Cabinet des Modes, 6e Cahier, 1ere Planche

February 1, 1786

 (Note. Letters sent, whether to the Bookstore or to the Editor of this Work, must be franked. Those which are not will not be opened.)

FIRST PLATE.

It represents two children.

The first is a little Boy beating a drum.

Rush hat, trimmed with a bow and a blue ribbon.

Shirt trimmed, with a collarette.

Jacket with cut sleeves, of carmelite satin.

Gilet of pink satin, the ends of the sleeves carmelite.

Belt of blue ribbon.

Breeches of pink satin, à la marinière.

White stockings, of silk or cotton.

On the shoes, bows of blue ribbon.

Young Boys are still dressed with a lilac jacket, in the shape of that above, gilet and breeches of white linen, cotton, grey hat.

Or green jacket, gilet and breeches in canary's-tail color, of a light silk stuff.

Or white jacket, together with the breeches and gilet, of cotton, or any other fabric.

Rush hat.

The second child is a young Girl, holding a rose in her left hand.

For the whole coiffure, a bandeau of blue ribbon.

Shift trimmed with a collarette.

Corset and petticoat of pink taffeta, and on top a white fourreau of muslin, edged, at the bottom, with two blue ribbons.

Belt of black ribbon.

Silver buckle.

Shoes of red Spanish leather.

Young Girls also wear a corset and petticoat of blue or green taffeta, under a white fourreau of muslin.

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Galerie des Modes, 63e Cahier, 6e Figure

1. Hat à la Zinzarra. 2. Morning baigneuse, seen on the side. 3. the same Baigneuse, seen from the back. 4. young Child Dressed in a galant Matelot etc.

"Children ... also have fashions, that their fathers and mother are not vexed to learn; for they are often confused to know how to dress them.

"Little girls almost always follow women's fashions; but little boys, that are dressed in matelots, have particular clothes.

"One sees by the representation of the little boy, that he wears matelot breeches of silk; ... a gilet with wide stripes ...; a long silk jacket ... edged with a piping ... and that this jacket is trimmed with half-sleeves of white batiste at the end of which are attached manchettes.

"His shirt is trimmed with a wide frill or collarette with double flounces.

"His hair, only straight, hangs in curls on his shoulders.

"... He wears little yellow brodequins on his legs ..."

Le Magasin des Modes, 10 July 1787

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Galerie des Modes, 63e Cahier, 5e Figure

1. Galant hat. 2. Baigneuse à l'Anglaise. 3. Hat à la Reine d'Amathonte.* The young Child is Dressed in a Fourreau of Gauze with a Scarf whose tassels hang behind her back.

"... The little girl is dressed in a gown of white linen, whose bodice and sleeves are taffeta: this gown is tied with a long and wide belt ...; she wears under this gown an all-white petticoat; she wears on her neck a very puffy menteur kerchief, trimmed with a pinked double flounce; ...her hair hanging à la Conseillère in back ...

"Her shoes are unbleached linen, trimmed with a white ribbon ..."

Le Magasin des Modes, 10 July 1787

* "Queen of Amathus", an ancient royal city of Cyprus, which had a cult of Aphrodite. Possibly a references to Scylla et Glaucus, an opera set in Amathus.

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Galerie des Modes, 63e Cahier, 4e Figure

1. Galant hat. 2. Baigneuse à la Voluptueuse. 3. young Girl in a little morning Chemise. 4. a little Gentleman in a Matelot, with a Hat à l'Espagnol.

"If we revisit in our minds all the modifications of Fashions, it will be very easy for us to convince ourselves that Fashion, called so variable, is yet regular in its march, and that it is always put together in the same manner. First is the simple style, or simple forms: then there are decorated, embellished forms; then there are overloaded forms, and, after, the Fashion disappears.

"While the embellishments are still simple, there are those that believe the Fashion will last for a long time (a long time for it); but soon the embellishments are overloaded, there is reason to believe that the Fashion has only a short time to last."

Le Magasin des Modes, 20 October 1787

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Galerie des Modes, 63e Cahier, 3e Figure

The good little Sister walking her little Brother. She is Coiffed with a Hat à la Sicilienne and Dressed in an elegant Fourreau etc. etc.

"Mesdames, admit it: while your children are little enough not to make you ashamed of your age and not to shut down your coquetry, you still lead them into society, in the promenades, in all the frequented places and even, when they are pretty, fine, playful, babbling, you make yourself a glory from showing them off, because your pride enjoys the praises which are accorded to them, and which are naturally reflected on you; (the fathers are so weak:) thus you want them to be dressed elegantly, with taste, in the same fashion; you find that it is thus why at this age they give you honor. So we should only do better to give you fashion for your children.

"You would not lead with pleasure children of a slightly advanced age, mostly because they would no longer have this gaiety, this vivacity, this babble capable of attracting all looks, and of making them transfer to you ..."

Cabinet des Modes, 1786

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Galerie des Modes, 63e Cahier, 2e Figure

1. Cap à l'Enfant. 2. Hat à la Delphire. 3. Hat à la Italienne. 4. Child Dressed in a Matelot. 5. Little Girl Dressed à l'Espagnolette.

Children. - "Children in Paris are very pretty until the age of seven to eight years. As they are elevated to the place of a numerous crowd of individuals, they contract early an air of ease; they do not have a vacant air; they are not too astonished at the habits of life, nor the worries of the city; a little air of assurance says that they were born in the capital and already molded in its great movement; they have no dread of what happens around them. Put properly, in general, in a simple and easy manner, they owe the liberty of their dress to the writings of J.-J. Rousseau."

SEBASTIEN MERCIER. Tableau de Paris, 1788

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Galerie des Modes, 63e Cahier, 1ere Figure

1. Hat à l'Androsman. 2. Baigneuse à la Warwick* etc. etc.

"Caps and poufs are made of goffered gauze and trimmed with plain, goffered ribbons. This goffering is done with irons, which are furrowed in a thousand rather wide and deep stripes. These irons are heated, and the gauzes and ribbons are heated with them, which thus form a thousand little pleats.

"The most fashionable ribbons today are plain, goffered ribbons. The colors of these ribbons are left to each person's imagination. Pinks, jonquil yellows, violets, and apple greens are however the most generally adopted."

Le Magasin des Modes nouvelles, 20 July 1787

* Possibly derived from the Countess of Warwick, Henrietta Greville (m. 1776)?

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Galerie des Modes, 60e Cahier, 1ere Figure

The pretty Mama in the Jardin du Roi, in an Informal morning Gown, with her little child dressed à l'Americaine.

"Women's hanging hair spoils coaches and armchairs, but one loves to see this ornament of their heads floating and caressing their belts; there are no beautiful women without long hair."

SEBASTIEN MERCIER, Tableau de Paris, 1788

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Galerie des Modes, 41e Cahier (bis), 1ere Figure

Négligé of a young Lady of quality, her gown is a type of chemise of thin silk stuff, round gauze cap, frilled kerchief and apron of muslin.  The child is dressed in a frock coat over his matelot. (1784)

"In the tenderest infancy, one inculcates, so to speak, women's love for vanity and lightness!  Everyone contributes to this: the papa, the mama, the nursemaid, and family friends; the dancing master who educates the young girl has precedence over the reading master, who must inspire in her the fear of God and love of her future duties.  The marchande des modes and the seamstress are beings whose importance she will evaluate before hearing of the existence of the shape which nourishes her and of the weaver who dresses her ...

"We deign to regard with reflection these marionettes that are seen in our promenades, to prelude with silliness the errors of the rest of their lives.  The little gentleman, in a cloth suit, and the little lady, coiffed in the manner of the great ladies, copying, under the auspices of a stupid nursemaid, the originals that they will be one day.  All the grimaces and the affectation of the petit maître are gathered together in the little gentleman.  He is applauded, caressed, admired in proportion to the contortions he makes.  The little lady receives a compliment for each simper which she advises herself to make and if her precocious address give her some power over the little husband, it augurs, with a stupid surprise, the interesting role that she will play in Society."

Sébastien MERCIER, Tableau de Paris, 1783

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Galerie des Modes, 36e Cahier, 4e Figure

The children of M. le Comte d'Artois, to wit, Monseigneur le Duc d'Angoulême, eldest Son, Monseigneur le Duc de Berri and Mademoiselle, accompanied by their Governesses, one of which holds in her arms the Duc de Berri, youngest of the three. (1781)

Although it is not necessary to accord a grand iconographic value to this plate, it is interesting to recall what the destiny was of the children whose portraits Le Clerc gave here.

The oldest of the boys, the duc d'Angoulême, born in 1775, after having emigrated, was the grand admiral of France, commanded the Spanish expedition of 1823 and just when his father, King Charles X, abdicated in 1830, he renounced himself as dauphin, his rights to the crown.  He took the name of comte de Marne and died in 1844, seven years before his wife, Marie-Thérèse-Charlotte, daughter of Louis XVI.

The smallest, the duc de Berry, born in 1778, also emigrated, returning to France in 1814, married Caroline of Naples, sister of the king of Spain, and was assassinated by Louvel on February 13, 1820, when exiting the Opera.  His posthumous son, duc de Bordeaux then comte de Chambord, found himself the last male representative of the elder branch of the Bourbons.

About Mademoiselle, she lived only a few more years.

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Galerie des Modes, 36e Cahier, 3e Figure

Madame, only Daughter of the King, on the knees of her Governess. (1781)

This plate is from the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, 44.1515.

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Galerie des Modes, 33e Cahier, 6e Figure

Young Lady in a robe à la Polonaise trimmed with gauze, escorting a child in a matelot with turned up sleeves. (1780)

One knows that the industry of women's dress was divided between three principal groups: the staymaker, which we call corsetiers, which make equally court gowns, camisoles, children's jacquettes and fourreaux; the marchandes de mode who sew and mount caps, trim gowns with ribbons, flounces, etc.; and finally the seamstresses.  The Dictionary of the Abbé Jaubert (1773) thus enumerates these different phases of the making of a gown; the seamstress first cuts the back, composed of two pieces, then the fronts, the petticoat, the sleeves, manchettes, and trims.  Then she assembles them, after having basted the lining, if appropriate, in sewing the fronts to the back, then the sleeves between the backs and fronts, then the manchettes to the sleeves, finally the trim.  Finally she assembles the pieces of the petticoat, she edges them on the bottom, pleats them, edges them at the top, making the pockets, trimming it finally "with the same trim as the gown".

In terms of the stays, it is furnished to the tailor: if it is covered with a "ladder of ribbons" (as was fashionable in the time of the Pompadour, for example) it is the marchande de modes who intervenes; if to the contrary it is hidden by a "compère" (a type of false vest with buttons), it is the seamstress who will have the privilege.

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Galerie des Modes, 32e Cahier, 6e Figure

Young Girl in a little jacket à la Paysanne of Buras, trimmed with Ribbons, she has in front a Gauze Apron, she is coiffed with a black Hat with a colored Ribbon; the little Brother seen from the back is dressed in a Matelot, his hair, curled and frised negligently, without a hat. (1780)

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Galerie des Modes, 32e Cahier, 5e Figure

This little Girl is dressed in a Fourreau of painted Linen trimmed with Bands and pulled up à la Polonaise over a white petticoat trimmed with a large Muslin volant; her Coiffure is a Bandeau over the hair en herisson.  The youngest of the Children is coiffed with a Toquet à l'Anglaise. (1780)

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Galerie des Modes, 32e Cahier, 4e Figure

The little Girl seen full-face is dressed in a Fourreau of Taffeta trimmed with Gauze; she has a Gauze Apron; her Fourreau is made à l'anglaise.  Henri IV hat.  The other little Girl has a Buras Fourreau pulled up à la Polonaise.  The little Boy has a simple Matelot with pulled-up Sleeves. (1780)

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Galerie des Modes, 32e Cahier, 3e Figure

The littlest of these children is dressed in a chemisette or blouse dress, very convenient for children of this age, especially in summer.  The Girl is dressed in a Lévite and the little Boy has a sailor suit with bavaroises of another color.  Corsica hat. (1780)

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Galerie des Modes, 32e Cahier, 2e Figure

Young Governess of a child helping a very young child to walk; he is dressed in a little Sailor suit, but he is equipped with a Pudding Cap and also wears leading strings. (1780)

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Galerie des Modes, 32e Cahier, 1ere Figure

Young Lady carrying her child in a Cradle to breastfeed while walking.  She is dressed in a Lévite whose Collar is painted all around and trimmed with Gauze, as are the parements of the Sleeves.  (1780)

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Galerie des Modes, 30e Cahier, 5e Figure

Children's dress in the new taste. (1780)

CHILDRENS FOURREAUX.  This Plate represents two little Girls, dressed in modern style; the one, seen from the front, is dressed in a plain Fourreau, trimmed with sabot cuffs and a linen volant, with a bouffante of filet lace pinched in a coque serving as a tour-de-gorge; a straw hat, en casque,* on the head.

The other is dressed in a Fourreau pulled up like a Polonaise, of the sort which shows a flounced petticoat.  She is coiffed with a hat à la Hongroise, positioned on a tapé with two curls, the chignon pulled up.

Some advise, under the pretext of giving more grace to dress, only opening them in front; but it is desired that this fashion does not progress; it must in fact disrupt Children somehow, dressing in these fourreaux, and it could result in accidents.

The shoe is the only object which is never changed.  These are always flat.

*Helmet-style.

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