Romantic Era Fashion Chit Chat - March 1821 Ackerman's Repository

Romantic Era Fashion Chit Chat - March 1821 Ackerman's Repository

French Female Fashions

Paris, Feb. 18

My dear Sophia,

Pelisses made as I described to you in my last, are still in favour for the promenade; but though fashionable, they are by no means so exclusively so as they were last month: they are at present mostly mode in velours simule; the favourite colours are sea green, and a peculiar sort of yellow, about a shade deeper than primrose. The lining is of rose colour, and if there is any trimming, it consists in general of a band of rose-coloured pluche or satin; and in some instances, the hood is entirely of rose colour.

Spencers are equally in favour, and the materials for them are more various than for pelisses; satin, levantine, velvet, and velours simule being all fashionable. The waist is long; the spencer is tight to the shape, and buttoned behind; the collar high, and standing up in the back of the neck, where it is buttoned, but it is open in front; a sash, which is in general of the same material as the spencer, fastens behind with bows and long ends.

The chapeaux which I described to you in my last letter are still in favour. An attempt has been made by some of our most dashing elegantes to revive the Polish hat: you recollect, I dare say, the shape that I mean - a high crown, with a little turned-up front: some seasons ago they were very fashionable in Paris, but they were then worn either with gold bands and tassels, or without any ornament; now they are adorned with full plumes of ostrich or down feathers. These chapeaux are not, however, adopted by many belles; and, in fact, they can never be generally becoming to Frenchwomen, as their features are not usually of that soft description which suits this kind of head-dress.

The crowns of some black velvet chapeaux are plaited in those full hollow plaits in which ruffs are generally disposed; a steel pin, the head of which is cut in points like diamonds, ornaments the crown, and a full knot of velvet with long ends is placed at one side: these hats are usually lined with white or rose-coloured satin, or pluche de soie, but they never have any trimming at the edge of the brim.

The most fashionable undress bonnet is a cpaote of ponceau velvet; the crown is very low; the brim smaller than those of bonnets in general, and made to sit close to the face: it is lined with a sarsnet of the same colour, and has no other ornament than a satin band round the bottom of the crown, and satin strings.

The form of dinner and evening dress is nearly the same, but the materials differ a good deal: levantine, velours simule, and gros de Naples are very much worn in the first. The trimming consists of chinchilla, swansdown, or bands of velvet. The corsage is either plain, and tight to the shape, or else it is made a la Sevigne. The sleeves of dinner gowns are always made long, and those dresses are generally worn with a fichu. Sleeves continue to be worn very straight; the epaulettes are usually full, and mostly come half way to the elbow. Where the dress is trimmed with fur, a little point is attached to the shoulder-strap; a band encircles the bottom of the epaulette, and another the end of the long sleeve. The skirt is trimmed with two, or at most three bands; the bottom one is very broad, and each of the others something narrower; there is rather better than a nail between each band.

Full-dress gowns are composed of velvet, satin, tulle, gauze, and crape: this last material, however, is not so much in favour as the former ones. Rose and white are the two colours most in estimation; blue and ponceau are also in request; and what will appear to you very singular, black is very much worn even for ball dresses: sometimes it is trimmed with rose colour, ut in many instances the trimming is also black. I was lately at a ball where a lady who is noted for being the first to introduce singular fashions, appeared in a balck tulle robe over a black satin slip; the corsage was a mixture of black velvet and satin ornamented with jet, and the bottom of the robe was trimmed with black satin ribbon twisted in a corkscrew roll, and laid on in a wave; between each wave was a rosette composed of black satin intermixed with jet beads. Out of above one hundred ladies who were present, there were fourteen with black robes, and twelve with black slips, over which they had either white or coloured gauze or crape dresses. I was not a little pleased to see that not one of our countrywomen adopted this style of dress, so unsuitable to a festive scene.

Some of those gowns that are not made with stomachers have a little fulness at the bottom of the waist in front as well as behind. The sleeves are universally short, much more so indeed than they have lately been worn. Trimmings are of three sorts: feathers, which are very much worn; flowers intermixed with bouillonne of tulle, and bouffans of this last material, or of gauze, which are formed by knots of silk cord. The feather trimmings have an uncommonly beautiful effect; they are composed not only of down and ostrich feathers, but also of the plumes of different coloured birds, intermingled, in some instances, with ears of wheat formed of gold or silver, or with different coloured flowers. The head-dress is always ornamented to correspond. I shall describe to you some of the trimmings which I think most striking, though not with the idea of your adopting them; for pretty as they are, they appear to me too fantastical for the sober taste of Englishwomen. The most simple is a rouleau of white marabouts, interspersed with ears of corn composed of gold: this is fashionable, but not so much so as a trimming of marabouts, beneath which is a row of the eyes of peacocks' feathers, surrounded with curled ostrich feathers. Another, still more tonish, is a wreath of white smooth feathers, at each side of which is a row of gold lama: I should observe, that roses or fancy flowers of a deep ponceau colour are interspersed in the feather wreath, and that the lama is put at some distance from it. In some instances the plumes are the colour of the dress, and they then form three rouleaus of equal size, and placed at some distance from each other: but this style of trimming is not considered by any means so fashionable as the mixture of feathers with flowers and gold.

I saw lately at a ball given by one of our most distinguished fashionables, two dancing dresses, which I shall describe to you, as I consider them very appropriate and tasteful: the one was composed of tulle over a white satin slip; the bottom of the skirt was finished by a rouleau of rose-coloured satin, above which was placed a broad piece of tulle, formed into bouillonne by narrow rouleaus of rose-coloured satin, placed bias: immediately over the bouillonne is a row of roses, scattered at irregular distances; their stalks are inserted in the trimming; a second row, also placed irregularly, is put at a little distance above the first. The corsage, which is also composed of tulle, corresponds with the bouillonne at the bottom of the skirt, except that the satin rouleaus are placed perpendicularly instead of bias: there is a very narrow stomacher, which has no point at the bottom; it is cut square, and rather high round the bust; a single row of pointed blond is put on almost plain, and stands up. The girdle is of rose-coloured satin, rather broad, and fastened with a jewelled clasp at the side. Very short sleeve, made to correspond exactly with the trimming of the skirt.

The other dress is made of white transparent gauze over white satin; the bottom of the skirt is finished by three rows of bouffans of the same material, which are formed by full knots of ponceau silk cord; a broad rouleau of ponceau satin edges the bottom of the skirt, and the bouffans are placed at a little distance from each other, so that the trimming, though high, is not unbecomingly so. Corsage a la Sevigne, the lower part ponceau satin, the upper transparent gauze; a clasp of gold and rubies confines the fulness in the middle of the bosom. Very short full sleeve, ornamented in the middle with a knot of silk cord, to correspond with the bottom of the skirt. This is really a pretty dress, but the bust is rather too much exposed.

Small steel spangles begin to be used for embroidering the bottoms of some ball dresses: they have a very brilliant effect by candlelight: these trimmings are in scroll patterns, or in wreaths of leaves.

Turbans and dress caps are a good deal in favour: the former are in general of a Turkish shape, and, as I before observed to you, decorated with the feathers of various birds, intermingled with ears of corn in gold or silver, and sometimes with jewels and flowers. The caps are in general of a simple form, small and round, and pointed in front a la Marie Stuart: these caps are always decorated with flowers, of which the most fashionable at present are, roses, auriculas, hyacinths, heath blossoms, the blossoms of various kinds of fruit-trees, and several exotics, particularly the camelia Japonica. In giving you this list of flowers, I must observe that it is principally roses, auriculas, and hyacinths that are used for caps; two branches of the latter are generally employed, one white and the other rose colour. These flowers, as well as the others of which I have just spoken, are also used to decorate the hair. Garlands of roses intermixed with ears of corn in silver are very much in request, as are also coeffures composed of a mixture of gauze and flowers, disposed among the hair. Coral ornaments of every description are now very fashionable. We had, as you know, a perfect rage for coral about five years ago, and I think this mania is reviving. I have already told you the colours most fashionable for pelisses and dresses, but I must observe to you, that in full dress, white, with coloured trimmings, is considered more tonish than anything else. - Adieu, my dear Sophia! Confess, that if you are not by this time an adept in the mysteries of dress, it is not the fault of you

Eudocia.