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The Lady's Magazine, or Entertaining Companion for the Fair Sex, Appropriated solely to their Use and Amusement, 1801

Volume XXXII for the Year 1801

London: G. G and J. Robinson, No. 25, Pater-noster Row.

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March 1801

PARISIAN FASHIONS

(With an Engraving elegantly coloured.)

[I was unable to obtain this image. Text is on page 149.]

VEILS are worn as head-dresses by a great number of élégantes. We have lately seen many capotes of rose-coloured satin adorned with one or two white feathers: capotes of white satin, an hats of black velvet with white plumes, are likewise worn.

Spencers of white satin are worn, edged with velvet or fur; but in general they are of cloth or black velvet.

Next to white, rose is the prevailing colour in the dress of our élégantes. Yellow, jonquil, and violet, are very rare. We frequently see a lawn drapery upon a satin ground. The satin is sometimes embellished with flowers and foliage applique. Jais is almost gone out of fashion, and in its place are used round pearls of enamel. The flowers are still fancy ones. Among the newest we observe ananas made of feathers. The rough ribbands are exploded, and to them have succeeded spangled ribbands, spotted with small round specks, about the size of a pea, or with flies silk and gold. The white straw hats, à la babet, have a decided superiority. They are ornamented with a flower, and placed on the side of the head. The newest colours for robes are Egyptian earth (nearly fenille morte), Indian wood of a reddish brown. For full dress, robes entirely of lace are worn upon coloured satin, with a turn-up on the back; and on each side of the bosom, before a drapery fastened at the ends, is a clasp of diamonds. At the Opera on the 6th the most elegant women wore head-dresses in hair, with a demi-garland of natural lily of the valley, or silver. The capotes, still white and oblong, were ornamented with an esprit. There were some round, of white straw, and some paysannes, adorned with a rose.

April 1801

PARISIAN FASHIONS

(With an Engraving elegantly coloured.)

[I was unable to obtain this image. Text is on page 210.]

THE head-dresses à la Ceres, with ears of corn, as represented in the engraving, are a prevailing fashion. Hats of black velvet, which had gone out of fashion, have been again taken into favour. Shawls of Cashmire, whose fineness constitues their value, would be much worn, were thiry-five louis (guineas) a price suitable to every one's pocket.--We see scarcely any long shawls. Black spencers are almost generally adopted. White straw- hats are the general fashion. In full dress, the head-dresses in hair are formed upon satin. At Longchamp we lately noticed a great many yellow straw hats, without a leaf, of an oval form, with a plume of frizzed straw on the left side; white hats, with a drapery of crape, jonquil or lilac, and some hats of pistachio green. Among the most tasteful head-dresses we have remarked crape capotes, of two colours, with transverse stripes, and antique helmets formed of these same crapes, and ornamented with two round plumes. Short chignons accompany some head- dresses à la paysanne. The Amazons appear to prefer yellow casimir [sic], trimmed with black, to blue cloth.

The men, without changing the shape of their coats, have adopted very large buttons, from eleven to twelve lines in diameter (an inch and a half), of plain white metal, or yellow gilt, hollow, and finely polished. --With the exception of a few locks, which hang in twisted ringlets on the eyes and cheeks, our men of fashion wear their hair very short. The coat is not quite so ridiculous as lately in the height of the collar; but what it has gained in the point, it has lost in an increase of plaiting on the shoulders, and is not beside less clumsy and short. The pantaloons, as also the culottes, reach almost up to the armpits, and the waistcoat just up to the top of the cravat.

The last brilliant assemblage at the opera concert presented nothing but an immense variety of imitations, more or less exact, of the antique head-dresses, formed of hair, of bands of rose colour, or white satin; of fillets of diamonds or jais, and garlands of foliage or flowers, tastefully and elegantly disposed upon a tout ensemble of an oval shape. --We noticed also many white plumes, and some esprits, or demi-turbans of white satin: veils à la Iphigenic, surmounted with a crown of roses; plain straw hats, and plain hats of black velvet, but no paysannes, or capotes, or head-dresses of hair. The most fashionable robes were white, rose, or black crape, with short sleeves.

May 1801

PARISIAN FASHIONS

(With an Engraving elegantly coloured.)

[I was unable to obtain this image. Text is on pages 226-7.]

ONE of the newest and most elegant articles in the ball costume is the mantle of Venus. It consists of a long drapery, rose-colour or sky-blue, trimmed with acorns and silver fringe all round. This is gathered into a clasp, which attaches to the point of the right shoulder, leaving one-third of it floating loose behind, while the remaining two-thirds of the whole length are brought round, and hangs down before, or are fastened at the side, or tucked up in a festoon in the hand. This dress accommodates itself with great felicity to all the movements of the dance, and is well calculated to display to advantage the graceful attitudes of the wearer. The head-dress, to correspond, is generally the coeffure au diademe, being a close cap of the same colour as the mantle; the hair appearing in ringlets on the forehead and at the sides, ornamented with crescents in front, and a single ostrich feather fastened at the left side, and inclining over to the right. The mantle is worn over a white chemise, very short in the sleeves, and open at the bosom, with Vandyke trimming at the bottom. The slippers white satin, with very long quarters.--With the exception of some loose hair that flows negligently over the eyes and the cheeks, our élégantes generally wear their hair short.

The late brilliant assemblage at the opera did not display any variety, although there were several exact imitations of antique head-dresses, disposed in hair, and embellished with bands of white and rose-coloured satin. Some of the élégantes wore bracelets of diamonds, and garlands of leaves or flowers on their head-dresses: There was very little else worth remarking, with the exception of esprits in half-turbans of white satin, of veils in Iphigenia style, surmounted with a crown of white roses. The robes were, in general, of white and rose-colour, or of black crape, and with short sleeves.

Next to head-dresses in simple hair, which increases with the progress of the season, straw hats are the most common ornaments of the head. The hats à la hulan are still very rare, because it is difficult to copy them, and therefore costly. -- White capotes are worn with a drapery of lilac crape, and the rose-coloured one with a drapery of white twisted silk. The most fashionable of them are of white satin, and ornamented with two white feathers. The newest garlands are of peach-tree blossoms, and the newest ribbons are of two different sorts of stripes, either orange or rose stripes upon a ground of Egyptian earth. Muslin canezous have succeded the cloth Spencers, some plaited before like a chemise handkerchief, and others resembling a Spencer: most of them are trimmed with lace. --From the women of the highest rank and fashion to the little milliner's girl, our females universally prefer head-dresses of hair.--A yellow straw hat, with a full crown and scare any rim, is likewise worn.--The ribbons are of an Egyptian earth-brown, with coloured borders, variously radiated or spotted.

The ladies, in all their dress, and the furniture of their apartments, show an enthusiastic partiality for the forms and fashions which were preferred among the ancient Greeks and Romans.

The men are, in many instances, equally far gone in the Anglo-mania. The coats are deep blue: not so high in the collar, but crimped in the shoulders, and not near so graceful as before. Velvet collars are not worn. Round broad metal buttons are in use, seven on each side: the lapels are short. The pantaloons, like the breeches, reach almost up to the breast, and the waistcoat is as high as the neck-handkerchief.


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