Galerie des Modes, 1er Cahier de Grandes Robes d'Etiquette, 2e Figure

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Full dress of the Court Ball, with sleeves à la Gabrielle etc.*

"February 27, 1785. - The queen declared:

"That in the month of November she would be thirty years old; that nobody in all likelihood could avoid it; that her project was to remove from her parure the parts which could only be fitting for one of an extreme youth; she could no longer wear plumes, nor flowers.

"One sees also that the etiquette for gowns has changed; that the Queen no longer wanted pierrots, chemises, redingotes, polonaises, lévites, turques, nor circassiennes; that it returns to the solemn pleated gowns; that the princesses have been asked to proscribe all the others for visits of ceremony and that their dame d'honneur warned ladies who came in another dress, that they could not be admitted in that state without permission from Her Highness that she will ask for."

Secret correspondence.

* Gabrielle d'Estrées (1573-1599), a mistress of Henri IV