATION OF NEW ENGLAND THRIFT, AND NO LACK OF FASHION'S POWER, IS SEEN HERE. THIRD QUARTER OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. IN RICHNESS OF MATERIAL THIS MIGHT WELL HAVE BEEN FRENCH INSTEAD OF COLONIAL, ALTHOUGH IN CUT AND IN FEELING IT IS DISTINCTLY ENGLISH. EIGHTEENTH CENTURY: ENGLAND AND U. S. In a letter written to the "Spectator," in praise of French fashion, we have this: "You cannot imagine, worthy sir, how ridiculously I find we have all been trussed up during the war, and how infinitely the French dress excells ours. The mantua has no lead in the sleeves, and I hope we are not lighter than the French ladies, so as to want that kind of ballast; the petticoat has no whalebone, but sets with an air al- together gallant and degage; the coiffure is inexpressibly pretty, and in short the whole dress has a thousand beauties in it." An inventory of 1720 assures us that out of a very long list of essentials for every lady's wardrobe and toilet nearly every article, except some coarse woollen ones, was of foreign make, including pomatums, patches, powder, wire, whalebone and hoops, beside jewels, combs, and essences. The conclusion of the writer is that England may at least speed up her manufacture and use of woollen stuffs if nothing more. The riding-habit made its first appearance in the latter part of the reign of Charles II persisting through the period of Queen Anne, and we quote Addison's opinion of this fashion which he delivered in the follow- ing words: "Among the several female extravagances I have already taken notice of, there is one which still keeps its ground. I mean that of the ladies who dress themselves in a hat and feather, a riding-coat and a perriwig, or at least tie up their hair in a bag or ribbon, in imitation of the smart part of the opposite sex." And then he pictures the gentlemen's habit with his own personal reaction to it as follows: "His hair, well curled and powdered, hung to a considerable length 251 PSYCHOLOGY OF DRESS on his shoulders, and was tied as if by the hand of his mistress with a scarlet ribband, which played like a streamer behind him; he had a coat and waistcoat of blue camlet trimmed and embroidered with silver, a cravat of the finest lace, and wore in a smart cock, a little beaver hat edged with silver, and made more sprightly by a feather. ... As I was pitying the luxury of this young person, who appeared to me to have been only educated as an object of sight, I per- ceived on my nearer approach, and as I turned my eye downward, a part of the equipage I had not observed before, which was a petticoat of the same as the coat and waistcoat." In the reign of George I Walpole says: "The habits of the times were shrunk into awkward coats and waist- coats for the men; and for the women, to tight-laced gowns, round hoops, and half-a-dozen squeezed plaits of linen, to which dangled behind two unmeaning pen- dants, called lappets, not half covering their straight- drawn hair." Mary Margaret Egerton tells us that "the hoop now underwent many important changes," and that "the high-heeled shoes remained. Tight sleeves with full ruffles; small -pointed waists enclosed in whalebone; loose gowns called sacques; and cloaks with hoods named cardinals, were now la grande mode." Among gentlemen's costumes the most striking nov- elty of this time was the Ramilie tail, which was a plaited tail to the wig, with an immense bow at the top and a smaller one at the bottom. To Lord Bolingbroke the elegantes are indebted for the fashion of tying the hair, which hitherto had been formed into curls on the back of the neck. " Hats were of every shape. Nether 252 EIGHTEENTH CENTURY: ENGLAND AND U. S. garments were fastened below the knees, and the stock- ings no longer covered them." Sir Roger de Coverley once assured a young lady in riding-dress that he all but addressed her as "Sir," and a letter written in 1728 assures a friend that he, the writer, had almost wasted his gallantries upon a beau whom he had actually mistaken for "a lady in habit." Colours are described as "very striking"; petticoats of black satin with bunches of flowers in bright colours, morning dresses of flowered yellow satin faced with cherry coloured bands; waistcoats of one colour and fringes and bands of another, bodices heavily embroid- ered in coloured flowers and many other striking and variegated effects seem to indicate the appreciation for sensation rather than taste. Many of these ideas ^ will be recognized as having their origin in the Regency and the early Louis XV styles, but from all documentary evidence their choice and adaptation in England was generally foreign to the taste and feeling which created them. For convenience in picturing the second quarter of the century we associate it with the name of George II (1727 to 1760), whose temper, as an English historian has it, may be likened to "that of a drill sergeant who believed himself master of his realm, while he repeated the lessons he had learnt from his wife." The same historian tells us that both his character, and that of George I "as nearly approached insignificance as it is possible for human character to approach it," which seems to indicate a type requiring some imagination on our part to conceive. And yet in spite of this the court is remembered (if we may believe the memoirs) 253 PSYCHOLOGY OF DRESS for its wit and its feminine charm. In this is seen the general wave of cultivation that swept Europe at this time, was centred in France, and modified by the na- tional qualities or the prevailing state of mind in each country by which it was adopted. Its interest for us is found in just these individual differences in expressing the same general idea. It is a strange fact that in France since the days of Francis I (with the exception of the reign of Louis XIV and even then indirectly) fashion was dictated by the important court ladies in royal favour or seeking it. In Italy, after the decline was well under way, the inter- est of the men in costume seemed to increase as the x process developed, and at least they were masters in v their own realm and seem to have found their own ap- pearance of greater importance than anything else in life. England has always been a man's country. Appar- ently there has never been an exception to this even in the matter of personal adornment, but in this epoch French fashions seemed to be less at home on English gentlemen than they were at Versailles, and truth to tell the English selections do not seem always to have been made with the same intuitive taste then, as by their neighbours across the Channel. This adds to the amusement derived from the results as seen from an Anglo-Saxon point of view. One could as easily imagine an Englishman in the streets of to-day without a coat or boots, as without an umbrella. ' Rain or shine (and in London one always expects rain) the umbrella is his constant companion, though even so necessary an accessory was evidently a French fashion, and a hard struggle it had too before it 254 EIGHTEENTH CENTURY: ENGLAND AND U. S. gained general acceptance. It is related that one, Jonas Han way, in 1756 set the fashion, that up to then its use was confined exclusively to the female sex. Most amusing anecdotes are told of the experiences of those men who adopted this "effeminate fashion of the French." A certain John MacDonald, valet or footman in several noble families writes that, "If it rained I wore my fine silk umbrella: then the people would call after me, 'What, Frenchman, why do you not get a coach?'. . . but I went straight on and took no notice. 'I was going to dine in Norfolk Street on Sunday. It rained, my sister had hold of my arm and I had the umbrella over our heads. In Tavistock Street we met so many young men, calling after us, 'Frenchman, take care of your umbrella, Frenchman, why do you not get a coach, monsieur?" Calthrop's "English Costume" takes a humorous view, beginning the discussion of this reign with a description of the vagaries and changes in wigs. He speaks of "a veritable confusion of barbers' enthusi- asms," and names for us such ones as "pigeon's-wing- wigs," "full-tails," "cauliflower," "staircase," "ladder," "bags," "drop-wigs," etc., each of which is expres- sive, if not as imaginative or as romantic as the names given these things by their French neighbours. The same writer tells of hats perched awry on the top / of these piles, "broad brimmed, narrow brimmed, round, three cornered, high brimmed, low brimmed, turned high off forehead, turned low in front and high at the back an endless crowd." Facts cease to be as astonishing or as amusing as our mental pictures of the English types that wore these things. 255 PSYCHOLOGY OF DRESS In general we are told that gentlemen's coats grew fuller, until on the top it became a great spreading skirt just buttoned by one or two buttons at the waist, and here we stop to shiver at the thought of what may happen to our own "young men's latest" belted, tight- waisted Empire looking coats seen in 1920. These coats were embroidered all over or laced, had huge cuffs, then small ones, so that by the middle of the century fashion changed so rapidly that "one knew the exact year of a coat he met in the street." This is too modern to record perhaps but "history repeats it- self" is no idle saying, sinceit really means that the fundamental impulses of man reassert themselves ever and anon, each in its turn so dominating his other im- pulses that he falls to expressing it as strongly as he can. Waistcoats were long, at one time nearly to the knees, fringed and flowered and open to show a velvet bow and lace cravat. Lace was worn at the wrists, and a snuff box in the hand was essential to perfect form. v Every man of fashion carried a muff in winter, all sizes / in a knot behind, then puffed at the sides and powdered. Sometimes the hair was real and sometimes false. Lit- tle caps, small straw hats, and other small headgear were not unusual. In 1755 the one horse chairs, or cabriolets, came in from France, and the mania for original sensations was shown in the way even men embroidered these on their waistcoats, painted them on their socks and went so far as to cut out silk ones to use for face patches. Fin- ally these were exploited in head-dresses, when the extreme was reached. On the other hand native Engv lish conservatism and dogged adherence to tradition even in all this orgy of decadence in clothes is very well and a musingly pictured by the conservative Scottish historian, Smollett, in his "Travels through France and Italy," published in 1766. * He writes from Paris to a lady in England: "With respect to the ladies I can only judge from their exteriors; but indeed these are so char- acteristic that one can hardly judge amiss, unless we suppose that a woman of taste and sentiment may be so overruled by the absurdities of what is called fashion as to reject reason and dignified nature, in order to be- 258 ABOUT 1770. COLONIAL. WIFE OF THE LAST ROYAL GOVERNOR OF NEW HAMPSHIRE. THE WAY OF DRESSING THE HAIR, THE RICH- NESS OF THE MATERIAL, AND THE CUT, SUGGEST FRENCH INFLUENCE, WHILE THE GENERAL MANNER IS ENGLISH. BEGINNING OF THE THIRD QUARTER OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. ONE OF THE STYLES OF GEORGE III. THIS INTERESTING INTER- PRETATION IS STRICTLY ENGLISH IN FEELING. ABOUT 1770. ENGLISH. DISTINCTLY FRENCH INFLUENCE IN THE DRESSING OF THE HAIR. THE GOWN IS OF HEAVY BROCADE AND EXPRESSES A FASHION BOTH ENGLISH AND COLONIAL. NEAR THE BEGINNING OF THE LAST QUARTER OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. ENGLISH. SIGNS OF THE STYLES BOTH OF LOUIS XV AND LOUIS XVI ARE EVIDENT HERE; BUT THEY ARE INTERPRETED, PARTICULARLY IN THE SKIRT, NECK, AND HAT, IN AN ENGLISH MAN- NER, OF EXQUISITE CHARM. EIGHTEENTH CENTURY: ENGLAND AND U. S. come ridiculous or frightful. That this may be the case with some individuals is very possible. I have known it happen in our own country, where the follies of the French are adopted, and exhibited in the most awkward imitations, but the general prevalence of these preposterous modes is a plain proof that there is a general want of taste and a general depravity of nature in feelings. ... I will be bold to affirm that France is the general reservoir, from which all the ab- surdities of false taste, luxury, and extravagance have overflowed the different kingdoms and states of Europe. The springs that fill this reservoir are no other than vanity and ignorance." He concedes to the fair sex the possible right to re- sort to white and vermilion in extreme cases of old age or skin ruined by disease, "but to lay it on as the fash- ion in France prescribes to all the ladies of condition . . . is to disgrace themselves in such a manner as to render them odious and detestable to every spectator." He decries the fact that no married lady may appear at court or other fashionable assembly without this horrible badge of indecency, so that the bourgeoisie dare not even attempt to break through this social barrier or distinction. For the "vast load, of frizzled false hair" resembling the "woolly heads of Guinea negroes" he has supreme contempt, and be- lieves it must be a borrowed custom from the Hotten- tots; and then he remarks, as if in sheer desperation: "When I see one of these fine creatures sailing along in her tawdry robes of silk and gauze, frilled and flounced and furbelowed, with her false books, her false jewels, her paint, her patches, and perfumes I 259 PSYCHOLOGY OF DRESS cannot help looking upon her as the vilest piece of so- phistication that art has ever produced." This is decidedly taken from the viewpoint of England- individual, amusing, enlightening, and no doubt ex- pressive of quite a representative type of British mind, a part of which is the essence of Puritan early Colonial taste. Of their conversational powers he says that from the nursery they are encouraged to say everything uppermost in their minds, by which they acquire a volubility of tongue and a mass of set phrases called "polite conversation." Those who have no gover- nesses for this purpose, he says, are sent for a few years to a convent "where they lay in a fund of superstition that serves them for life." He has never heard of the least opportunity for cultivating the mind, exercising the power of reason, or of imbibing a taste for letters or any other rational or useful accomplishment. From this state of things and the natural vanity of their tem- per, he concludes, "I should expect neither sense, sen- timent, nor discretion," and evidently he was not dis- appointed in his expectations. The long reign of George III from 1760 to 1820 offers so many subjects for discussion, political and social, that it is better for our purpose to think of this period only in terms of the second half of the eighteenth cen- tury, and to associate our mental pictures of the last two decades of the court at Versailles under Louis XV, and the same court in its changed aspect with Marie Antoinette as fashion's dictator to the ever-changing modes of England, whose muddle of fashions and ex- tremes of style were splendid evidence of the rapidity 260 EIGHTEENTH CENTURY: ENGLAND AND U. S. with which ideas were adopted, matured, and dropped, as the individualism of the nation dictated. Mrs. Piozzi in her "Observations in a Journey through Italy," written in the last quarter of the cen- tury, seems to sense the true Italian qualities and to compare them successfully with English standards, and this comparison shows us the Italians and the English of the time from another point of view. She writes of the people of Milan: "The mind of an Italian, whether man or woman, seldom fails for aught I see, to make up in extent what it wants in cultivation, and that they possess the art of pleasing in an eminent de- gree, the constancy with which they are mutually be- loved by each other is the best proof. Ladies of distinction bring with them when they marry, besides fortune, as many clothes as will last for seven years; for fashions do not change as often here as at London or Paris." She speaks of the devotion of children to their par-) ents, the affectionate care of masters for their servants, and the respect of wives for their husbands that in Eng- land would be unknown. She tells how if there is con- jugal difficulty the wife is always protected by public sympathy, that even a mistress will not admit a hus- band's right to ill-treat his wife, and ends by saying: "National character is a great matter. I did not know there had been such a difference in the ways of thinking merely from customs and climate, as I see there is, although one has always read of it." Probably no observer has been much in these two countries without having inwardly, if not verbally, expressed the same sentiments, and marvelled the more. 261 PSYCHOLOGY OF DRESS It is well at this point to recall the close association of England with the Colonies at the beginning of this reign and their political and commercial differences culminating at the beginning of the last quarter of the century. This second quarter of the century saw our strictest copying of English styles, and also the begin- ning of the decline, with the introduction of a strong French tendency followed up with great gusto by our aristocracy immediately after the Revolutionary War, and lasting for some time unabated. In reality this tendency has never ceased, it has only fluctuated from time to time, again appearing until, so far as costumes are concerned, there are not, and have not been for years, any other real criteria but the French. In the diversity of every detail of costume from 1750 on, is seen a record of the growth of individual thought as it struggled for supremacy with the old monarchic tradition and the dictatorship of French fashions. At first the "exquisite," the man about town, the gentleman, the tradesman, the court lady, the middle-class woman, and the wench of the orange-stand, each in his or her class vied with one another to express an individual concep- tion of the accepted class style in dress. Later in the period class lines were broken down, and we find an inter- relation of individual dress from class to class each ex- ploiting a "new idea," and then an even greater indi- viduality which of course always means some queer results so far as art or the fitness of things are concerned. For instance the "exquisite" was seen in his frogged coat, fringed waistcoat, striped breeches, and a polled and powdered wig, the man about town in knee- breeches, skirted coat, silk waistcoat and an ordinary 262 EIGHTEENTH CENTURY: ENGLAND AND U. S. wig, while other distinguishing characteristics marked the class position of the individual. After the individ- ual idea reached its highest development came the reac- tion, about 1780, toward simpler and more functional types, and finally, after 1795, more formal fashions appeared which resulted in the Empire style. This period was indeed evolutionary, but revolu- tionary as well. Take for instance the various ways of dressing the hair, and their development until the apex of size, assortment, and absurdity was reached in 1775, after which came its reclamation to sanity by 1795, a matter of but twenty years. We find prints of ladies seated while the hair dresser climbed upon a ladder to reach the upper stories of this towering mass of hair, and the innumerable and unmentionable ac- cessories with which he strove to create a new and colossal piece of head architecture which would be more astonishing than any other. Documentary evidence gives him a record of perfect success. A certain writer says of the fashions in hair ornaments one year: "Be it remembered that in this year many ladies of fortune and fashion, willing to set an example of prudence and economy to their inferiors, did invent and make public without a patent, a machine for the head, in form of a post-chaise and horses, and another imitating a chair and chairmen, which were frequently worn by persons of distinction. . . . "Those heads which are not able to bear a coach and six (for vehicles of this sort are very apt to crack the brain) so far act consistently as to make use of a post- chariot, or a single-horse chaise with a beau perching in the middle. . . . The vehicle itself was con- 63 PSYCHOLOGY OF DRESS structed of gold threads, and was drawn by six dapple grays of blown glass, with a coachman, postilion, and gentleman within, of the same brittle manufacture." Fancy the change from the state of mind which pro- duced this, to that which accepted ringlets, or any of the simple fashions of the Directoire. The difference in attitude toward the gown was as remarkable; the coat in male attire from the skirted fantasies of the mid- century became the formal tail-coat of 1790, through quick but effective modifications in the mental attitude of England. The nation was becoming fatigued with incessant strivings to play the part of leading lady in a foreign drama with the inevitable result of proving to be either a clown or at best an unsuccessful under- study. The reaction in the early nineteenth century to the Empire style, and consequent return to her own manner of thinking, and therefore of expressing herself, during the rest of the century is another most interest- ing phenomenon of English psychology. In so far as the history of Colonial costumes is con- cerned, we make no attempt at completeness, nor even at logical sequence, since our selections for these are too well known or at least too easily accessible; be- sides, that is not our object even if space to do so were a physical possibility. It is rather to suggest points of relationship with England and France, and to visualize in a measure the psychology of our expression at that epoch, through this, finding the remoter causes of our present attitude to art, and to the general period ex- pressions of the maturer national lives from which we have sprung, that reference is made to Colonial life. We recall that in the first half of the seventeenth 264 EIGHTEENTH CENTURY: ENGLAND AND U. S. century our Colonial life was shaped by three quite different types of people, all of them, however, with certain common instincts and practices, two of these having many things in common and the third showing similarity in most ways through different individual manifestations. The inherent belief in individual right to justice and freedom of thought and expression was a common inheritance, as indeed were the domestic ideals peculiarly Anglo-Saxon, or perhaps more defi- nitely northwestern European. The general quality of the aesthetic sense was somewhat ordinary, and religious tolerance was an avowed reason for coming to the new world. Just how this condition was ex- pressed in practice, how their ideals gave way gradually under the pressure of wealth, material success, and the reassertion of fundamental selfishness, vanity, and other elemental human instincts, is but another demonstra- tion of the fallibility of man, and of the truth that nothing is new under the sun. The southern colonists were in general, aristocratic, the younger sons of English peers, the not too success- ful relatives of wealthy noblemen, and later on, a smat- tering of poor debtors and other less desirable members of the "gentlemen class," with a few of the upper bour- geoisie. Their politics were mainly Tory, their re- ligions more or less coloured by the mental attitude of that body and they had a social ideal based on that of the country gentleman of England. This type natur- ally was in very close relation with the ideals, customs, and practices of the mother country, and from there came not only fashions, but most of the materials through which social life was expressed, either in the 265 PSYCHOLOGY OF DRESS house or in the costumes of the time. This condition was made the more necessary and persisted the longer because of the development of social plantation life, and the non-development of the manufacturing idea. Besides this, communication with England was as ^ easy as with the northern Colonies in the early days. The northern, or New England colonist, was made of sterner stuff. He, the left wing of English life, was a radical from the bourgeoisie and the trade classes mostly, his was the legacy of Puritanism. Determined in his ideals of government, simple and austere in his social customs, he braved the rigours of climate and the isolation of the new world, that the principles of in- dividualism, freedom, modesty, and humility might blossom and come into full fruition undisturbed. But even he, we find, remembered the witches not too kindly, saw to it that the Baptist brethren found a road to the "Providence Plantations" with some alacrity, and very early took to Mammon in various ways, so that one's belief in a new species cf mind is, after all, almost destroyed. Environment at first prevented copying the mother country in a lavish manner, but by the first quarter of the eighteenth century the Puritan seems to have begun to serve God and Mammon with as loyal a devotion and as pronounced a success as his ancestors of the eleventh, fourteenth, or sixteenth centuries. A third type of mind is found in the Dutch who set- tled New York and its adjacent country. More clan- nish than either of the other two types, more prac- tically inclined, in general as domestic as either, with no definite cultural ideas and with but the rudiments of 266 BEGINNING OF THE LAST QUARTER OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. ENGLISH. WHILE IN GENERAL TERMS THIS WAS NOT OUT OF FASHION, IT IS SIMPLY, CONSISTENTLY, AND BECOMINGLY ADAPTED TO THE PERSONALITY OF THE WEARER. BEGINNING OF THE LAST QUARTER OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. COLONIAL. ONLY A REFLECTION OF ENGLISH FASHION OF THIS PERIOD IN MATERIAL, CUT, AND MANNER. MIDDLE OF THE LAST QUARTER OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. ENGLISH. THIS LOVELY DUCHESS COULD ADOPT AND EXPRESS THE FASHIONS OF THE COURT AT VERSAILLES IN A MANNER BE- FITTING A GREAT LADY OF ANOTHER NATIONALITY, AND WITH PERSONAL TASTE. EIGHTEENTH CENTURY: ENGLAND AND U. S. an aesthetic sense, he was either a good trader or a natural son of the soil. The former of these two types was the only one whose social life is any concern of ours here, and that concern is to remind us of his com- mercial activities in introducing us betimes to foreign products and inventions, and his introduction into our general consciousness of his sturdy and "free from dirt" ideals. Of the late influx of still another English type under William Penn, of the Swedes in Delaware, the Germans and "Penn Dutch," we are mindful, but none of them materially influenced the general social life of the colonists before the Revolution, or for that matter after it. The early New England Puritan has been greatly idealized and as greatly maligned. True he was seri- ous, perhaps austere; he lived close to nature and thereby got hold probably of some of the fundamental things of life. Essentially he was English, however; even though he had spent some years in Holland, he was elementally of the same fibre as before this sojourn for his primeval instincts and native predilections were never stifled. The whole seventeenth century in England was very closely tied up with material evolution, or retrogression, as one looks at it. Its art was a record of its history. It is curious how closely allied are the great and the small things of life, and the clothes of our forbears were as closely related to their lives as were those of England at the same time. We do not find that less interest was taken in ap- parel, less care was given to personal appearance, nor that fewer attempts were made to outdo one's neigh- 267 PSYCHOLOGY OF DRESS hour during the early seventeenth century, than was the case in other places and at other times. Boston and Salem ladies in the latter part of the seventeenth century, however, were not troubled by yearly changes in fashion or by the spasmodic dictates of court or commercial life as to vogue. Such things were too far away. They were just nice ladies, with the same vanities and desires as other ladies, and al- though in 1670 one of them was likely to appear in the silk dress and fine lace of her grandmother, she wore it evidently in the same spirit and with the same satisfaction as have all other ladies, only she cherished the dress and other finery more dearly, and saw to it that it was still good enough to be passed down accord- ing to the thrifty custom. This is peculiarly enlight- ening as to our Puritan ancestors' habits of thrift as well as to their love for adornment. From the middle of the century on, there are docu- ments in great numbers recounting the extravagances (relatively it may be) of the wives of the Governors and other great folks. Inventories of wardrobes give article by article the English made garments carefully brought over and worn with as much satisfaction and grace as at home. We find relatives of these early colonists searching the shops in London for finery and not infrequently sending these same things with par- tially worn garments of their own "in token of deep affection." Hoods of silk and spotted gauze, embroidered and quilted petticoats in various colours, green silk gowns and many ribbands, violet coloured petticoats, gold and silver ornaments and fine laces, silk flowered 263 EIGHTEENTH CENTURY: ENGLAND AND U. S. Manto, muffs, a blue brocaded gown with silver trim- mings and even masks which we find prohibited in Plymouth, Massachusetts, for their impropriety as early as 1650 are mentioned over and over again. Not only is the most careful record of this finery made, but occasions are recorded of its use and abuse in abundance, and no doubt these were relatively as good reasons for the Puritan laws against "unseemly extravagance and indecent display" as there ever were in the ups and downs of legislative sumptuosity prohibition. Virginian ladies- of the seventeenth century differed little from the English in their costumes except that, being richer, they were better able to gratify their de- sire to shine and outshine. As they manufactured nothing in the South, all their finery was fresh from England, while in the North these importations were mixed with home production. A Mrs. Pritchard in 1660 owned an olive coloured silk petticoat, another of silk tabby, and one of flowered tabby, one of velvet and one of white striped dimity. Her printed calico gown was lined with blue silk, thus proving how calico was valued. Other articles were a striped dimity jacket and a black silk waistcoat. To wear with these gar- ments there were a pair of scarlet sleeves, and other sleeves of ruffled holland. Five aprons and various neckwear of Flanders lace with several rich handker- chiefs completed a gay toilet, to which a pair of green stockings gave an additional touch of colour. A certain Mrs. Willoughby is credited with petti- coats of calico, striped linen, India silk, worsted prun- ella and red striped linen; red, blue, and black silk skirts PSYCHOLOGY OF DRESS were used with scarlet waistcoats and silver sleeves, a white knit waistcoat, a "pair of red paragon bodices" and another pair of sky coloured satin bodices. This lady also had a striped stuff jacket, a worsted prunella mantle and a black gown with many other mantles, gowns, jackets, hoods, and aprons. These ladies evi- dently were not unlike others in the pioneer days of Colonial life, and like their humbler and outwardly more Puritanic sisters of the North, expressed in a re- flected manner as nearly as possible the costumes used in the social life of England in which they or their fathers formerly moved. The third type of early settler, the Dutch, left little that became a permanent part of Colonial costume, We all have our mental picture of the early Dutch lady, dressed no doubt in the full regalia of the Holland vrouw of that time, with plenty of bright coloured petticoats, a silk bodice, a silk samare perhaps embroid- ered or trimmed with coarse lace, extra lace or lawn sleeves, probably white stockings, a small cap and a bright coloured kerchief. Of one thing we may be certain that all this was scrupulously clean, and that no cloth was wasted is equally certain, also that it probably never wore out. No thought of what would come next, or when the style would be changed dis- turbed the calm of stolid Dutch life. Of the ordinary Dutch housewife Washington Irv- ing says: "Their hair untortured by the abominations of art, was scrupulously pomatumed back from their foreheads with a candle, and covered with a little cap of quilted calico which fitted exactly to their heads. Their petticoats of linsey woolsey were striped with a 270 ENGLISH. AT THE HEIGHT OF THE PERIOD OF LOUIS XVI IN FRANCE. A DECOROUS PERSONAL INTERPRETATION OF A FOIt- EIGN FASHION IN FOREIGN MATERIAL ON A MODERN WOMAN. ANOTHER INTERPRETATION OF THE STYLE OF LOUIS XVI, WITH STRICTLY ENGLISH CHARACTERISTICS. ABOUT 1778. ENGLISH-AMERICAN. AN ENGLISH LADY, DONE BY AN AMERICAN PAINTER, IN THE COSTUME OF A SULTANA, A FASHION PREVAILING IN ENGLAND DURING THIS EPOCH. ABOUT 1780. ENGLISH. THE REFLECTION OF THE FRENCH REVO- LUTION IN ENGLAND BROUGHT OUT MANY DELIGHTFULLY SIMPLE AND THOROUGHLY PRACTICAL FASHIONS FOR LADIES. EIGHTEENTH CENTURY: ENGLAND AND U. S. variety of gorgeous dyes, though I must confess those gallant garments were rather short, scarce reaching below the knees; but then they made up in the number which generally equalled that of the gentlemen's small clothes, and what is still more praiseworthy they were all of their own manufacture, of which circumstance, as may well be supposed, they were not a little vain." Besides pockets they wore scissors and pincushions suspended from their girdles by red ribbons, or among the more opulent and showy classes, by brass and even silver chains. Irving speaks of the great pride in ownership of huge quantities of stockings and petticoats the number of which two things seems to have denoted the wealth of the heiress, as dollars do now, or as rein- deer skins might in the case of the belles of Lapland. Comparing New England and Dutch women at the beginning of the eighteenth century, a Boston lady who visited New York wrote home: "The English go very fashionable in their dress. But the Dutch, especially the middle sort, differ from our women, in their habits go loose, wear French muches which are like a capp and head band in one, leaving their ears bare which are set out with jewels of a large size and many in number: and their fingers hooped with rings, some with large stones in them of many Coullers, as were their pendants in their ears, which you should see very old women wear as well as young." An inventory of one of these Dutch Colonial dames mentions : "One petticoat with a body of red bay, "One under petticoat, scarlet, "One petticoat, red cloth with black lace, 271 PSYCHOLOGY OF DRESS "One striped stuff-petticoat, "2 coloured druggit petticoats with gray linings, "2 coloured druggit petticoats with white linings, "1 coloured druggit petticoat with pointed lace, "1 ash gray silk petticoat with silk lining, " 1 black silk petticoat with ash gray lining, " 1 fotto-foo silk petticoat with black silk lining, "1 fotto-foo silk petticoat with taffeta lining." Dozens of stockings are given and only one bodice, 2 waistcoats, 5 caps, 3 night gowns, 2 pairs of sleeves and a few other articles in proportion. Such were the main lines of our inheritance at the beginning of the eighteenth century. The first and second of these types will concern us mainly from now on, the third being (except in isolated cases) of no great power or influence in forming social life outside of a very limited area, as they were the product, for the most part of customs with imported fashions and ma- terials with which to express them. Up to the eighteenth century then, we may almost say there was no distinct Colonial fashion except such as grew out of the conditions resulting from geographi- cal isolation, undeveloped resources, lack of importing facilities and of wealth with which to gratify natural human desires. The instinct for dress, the funda- mental desire for show and personal attraction were no different; the determination not to be outshone and the admiration for the latest and prettiest fashions from England were almost universal, and even where there was a pretence to plain living and an outward expres- sion of piety through its manifestation, the author fails to find any considerable number of instances of indi- 272 EIGHTEENTH CENTURY: ENGLAND AND U. S. viduals who resisted falling into the ways of the world at the first perfectly good opportunity. The few isola- ted instances are so small in number that "the ex- ception proves the rule." As the eighteenth century advanced the Colonies naturally grew in wealth, their commerce (particularly with Britain) increased, and the awakening of a na- tional consciousness resulted. Still, however, regard- ing with respect the established modes of the mother country, they strove in every way to obtain through friends who were still in England, through colonists who visited the homeland, and through imported ideas in the shape of clothes, to imitate the fashions in a manner becoming their new ideal of national capability. This new national consciousness furnished a stimulus to common desires, and costumes waxed exceeding rich, varied, and showy. Some rather interesting peculiar customs and par- ticular types of dress may be mentioned at this point. The queerest of these customs was the one of "Coming out Bride." In New England and in the other prov- inces where isolated plantation life did not forbid, it was the universal custom for a married couple to appear the first Sunday after the ceremony (and generally the four succeeding Sundays) at church, dressed in all the bridal finery they could get together. This of course stimulated a rivalry between families not likely to further the Puritan aim of modesty in appearance. Those who could afford it had four distinct sets of finery, one for each Sunday, that there might be no monotony for those who formed the audience. In many communities a pew was set apart into which the 273 PSYCHOLOGY OF DRESS bridal pair was shown, so that the congregation knew just where to look for the objects of interest, thus avoid- ing our present difficulty of trying to locate the individ- ual and interesting objects of dress scattered throughout a large congregation. This evidently had its advantages. These selected seats were often in the gallery, some- times the front pews of the centre aisle, and at times in other prominent places. The couple generally ar- rived a bit late that the observers might all be seated before their arrival; then they walked slowly arm in arm to the assigned seats, while the entire congregation gave their hushed and respectful attention. At an appointed time, generally just before the sermon, the couple arose and turned slowly around two or three times that every angle of their appearance might be properly viewed; they then sat down while the sermon proceeded. For efficiency in matters of personal dis- play, and for isolating religious ceremonial from the weakness of the flesh, nothing has been invented to surpass this. The Abbe Robin writing at this time ex- pressed a belief that " Piety is not the only motive which induces American women to be constant in their at- tendance at church. Having no places of public amuse- ment, no fashionable promenades, they go to church to display their fine dress. They often appear there clothed in silks and covered with superb ornaments." A charitable Abbe this one, who however, had not lived through the first quarter of the twentieth century where there is no lack of amusement places or of opportunity to promenade, since the streets are taken over frequently for that sole purpose, and still we go to church for the same reasons as of old. 274 EIGHTEENTH CENTURY: ENGLAND AND U. S. Bridal dresses were of various colours and stuffs, as exquisite as one could procure, we are told. A heavy silk brocade was much in vogue, white, or white with a brocade pattern, being perhaps most in demand. Yel- low, blue, and pink brocades are often mentioned with gold and silk laces, and even feathers found their way into these costly wedding costumes. Bridal veils seem to have been unknown until the end of the century. About 1800 a Charleston, South Carolina, bride is thus described: "Miss Pell was married last week to Robert MacComb : they are making a prodigious dash. I went to pay the bride's visit on Friday; they had an elegant ball and supper in the evening, as it was the last day of seeing Company : seven bride's maids and seven bride's men, most superb dresses : the bride's pearls cost fifteen hundred dollars: they spend the winter in Charleston." Scores of documents are available giv- ing the trousseaux, the formalities and customs of these eighteenth century brides, betraying delightful varia- tions of the common charms and frailties of humanity and giving us an intimacy with one of the pleasant manifestations of our mid-colonial life. The universality of human desire for symbolic signs of private emotions is ever astounding. The emotion of grief at the loss of relatives and friends by death has found in dress a fertile field for expressing this desire. Black, death's particular emblem, has been used for this purpose certainly since the early part of the four- teenth century. Chaucer and Shakespeare give occa- sional allusions to its use, particularly in the case of the widow, although whole families accepted gratefully the privilege of keeping thus in touch with fashion. 275 PSYCHOLOGY OF DRESS Cut or style was called upon to serve this purpose, and at various times the bonnet, the veil, the gown, and the dressing of the neck and the hair have been indications, as indeed have the materials used in making the differ- ent articles which were the symbols. In some countries white, or other colours than black have been used, but in England and America black has been the rule, although we are told that Henry VIII wore white in mourning for his queen, Anne Boleyn, whom he beheaded. One chronicler suggested, however, that "scarlet would have been more suitable." This field of emotions seems to have been selected in the eighteenth century for fashion's particular develop- ment, for we find not only the sorrowing friends robed in black, but it was the custom to surround the mirrors and other household objects with black, to tie together the window shutters with black ribbon which was left on for months, and in England we read of black bed- hangings, and actually of a black bed which was loaned about from family to family in cases of deep affliction. Carriages were often draped in black for a period and the harnesses relieved of "shining metal." A bereaved husband, who by the way never re-married, ordered not only a full set of day mourning for himself but "black taffety night-cloathes, with black night-capps and black Comb and Brush and two black Sweet-bags and slippers of black velvet." A rather dreary picture is given of an old lady in black silk "night-cloathes," sitting up in a black draped bed in "solemn grief, yet resigned" while the members of the family including servants and friends passed slowly by in recognition of the "untimely end " of her husband. 276 EIGHTEENTH CENTURY: ENGLAND AND U. S. A still more curious custom was the giving away of black gloves to be worn no doubt "in memoriam." When Governor Belcher of Boston died in 1736, more than one thousand pairs were distributed, while at the funeral of Andrew Faneuil three thousand pairs were given away. Even lesser personages thought nothing of several hundred. Nothing, however, seems more incongruous and amazing than the fashion of mourning rings, which were often of great cost. At one Boston funeral more than two hundred were bestowed upon friends with such cheerful mottoes upon them as, "Prepared be to follow me," and the like. All kinds of mourning jewellery was fashionable, particularly such as exposed a design made from the hair of the departed and where black enamel could also be used. These pieces included such articles as bracelets, pins, lockets, rings, and even earrings. Many of us have seen these objects amongst our own family heirlooms, as indeed we have the hair wreaths on the parlour walls. By 1770 national consciousness had so far developed as to affect considerably the copy of English fashions. Funeral gloves were stamped with the design of the "Liberty tree," and other such designs are found upon articles of dress, and in the handiwork of the ladies who kept sufficiently alive in "Sampler" form the art illusions of the epoch of Queen Anne. Before the days of bi-monthly fashion magazines and newspaper fashion plates, created for reproduction by bevies of "commercial-artist-dress-designers," a very charming way of spreading style was in vogue. France probably was the origin of this attractive cus- 277 PSYCHOLOGY OF DRESS torn, since it is recorded that, charged to the French crown expenses in 1391 was a certain sum for a dressed doll sent to England's queen. In the late fifteenth century one was also sent to the queen of Henry VII, and others later to Italy and to Bavaria. We recall that it was the eighteenth century custom at Venice to ex- hibit a collection of these French dolls on Ascension Day, and that the custom brought out all the great ladies and their cicisbei to enjoy and no doubt to copy them. This custom obtained in the Colonies, and after the Revolution was very common, extending to styles in hair dressing, millinery, and the various arts of per- sonal adornment, until the invention of the pantine, a figure arranged in mechanical sections for strange antics, which became a plaything for the less serious men and women of France. This device also found its way into the States, along with the deluge of French ideas, immediately after the Revolution. Having just passed through the great world war, with its horrors, its contradictions, and its irreconcil- able poverty, privations, and depressions, with the vast wealth, extravagance, and wild sense enjoyments, it is not difficult to understand the conditions that ob- tained here during the period of our Revolution from 1776 on. Particular mention is often made of the ef- fect on costumes brought about by the presence of English officers and their wives, and of the alacrity with which our belles at Philadelphia and Boston yielded active participation in the balls and other festivities prepared by the English army officers, and then strove to dress as they dictated and in such a man- ner as pleased these officers most. Naturally, the offi- 278 LATE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. COLONIAL. IT IS INTERESTING TO SEE IN THE HAIR-DRESSING THE FASHION OF VERSAILLES, IN THE COSTUME THAT OF ENGLAND WITH COLONIAL TASTE, BLENDED AND INTERPRETED BY A NATIVE WHO WAS THE WIFE OF THE SPANISH CHARGE D'AFFAIRES IN NEW YORK. LAST QUARTER OF THE PHGHTEENTH CENTURY. ENGLISH. THAT A GREAT PAINTER DELIGHTED TO NAME THIS LOVELY LITTLE THING "SIMPLICITY" is ILLUMINATING AS TO THE THOUGHT OF THE TIME. LATE EIGHTEENTH CENTUItY. ENGLISH. THE INFLUENCE OF THE DIRECTOIRE IN FRANCE STIMULATED THE INVENTION OF MANY SIMPLE AND INDIVIDUAL DESIGNS, PARTICULARLY IN ENG- LAND. AROUND 179.5. ENGLISH. THIS SIMPLE, PRACTICAL, AND ADAP- TABLE COSTUME SHOWS THE INFLUENCE OF THE DIRECTOIRE. EIGHTEENTH CENTURY: ENGLAND AND U. S. cers of the American army were not so well pleased at this, but no period is ever without its human weaknesses and the English uniform was more powerful than the patriotic idea in the arena of amusement or of fashion, and vast sums were spent by both men and women to delight the English eye, and to do honour to visiting rank and personal vanity, while the masses toiled and starved. We are assured that New York belles also had sev- eral years of opportunity, "to flirt with gallant red- coats and to display their most modish gowns, and that several important marriages were the result of the flirtations and the gowns." A Philadelphia girl who came to New York for a visit in 1778 writes of social life there: "You have no idea of the life of continued amusement I live in. I can scarce have a moment to myself. I have stole this while everybody is retired to dress for dinner. I am but just come from under Mr. J. Black's hands, and most ele- gantly dressed am I for a ball this evening at Smith's, where we have one every Thursday. . . . The dress is more ridiculous and pretty than anything I ever saw a great quantity of different coloured feathers on the head at a time beside a thousand other things. The hair dressed very high, in the shape Miss Vining's was the night we returned from Smith's the Hat we found in your Mother's closet would be of a proper size. I have an afternoon cap with one wing, tho' I assure you I go less in the fashion than most of the ladies not being dressed without a hoop." Another side to this situation is found in the presence hi America of the French who had in reality become our 279 PSYCHOLOGY OF DRESS allies. The visit of Rochambeau, for instance, and his collection of handsome Frenchmen, is said to have kept Newport in a round of gaiety never seen before. " Amer- can officers and other gentry" followed the customs of the English and the French and a strife to excel both in personal adornment was developed by the time the inauguration of George Washington as president of the United States took place. In this effort they were not excelled even in England, and they strove also to emu- late in-so-far as was possible the court at Versailles. When the little necessities of life, such as pins for instance, were unobtainable, we read of extravagant scarlet cloaks, feathered top knots and of the quantities of gauze of the fortunate ones, while the fancy for being painted in portrait and in miniature never slack- ened for those who followed fashion's dictates. No doubt the individual mind will supply its own analo- gies between conditions, practices, and the personal qualities that produced these conditions during the great national struggle, and the incidents and general state of affairs as they have existed in the years from 1914 to 1919 in the international state of war that we have just seen. The only great difference is in the magni- tude of the operations, and the limited privations en- dured in America as compared with other contesting countries. The general instincts, mind qualities and their manifestations are so similar, as to make us won- der exactly in what human evolution or progress consists. What was studied copy of England's fashions in the early part of the century, hectic adoption of both French and English styles during the period of 1760 to 1780, became a full-flowered self assertive original 280 EIGHTEENTH CENTURY: ENGLAND AND U. S. or individual exploitation during the early days of our national life. Conceding this, still the centre of fashion was established in Paris in this epoch, from which position it has yet to be dislodged, although for some decades the conservative style for men has been avowedly of English origin. As early as 1784 John Adams was sent to London as our first ambassador to the court of St. James, and his wife writes him at that time: "I am not a little surprised to find dress, unless on public occasions, so little regarded here. The gentlemen are very plainly dressed, the ladies much less so than with us. 'Tis true you must put a hoop on and have your hair dressed, but a common straw hat, no cap, with only a ribbon on the crown is thought sufficient dress to go into company. I have seen many ladies but not one ele- gant one since I came. There is not that neatness in their appearance which you see in our ladies." Great stress was laid on the cleanliness and the at- tention which was paid to details of dress, by all for- eign visitors, while the unheard of neatness of American women was the subject of much discussion abroad. Evidently some strictly American characteristics devel- oped among us early, as vouched for by a Hessian officer who says: "The daughters keep up their stylish dressing because the mothers desire it. Should the mother die, her last words are to the effect that the daughter must retain control of the father's money- bags. Nearly all articles necessary for the adornment of the female sex are at present either very scarce or dear, and for this reason they are now wearing their Sunday finery." 281 PSYCHOLOGY OF DRESS Benjamin Franklin, plain of manner and stupendous in mind, turned his energies toward abating this Ameri- can fury for display in costumes. He bade his own daughter give up feathers, and wear calico instead of silk. He advised Washington (who was inordinately fond of fine clothes) to be less extravagant and to use domestic materials. Count Rochambeau declared that "the wives of American merchants and bankers were clad to the top of French fashions." Another critic de- plores the spectacle of the women of a Republic sacri- ficing so much to trifles. He says: "At Mr. Griffin's house, at dinner, I saw seven or eight women, all dressed in great hats, plumes, etc. It was with pain that I re- marked much of pretension in some of these women; one acted the giddy, vivacious; another the woman of sentiment. This last had many pruderies and grim- aces. Two among them had their bosoms very naked. I was scandalized at this indecency among republicans." Of the richness of materials much is told. Brocades were in great demand, heavy, stiff and strong in colour; one is described as being of pink ground-work with scarlet roses, green leaves, and brown stems; another as purple with gold and green brocaded flowers. Col- oured shoes were worn, green and purple being most often mentioned. In sooth no expression of eighteenth century social life was more manifestly a record of the social vanities, frivolities, and light-headed fripperies of human nature than was ours, the only noticeabJe difference between us and others being that we were yet young, less experienced than our older neighbours across the seas, and not able as yet to get in every instance quite the range of materials for exploiting 282 ENGLISH, AROUND 1790. THE "MALE STYLE FOR WOMEN WHEN THUS INTERPRETED AND WORN BROOKS NO CRITICISM. EARLY NINETEENTH CENTURY. ENGLISH. THE EMPIRE STYLE OF FRANCE IS HERE GIVEN A BIT OF ENGLISH CONSERVATISM THAT ADDS NOT ONLY A NATIONAL FLAVOR, BUT A PRACTICAL SUGGES- TION. EIGHTEENTH CENTURY: ENGLAND AND U. S. ourselves that was theirs. So far as ideals, inclinations, impulses, and performances are concerned, we seem to have measured to our new possibilities in our readiness to become fashion's followers and in our love of per- sonal display. This has been brought to a point which is quite appalling to those of us who were born and edu- cated with the point of view we imagined was that of our Puritan ancestors, our Quaker cousins of Phila- delphia, and perhaps even our more highly placed rela- tives of the Southern land. 283 CHAPTER SEVEN CHARACTERISTIC NINETEENTH CEN- TURY STYLES THE last act of the stupendous drama of eighteenth century French life began in the late autumn of 1795 with the installation of the Directoire. This final act was, however, played in several scenes, the last of which culminated with the overthrow of the empire in 1814. The period, therefore, may be said to be the first of the nineteenth century French styles, and because of its tremendous influence, the most important of all nineteenth century styles in Europe or elsewhere. This interesting and highly personal reaction centred around Napoleon Bonaparte, a man small of stature but mighty of will and possessed of colossal nerve. To comprehend the scope of the style, the sources of its motifs, the rapidity of its crystallization, the universal- ity of its adoption, and the individuality of its mani- festations, one must picture vividly not only the personal character of Napoleon and his family, but his activities in Italy and Egypt, his campaigns in eastern and central Europe and the close feeling of friendship existing at that time between the newly born United States of America and the French government. Let us recall in the briefest possible manner a few of these correlative facts. 284 NINETEENTH CENTURY STYLES From March, 1796, to December, 1797, Napoleon was engaged in imposing his will upon northern Italy, Venice surrendering in 1797. On his return to Paris he was given one of the most remarkable demonstrations in history. The Directors arrayed as Roman sen- ators, with ambassadors, ministers, state officials, and a multitude of people with cannon, trumpets, and a great noise, proclaimed, "Bonaparte forever!" In 1799 Rome was taken by the French and the aged Pope Pius VI, ordered to Paris, died en route. In 1798 Napoleon started for Egypt. Malta delivered its keys to the Congress on the second of July, and Alex- andria fell the same day. On the twenty-fifth he entered Cairo, the city of the Pharoahs and the Pyramids. On November the ninth, 1799, this conqueror of Italy, Egypt, and Syria arrived for the second time in Paris, on this occasion affecting great personal humil- ity. Very soon after this the Directoire was over- thrown and the Consulate established, Napoleon being elected the First Consul on December the twenty- fourth, 1799, with almost absolute powers. On the nineteenth of February, 1800, the Consul took up quarters in the Tuilleries, and on the same day he married his sister Caroline to an innkeeper named Murat. This pair subsequently became King and Queen of Naples, their presence there assisting in the spread of the Empire style. The same year Napoleon went for the second time into Italy and by 1802 his conquest was complete. The Italians, for centuries oppressed by Spain and Austria, welcomed him as a deliverer, and in many ways he was one, for despite the complete subjection 285 PSYCHOLOGY OF DRESS of the wills of the people to his own, the methods of subjection, often inhuman, the scandalous and per- fidious looting of public and private treasures of all sorts, he opened the eyes of Italy to a new and more virile order and aroused in them activities that by the third quarter of the century led to their complete independence and unification as a state. Napoleon was crowned Emperor of France the eighteenth of May, 1804, and the history of the next ten years shows the crystallization of a style im- perialistic, formal, mixed and varied in motifs, yet withal limited, often cold and clumsy, with here and there traces of charm and even chic, when interpreted for less imperial persons than the family of the Em- peror. In certain members of his family we have a particular interest. His sister Caroline we have al- ready mentioned; Joseph, his brother, afterward be- came King of Spain, while Eliza, finally married to Prince Bacciocchi, ruled Lucca and afterward Florence, and the lovely Pauline, wife of Prince Borghese of Rome, did perhaps more than any of the others to make the Empire style popular in Italy and to incite Italian inventiveness to exercise itself broadly in this new manner. Quantities of material, however, are to be found in and around Naples, Lucca, Florence, and of course, all through northern Italy, where complete surrender to the will of Napoleon made his word law and his choice in style theirs. We recall, too, that after the exile of Napoleon the ex-Empress Louise found permanent asylum at Parma, where the same style was further developed for several years. Hence it is that this 286 NINETEENTH CENTURY STYLES style, French it is true, was undoubtedly worked out in greater detail and certainly in a more fascinating (because less grandiose) manner, in Italy. The in- vestigation and exploitation of this manner and also that of the earlier styles of Louis Quinze and Louis Seize are as yet in their inception. The association of France with the United States of America in the fitful days of 1776 and after, the influence of Lafayette and his countrymen on the im- pressionable mind of the new republic, with the adop- tion of the earlier French customs and styles during the presidency of Washington and his two successors, ex- plains the readiness of the so-called Colonial style, or more specifically the Georgian Colonial, to give way be- fore the popularity of the Empire as France again assumed, for the moment at least, the supreme dictator- ship of Christendom. The admiration of Napoleon for imperial Rome, the headlong enthusiasm of the French to do his bidding, the interest he excited in Egyptian art, the already per- functory classic wave of the Directoire and the passion for mahogany as well as Directoire costumes, furnished the inspiration for the fashions in this new style. The bourgeois taste of the imperial family, the extravagant and profligate squandering of money and the necessity for immediate and proper settings for this last act of the great drama, in part, at least, explain the amount and variety of the results, as well as the bad taste of much of it. The artistic sense of many of the artist crafts- men, the remoteness of outlying provinces from Paris, and the inheritance of the people, fully account for whatever charm there is in it. 287 PSYCHOLOGY OF DRESS The spirit, or atmosphere of this period is most com- plex; its mixture of refinement and grossness, its autocratic dictatorship and its individual assertiveness, of hectic intrigue and childish naivete, of dissolute abandon and moral pretence struggling with countless traditions of the monarchic regime, the new freedom and the absolutism of a new order of humble foreign provincial origin, unacquainted with power, position or the ordinary amenities of life as viewed by the most insignificant members of old social France; such was the melee of influences, traditions, and aspirations out of which the new order was to grow. Of Napoleon's life and qualities we need not speak. There is no one without his own particular mental image of the man, determined by the angle of vision from which he has made his acquaintance, or by the prejudices of religious, political, or social tradition. With the practical qualities of common sense and unchangeable determination, an ideal of comfortable, respectable, and clannish domestic life and an ambition for the family that knew no limit, Mme. Letizia Bona- parte, the mother of Napoleon, exercised no little power in determining the course of events in the social world. To originate customs or to invent styles was not for her, but the influence she always held over every member of her family, not excepting Napoleon himself, the carefully planned family marriage relations and her own determined conservatism, undoubtedly made her life a contributing factor on the side of decency and restraint in court life. Napoleon's marriage in 1796 to the thirty-four year old widow, Josephine Beauharnais, with two 288 NINETEENTH CENTURY STYLES nearly grown-up children, was almost too much for Madame Letizia to bear. To him the entire family looked for money with which to be comfortable, for such social preferment as would make it possible for the remaining members to marry outside the innkeeper and soapboiler class, and for such military connections as would ensure respectable positions to as many of the relations as were yet unprovided for. Besides this, Josephine was a semi-aristocrat, a relic of the old re- gime of balls, fetes, and flirtations; with easy morals, not spotless of reputation, extravagant, having ex- pensive tastes, elegant, polished, and, moreover, prac- tised in all the arts of social deception. Such was the picture painted by Madame Letizia, and her con- clusions were thoroughly impressed upon each member of the family, before they had ever even seen the contestant for the honour which belonged alone, in Letizia's opinion, to the little Corsican group. The intense hatred thus begun lasted with Madame Bona- parte, except at intervals, until the despised intruder was divorced by the Emperor in 1810 to make room for Maria Louisa, Archduchess of Austria, of the most ancient house in Europe, that he might through this union fittingly perpetuate his race and throne in a son and heir. In considering the establishment of the empire the influence both of Josephine and the Austrian must be reckoned with, particularly as it relates to costume, since each strove to express a type of royal taste quite unlike the other and still more unlike that of Madame Bonaparte or her newly promoted queen, princess and duchess daughters. Besides all this, there was the 89 PSYCHOLOGY OF DRESS taste of the recently elevated military social group seek- ing to express to the world in no uncertain terms both their new importance and their joy in its possession, without delay. Remnants of the old taste, too, lingered in various ways and must be expressed even if it had to be in entirely new forms and under dictated conditions. While the Tuileries and Saint Cloud were the centres of fashion for the court, Napoleon was no less active at Versailles, Fontainebleau, Compiegne, and other centres where the new royal taste was imposed upon the old order in such manner as to make the decorative mantle appear to be the entire structural body, hence the peculiar spectacle sometimes found in palaces and public buildings redecorated during this epoch. The extraordinary ego of Napoleon was best gratified by a gorgeous and splendid display. He left no device untried to develop, overnight, a proper sumptuous magnificence with which to surround his royal person and those of his favourites. He wished his entourage to be pompous and splendid and extended his orders even to the dictation of the costumes of the ladies of his court. To Madame la Marechale he once said: "Your cloak is superb; I have seen it a good many times." She was duly flattered, we are told, but took the hint. In fact, brief as it was, the court of Napoleon was the most gorgeously sumptuous and profligately extravagant of any of the long list of theatrical settings for the great monarchs of France. Empress Josephine led the court in taste and in the splendour of her apparel. The following is a translation of a description of one of her robes: 290 A QUAINT AND FASCINATING DIRECTOIRE CREATION OF THE LAST DAYS OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY, WITH SOME SUGGESTIONS IN DETAILS THAT PERSISTED THROUGH THE EMPIRE. THE SPIRIT OF THE EMPIRE, THE QUALITY OF ITS SETTING AND THE FASHIONABLE "WHITE ROBE*' WITH OTHER ROYAL TRAPPINGS APPEAR IN THIS PORTRAIT OF MME. L^ETITIA BONAPABTE, THE MOTHER OF THE EMPEROR. THE QUEEN OF NAPLES NO DOUBT DICTATED THE FASHIONS FOR HER COURT BOTH IN SETTING AND IN COSTUME. ATTENTION IS DIRECTED TO THE QUAINT CHARM OF THE CHILDREN AND THE KIND OF SHOES WORN BY THE QUEEN. THE INDIVIDUALITY OF THE PRINCESS PAULINE AND THE REMARK- ABLY EXPRESSED HARMONY BETWEEN HER TYPE AND THE QUALITY OF HER TOILET IS WELL SHOWN. NINETEENTH CENTURY STYLES "The toilette of the Empress was admirable in its good taste and freshness; she wore a gown of India muslin, one of those muslins that one might call a tissue of air, which, however, notwithstanding the fineness of its texture, was embroidered with a design in relief of a sprinkling of small stars, the centre of which was filled with needle point lace. The gown was high necked and shaped like a redingote; all around it was a magnificent piece of point d' Angleterre two hands wide and shirred on full; this was also on the neck and the front of the gown; at regular intervals were knots of blue satin ribbon, so fresh, of so pure a hue, turquoise blue, that nothing so charming was ever seen; the underskirt was satin of the same blue as the ribbons; on her head the Empress wore a bonnet the trimming of which was point d' Angleterre of the same design, but finer yet than that on the gown, and it was gracefully posed and separated by tufts of blue ribbon." Besides assuming control of the toilet of the court ladies the Emperor dictated a costume for the gentle- men. It was an embroidered coat with ruffles and short frills in point d 9 Angleterre. Powder was omitted and the hair cut short, similar to the modern fashion. Lady Morgan has given us an amusing account of her call on the Duchesse de Berri, evidently for the in- spection of her wardrobe. She says: "At last after two full hours' efforts, and more suffering from heat and apprehension than I ever endured, we passed the last barrier, and arrived at the palladium of the royal toilette. A long suite of beautiful rooms were thrown open, whose lofty walls were thickly covered with robes of every hue, tint, web and texture, from the 291 PSYCHOLOGY OF DRESS imperial drapery of coronation splendour, to the simple robe de chambre of British lace and British muslin; from the diamond coronet to the bonnet de nuii; while platforms or counters, surrounding each room, were guarded off from the unhallowed touch of plebeian curiosity by silken cords, and placed under the sur- veillance of the priests and priestesses of the toilette, in grand pontificals. These formed the sanctuary of all the minor attributes of the royal wardrobe. Every article of female dress, from the most necessary to the most superfluous, was here arranged, not by dozens but by hundreds. Here the Queen of Sheba might have died of envy; here the treasures of the 'forty thieves,' or the 'cave of Baba Abdalla,' were rivalled or surpassed, not only in splendour but extent." Soon great balls and receptions came again into fashion, official in character, requiring magnificent costumes. This soon crystallized the rather simple (by comparison) modes of the period. Perhaps the most noticeable characteristic of wom- an's apparel was the high waist line established by the Directoire and persisting through the Empire. The waist is spoken of as close up under the arms, "with the bosom pushed up to the chin by ugly stays only becoming to ladies perfectly beautiful in the first place." White gowns were the most fashionable, trans- parent ones universal. These were trimmed with ribbons and wreaths of flowers. The arms were bare except for long white gloves. Necklaces of pearls, hair in curls and roses on the head are often found in des- criptions of the costumes of the day, as indeed are 292 NINETEENTH CENTURY STYLES cap-bonnets trimmed with feathers and tied under the chin with silk strings. They wore velvet, cloth or merino coats with short waists but higher necks, for all gowns were "indecently low." The fashion of wearing false fronts was generally adopted, and diamonds were the chief head decoration, supplanting flowers, which were used in the Directoire. It was in this period that artificial flowers became a definite and important accessory of the feminine toilet, a fashion which has persisted in various aggravated forms and with different interpretations to this day. About 1807 the influence of the classic was very powerful. Mme. de Stael, her novel, "Corinne," and other influences turned the thoughts of the fair sex into a different channel, possibly for variety in experience, until it became the fashion not only to assume the look of having been born again into a classic state of mind, in a classic environment, but to set this pose in flutter- ing scarfs and diaphanous gowns. This influence per- sisted throughout the period. One very important and almost universal innovation was the Cashmere shawl. A few of them had been sent from the the Orient to Louis XVI, but at this time they came in enormous numbers and found such favour that the foreseeing French secured the goats, of whose hair the cashmere was made, and distributed them through their southern provinces. Very soon they dared the actual manufacture of these shawls and still later be- came eminently successful in the process. There have been at least two revivals of this fashion in the later nineteenth century. This important style, developed under Napoleon, 293 PSYCHOLOGY OF DRESS subject to classic influence, was no doubt neglected in the last quarter of the century (during the period of our awakening to the fact that we had an aesthetic sense) as we marvelled at and tried to copy and to use the fashions of the more obvious and more highly orna- mental periods that preceded. Since, however, it was the end of aesthetic expression for a century, it is to our quickened sense a very important milestone, which we must really make our starting point if we are to continue now the art ideals of the classic period, the Renaissance and the eighteenth century. These are in reality the rock-bottom of our civilization as it has been expressed up to this time, the seventeenth century of materialism having been repeated in another form of scientific commercial development during the nine- teenth century. This recurrence of the classic spirit and of the ideal of pure materialism (practically un- modified by aesthetic appeal) is a matter of his- tory, and seems to point to the beginning of a new era, which is the most encouraging thing in sight at present. The restoration of the monarchy under Louis XVIII in 1814, and its continuance under Charles X until 1830, may be taken as one epoch, with England under George IV, from 1820 to 1830, considered at the same time; for this period really represents the first epoch of civilization's return to seventeenth century material aims, in which some other idea than culture or art was to function for a century or more, and in which neither costumes nor the other arts can be said to be aestheti- cally expressed, the best that can be said being that they are sometimes quaint or interesting in their 94 NINETEENTH CENTURY STYLES peculiarities. Yet they are always a sincere record of the state of mind of the public at the time they were created. At the beginning of this period the allied armies were in France, and one historian particularly upbraids the women of Paris for their lack of loyalty, accusing them of copying most of the details of their dress from that of the Poles, Germans, Russians, and English. With this regime, back to France swarmed the noble ladies who had fled the Revolution and the wreckage of the Empire. They assisted in this new order by repudiating everything in fashion that smacked in the least of the Directoire or of the Empire. The old order thronged the Tuileries, extravagance was rife and the intense craving for dress soon established in Paris four very noted ladies' tailors, thirteen milliners in large establishments, seven large florists, three special stay makers, eight famous dressmakers and eight fine ladies' shoemakers. These all catered to the new order, thus reviving trade and stimulating personal endeavour. The dresses of this epoch were made in many styles or cuts; sleeves were sometimes short, ruffled or puffed and sometimes long, shaped like a funnel with the large end at the shoulder. Some necks were cut low and necklaces were worn, others were cut high and trimmed with various ornaments. With short sleeves long gloves were essentials. Married women wore small neckerchiefs and young women, white apron dresses. The hair was usually curled and artificial flowers again became popular as decorations for the head. Bonnets were generally worn pushed over the 295 PSYCHOLOGY OF DRESS face, toques were also popular. These were trimmed with artificial flowers and sometimes with white feathers. White was worn by every one in the evening and white merino with silver stripes was a popular material. White shoes were a la mode. We are not told, however, that these appeared with dark or black dress skirts and coloured stockings in muddy streets as is our custom to-day. One of the curious things was the Anglo -mania of 1816 and 1817. An amusing cartoon is shown of a French lady trying to force her daughter to dress in English style, while the girl is made to say : " Gracious ! how frightful! What dreadful taste! To think of wearing English fashions!" Nevertheless the fashion prevailed and we find the ladies in English straw bon- nets with green gauze veils. They wore "spencers" also, a garment that looked like a jacket with the skirt cut off below the waist line. These were of rep, velvet or satin, in any and every colour. Kerseymere coats too, were worn, with double collars. There were also silk wadded gowns, which they called "douil- lettes." A people whose taste is innate cannot lay it by at will. In spite of the disorganized conditions existing at this time, we conclude from the documents avail- able (and they are many) that this period retained, not- withstanding its varieties and absurdities, much real charm, and gave expression very often to a rare amount of taste as compared with any other country at the same time. Unfortunately they seem to have had two besetting sins, the indulgence of which brought down upon the 296 NINETEENTH CENTURY STYLES heads of the guilty the wrath of the just, the satire of the learned and the ire of the king, Charles X. The first was the use and abuse of "stays." They became so important that large sums were spent in procuring these most "effective and harmful" adjuncts to a lady's toilet. Rousseau wrote that the limbs should be free to move under the garments that covered them, and that the body should not be hampered in its natural movements by such trumpery. He was laughed at, they say, and more steel busks were added to the stays. A celebrated physician is quoted as having experimented with them and proved, of course, that there was grave danger of attracting electricity to that part of the body, thus causing a dangerous irritation. Stays grew in popularity none the less. Charles X then laid siege to this fashion, declaring: "Formerly it was not uncommon to see Dianas, Venuses or Niobes in France, but now we see nothing but wasps." Still there was no falling off in the vogue of stays. Fashions generally come to stay until some others of a like character come to displace them. So far it has not been recorded that any earthly power, or even the edict of holy church has been able to usurp or supplant the power of fashion, until it has run its course. The second fashionable sin was the "mutton leg" sleeve. It came into being in 1820 and in a short time reached such a size that a woman could only pass through an ordinary door sideways. Every article of dress was subordinated to this strange creation, and they were made the more realistic by being stuff ed with down and held in place by wires, so that they could in no wise be overlooked. 297 PSYCHOLOGY OF DRESS We sometimes think that we hold the record in these days for absurd colours, but we find in 1830 such colours as Ipsiboe, Trocadero, bronze, smoke, Nile- water, solitary, reed, mignonette-seed, amorous-toad, frightened-mouse, spider-meditating-crime, and many others, all of which leads us to modify our opinion of our supremacy and to return the palm to France even in this matter. There was a queer custom of naming materials and cuts of gowns for animals or plays. For example, the giraffe appeared in Paris in 1827 for the first time. Everybody went to see him and immediately there appeared gowns a la giraffe, bonnets a la giraffe, sashes a la giraffe; and there was a new material called " Jocko's last breath" brought out at once after the death of a chimpanzee of that name. The bourgeoisie showed more vanity in their dress and were more picturesque than their more fortunate sisters. It is said that every woman in business adopted a costume expressing her particular work and station in life, with "exceeding great success," so that the lemonade seller was as great a creation of the costumier and hairdresser as was any illustrious per- sonage. Individualism in France and the rise of the bour- geoisie to positions of prominence in fashion is mildly expressed, however, when compared with the same period, that of George IV, from 1820 to 1830, in Eng- land. Calthrop says of this period in England ; " Nowa- days to be dressed well is not always to be well dressed. Often it is far from it. The question of modern clothes is one of great perplexity. It seems that what is beauty RICHNESS AND THE ITALIAN INTERPRETATION OF NAPOLEON S COS- TUMES FOR MEN SEEM WELL EXEMPLIFIED IN THE PORTRAIT OF PRINCE BORGHESE, HIS BROTHER-IN-LAW. ROYAL AUSTRIAN TASTE IS HERE COUPLED WITH FRENCH EMPIRE POSSIBILITIES IN THE COSTUME OF EMPRESS LOUISE. NINETEENTH CENTURY STYLES one year may be the abomination of desolation the next, because the trick of that beauty has become com- mon property. You puff your hair at the sides, you are in the true sanctum of the mode: you puff your hair at the sides, you are forever utterly cast out. As we have no understanding I shall not attempt to ex- plain it: it passes beyond the realms of explanation into the pure air of truth. The truth is simple. Aristoc- racy being no longer real, but only a cult, one is afraid of one's servants. Your servant puffs her hair at the sides, and hang it! She becomes exactly like an aristocrat." This individual triumph of the proletariat over the aristocracy is worth remembering for comparison later. "The dressy person and the person who is well dressed, these two are showing everywhere. The one is a screaming hue of woad, the other a quiet note of blue dye : the one in excessive velvet sleeves that he cannot manage, the other controlling a rich amplitude of material with perfect grace. Here a lirripipe is extravagantly long; here a gold circlet decorates curled locks with match- less taste. Everywhere the battle between taste and gaudiness. High hennins, steeples of millinery stick up out of the crowd; below these the towers of powdered hair bow and sway as the fine ladies patter along. What a rustle and a bustle of silks and satins, of flowered tabbies, rich brocades, cut velvets, superfine clothes, woollens, cloth of gold!" He then goes on to describe the endless individual ideas representing all periods gone before and all im- aginable new ones and adaptations of the old, no law no order, no one to follow etc., bad taste constantly 299 PSYCHOLOGY OF DRESS developing and good taste being crushed, with no one to object or to dictate. This points clearly to the complete triumph of the individual idea of the eighteenth century and to the final downfall of autocratic royal dictation in matters of dress as in matters of religion, state, or public morals. This condition, as it always has, released the imagina- tion, the instinctive desires, and the creative powers of the queer and the undeveloped, for strivings are duly recorded in what they did, hence the medley of costumes with and without taste as well as with and without sense or reason, the first mentioned quality often redeeming and making a delight of the creations of earlier periods, even where sense and reason seemed to be entirely missing. Fashion seems always to be making new demands on her slaves and they seem ready to obey her mandates, no matter to what they may lead. The "leg of mutton" sleeve furnished the chief novelty to be exploited in the days of Charles X, but at the time of the accession of Louis Philippe in 1830 the rage for it was spent and other details or adjuncts of dress were seized upon in order to tempt the female heart, although in the basic essentials of dress there was little change. The huge bonnets known as the cabriolet gave way to tiny caps called by fancy names, such as Charlotte Corday, the peasant, the nun, the Elizabeth, the chatelaine, etc. The nets worn were a la Napol- itaine, "steeplechase rosettes" below the ears, Algerian head-dresses, Armenian toques, and white and gold Jewish turbans with strings, a la Rachel. Many novelties in colour appeared also. 300 NINETEENTH CENTURY STYLES Here, too, began the "anti-healthy" fashion, which reached us in the early 'sixties. Suffering, self sacrifice, and personal devotion were the favourite topics of the day. To weep was adorable, to faint commendable, and to look wan and anaemic ultra-fashionable. Young girls dreaded nothing like healthy rosy cheeks. "It was so common," they said. They strove by every means sentimentally to eliminate the material, even by starvation, a mawkish imitation of mediaeval idealism. These were the days of Victor Hugo and Lamartine. The reading of Scott's novels and Byron's poems were among society's favourite pastimes. The romantic school was at its height and many a fashion in dress harked back to mediaeval sources. The rich bour- geoisie wore long trains, heavy necklaces, long hanging sleeves, alms-bags dangling from their waists and heavy carved jewellery They moved about with the assured air of thirteenth century ladies. The populace was enamoured of the theatre. They flocked to the French and Italian opera houses, the Opera Comique, the Theatre Frangais and the others of the boulevards. Here they found the sentimental and romantic heroines who gave the tone to fashion, pro- viding something new and thrilling. These women were copied regardless, apparently, of their suitability, for a historian writes of a beautiful, sweet, and gentle girl who dressed like the notorious infanticide, Norma, while the best of ladies aped the style of the arch- poisoner, the Marquise de Brinvilliers. Historic characters, from Charlemagne to Mary Stuart, and from Isabella Gonzaga to Charlotte Corday furnished the accepted costume for balls, fetes, and 301 PSYCHOLOGY OF DRESS grand receptions. The Greek and Roman styles of the earlier days were replaced by those of the Middle Ages and of the Renaissance. In the latter part of the reign the nobility reacted to the influence of the great tragedian Rachel, whose work in reviving such classic characters as Electra, Hermione, Monima, Roxana, Paulina, Agrippina, and Phaedra, so fired the great ladies with enthusiasm that they sought to imitate not only the actress herself but her idiosyn- crasies in dress and those of as many of her characters as time would permit. This classic reaction did not touch the bourgeoisie, however. The whole spirit of the epoch is one of hectic striving for novelty and sensation, changing from month to month and even from day to day, as whim or fancy dictated. This universal instability gave fashion lati- tude to do her worst, preventing the crystallization of any mode or style of sufficient merit, or definite enough, to be classed as a historic period. Materials new and varied appeared constantly, as did new colours and new fashions in design. The materials, legion in number, were called by such names as Polar- star, blossoming camelia, Palmyrienne, Benvenuto Cellini blue velvet, Medici and Louis XV satins, tulle illusion, Rachel crepe, a tissue called ./?/ de la Vierge, and many others. This field, like that of design, seems to have been exhausted just before 1850 and we read of a reaction from the romantic school to the school of "good sense" near the end of the period. To us this phase of the period is not clearly enough defined in its documentary evidence to warrant an assured belief in its existence. 302 NINETEENTH CENTURY STYLES Perhaps no better or more appropriate time will come for establishing a connection in our minds between these unsettled and fluctuating styles of mid-nineteenth century France and those of England. The fashions of the period of George IV were followed by no changes or additions of note during the brief reign of William IV, 1830 to 1837, but with the latter date we associate the beginning of that long and dull epoch of domestic tranquillity and phlegmatic sentimentality known as the "Victorian Period," with the reflex of which we are so familiar in our own land, as it appeared in the youth of our immediate ancestors. While not desiring to treat this subject in its entirety, it is necessary to think of it in its relation to the period of Louis Philippe, of the short second Republic, and of the Restoration under Napoleon III, 1852 to 1870. By comparing the past and the present it appears to us that the Victorian era may justly be classed as a period of unusually dull and sentimental materialism. It was moral but soggy. Imagination and the sense of humour were suppressed under routine, form, a heavy seriousness and a rigorous complacency. People and furniture were alike completely, properly, and similarly upholstered. Carping critics, tiresome moralists, domes- tic philosophers, and shocked and fainting women were the vogue. Proportion, where any was left, gave place to bulk and stability. Decoration was lost in aggrega- tion. Brocades and taffetas were supplanted by hair- cloth and plush, lace and gauze by chenille fringe and hand knit tidies, while a perfect system of German housewifery was adopted, assimilated, and expressed in national perfection. Never since the creation of man 303 PSYCHOLOGY OF DRESS has life been more devoid of grace and never was taste at a lower ebb. There was much intellectual activity, however, and domestic economy flourished, as their record in litera- ture and national expression proves, though there ap- pears to have been a total annihilation of the art sense and of the charm that is born of the social graces. So far as details of costume are concerned during this period, at court they were in "perfect form" and in ordinary life they were "proper." It is rather to call this period to mind, to acknowledge its aims and its achievements, and to see anew its results in art through a knowledge of the qualities most active, and of those most dominant or most stifled, that it is correlated here with the corresponding styles in France and America. Having done this, let us return to the period of Louis Philippe and of the Second Empire, for Paris was then, as ever, the seat of fashion, and so far as this invincible goddess wielded conscious power, it came from France. In so far too, as the art quality was active it had no other asylum than in the minds of the French, who, in spite of revolutions, cataclysms and catastrophies were never entirely without it. It was in 1852 that Napoleon III was seated on the throne and the second Empire began. The style, developed from this date io 1870 and known as the Second Empire style, is the last of the monarchic styles of France and indeed of modern life so far as our civiliza- tion is concerned. The marriage of the Emperor with the Spaniard, Eugenie, resulted in the establishment at the Tuileries of a new and positive dictation of customs and of fashions, which had for its aim, so far as possible, 304 NINETEENTH CENTURY STYLES to organize and promote another court life akin to that of the First Empire, though in reality its ultimate goal was an imitation of the splendour of the court at Versailles under Louis XIV. The first years were characterized by great luxury and splendid display, the new Empress leading the movement, and the wor- shippers of monarchic dictatorship flocked to her standard, undismayed by past experiences or by present ominous tendencies. The inauguration again of a strict court etiquette brought with it a prescribed court costume. The court train and the court mantle may be mentioned as in- dicative of this reaction. The mantle falling from the shoulders to the floor was reserved for the Empress and a few court ladies whom she deigned to honour. The court train, however, was more general, and specialists in dancing were employed to teach the great ladies how to get about easily in this regalia without tripping or falling. It is not strange that the bourgeoisie copied this fashion, which was also in vogue in England, nor that we find the custom appearing simultaneously with other French fashions in the United States, first among the elect and then wherever sufficient material could be obtained. Monarchic social life again dictated fashion but was no longer able to confine it to the court, nobility, or even to the bourgeoisie. The proletariat was slowly coming into its own and enjoying all the sensations attendent upon being "dressed up" in fashion, if not in quality or taste. Thus grew the individual idea even in the last of the monarchic epochs of France. The marriage of the Emperor took place in the cathe- 305 PSYCHOLOGY OF DRESS dral of Notre Dame and the bride wore a dress of white terry velvet with a long court train. The basque bodice was high and trimmed heavily with diamonds, sapphires, and orange blossoms. The entire skirt was covered with point d 'Angleterre and the long veil was of the same material. Her hair was dressed in two bandeaux, one in front, the veil raised and peaked in the style Marie Stuart, the other rolled from the top of her head to her neck where it ended in a mass of curls, which according to a contemporary poet looked like a "nest of Cupids." "Full dress" became an object of ambition among the middle classes as well as the imperialists and, we are told, "the brilliant inventions of fashion succeeded each other uninterruptedly." Attempts were made to revive the styles of the First Empire as they would more nearly express the political social succession than any new invention, but a counter movement prevented this from being achieved to any great extent because, no doubt, of the unquenchable longing of the human species for something new and original. A fair idea of the fashions of the winter of 1854 is given in the follow- ing description of a dress worn at the opera: "The gown was of gray 'poulte de soie,' the high bodice was fastened by ruby buttons, and the basque, open on the hips, was trimmed with a knot of cherry coloured ribbons; the five flounces of the skirt were edged with ribbon of the same hue laid on flat and terminating in bows with long ends." This, if representative, certainly was aiming at a simplicity that was commendable when compared with the Empire style in 1810. Court ladies in general followed the style set by the 306 FOR LESS THAN ROYAL PERSONAGES SIMPLICITY IN ENSEMBLE WITH PECULIARITIES AND EXAGGERATION IN DETAIL MARK THE EARLY PART OF THIS PERIOD. j? ORIGINALITY, NOT TASTE, WAS THE NOT INFREQUENT CAUSE OF FASHION'S COMBINATIONS AS INTERPRETED BY THE BOURGEOISIE. MANY SIMPLE, LOVELY, AND ADAPTABLE COSTUMES ARE FOUND BETWEEN 1815 AND 1825 AMONG PEOPLE OF TASTE WHO WERE LOATH TO RENOUNCE THE AESTHETIC SENSE AS THE CENTURY ADVANCED. THIS PORTRAIT (ITALIAN), DONE IN 1829, MIGHT ALMOST BE BUT TWO DECADES OLD, OR EVEN LESS, IN SOME OF ITS DETAILS. NINETEENTH CENTURY STYLES Empress, ladies of the rich bourgeoisie vied each other for the first place in fashion's feats, while the great actresses of the day each strove to outdo the Empress in matters of novelty and eccentricity. Notwithstand- ing all this, the time was not yet ripe for the installation of the periodic recurrence of new fashions in all things which developed later, and which is in force to this day. The tendency of the rather simple, though rich, ap- parel of the early Second Empire was, in general, to mould the body into a youthful, slim shape, giving a somewhat delicate effect. This, with the trains and flowing mantles gave a certain dignity and grace, which was to be rudely displaced by the introduction of crinoline and hoops in 1854. This ungraceful and bothersome fashion was quickly taken up by the never satisfied ones with a zeal that seemed to indicate a long felt desire again to conceal all the lines of the body and to contest the right of others even to a place in space. By the more conservative the excess was, of course, constantly attacked, as such freaks always have been. Fashion was triumphant none the less, and the devious ways for "swelling out" one's clothes which were in- vented are numerous enough to convince one that to go with the stream is the final fate of all, even though they stand out against the particular manner in which they go. Ruffled, starched petticoats, flowered skirts stuffed with horsehair, real hoops of wood, whalebone, and steel, these and other devices soon succeeded in elimina- ting the shape of the human body from all consideration in the matter of dress, and the creation of abominable 307 PSYCHOLOGY OF DRESS forms seems to have completely absorbed human in- genuity. Between 1855 and 1860 there was a wave of tre- mendous enthusiasm for life at watering places such as Dieppe, Trouville, Biarritz, Vichy, Plombieres and Bagneres. These visits were made, of course, for the health of the pilgrims, much as our social migrations are made to Palm Beach, French Lick, White Sulphur, Atlantic City, or Coronado. Then, as now, at such places fashion was working overtime. One writer says: "The most fantastic and even eccentric costumes were invented not only for women but for girls and children also." And then he tells how, clad in all possible finery, the ladies walked by the sea or sat about the thermal resorts, chattering and showing how "dressy and chic" they could be. Alas! we seem after all only to have imitated our predecessors, and some- what grotesquely at that, if old prints and other docu- ments of 1855 and photographs shown in our Sunday papers may be considered authentic. It is written in the "History of Fashion," by Challamel, that around 1870 "women indulged more than ever in the strangest whims of fashion. The minor newspapers even published paragraphs describing the costumes of this or that great lady, designating each by her name, by no means to the displeasure of the fair ones thus distinguished. Tailors and dressmakers grew very rich." It is not unlikely that both these statements may be true and that as papers and mag- azines have increased in number, and as "great ladies" is merely a relative term, the times were not unlike that in which we live, either in impulse or aspiration. 308 NINETEENTH CENTURY STYLES Many new periodicals devoted entirely to fashion sprang up in this decade, not only in France but else- where, and this hastened the day for the copy of French fashions by all Christendom. The dress of the Duchesse de Mouchy, worn at a Beauvais ball in 1869, gives us an idea of the quality of the epoch. It consisted of a gown and train of white silk gauze spotted with silver, a short overdress of red currant coloured silk forming a ruched "tablier," a low square-cut bodice and shoulder straps of diamonds and rubies and a wide scarf of flowers with silver leaves which fell from one shoulder slanting across the skirt. It was at this time that the decided change in fashion as to skirts took place. " The balloon skirt gave way to a close fitting bag," says a recorder of fashions, "and tubs to laths." As on former occasions there was a bitter struggle but a complete annihilation of the older mode was the final outcome. Quantities of jewellery were worn, and feathers, ribbons, and artificial flowers were popular. This period of the return of the spirit of imperialism to power was one of history's most convincing ex- amples of the futility of trying to revive worn out art forms to express old ideas developing under new con- ditions. Ever and anon the forms of the mediaeval, the classic, the earlier French styles and the First Empire, were revived and made to express this new imperialism imposed upon an only half willing people, but when each was tried out it went rapidly into dis- card, another taking its place. The lesson is obvious. The spirit of the day was not at home in these old bodies and therefore both refused to function. An 309 PSYCHOLOGY OF DRESS abnormal condition of pretence, discontent, and stuffi- ness resulted, excelled however, in England, where these unsatisfactory conditions were still more aggra- vated. In 1870 was inaugurated the Third Republic, the beginning of present day life in France, and there- fore the beginning of the determination of world fashions, the time of their appearance and the sources from which they should be taken. With the fitful days of 1870, the German occupation and domination, the loss of Alsace Lorraine and the gradual return to normal life we are all familiar. Even these incidents, however, furnished ideas for fashion's whims. First came a return to bare fundamentals, then some Ger- man and Bavarian imitations, followed by a senti- mental copy and adaptation of the national costumes of Alsace and Lorraine. "In 1873 feminine dress became extremely com- plicated," we read. "All kinds of ornamentations were used with more or less happy effect. It seemed as if feminine vanity were endeavouring to make up for the lost years of 1871 and 1872. Simplicity was suc- ceeded by finery of all sorts and the trimmings of dresses cost enormous prices. Fifteen or twenty flounces were put on one skirt. Costumes were trimmed with chased, bronzed, or oxydized buttons." Here we find authorities universally agreed that the age of independent dress, each one following her own taste, began in earnest. Each fashion had infinite variety in its interpretations, many of which were im- mediately pronounced anarchical by those accustomed to obey fashion's dictates. Now it was that cut be- 310 NINETEENTH CENTURY STYLES came the principal thing, materials and trimmings being graded according to the wealth or whim of the wearer. If the new Republic sought to simplify dress or to reduce its cost, it failed. On the contrary luxury increased, display became a mania and the prole- tariat came again into its own with complete surrender to its new possibilities. Thus was firmly established the order in which we live, which has its advantages for those whose sense of humour is still alive. In a book published in New York about 1877 we find an attempt to awaken the new world aesthetic sense to its relation with costumes, and the injection of the moral element in the treatment of various items of personal adornment. The writer assures us that the art of dressing the head and the art of fashion are connected without being identical, and that in spite of this close association we may readily detect their differences. He writes also: "Like all other parts of her dress, a woman's bonnet is an indication of char- acter, and this can only arise from its relation to senti- ment. Look at that nun who is passing by, devoted to charitable works, and who bears the name of the virtue she practices; she wears on her head a large white cornette, which conceals the profile of her face, only leaving the organs of sight, breathing, and speech uncovered; her hair is invisible, and even its growth is hid under the bandage across her forehead. Starched and stiff, this cornette expresses to herself complete withdrawal from the world. Its single fold has a pur- pose and determination; no hand has touched it. Its smooth whiteness is an emblem of chastity and purity. Look now, at a fashionable young lady of the present 311 PSYCHOLOGY OF DRESS day. who has discovered how to wear a bonnet without its covering her head, and who, far from concealing her hair, draws it back, puffs it, crimps it, displays it, and even adds to it an artificial abundance. Are not these the two extremes of bonnets between which every variety of severity and coquetry may find a place? . . . "In proportion as austerity diminishes, the front of the bonnet diminishes likewise, and when the Quaker- esses give up the tenets of their sect they will certainly alter the uniform bonnet which is one of the outward signs of their belief. If freedom of manners were to gain the victory over sedate deportment or hypocrisy, there would be nothing left of the bonnet but the shape and the strings "A bonnet is simply an excuse for a feather, a pre- text for a spray of flowers, the support of an aigrette, the fastening for a plume of Russian cock's feathers. It is placed on the head, not to protect it, but that it may be seen better. Its great use is to be charming. . . . Let there be no mistake: there are many things in the bonnet which do not depend upon fashion, which are released from its absolute yet limited control. All the ukases of this capricious and fantastic sovereign will not prevent a bonnet fastened by strings from being more modest, more of a covering I was going to say more seemly than a little cap perched on one side, or a plate upside down, like the Nice bonnet, fastened to the back of the hair by a ribbon nearly horizontal, and whose ends float behind. It is clear that with the one bonnet we connect the idea of reserve, with the other the idea of liberty." In a most amusing and assured way he goes on to tell 312 NINETEENTH CENTURY STYLES us how one's character is shown to the world with un- mistakable clarity by the angle at which the hat is worn, by the kinds of feathers or flowers we "select because of our sentiments," by the character and colour of the materials we use; and then declares against fashion's right to interfere with every woman's right and sacred duty to "know herself" and to adorn this conscious self with a respectful acknowledgment of her personal graces and also of her weaknesses, in such manner that only the former shall appear to him who looks on. Thus endeth a chapter representing the nineteenth century point of view, worth contrasting with any of the preceding epochs and comparing with some of the modern up-lift movements in dress still going on. Although this idea was not new it functions more easily in the self-righteous clumsiness of a mature Victorianism than it could have in Venice in the eighteenth century, when Goldoni wrote: "Women are wrong in my opinion, in following any general mode of dressing the hair: every one ought to consult her glass, to examine the features, and to adapt the arrangement of her hair to the style of her countenance and to make the hair dresser follow her orders." Goldoni only dared appeal to the material appearance of the lady, while our Victorian saw a way into the possibilities of soul qualities, as worthy of expression in dress. Those of us who have felt some sympathy with the laws of design even in dress have perchance been annoyed by the unwieldy watch chains of men, when hung from the centre button hole of the waistcoat and swung in a long loop to the left hand pocket, with noth- PSYCHOLOGY OF DRESS ing appearing on the right side to account for this intrusion on an otherwise inconspicuous garment. It is comforting to find that one of the most strongly urged art principles in this revival was that of balance in appearance and to discover a critic comparing this watch chain obsession to a woman with one earring, who, he declares, would be impossible to look upon. The long frock coat is ridiculed here because of its unseemly proportions, the wide expanse of white shirt front, as being too arrogant, self-important, and distressing to the cultivated eye. Black gloves are called intolerable because they extinguish, as under a layer of ink, what is of greater importance to the human body. Curiously, the writer attempts to resurrect the knowl- edge that such a thing as taste exists, then to stimulate a desire to possess and express it. Often by appealing to the purely sentimental he expects to awaken a spiritual sense which he calls "character," then he urges the expression of this quality in dress, in the place of a blind following of fashion's mandates. If we could measure his results we should no doubt find that he influenced a small number to think a little, and that alone would be a sufficient reward for his work, though fashion's power was still uncrippled. If more than a few individual minds were touched, no evidence remains either in the dress of the time or in the in- herited practices of those of our own generation. Here, unhappily, art, sentiment, and morals gave way again to vanity, frivolity, and fashion. With the growth and spread of Paris fashions since 1875 we are not concerned in detail, but to recognize 314 FROM 1830 TO THE MIDDLE OF THE CENTURY ' CAPRICE KNEW NO BOUNDS" BUT EVIDENTLY UGLINESS WAS EVEN LESS HAMPERED. THIS ILLUSTRATION WAS TAKEN FROM THE "JOURNAL OF PARIS FASHIONS" FOR THE SPRING OF 1834. THE EFFECT is MORE ELO- QUENT THAN COMMENT. NINETEENTH CENTURY STYLES her contributions to the nineteenth century is im- portant, and to look somewhat into the cause and effect of her hectic political and social life during that century is to see again that these elements are always active in determining any style. As in the eighteenth, so in the nineteenth century Italy was committed to French influence in matters re- lating directly to social life. Almost forgotten were the pompous, haughty, and oppressive customs of the Span- ish tyrants. The less civilized, if no less arrogant and repressive Austrian manners were a thing of memory rather than an element of social practice. The frivo- lous and amusing fashions of the French had inspired social aims for nearly a century, and the arts, including costumes, had responded to this influence with little real interruption until it had become a habit. The advent of Napoleon was in some ways a relief, for it loosened Austria's political hold, and by the intro- duction of the Empire style furnished a new motive for intuitive Italian inventiveness. Through the elimina- tion of the Austrian the French influence was strength- ened and long after the fall of Napoleon we find the ladies of Italy, particularly in Piedmont, Naples, Venice, and Rome modifying and using the Empire fashions, while they looked westward for new ideas as they were being developed in France and England. A foreign officer in the British service in Italy wrote in 1819 of the ladies of Turin: "The bourgeoisie of Turin dress in coloured gowns, black silk aprons and caps quite a la Francaise. This class of females, consisting in Turin of shopkeepers' wives and daughters, milliners, etc., are very free in their manners and address, and 315 PSYCHOLOGY OF DRESS have a good deal of French coquetry about them. The Piedmontese ladies dress generally after the French fashion but of late may have rather adopted the English style." Other documents seem to indicate that during the rest of the first half of the century a sort of Anglo- mania sprang up, particularly in Venice and Turin, as it did in France, and that one of the first apparent results was seen in fashion in dress. This, however, was not universal and France continued to be the centre from which emanated fashion's last word. Nothing of gain to our purpose could come from a further discussion of the nineteenth century styles in England, particularly after the first quarter of the century. Their origin, development, and reflex here are too familiar to require repetition and there is nothing new either in their idea or operation that has not ap- peared in more attractive form over and over again in our discussion of cause and effect in life. Only in the proportion of its active elements does it differ from other manifestations and therefore in the quality of its results. The aesthetic sense practically , eliminated, sentiment turning to sentimentality, science supplanting cultural learning, and iron-bound morality taking the place of imagination or a sense of humour, left the question of costumes rather bare of interest, except per- haps during the period when fainting fits were fashion- able, when the wan and hungry bodies of all nice ladies were covered with hoops, ruffles, pokes, and ribbons in such a manner that a certain charm of romantic frailty surrounded these helpless apparitions. Through our inheritance of chivalry we learned to admire these, and 316 NINETEENTH CENTURY STYLES to love to protect them. But all this is tiresome, for it was almost better staged in the United States than it was in England, its natural home. Of the fashions from 1895 until the dawn of the present century we are satisfied to remain as ignorant as we may; if perchance we are not satisfied to rest as easily about our own fashions, there is plenty of mat- erial available for those of us whose memory does not go quite back to that time. 317 CHAPTER EIGHT EARLY TWENTIETH CENTURY CHARACTERISTICS THE conception of life called medievalism, with its highly specialized spiritual aims and its ecclesiastical scenario was but a reaction after all against the in- tellectually developed ideal of classic Greece, already debased by foreign adoption and misrepresentation. The elements of humanism, always present, though sometimes suppressed for a time, boldly reasserted themselves together with their new ally, the classic ideal, and soon the Renaissance displaced mediaeval- ism. This more complex conception of life in which are involved mainly three general factors, the appetites, the intellect, and the desire for material objects, has fur- nished the elements for the ideals of civilized peoples since the fifteenth century, sometimes dictated from one angle sometimes from another, according to geo- graphic position surrounding conditions and national or local mental development- A passion for culture, for art, or for amusement, and even for the pleasures imagined to be found in over-indulged appetites, or the greed for personal gain, called commercialism, have been ever and again the central ideas around which a period has been formed and a style crystallized. Interruptions of each particular phase of this in- 318 TWENTIETH CENTURY STYLES tellectual and material ideal begun by the Renais- sance have taken place at times, just as one great fundamental ideal was interrupted in its application by the birth and development of another, before the Ren- naissance became a reality. We have seen how the beginning of the modern social ideal appeared in France and was named Chivalry, how it served its time and left its legacy to sixteenth century social France, and how the Renaissance adopted it and tried it from several angles, until it finally gave way before the powerful domination of centralized autocracy in mat- ters of social life under the stupendous concept of the period of Louis XIV. This, when sufficiently worked out, elaborated and lived through, gave us that marvel- lous eighteenth century of artistic social expression. When in turn this became effete it was interrupted by the concept, already formulated, of scientific and commercial nineteenth century development as a dom- inating factor around which to build a nation's life interest. Already in 1920 signs of dissatisfaction with this view of life are seen everywhere; the field of religion is seething with new beliefs with new names, the political systems of Christendom are shaken to their foundations, while entirely new orders are being freely predicted and tried. The lines of social caste are threatened from every direction, and work, education, pleasure, and amusement are receiving no end of discussion, experi- ment, and speculation. Amidst all this melee fashion is still unscathed and unabashed. The vogue in clothes is not one whit less important than it ever has been, its every change is as 319 PSYCHOLOGY OF DRESS eagerly watched for as it was in 1780 at Versailles, or in Mantua in 1500 and, strange as it may appear, Paris still has supreme control of fashion's trend. The reason for this is a deep-seated one, but it harks back directly to that great period of the Grande Monarque, to whose fashions we are all heirs. In this period and in those succeeding may be discerned the psychology as well as the history of the present situation with the signs that point already with unmistakable directness not only to a new interruption and reaction, but to certain elements which will be active in the composition of this reaction. Louis XIV may rightly be said to have made and unmade France, and France the civilized world, so far as matters of art and fashion are concerned. The perfection of this autocratic political-social system, conceived and worked out during this long reign, won for itself, particularly in all its social ramifications, not only the astonishment of the civilized world, but the conceded right practically to dictate to civilized Europe its social customs and its graces, with the resultant styles and fashions, in which life is consciously and unconsciously set. This supremacy was attained, how- ever, by a segregation of classes, violent suppression of the masses, and unrestricted leisure of individuals to act to one end, namely the perfection of this machine which, by its very autocratic centralization laid the founda- tion for the appalling revolution through which crushed individual initiative sought once more to assert itself. In the realization of this objective the old order was completely destroyed, and with it went the immediate outward customs and the art forms by which the old 320 TWENTIETH CENTURY STYLES regime had been expressed. But three very important things remained and to this day they are no less power- ful than they were in the eighteenth century, even though in certain exigencies and emergencies nations raise their voices in protest, heralding a new era, a liberal social order and a "modern art expression." Before the outbreak of the great World War, for example, we were much interested in Germany's new and practical form of "art expression," but as for its art quality or the desirability of the ideas for which it stood, there seemed to be much difference of opinion, with the result that we returned to the civilization that gave birth to ours, whose art quality had stood the test of centuries even though customs and forms had been and should be modified. By and by we shall learn that, in art as well as religion, there is but one god and that is truth. Art quality does not change, and art objects are produced only when the art quality is present in the minds of those persons who create ob- jects, and when this quality is a conscious necessity to those who use the objects after they are nifede. The French national ideals in the reigns from Louis XIV to Louis XVI made possible a limited aristocratic, autocratic class, demanding more and more as it became more attenuated, just this measure of art quality for its satisfaction; and the concentrated creative powers of Europe were mustered into action to satisfy this demand. The results speak for themselves. These ob- jects of art are sought by all people of taste through- out the world, both for the aesthetic pleasure they give and as models of form and colour from which inspiration to create anew may be drawn. 321 PSYCHOLOGY OF DRESS These objects of art constitute but one of the three important things that this artistic social order be- queathed to us. f The undisputed supremacy of France as qualified to speak with finality upon matters relating to the polite amenities of social intercourse, and her rightful position as the art centre of the world, cast a spell of submissive respect upon the peoples of the civilized world. The French language, French manners, and French fashions were as eagerly sought and copied by the world at large as they were willingly handed over by the French themselves. Habit is invincible. France's position is still unassailable. In fashion's realm the world awaits with bated breath her mandates. The great Sunday papers of New York City print pages to-day, February the twenty-second, 1920, about just this matter, from which these sentences are quoted: "THE INFLUENCE OF PARIS IS DOMINANT IN OUR FIRST SHOWING OF SPRING FASHIONS. Paris and pleats are inseparable everywhere they ap- pear in upstanding ruffs, in inserted panels, in tunics, in skirts, in any fabric, colour, or garment." Then follows a description of patterns, fabrics, cuts, and details, with reference to each Paris house whose dictates have been accepted. Soon the costumes from Paris will come; then the mad rush to own one, after making perfectly certain, of course, that the label naming the house from which it came is still in its place, and probably being unable at the same time to ascertain with certainty whether or not the costume or the label is "authentic" or when or where the label was sewn on; but that doesn't matter, the psychology is obvious, or will be, when all those who '> . *f\ , - : fr'*'A ^*t< G r f ,.-> J* - V^' ^ <^ *i ^f/v^jl < *t .F-'%# > i, ^ \\& ti^~ %v ii--. k w'^'i^'*W ? f its value. Appreciation and the possession of the quality arouse the desire for expression, or the creation of objects or ^conditions in which this quality is manifest. This impulse obeyed, art objects result; and better still, if obeyed often enough an art habit is formed and a finer perception acquired of what constitutes a truly har- monious relation between ideas and their material ex- pression. Whatever in French fashions is the result of this condition will tend to make them supreme, until such time as some other nation shall solve the problem better, or until civilization lapses to barbarism and the art quality is of less moment than it is even now. /But art is only one quality of style and can make its appeal only to the aesthetic sense on the one hand and to common sense, or the sense of the fitness of things, on the other. Fashion makes its appeal to a wider range of desires and appetites and is therefore not solely dependent upon the art quality for its success, although the quality itself and the common habit of thinking we want it is, and indisputably has been for a good while, a desirable adjunct to life. This is no place for a complete analysis of fashion, for we must all have decided long ere this, as we looked into the various centuries, to what elemental desires, appetites, vanities, and self interest this, one of 324 TWENTIETH CENTURY STYLES the greatest of earth's autocrats, has made and no doubt always will make, its inevitable appeal. The primal need for shelter, for instance, must be satisfied partly by dress, yet it seems at times that protection from the elements has not been the sole reason for wearing clothes, or for going without them either. The tradition of the Garden of Eden as affecting our dress is very deeply seated, yet even this has frequently been assailed by fashion's claims almost to the upsetting of habits and customs. The fundamental claim of man's aesthetic sense for satisfaction, and the interest everyone takes in his own personal appearance has always impelled him to decor- ate or adorn himself in such manner as he honestly believed would achieve the best results. In this he was of course in competition with his neighbour, who was actuated by exactly the same impulses. Neither could be outdone by the other without wounding or entirely destroying his pride^. another universal human quality. This state of vanity, selfishness, pride, and aesthetic con- ception thus created in the mind, ever has been and ever will be one of fashion's best fields in which to operate, for it is her mission to invade just such contests and to suggest a possible satisfaction for these mixed claims. Through the appeal to man'.s 1"* "f novelty she has generally succeeded in getting a hearing, because of the fact that the desire of man for a new sensation is fundamental and that through this desire he has ever and anon fallen from his high estate. We should not presume to analyze the individual mo- tives that impel man to adopt what is known as the "com- mercial idea." How universal this view is and almost 325 PSYCHOLOGY OF DRESS always has been, how it has grappled with the best spiritual ideals and cultural concepts of man, and how surely it has throttled not only their legitimate develop- ment but that of other ideals, needs no other proof than personal memory. The ratio of selfish nes^ passion for possession, for self-preservation, love of chance, thirst for power, and desire for the luxuries and extravagances of life is not of great importance, in fact it probably can never be relatively estimated. These qualities are known, however, to exist universally; we recognize them in others and we acknowledgejtherr.pawer and the importance of the ideal for which they stand, if ideal it may be called, since it has ever and again become the most important individual and national aim in life. Whenever this has been the case fashion has become at once its devoted accomplice, and never without success on both sides. Thus has fashion allied herself to the changing mind states of man, always keeping in view not only his elemental physical appetites, aesthetic and intellectual desires, and his spiritual longings, but his every weak- ness as well. It matters little which of these sets of impulses is dominant, for it is as easy to make the attenuation of the body to the point of apparent elimination the goaLof ambition in fa,shioTLjisit is to make any particular part, or the whole of it, thcTobject aesthetic prominence or of appetite satisfaction. Fashion knows no limitations, no spiritual, aesthetic, or material obstacles; it recognizes only man's sus- ceptibilities and his weaknesses and it is bound only to satisfy them, whatever or wherever their demands. Thus, forsooth, it seems, upon enquiring into the past, 326 TWENTIETH CENTURY STYLES to be more universal and successful than we had hereto- fore supposed. To regulate the natural, and for that matter the unnatural, instincts and impulses of the human race according to any, even temporarily accepted, religious, ethical, moral or political, intellectual, aesthetic or social set of regulations appears to have been difficult. When by some particularly fortunate circumstance this xy has been possible for a limited time, a style has been expressed the understanding of which enables us now to trace from effect to cause the unalterable fundamentals of human life, and the relation between them and their expression. No condition and no field so far exploited seems to be one in which fashion has not played its full role. It was thought, for example, to be exactly as immoral in the thirteenth century for mediaeval ladies to go about with their hair uncovered to the public gaze as it was in the Victorian era to bare certain other portions of the body, or as it is now to place no limit to possible nakedness. It is of course in the point of view that the impropriety lies, but a different point of view does not in the least change the occasional grotesqueness of the exhibition. Presumably it was as unethical for the jewellers, decorators, and costume makers of the early sixteenth century unrestrainedly to exploit the aesthetic weakness and the limited resources of Isabella, Duchess of Gonzaga, as it is now for these same personages to exploit in like manner the ignorance and weakness of many fine ladies of our day who have unlimited re- sources and who desire to shine in the same fields as did 327 PSYCHOLOGY OF DRESS the illustrious duchess, though perhaps for dissimilar reasons. Polite and amusing conversation was society's greatest asset in the eighteenth century; to lack it was a social barrier; to possess it unlimited time and effort were freely given and expense incurred. Even this ideal proved to be destructible, for society has since found satisfaction in other practices less praiseworthy but to them as important, without which no person was eligible to the inner life of the socially elect. It seems certain that nothing good or evil is but thinking makes it so, and that thinking it so for any large group of people is generally dependent upon first making it the fashion to so think, notwithstanding the few who have met an untimely death for being out of the fashion in thinking for themselves before the fashion so to think became operative. Whatever else is problematical, certain it is that Louis XIV made France the dictator of social forms and of fashions, more particularly perhaps as it is expressed in costume, and most particularly in the realm of women's dress, for which she is still the dictator. Long ago England wrested from her the right to say what men, particularly conservative ones, should wear and when they should wear it. Of the present indications in that regard we shall speak later. It is also certain that into the national consciousness of France, with its complex elements, many centuries in the process of making, many and divers ideals were injected; that she adopted and expressed certain of them more clearly than other nations, and that certain other ideals suffered through centralization upon those adopted. 328 TWENTIETH CENTURY STYLES Yet in the last analysis she has the same elemental desires and impulses as other peoples, differing at times only in the proportion in which they are active. It is this knowledge that gives colour and interest to life and makes history worth studying. Until the middle of the eighteenth century we in the 4 United States were true children of the mother country actuated to be sure by new and virile ideas of life the/ development of which seemed impossible in England/ This condition and the desire for adventure, with other causes, led to our Colonial life. Gradually but surely foreign ideas of Germanic, French, and Scandi- navian origin filtered in, but these were not of sufficient strength to make themselves noticeably felt. Radically differing from the mother country in regard to certain political and religious methods did not in any sense change the physical or mental fibre of our inheritance any more than young Riley or Cohen of our generation are denationalized because they are less orthodox in their views than their fathers. We dressed in the fashions that our forefathers accepted long after we eschewed their orthodoxy in religion and politics. From the middle of the century to the accession of Victoria was for us the period of national crystallization and youthful experience. We defied the old folks and all their doings, violently espoused the French styles and are even said to have copied, in this period, German and Scandinavian customs, and ideas for costumes, in our first consciousness of trying to be original and as well dressed as became our new individual import- ance. By the time the Victorian era was well under way in 329 PSYCHOLOGY OF DRESS England, let us say in 1860, and the blatant and hectic period of the Second Empire in France was well estab- lished, the urge of national consciousness to create for itself became so great that we arrived almost without effort at the period of self expression called variously "American Victorian," " the Black Walnut Period " and, more specifically and locally, "the Period of General Grant." "The Early Pullman" and still other names were given, whose comic or tragic significance recalls to most of us simply the ugliest conception of human ex- pression known to have been perpetrated in the name of civilization. But why dwell on this or the indescribable idiosyncrasies of dress? Designs for costumes pro- ceeded from the same disordered brain as those for ponderous architectural beds, swollen plush upholstery, and the "drooping vine" handmade decorations so beloved by all. The aesthetic sense in England had long since been denied existence. In France the half century of erratic national antics had, for the time being, depleted its vitality to the point of temporary disability. In Italy nothing save the struggle for national unity found a place in the national mind. These centres of in- spiration closed, and the United States in the midst of her first decided original period expression, with an aesthetic sense the results of which speak only too elo- quently of its quality, the art of modern civilization reached its lowest ebb and costumes their record, for lack of charm or graciousness or art. The first ray of hope, to those who still had either the desire for art or the gift to think in terms of art, was the great Centennial (1876) held in Philadelphia, at 330 FOR UNPARALLELED INSIPIDITY OF POSE, FOR COSTUME DESIGN ATTEMPTING THE IMPOSSIBLE, YET WITH A CERTAIN REFINEMENT OF GENERAL APPEARANCE, THE PERIOD OF ABOUT 1862 IS SUPREME. BY 1869 REDEMPTION FROM THE IMPOSSIBLE WAS NO LONGER A MATTER FOR SPECULATION. TWENTIETH CENTURY STYLES which time we brought together in this country for the first time the art objects, broadly speaking, of the civilized world. The dulled and soggy national art sense was jolted into semi-consciousness and with the assistance of a child's instinctive love of the curious, and an awakening fear lest some other people had something that we had not, we first unconsciously, and then consciously began the struggle which is the main reason for the great "Industrial Art Revival" we are now so earnestly and, just at present, amusingly, trying to organize and make "commercially operative" on the spot. Of the final fall of Victorianism and our own perfectly original conception of social art, we all know. Of the period called "the perfect copy of Period Styles," where no intimation, of course, existed in the mind of him who copied the style, as to when it was in use. Of the recourse to all periods of the earth's history, during the last twenty-five or thirty years, we need no recital. If we have a sense of humour we can only dismiss it with a smile and a sense of relief. Of the birth of a new desire for personal understanding and experience in art, which took place just before the war, and of the acceleration of the growth of this desire during the years of conflict, everyone is talking and writing. Concerned in all this, fashion has played her accustomed leading role with her own peculiarly universal success, and she is no less an autocrat in directing our new-born art enthusiasm than she was in yoking us to Victorian sentimentalism, or to our egotism in the dark ages of the Black Walnut epidemic. Notwithstanding this subjection to fashion our 331 PSYCHOLOGY OF DRESS belief in our power to develop in six months, for our own salvation and incidentally for that of the world, an "All American Art" containing no element or sugges- tion of the decadent past, is apparent; an art of a clarity, newness, and originality that shall answer the needs of the aesthetic sense, and the common sense, too, of all allied and associated peoples. Yet the spring fashions for women are all coming from Paris, and there are some men who have not yet abandoned conservative styles still dictated from Lon- don; in fact, the headlines of the leading papers tell us that conservatism in materials and cut is the vogue for men for the season of 1920. What at first may seem of minor importance is that there are yet alive some who can understand, appreciate, and use the art of the past intelligently, who can see it in relation to their own com- posite lives and in relation to the aesthetic quality which they know to be an essential of any object which will survive longer than the duration of a whim. The term "democracy" is fashionable now, and we find this sagaciously wedded to modern "commercial interests" and then accepted and exploited by fashion with as much finesse and success as usual, and in alliance, too, with the general uprising of those so-called lower classes who are, and always have been, deter- mined to share the possibilities of dressing well with the classes they have learned to think are above them. How far they are right in their beliefs, or ever have been, is still problematical, but the right to be in the fashion is still the contested point among classes, and [ways and means to realize and express this right are still being assiduously worked out. 332 TWENTIETH CENTURY STYLES A fairly complete understanding of the situation to-day, its problems, its methods, the sources of its materials and the evident unmodified instincts of man may be splendidly sensed in the following quotation taken from an article entitled "Paris Fashions," written by a correspondent and printed in the "London Times" of September 19, 1919: "STYLES FOR MODERATE PURSES" "Fashion is so democratic that in spite of all the efforts made in high places of the dressmaking industry, the new styles of each season soon find their way into the large shops. Only price can make a style prohibitive to-day, and this may be one of the reasons why the Rue de la Paix has chosen this season to work in such elabor- ate materials as gold and silver faille, beaded nets, and feathers of great price. Such materials necessarily mean expensive clothes, and although women of all classes spend more money on dress than formerly, the working and middle-class women cannot go beyond certain limits. They must, therefore, follow fashion in less gorgeous apparel; but follow fashion they will, and the magasins de nouveautes have realized that to satisfy this demand they must have styles that walk close on the heels of the Rue de la Paix. "A visit to the large shops in Paris shows that this demand has been satisfied. Few of fashion's latest novelties are absent from their showrooms, and only the difference in quality and in colour of materials marks the dresses as not made by the master- workers. To the connoisseur this difference is vastly important, but to the average woman it is not; and so long as the effect PSYCHOLOGY OF DRESS is striking and similar to that of the better class dress she asks no more. "Nevertheless she sometimes errs in taste, and this season she threatens to commit the folly of letting her love of novelties run away with her. From all the watering-places, not only from Deauville, but from Chamonix, Aix, Evian, Annecy, the same reports come of exaggerated decollete dinner dresses, and dance frocks which are as weird as the dances and the music to which they are danced. There is no measure, no simplicity in the dress and amusements of the women who follow fashion blindly to-day; and in a kindly but scathing article in the Echo de Paris, M. Andre Beaunier con- demns the spirit which has made such fashions pos- sible. He exonerates to some extent the nouveaux riches as momentarily irresponsible, but he blames the anciens riches and the nouveaux pauvres for being bitten by the same madness. He calls for a return to sim- plicity and refinement and true elegance, things that are as far removed from luxury as old-fashioned dancing is from modern. "At the same time, a disquieting rumour is that the Second Empire fashions are growing in favour, and we are to see vivid Scotch plaids, starched frilled panta- loons showing below the skirt, and other like absurdities. We would rather a thousand times see the styles of the eighteenth century than those of the Second Empire; they are, at least, gay and gracious. But, unfortunately, there are already models of tailor-mades in glaring Scotch plaids which no Scotch clan would own. The coats are long, with pockets on the hips, and the skirts are slim and reach nearly to the ankles. A fur collar 334 TWENTIETH CENTURY STYLES softens the effect of hardness near the face, and a black velvet toque, three-cornered and very soft and pliable, somewhat tones down the gaudiness of the costume, but no stretch of the imagination could make such a vivid plaid becoming to any woman." These conditions are identical with our own except that each is modified by personal and national idio- syncrasies. These idiosyncrasies are, by the way, generally the last of all things that any one ever lives to realize, and therefore are, of all, the most likely to obscure the vision. It is yet too early to determine anything regarding the realization of the writer's prophetic words concern- ing the certain return of "good taste," or to say with assurance what opportunity the great shops will offer to women with slender purses to dress well and in fashions that will imitate successfully the appearance of their more fortunate sisters, but it is pretty safe to predict that the ratio of well-dressed women to those who have not arrived, has not greatly changed, either here or in London, since they themselves are not altered beyond recognition either as to qualities or ideals. It is equally certain that good taste never did become a general national asset overnight, and therefore we have a right to insist on waiting to be convinced that this autumn is the exception to the rule. We hear much about the trade and its importance in determining the season's materials and fashions. The working-class, too, is imitating in cheapest materials and in queerest places, all the exclusive modes that are believed even yet to be held in trust for those whose position (whatever that may mean) demands exclusive 335 PSYCHOLOGY OF DRESS styles. It is neither new nor strange to find "the trade" or the proletariat bent upon outdoing the socially prominent in dress. In 1872 there was published in London, in the "Lady's Magazine," a letter written to the editor by a reputable trade grocer, who thus expressed himself: "I wish to God you would write something smart against fashion. My family is almost ruined by the article of dress. . . . Perhaps in nature, there never was such a figure! Only fashion to yourself a greengrocer's wife issuing from her cellar in Drury Lane, with a monstrous hoop, exposing a pair of legs, the ankles as thick as the calf, and the calf as thick as the modern waist; her hair bepuddened, her cheeks bedaubed with red, her neck of a crimson hue, her arms bursting through a pair of white gloves, the contrast between the two skins being almost the very opposite to each other; a thick-flowered silk exposing the whole front of a quilted petticoat that once was white, and then you have the appearance of my wife ! Her daughters made as ridiculous a figure, and Will, I do assure you, was not the least remarkable in the group." This heart to heart talk brought out in the next issue the following scathing reply from "a lady contributor," who evidently harked back to St. Edith of earlier fame, and forward to the modern "Inquiries and Correspond- ence" columns of our popular dailies and monthlies: "I think it is high time, then, for every female to exert a little knowledge she may be possessed of in the scribbling line, when the wits, under the characters of Green Grocers, dare to insult us, and speak of our hoops and other parts of our dresses, as freely as they exercise their authority over the ostlers at a country inn. 336 TWENTIETH CENTURY STYLES "The favour, dear Madam, we wish of you, is to remonstrate with these smart gentlemen, and, with us, tell them they are incapable of correcting the foibles in the ladies' dresses, till they have established a criterion for their own. Did they adopt no other fashions than useful and becoming ones, they might have some solid reasons for reprehending us." Another modern prototype and an equally scathing example of masculine rebuke is found in the Roxburgh ballads of 1686, where a troubled and world- worn hus- band is made to say: The Invincible Pride of Women I have a Wife, the more's my care, who like a gaudy peacock goes, In top-knots, patches, powder'd hair, besides she is the worst of shrows; This fills my heart with grief and care to think I must this burden bear. It is here forecast to contrive to rise about the hour of Noon, And if she's trimm'd and rigg'd by five, why this I count is very soon; Then goes she to a ball or play, to pass the pleasant night away. And when she home returns again, conducted by a bully spark, If that I in the least complain, she does my words and actions mark, And does likewise my gullet tear, then roars like thunder in the air. 337 PSYCHOLOGY OF DRESS I In debt with every shop she runs, for to appear in gaudy pride, And when the milliner she duns, I then am forc'd my head to hide: Dear Friends, this proud imperious wife she makes me weary of my life. New and alluring bait is appearing daily in all our publications, calculated to involve our modern ladies in just such distressing predicaments and in sooth there may be husbands even now thinking along the very same lines. Only to-day, one of our country's import- ant costume houses, evidently more finely organized mentally than its competitors, begins its advertise- ment of "French spring styles" thus: "Just at this season of the year it seems irrelevant to present such an inspirational subject as spring clothes in prose so we've given our pen a free reign and told you about them in verse." And then the advertising man breaks into verse as follows: "Fashion sowed the seeds of style And tended them with care; Soon her garden bloomed apace And these are frocks that we found there. Tricolette of slender grace, Printed georgette crepe, Taffeta of bouffant charm Smart with ruffle, braid or drape, $75.00. 338 TWENTIETH CENTURY STYLES This is certainly less picturesque than the eighteenth century method of spreading fashions but possibly as well suited to produce results when we consider the present audience and other conditions. In another place in the same publication we find this supposedly alluring advertisement: "FRENCH FROCKS FOR SMALL AMERICANS" "A French frock, you know, is one of the most be- coming things that could happen to any good little girl. France loves 'the little ones' and her native genius is never more happily applied than when her deft fingers are fashioning some diminutive garment. "Her patience is unwearying, her artistic instincts always alive, her skill unfailing what wonder, then, that the simplest of these little frocks is a marvel of daintiness, a perfect expression of the spirit of child- hood?" The point of appeal in this case is still more astonish- ing and every bit as sentimental. That the "com- mercial interests" are satisfied with their results is likely, and if they are, criticism of the means would be vain indeed. The play of life is ever set to a small number of in- stincts and performances. We recall with feelings of commiseration and respect the sumptuary laws of the church in the thirteenth century, the political bans of the seventeenth and the blue laws of Massachusetts as we read a special cable to the New York papers, from Milan, under the date of February 19, 1920, which runs: "BAN ON IMMODEST DRESS. Archbishop of Milan Refuses Communion to Women Who Offend. 339 PSYCHOLOGY OF DRESS In consequence of the small heed paid to his past warnings against the prevailing feminine fashions, Cardinal Ferrari, Archbishop of Milan, in his Lenten pastoral orders his clergy to refuse holy communion to women who present themselves in unseemly garb." It appears that similar instructions were given earlier in the season by the Archbishop of Paris, and that no end of talk with the same aim is being given out by self-appointed uplifters of society's moral tone, here and abroad; and yet dresses were never so short or so low cut, nor were they ever thinner than they are now. Certainly a more complacent contempt was never shown in the defying of all mandates, ecclesiasti- cal and social, in order to achieve the satisfaction of being in the fashion and of producing, if not experienc- ing, a new sensation as often as a new idea can be brought out. It may seem to the mere observer that we can no longer boast, as did our eighteenth century forebears, that "manners are essential, while morals are optional" but must meekly acknowledge the on- ward march of individualism which seems to have placed both these virtues frankly and finally in the optional list. Traditions die hard, however, even in the twentieth century, when religious, political, and social agnosticism not only is looked on as a fashionable fad but is far too universally accepted. Individualism, personal rights^ and equality, not only of opportunity but of assured achievement, are the absorbing themes for every nation. Only the means and the manner of realization differ as the inheritance and environment of nations dictate. It is worthy of remark that being fashionable plays no 340 TWENTIETH CENTURY STYLES small part in the inauguration and dissemination even of these ideas, for the "Parlour Bolsheviki" of various degrees of intelligence, sincerity, and social satiation, are no mean factor in determining present standards and in distributing propaganda. With the merits or demerits of the situation we are not concerned, but in the universality of impulses, activities, and effects on life we are deeply interested. The two forces, fashion and commercialism, are still functioning and their power over men's minds was never more apparent than to-day. Other traditions of autocracy persist, however, in the midst of all this. True, the court is no longer the sole originator of customs and fashions, neither is it given to it to command in these matters outside its own limited province, yet not all escape being hypnotized, even in their own country, by the glamour that sur- rounds pomp, splendour, and magnificent form. Lead- ing Sunday papers print to-day a full page of European royalties, each in mediaeval or Renaissance robes of state calculated to distinguish this particular class as superhuman or at least quite unique. The effect of this on individuals as it is presented to them is astonishing. Comments range all the way from rever- ence to sacrilege, from adoration to contempt, from amusement to positive belligerence, and from the comic to the tragic, each one of us declaring himself at the same time to be a firm believer in the democratic idea of the liberty, equality, and brotherhood of man. The sentimentalist cannot even yet disassociate quality from material or realities from beliefs. The romanticist and the aesthete find in these things only 341 PSYCHOLOGY OF DRESS r pageant thrills for the imagination and the sesthetic sense. The literal and realistic type must either have a symbol or the material, in all things, or he entirely misses the point; and so on all through the various types. But the number of those still aspiring to climb, or finding other satisfaction in these ancient or auto- cratic forms in costume expression, is not so small as we imagine, nor are any of us as immune to its subtle charm as we would have ourselves and our neighbours believe. It is difficult to distinguish just where ab- stract enjoyment of a performance and its trappings leaves off and belief in the idea it symbolizes begins. As a matter of fact, a large number of us are still greatly influenced by the strict orders as to court dress issued by the English queen, for example, not only at court functions but in general social life. On the other hand there are plenty of others conforming rigidly and apparently cheerfully to autocratic restrictions at court, who rush madly out into the freest spot they can find to satisfy their natural desire to be individual and incidentally to produce and to feel the sensation that comes from the extremes that fashion provides for so lavishly from day to day. Another royal blow, however, has just been dealt us, and an impetus given to royal prestige by George V of England, who is reported in words and by photo- graph this week as appearing in public with "razor edge creases" pressed in the sides of each leg of his royal trousers, instead of having one in front and the other behind. This same fashion, we are told, was inaugurated once by Edward VII, but royal prerog- ative could not win against established English habit. 342 TWENTIETH CENTURY STYLES We shall see how the mandate works in 1920, but we may in the meantime console ourselves with the thought that it takes all kinds of people to make a world and each has sought satisfaction according to his kind. Furthermore, it seems that the necessary ma- terial for the sensation has heretofore always been forthcoming. We may with confidence assume that the exception is not yet, and that we shall each choose the place for the crease according to our kind. It seems that Spain alone has so far succeeded in keeping to the strict letter of ancient law in customs, forms, and display in matters of court life, though we read that, "a part of each day is allowed these royal- ties to breathe naturally." This was not allowed their early ancestors. A despatch dated March 13, 1920, from Madrid, has the caption: "ALPHONSE'S COURT RETAINS SPLENDOUR. Madrid, March 13: The royal house of Spain, despite the democratic nature of the King and people, alone among the remaining courts of Europe retains all the Old World formalities which up to the outbreak of the war were so rigorously observed in Vienna, St. Petersburg, Berlin and to a greater or less extent in London, Rome and some of the smaller capi- tals of Europe. :< This is due to a large extent to the influence of the Queen Mother, Maria Christina, who remains all powerful in court circles and is a stickler for the ob- servance of those forms and ceremonies which marked all occasions at the Court of Austria, where, as a Grand Duchess, she learned them. "King Alfonso, after receiving in the throne room at the palace in the morning, may rub shoulders with 343 PSYCHOLOGY OF DRESS jockeys, book-makers, and the general run of racegoers at the track in the afternoon, but when he returns to the palace in the evening he resumes, as it were, the crown. "The strict formality of the court was observed at the banquet and reception given to the Diplomatic Corps a short time ago, when for the first time the repre- sentatives of all countries had been invited to the same function since the summer of 1914. The guests saw a display of jewels which probably could not be matched outside of Asia. Although the diplomats were the guests of the evening the younger members of the royal family preceded them and were to the right and left of Queen Victoria at the tables; the Ambassadors and ministers of State coming after them. "Dinner over, the King and Queen with the royalties and dinner guests formed in procession down a long reception hall, where the foreign representatives pre- sented the members of their staffs. The King and Queen stopped at each group to pass a few words, but this was the only informality of the evening. Later in the throne room guests not belonging to the Diplo- matic Corps were presented. "The finest scene, however, was on the grand stair- case, on either side of which stood a row of brilliantly gowned women wearing many jewels and as the men in their brilliant uniforms passed up and down the stair- case a changing colour scheme was presented. "Queen Victoria in a dress of cloth of gold, a wonder- ful diamond tiara on her fair head, two great diamond necklaces reaching to her waist, was a stately and dazzling figure. 344 TWENTIETH CENTURY STYLES "The Queen Mother was equally resplendent in pearls, of which she wore a collar of six rows, a tiara, two necklaces and many clusters. Ladies-in-waiting wore jewels formed of every precious stone known, with whom vied the wives and daughters of the grandees of all Spain." We had for a time thought of the costumes and jewels of Beatrice d'Este as setting the standard of glory and of the wardrobe of Marie de' Medici as finishing the possibilities in individual display of the mineral king- dom, and of the formalities at Versailles in the days of the great Montespan as a climax in stage business, but history repeats itself; even now it would be interesting to know what any of these great ladies, or even the present Dowager Queen of Spain, would think if by some magic she could be brought face to face with certain boxes in the Golden Horseshoe at the Metro- politan Opera House in New York on Wednesday or Friday evening when a sensation has been promised. Be it said, however, there are less of these exhibitions than there were a few years ago when glittering jewels instead of the milder lustre of the modest pearl, were supposed to express affluence. Obviously, however, not all the jewels nor the full dress uniforms are at the court of Madrid, nor was it at Versailles or Milan that gorgeous display found its Waterloo. It may be added here that in most cases this modern sumptuous raiment is not as strictly traditional with some of its wearers as it was in earlier periods when taste was generally inherent, and when more time was allowed the individual to become acquainted with social claims and their responsibilities than is possible 345 PSYCHOLOGY OF DRESS with a people so hard pressed as we for immediate ex- pression on so elaborate a scale. Some of us were perhaps rather shocked to find the great ladies of Renaissance Italy using paint for their daily makeup, and not all of us were willing to give the eighteenth century social set in France the supreme place in this important practice, believing perhaps that we were the discoverers of something new. But we were completely silenced this week by a noted lecturer and archaeologist who assures us that "women painted six thousand years ago and pencilled their eyebrows in very much the same fashion they do to-day." This seems almost too much, if our fashions are the product not only of those of the last two thousand years but of those of the time of Nineveh and Babylon as well. If we have proved true to every practice and folly of the ages we may look ahead with supreme complacence to a further interpretation of all these practices along the same well developed lines. j Admitting then, frankly, that the fundamental ap- ggtiles, longings and desires of man are and! always were practically Hie same; that elemental impulses have acted and probably will act and react underThe same conditions quite similarly, as long as man exists; that vanities, jealousies, and self-interest will influence the next century as they have, all of those that have gone before and that fashion, commercialism, and the material interests of the universe will play as large a part as possible, still there are two very important facts that indicate somewhat the quality of the domination that we may reasonably hope for in this new era which almost every one believes to have just opened. 346 TO BEHOLD IN SILENCE IS A PRIVILEGE, TO COMMENT SUPERFLUOUS AND SENSELESS. (JULY, 1877.) AN EXAMPLE OF FASHION STRIVING FOR PIQUANT ORIGINALITY IN THE DAYS OF THE DIRECTOIRE TWENTIETH CENTURY STYLES Two elements of this combination, commercialism and fashion, are struggling for pre-eminence and will determine largely what this new interruption or re- action is to be, and at the same time what will be the leading quality of the results. At this moment, however, the combat is between any and all ideals of social betterment on the one hand and the almost universal god, commercialism, on the other. When this latter force is controlled or even sensed by a majority in its sane relation to other things in life, the way is cleared for a mental concept of something in which there is a fair chance for other elements to be- come active, but not until then can a better order in art be born. But to return to the two encouraging facts: the first of these is to be found in a greatly quickened national and international sense. The prodigious cataclysm into which the world has been thrown has awakened the senses, stirred the impulses, and stimulated mental activity, to an alarming degree perhaps, as some are saying, but by no means has it yet been proved that the balance of this new and recharged energy will not be turned into constructive lines of a finer and a nobler sort than that which has determined the lives of nations for the last century. In the second place, by a somewhat mysterious, but none the less certain process, our national aesthetic sense has been jolted into semi-consciousness and seems to be gradually stretching itself preparatory to taking at least an infantile interest in its natural rights and powers. These, when once realized, will increase in scope as the sense develops. This sense will demand 347 PSYCHOLOGY OF DRESS the art quality for its satisfaction and whether we will or no we shall create, even in dress, with the art quality consciously an element in the work of our hands. This in turn will influence fashion and the "commercial in- terests" will not be slow to take notice, because even they will not deny the commercial value of art. Until such time, however, as we really know what constitutes the art quality, have a genuine desire for it, get to work to acquire it, and through its possession begin to externalize it, we shall not even be in creative compe- tition with any other nation that is already in the field, with a consciousness equipped with this quality. In the meantime material conditions, both here and abroad, will probably right themselves, and we may yet awaken to the truth that with all our natural re- sources, innate inventiveness, commercial instincts and quickness, some other nation, less cocksure than we, may still be dictating both fashions and styles, not only to us but to the rest of the civilized world. Furthermore, the world is absolutely sure to go on for sundry reasons craving for sensations in dress, obey- ing meekly fashion's ever changing dictates, no matter whence they emanate. We shall wear furs in any month we are told to and go as nearly naked as the laws will per- mit, for precisely the same reasons. We shall in the main go without, or put on, in and out of season, in divers shapes and innumerable quantities, such per- fectly new and correct things as are presented to us. That love of luxury and inordinate display is not eliminated from human experience seems fairly certain, and that the bourgeoisie (after the Revolution in France) were not the last of the species that is to express itself 348 TWENTIETH CENTURY STYLES in no uncertain terms in the choice of expensive and shining raiment, we are again reminded. Nor is there any likelihood that the ever-increasing knowledge of the rights and privileges of the prole- tariat, to be as fashionable and as dressy as those whose lot has fallen among less populous classes, will lessen the variety or the comedy of Fashion's expression, as she is represented both in the political and the social strongholds of our democracy in its onward move toward Utopian individualism. /Granting all this, it still ap- pears that man is, after all, mostly the result of his environment, and that he will certainly express, unless forced to do otherwise, precisely what he is. THE END 349 INDEX INDEX Adams, John, 281 Addison, quoted, 251-52 Alfieri, 223 American Victorian, 330 Anglo-mania of 1816-17, 296 Anne of Austria, 151, 159, 161 Anne of Cleves, dress worn by, 139 Anne, of France, on Simplicity in Dress, 102 Anne, Queen of England, 188-90 "Anti-healthy" fashion, 301 Arcadian style in literature, 223 Art quality of French fashions, 323- 24 Asceticism, Theory of, 98 Ball gown (1869), Description of, 309 Balloon skirt, 309 Barbarossa, Federico, 23 Baroque Style, 167-68, 197-98 Bassompierre, Marechal de, 157 Battifol, quoted, 152-53 Beatrice d'Este, 97, 345 Bedroom of Marie de Medici, 152-53 Belcher, Governor, 277 Berkhardt on women of the Renais- sance, quoted, 91 Bernardino, Fra, 92 Berri, Duchesse de, Costume of, 291 " Black Walnut Period," The, 330 " Blues" and "Lilacs," 108 Borgia, Lucrezia, 59, 71-77 Botticelli, 62 Brewer, Rev. E. Cobham, quoted, 200 Cabriolets, 258 Calthrop's "English Costume" quoted, 255, 298 Cashmere Shawl, Introduction of, 293 Castiglione quoted, 99 Catherine de Medici, 105-12, 119, 123 Ceremonies at the birth of a Prince, 55-57 Challamel, "History of Fashion" quoted, 308 Charles I of England, 179-82 Charles II of England, 183-88 Charles V, of France, daily life of, 19- 20 Charles VII, of France, Costume in the reign of, 21 Charles VIII of France, 96-101 Charles IX of France, 120 Charles V, Emperor of Germany, etc., 103 Charleston, S. C., 275 Chateauroux, Duchesse de, 200 Chiericati, Francesco, letters to Isabella d'Este, 131-34 Chippendale, 241 Chivalry, 5, 9-12, 31-32 Chivalry in England, Modifications of, 33-34 Cicisbeo, The, 221-22 Classic Greek Mania (1796), 215 Classic Revival, 222 Classicism, 49 Clement VII, Pope, 105-06 "Cloth of Gold," see "Field of the Cloth of Gold" Colbert, 161-62 Colonial Costume, 264-83 353 INDEX Colour, Range of, amongst the Vene- tians, 86-87 Conversazione, 234 Coronation Costume, Henry VIII. 136- 37 Cosmetics, 229, 258, 346 Costume, see Colonial Costume Dutch Costume English Costume French Costume Italian Costume Mediaeval Costume Military Costume Venetian Costume Costume, Woman's, in business, 298 "Cotehardies,"43 Cowley, quoted on the dress of ladies of quality, 181 Crinoline, Introduction of, 307 Cromwell, Oliver, 182-83 Crusades, The, 12-13 Diaphanous gowns, 293 Directoire Style, 264, 284 Dolls, French, 278 Domestic Customs, see English Domes- tic Customs Domestic Life in Middle Ages, 15 Doublet, 114 Du Barry, Mme., 201-02, 208 Duclaux, Mary, on the High Renais- sance in Italy, 97-98 Dutch Costume (Colonial), 270-72 Dutch influence in English fashions, 188 Earrings, Invention of, 88 Ecclesiastical dominance in Middle Ages, 8 Edith, St., quoted, 39 Edward VI, Sermon preached before, 140 Edward VII, 342 Egerton, Mary Margaret, 252 Eighteenth Century, The, in England, 354 238-64; in France, 193-215; in Italy, 216-37; in the U. S., 265-83 Eleanor, Queen, effigy of in West- minster Abbey, 41 Elizabeth, Queen of England, 142-46 Empire fashions in Italy, 315 Empire Style, 263; description of, 292- 93 English Costume, 41 ; At the time of Richard III, 127; Henry VIII, 138-39; Queen Eliza- beth, 144-45 English Costume of Gentlemen At the time of Henry VIII, 141; in 1751, 231-33 English Costume of Women in the Mid- dle Ages, 43-44 English domestic customs, 35-45 English mind, The, 242-43 English Styles: Victorian era, 303 d'Entraigues, Henriette, 157-58 Erasmus of Rotterdam, 132 d'Estampes, Mme., 103, 105-06, 108 d'Estrees, Gabrielle, 157 Eugenie, Empress, 304-05 Faneuil, Andrew, 277 Fanshaw, Lady, quoted, 185 Fashion see Modern Fashion Fashions of 1854, 306 Ferrara, Marriage ceremonies at, 71-77 Feudal System, 8-9 Feudalism in Italy, 22 Field of the Cloth of Gold, 137 Florence, Fashion in, 90 Fontanges, Duchesse de, 164 Forks introduced into France, 158 Francis I, 103-111 Franklin, Benjamin, 282 French Costume (Francois I), 114; of 1760, 205-06 French Revolution, Women's dress in the, 212-13 Frock coat, The, 314 INDEX Gentleman, Dress of a, at time of Charles II, 185 George I, Costume in the period of, 250, 252 George III, 260 George V, 342 Ghirlandajo, 62 Gloves, Mourning, 277 Gobelin tapestries, 110 Goldoni, 223, 230 Goldoni on Theory of Hair-dressing, 313 Goldoni, on the Conversazione, 234 Goldsmith, 245 Gothic Art, 4-6 Gozzi, 223 Greek art, Spirit of, 99 Gregorovius, on Lucrezia Borgia and her Wedding Portion, 72-74 Gregory X, Pope, 26 Hair, A gentleman's, at the time of Queen Anne, 251-52 Hair-dressing, Absurdities of, 263 Hair-dressing at the time of Charles I, 180 Hair-dressing, "Hedge-hog" style of, 209 Hair-dressing, Venetian, 89, 229 Jlallam, on Furnishings at the Beginning of the Reign of Henry VII, 129-30 Handkerchief, 230 Headdress, Feminine, at the time of Charles II, 188-89 Henrietta of France, 179 Henry III of England, 39-40 Henry VII of England, 128, 131 Henry VIII of England, 104, 128, 131, 135-141, 147 Henry II of France, 111-119 Henry III of France, 122-25 Henry III of France, Description of dress of, 123 Henry IV of France, 150-51 Hepplewhite, 241 Holbein, 138 Holinshed's Chronicle, quoted, 145 Hoop craze in England, 189-90 Hoops, Introduction of, 258, 307 Immodest Dress, Church ban on, 339-40 Independent Dress, The Age of, 310 "Industrial Art Revival," 331 Innocent III, Pope, 23 Innocent XI, issues Bull, 158 Ippolito, Cardinal, 74 Ireland, early manners, customs, 134 Irving, Washington, quoted, 270 Isabella, Duchess of Gonzaga, 62-69, 77, 83-85, 327 Italian domestic life in the Middle Ages, 27-30 Italian Costume, 315 Italian summer palace, Description of, 84 Italian town life (Thirteenth Century), 24-25 James I of England, 176-79 James II of England, 187-88 John of Salisbury, on the Training of a Knight, 33 Josephine, Empress, 291 Justinian, "Institutes" of, discovered, 13 Knighthood, Effeminate tendency of, 33-34 Knighthood, Training for, 9-10, 33 La Bruyere, on the Use of Cosmetics, 165 Lace introduced into England, 178-79 Lace, Point d'Angleterre, 291 Latino, Cardinal, issues Sumptuary Regulations, 26 "Ladies Library" (1739), quoted, 247 "Lady's Magazine" (1872), quoted, 336 Lady's Wardrobe of 1720, Inventory of, 251 355 INDEX La Valliere, Mile, de, 161, 165-66 Leckzinski, Marie, 200 Leo X, Pope, 104 "Lilacs" and "Blues," 108 "Lionel and Clarissa," 249 Lombard League, The, 23 London Times on "Paris Fashions," quoted, 333-34 Lorenzo de Medici, 60-62 Louis XI, 22, 96-97 Louis XII, 101-03 Louis XIII, 151, 159 Louis XIV, 160-67, 195 Louis XIV, Maker of modern fashion, 320, 328 Louis XV, 196-207 Louis XVI, 207-08 Louis Seize Style, 235-36 Love-lock, The, 179 Maintenon, Mme. de, 161, 166, 195 Mantignon, Mile, de, Trousseau of, 214 Mantua, The Court of, 65-66 Marie Antoinette, 207-11 Marie de Medici, 151-56, 345 Marot, Clemont, 104 Marriages: Bianca Sforza to Emperor Maximilian, 79-82; Lucrezia Borgia, 71-77; Princess Elizabeth to the Prince Palatine, 178 Mary I, Queen of England, 141-42 Mary Stuart, 116-17 Masks "a la Venise," 124 Maximilian, Emperor, 79-82 Mazarin, 151, 162 Mediaeval Costume, 17-18 Medievalism, 1-46, 193-94 Mengs, 222 Metastasio, 223 Metropolitan Opera House, New York, 345 Michelet, quoted, 166-67 Milan, Description of (1771), 235-36 356 Military Costume, 19 Modern Fashion, Origin of, 320-1 Molmenti, on Art in Venice, 169-70; on Life in country villas in Italy, 174; on the Costume of the Venetian aristocracy, 87-88 Montague, Lady Mary, on Parisian fash- ion, 205 Montendre, Dubois de, quoted on Ex- travagance, 164-65 Montespan, Mme. de, 162, 165 Morgan, Lady, quoted, 291 Mourning, 276 Mouchy, Duchesse de, 309 "Mutton leg sleeve," 297 Nantes, The Edict of (1598), 151 Napkins, Table, Introduction of, 29 Napoleon I, 284-90 Napoleon III, Marriage of, 305-06 New England Costume, 267, 273-74, 277 Nineteenth Century, The, 284-317 Nobility, Dress of (time of Francois I), 114 Norman Castle, Description of a, 37 Norman Conquest of England, 34 Odom, "History of Italian Furniture," quoted, 65-66, 236 Odom, on the High Renaissance, 70 Paniers, 204, 213 Paris, Description of, in the Fourteenth Century, 18 Patches, 158, 230 Pell, Miss, 275 Pepys' diary, 185-86 Perfumes, Passion for, 93 Petrarch, on the Customs and Manners of the French, 18-19 Philadelphia Centennial (1876), 330-31 Philip Augustus, 14; Costume of, 16 Philippe le Bel, Costumes in the reign of, 17 INDEX Piozzi, Mrs., "Observations" quoted, 261 Platonic Love, 100 Point d' Angleterre lace, 291 Poitiers, Dianne de, 103, 108, 111, 113 Pompadour, Mme. de, 200-02 Pritchard, Mrs., 269 Proletariat vs. Aristocracy, 299 Pullman Period, The Early, 330 Queen Anne Period, 240 Rachel, 301 Ramilie Tail, 252 Renaissance, Climax of the, 57 Renaissance in England, 12548; in France, 95-125; in Italy, 47-94 Renaissance, Periods of the, 51-52 Revival of Letters, 126, 131, 136 Richard III of England, 127 Richelieu, 151, 159 Riding-habit, The, 251 "Robe Volante" (1730), 205 Robin, Abbe, 274 Rocaille, 198 Rochambeau, Count, 280, 282 Rococo, 218, 224 "Romance of the Rose," 20 Romantic School, The, 301 Rome, The Renaissance in, 71-77 Romney, George, 256 Rousseau quoted, 297 Roxburgh Ballads of 1686, quoted, 337 Sansovini, 54 Sarto, Andrea del, 62 Savonarola, 22, 92 Second Empire Style, 304 Sedgwick, "Italy in the Thirteenth Century," quoted, 24 Seventeenth Century, The, in England, 175-90; in France, 149-67; in Italy, 167-75 Sforza, Bianca, 79-82 Sforza, Caterina, 57, 93 Sforza, Lodovico, 55 Sheraton, 241 Sir Roger de Coverley, 253 Skipton Castle, 130 Smollett, "Travels through France and Italy" quoted, 258 Southern Colonists, The, 265 Spain, Court etiquette of, 343-54 Sparrow, "The English House," quoted, 35-37 "Spectator," The, quoted on The Hoop Craze, 189-90 "Spencers," 296 Stael, Mme. de, 293 Sully, Due de, 123 Sumptuary Laws in Italy, 31; in Venice, 87 Swinburne, Henry, quoted, 213-14 Table Manners (1290), 29 Tarabotti, Arcangela, on Venetian Dress, 172-73 Third Republic, The, 310 Titian, 62 Toilet, First books published, on the, 93 Toilet of Marie de Medici, 154 Tournament, Description of a, 14-15 Train, The Court, 305 Trousseau of a certain Venetian Lady (1744), 225-28 Tulle, 211 Turban, Turkish, 121 Turin, Bourgeoisie of, 315 Twentieth Century, The Early, 318-49 Umbrella, The, 255 Urbino, Court of the Duke of, 83 Vandyke Style, 179-80 Velvet, the most Fashionable Fabric, 115 Venice, Dress of a Lady of Quality in, 86 357 INDEX Venice in the Seventeenth Century, 170-71, 174 Venice, Renaissance in, 85-90 Venice, Visit of Beatrice d'Este to, 77-78 Venetian Costume (male), 89 Vernon on Eighteenth Century Italy, quoted, 220 Vernon on the Baroque Style, quoted, 167-68 Victorian Period, 303 Waist line, 292 Watch chains, Men's, 313 Watering places (1855-60), 308 Willoughby, Mrs., 269 Winckelmann, 222 Wolsey, Cardinal, 137 Woolen Clothing in England, 40 358 D N L, -_' ' r> T7T" T} 1S~ "\ h'iK. 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