Cabinet des Modes, 16e Cahier, 1ere Figure (part two)

(Because yesterday's post was very long, I decided to cut the bottom section off and post it today.)

July 1, 1786

A manner of dressing to ride a horse, which is surely not less elegant than than that of our drawn Man, is that which consists of wearing well very white Breeches and a Gilet, with Boots matching those that we have described, and a Dragoon green Coat, all plain, with a scarlet lining. There is in this ensemble something that allures us. We require with this outfit a tricorn Hat, furbished à la Suisse. You can say all you like; but we find that these Hats always gave and give to those who wear them, a much more frank, much more proud, and much more decided air than all thee round Hats do.

It is only in wool that these Dragoon green Coats can be made, with a scarlet lining, which must also be of wool. But wool Coats seem to be Coats for riding on horseback in all seasons. It is necessary to confess that only wool Coats clothe perfectly; and it is necessary to be well dressed for riding. Without that, beware the stable air.

But, though the Petite-Maîtresse suffers from it, and some regret that she had to abandon wool, it is necessary, in summer, to take on Coats for this season. Choose those which dress you the best; but take summer Coats, Fashion wills it. One has made them for this year which can compensate somewhat, and which redeem in éclat what they lose in form and contour. Some are made in serpentine, others in gragrame, others in chiné taffeta, and others in silk stuff clouded with a thousand dots.

Serpentine is a light fabric of hair and cotton. It has been imitated in cotton and in bourre de soie;* but these have neither the same éclat, nor the same durability. They have stripes down the length, rather wide, and in two or three colors; with little checks in two or three colors; with violet stripes, and with flame-red stripes.

Gragrame, which is either striped or chiné, is a rather firm worked silk fabric and bourre de soie.* What could be seen as one of the prettiest, has puce stripes or violet stripes; and green stripes, with a little white edge.

(These gragrames are found in the shop of M. Fortin, Merchant Mercer, at the corner of the rue Buffy and rue Mazarine.)

Everyone knows chiné taffeta and thousand-spotted silk fabrics. These latter began to be seen last year, and they must be perpetuated in their composition.

Of these different fabrics, there is only that of silk shaded with a thousand dots, which can be used for full dress coats; the others should be worn for frock coats.

Independently of these diverse types of fabrics, one still wears light cotton cloth of very-mixed colors, nearly of the vermicelli type that was worn two or three years ago. These vermicellis were puce, violet, red, or otherwise; those of today are mixed with black, blue, white, melted together.

One hardly wears, this year, these siamoises** with black and white stripes, black and green stripes, green and red stripes, as were worn in a great quantity last year. They were replaced with the serpentines and by the light cotton cloths.

* Silk made from cocoons that have not been unwound. Something like silk noil?
** A linen or cotton fabric imitating some sort of Siamese cloth

More about → Cabinet des Modes, 16e Cahier, 1ere Figure (part two)

Cabinet des Modes, 16e Cahier, 1ere Figure

July 1, 1786

WE are convinced that if there is a situation where one must more particularly follow Fashion, which is nearly always representative of taste and elegance, it is when one goes to ride a horse. There are such obstacles to avoid when one is riding; we mean there are such riders that one does not want to resemble, so that, in order to prevent the comparison, there is hardly any other means to take than dressing stylishly. However, this is not necessary, if one carries in one's air a grace, a facility which emphasizes the class where one would be tempted to confound us, because of our simple and unceremonious habit.

We may not be reproached for always recommending grace, poise, facility, and the other matching qualities, because it is there that, to speak properly, all Fashions reside. Be sure that they do not change as much because people of taste present themselves in public with dress of a new color, than because they dress with grace and facility, when another color has barely been adopted. Fashions are thus less the fruits of satiety and disgust, as the Poets say, than the children of natural graces. Everyone wants to seize the éclat which shines from these people of taste, everyone believes that the dress they wear gave it to them, and everyone adopts their dress. But they did not know how to take an agreeable composure, and the dress, hardly on the body, no longer allured anymore. Another person of taste may be seen with a dress of another color, she may have composure; her dress will flatter like the previous; one will believe that it will be better, and one adopts it.

See, as the Fashion of the Dress and attire of our Man has come, ready for riding, figured in the 1ST PLATE. His Coat, with lapels, is Dragoon green. The lining of this Coat is a buras of the same color, or a color near it. The lapels, the pockets, and the sleeves à la Marinière are trimmed with buttons of white pearl. Under his Coat our Man wears a Gilet with gold stripes and wide green stripes.

He wears Breeches of fallow deer skin, light yellow. On his legs are English Boots of a very-glossy black (a) from the shoe to the calf, and a natural yellow from the knee to the bottom of the calf. It is easy to see that this yellow part is the leather of the boot, reversed on top from the knee to the bottom of the calf.

On his heels are two silver or silvered copper spurs, very brilliant. He wears on his head a round Hat à l'Anglaise (b), trimmed, all around the crown, with a very-wide black ribbon and a bow on the left side, made with this ribbon, and attached with a very-long steel buckle, fashionable, worked. His hands are covered with gloves of violet leather, and he holds a long switch (c).

In the gussets of his Breeches are two watches. From one hangs a cord with tassels and trinkets, and the other a cord of braided hair or ribbon, at the end of which is uniquely attached a very-long and very-large key.

We show him with one hand in a pocket of his Coat, and in an attentive attitude, because he is watching to prepare for his horse (d).
---
(a) We remember that we have forgotten to say that men's Shoes are still a very-glossy black, whether in full dress, or whether in undress. Several Merchants in Paris sell Oils, Waxes, and Varnishes which give this gloss.

M. Basseras, Master Cobbler, rue du Four, near the Red Cross, sells an elastic Varnish or lettuce Wax, approved by the Academy of Sciences.

M. Hardi, Master Cobbler, rue Grenetat, in Saint Denis, sells chemical Oil.

A Spicer, rue de Baune, in Saint Germain, sells whale White.

(b) This round Hat à l'Anglaise is a folded Hat, which has neither silk edges nor velvet around it, as at other times, and which no longer takes the shape of a boat, but which descends all smoothly, and only has the shape that the head gives it.

(c) There is a practice of carrying very-thin and very-pliant canes, when one does not carry a switch. These canes thus serve two purposes, when getting off a horse. That does not mean that switches are forbidden.


(d) The horse that must be ridden is also subject to Fashion in its harness. Formerly horses' hair was braided on their necks with a red or blue ribbon, matching that used for bows near their ears: their tails were cut, and even the tips of their ears. This hideous shape was close to reappearing some time ago. Today no more ribbon on their necks; their long vagabond hair hangs with liberty. They may rise, they may lower, they may shake their heads with pride, they have all their parure, and their pride no longer seems ridiculous. Their ears can be trained, and mark their sentiments; their long and bushy tail clouds the brilliance that their mane gives them: all foreign ornament that they borrow now, is a rather large bow of red, or yellow, or blue, or violet ribbon, that is applied to the bottom of the croup, at the root of the tail, and two bows similarly placed near the ears.

More about → Cabinet des Modes, 16e Cahier, 1ere Figure

Cabinet des Modes, 14e Cahier, 1ere Planche

June 1, 1786

If someone complains of the great variety of Fashions, of the great rapidity with which they succeed each other, and of the expense that they seem required to entail, because there is not time to wear its coats, and it is necessary to replace them all of a sudden with others; he may expect, and he may do what Novelty (1) prescribes to this old Baron, who is all astonished that at the end of forty years his coats are already out of fashion, and that at Court they laughed in his face because of his grotesque dress; he will see that soon the coat he wears today, and that he believed passé, will be of a reigning Fashion, and that he will not be required to spend as much as he thought. Coats with piped linings, which seemed never to be brought back, are at present Fashionable, and of the most recent and most followed Fashion.


It is yet necessary to observe that one does not wear, as at other times, all sorts of linings indifferently under all sorts of coats. Each coat color has a lining color that goes with it, and which it is necessary to make sure to use, if one doesn't want to spread this discordance and confusion of colors in coats, which they rejected in earlier times the current Fashion with a type of hatred and contempt. HERE ARE THE LAWS THAT MUST BE FOLLOWED. With all coat colors, use a white lining, with piping, and you will be perfectly fashionable. Your coat, if it is puce, brown, chestnut, Monsieur's prune, violet, carmelite, use a pale yellow lining, and only that. Avoid the dark green, the Sky blue, and the pink which were previously used; these colors do not ally well, and please the eye, which must always flatter. I see on you a King's blue coat, with a scarlet lining: well, very-well. Time, which changes everything and destroys everything, still has never touched these two colors together; proves unequivocally that they go together perfectly. Whether the blue is over the scarlet, under it, it is not important. There is now a manner of wearing these coats, that we rather love; it is to wear them all matching, without braid, without yellow or gilded buttons; in a word, with matching buttons. In this case, it is better for the blue cloth to be on top.

You can put dark green under a King's blue, scarlet under a Dragoon green, lilac under a water green, straw under an American grey, but after that, under all the other colors, we only see white which can agree, if there is not yet the matching lining. What other, in effect, would you put with grey-white, with yellow, with lilac, with chamois, with slate grey, with ice blue, and other colors?

Though we have said that a white lining can be used with all colors, it would be unjust to believe that we permitted it under black, worn, finally, with as much freedom as the others. There is only a black lining which goes with a black frock coat. Wear in the vest, breeches, and stockings any colors that please you, under the black frock coat; but the black lining always be under the black coat.

(1) In the Comedy of Legrand.

See the young Man we have drawn in the 1ST PLATE; he is covered with a Coat of scarlet colored cloth, with a lining of white silk with piping.* We will advise you to most often put white under scarlet. While blue accompanies it rather well, it doesn't give this sweetness to the eye, this mellowness, this ability to match that white gives it. It contrasts better; but it perhaps doesn't go absolutely as well. It is a nuance that the taste of each person must seize according to what agrees with them.

The Coat of the young Man is trimmed with large white buttons in mother-of-pearl. The ends of the sleeves are open à la Marinière, and two matching buttons hold them closed a little above on the sides. Four other buttons, also matching, are attached to the bottom of the flaps of the pockets. The collar of the Coat is of the same cloth, and is no longer diversified as it was some time ago.

The young Man wears under his Coat a Gilet of Gros de Tours, water green ground, with gold stripes, and trimmed with little white buttons

His Breeches are of a Cashmere cloth, of a pale lemon color; his silk Stockings are white. We have observed that only white Stockings properly accompany  these Breeches, and that blue, grey, mixed Stockings contrast too strongly. His silver shoe Buckles are ovals with cut angles.

His head is covered with a Hat à l'Androsmane, which hides a long grecque protruding a little in the back. On each side he wears four curls, three below and one on top, and behind a long queue, well tied down to the end of the hair. He holds a Bamboo Cane in his hand, and he is represented going down by degree.

* Over the course of the next however many issues, I've come to the conclusion that a "piped lining" means that there is a piping, possibly even one with no cord running through it, only where the lining and wool meet, not on the seams of the lining itself.
---

NEW GILETS.

For about eight days, the Wool and Silk Merchants of the Palais Royal, have put on sale and are selling in very-great quantities Gilets of a new taste, and which are very capable of pleasing with their rich elegance.

Some are of dark puce drap de soie,* loaded with embroideries and paintings representing quadrupeds, birds, and reptiles. More than two hundred animals are embroidered or painted on the same Gilet. These same embroideries or paintings are made on Gilets with a somber yellow ground, a very dark green ground, a slate grey ground, a dark Sky blue ground, and other dark grounds.

Other Gilets have wide violet and yellow stripes on a moiré stuff, wide white and green stripes also on a moiré stuff, large red and yellow stripes, wide stripes varied in the Rainbow style, always on a moiré fabric.

Others are made in red, white, yellow, and green Ribbons, melting into each other.

Others are of violet, blue, green, slate grey silk cloth, and are covered with embroideries representing wife and tall marine plants, tree branches, sheaves of corn falling on the sides, and scattering while falling; cascades, pyramids, and other designs.

Others still, and these are the most rich, are in white peau de soie, or in white gros de Tours, or in white taffeta, and are covered with embroideries in gold and silk of diverse colors, representing trees which take the bottom of the Gilet, and rise up to the top, spreading their branches very far and very wide; there are also Gilets of flaming taffeta, charged with dense flames.

Other Gilets, no less rich than these last, are of peau de soie, and are charged with embroideries in diverse colors, representing hamlets, farms, and countryside, where the Laborers who cultivate are. This should not be taken as a pleasantry. We never want to lead our Subscribers in error. Nearly all our Gilets come from the Industry of Lyon. We are forced to avow that they have singularly flattered our eyes.

* Literally, "cloth of silk"; I have found a definition in a modern dictionary that says it is simply silk fabric, but drap is almost exclusively reserved for wool ("cloth" being wool is very common in contemporary English as well), and an older definition describes various types of drap de soie being twill-woven silk/wool fabrics.

---

We have seen in the shop of Mme Mignot, Merchant Jeweler at the Palais Royal, new Purses for silver, made of wide ribbons of diverse colors, all sewn together. This variety can please, and this Lady has assured us that she had already sold a great quantity. She also sells watch Cords of a new taste, which are only made of silk Cords, where hangs, on each, a large watch key, in silver or gold. No charms are attached. The key is alone. These Cords were invented to avoid the noise that two cords full of charms make.

More about → Cabinet des Modes, 14e Cahier, 1ere Planche

Cabinet des Modes, 13e Cahier, 2e Planche

PLATE II.

THE COAT and Vest of the Man shown in this plate, are of a spring velvet, with a lemon ground, green stripes, and lilac spots. The Buttons which trim the Coat and Vest, are enameled and spotted with a color matching the ground of the Coat, and they are edged with false white stones. His Breeches are of black silk cloth, and they hold his thighs very tightly (1); they seem pasted on. The Buckle which fastens his garters are a little ring of silver in long-squares. His silk Stockings are white. His Shoes have red heels, (that are not believed to be the Fashion for everyone), and his shoe Buckles are perfect ovals, such as were shown in the previous Book. The Man carries under his arm a Hat with a white plume, and at his wrists are lace Manchettes.

To give him more poise, we have put his left hand in his Vest, and his right hand in the pocket of his Coat. If only a Man has ease and liberty in his walk, one cannot deny that this attitude is agreeable.

(1) It is the Fashion today to wear breeches that are very tight, very narrow, and very stuck to the leg. Too-bad for those who are badly formed. This Fashion is very different from that which consisted of wearing them very wide at the top and in the middle, which were called sugarloaf Breeches. Knock knees, and even deformed thighs, were not seen; everyone could seem well-formed. But with the present Breeches ... it doesn't matter, it is Fashion. Regarding Breeches, here is a Spanish Anecdote, which must not poorly figure here.

THE EMPIRE OF FASHION.

To reign over Frivolity,
Fashion was born of Novelty;
And the more Fashion was ridiculed,
The more Fashion was believed and circulated!

In Spain, one said, I ignore in which year,
The Feasts that a Royal Wedding birthed*,
The fine flower of Elegance,
That is to say, the Courtiers
Wanting to report on his dress
In spreading more gilding
Than his doublet consisted of,
To the body too narrowly joined;
From the counsels of a frivolous head,
Tripled, one fine day, the fullness of their Breeches,

If this new luxury surprised,
And if the Court, like the City, laughed at it,
The case will surprise no-one.
But what still less astonishes me,
Is that in a few days the eye made itself;
And that insomuch Fashion took it,
That soon in the whole of Spain,
There was no son of a good mother,
Who, broken to this new taste,
In this type of barrel,
Did not want to lodge his bottom.

The Court, however, soon after,
Opening their eyes to this effervescence,
By the most severe Ordinance
Proscribed the ridiculous excess of it.

But the evil was done; and when abuse begins,
If one doesn't warn of its effects,
It is always destroyed later than one thinks
And the rigor of the Edict,
And the penalties and sentences,
On the proud and vain souls
Of the Courtiers, and especially in Madrid,
Only obtained a light credit.

And the grotesque figure of the barrel,
In the home of the Noble and Townsman,
The fullest farthingale,
Already, surpassed the measure;
When, by chance, a certain Don
Of the least imposing mien,
Caught in contravention,
Furnished material for the following scene:

To the home of the Corrégidor** driving,
The grave Magistrate said to him:
Can it be, Seigneur, that at your age,
(Which is not that of a child!)
Instructed that the King forbids it,
You can get up in such an equipage?

Seigneur, responds the Delinquent,
It is that under this accoutrement,
For me a very-useful practice,
I wear and hide surely
All that, generally,
Composes my little legacy.
-- Seigneur, truce from badinage;
It is bad to take your moment.
Be afraid ... -- To appease your resentment,
Deign at least to listen to me: and, do not laugh,
I am going, through these effects, to justify my say ...
The King knows my name, my talents, my success
In time of war, as in time of peace;
And that in more of a great adventure,
I never contradict a source so pure.
But by the game, love, and trials,
You see in me, I swear to you,
The most wretched of all your subjects;
So wretched, Seigneur, that in this dress,
For which an old Jew gave me a loan
On the titles of my birth,
Until the King recompenses
His Servitor, that a cursed Treasurer,
Very politely, each day spurned,
I owe all my subsistence;
So wretched, at last, that the cold attic,
Of which misfortune has made my residence,
The lock not closing.
To take shelter from the pillage of
All that my cage contained,
My guitar, and even my cloth,
My Breeches, without embarrassment,
Lodge today all this baggage ...
And if this tale seems fabulous to you,
I offer instantly to convince your eyes.
-- What, Seigneur? -- Yes, Seigneur: yes, all, all my baggage;
In a word, all that comes out of it,
Agrees with the Treasurer,
Leaves me again to my habit.
Seigneur, said, in laughing, the grave Magistrate,
Of an adventure as pleasant,
As to all interested regards,
Permit that, from tomorrow,
I share with the Sovereign,
Whose bounty is second to justice,
And who soon, I'm certain,
Of fate, in your opinion, will confine caprice?
-- My refusal prevented nothing,
Seigneur ... and I feel that, perhaps,
If the story can amuse the Master,
The Servitor could find it well.
It suffices for the Reader to learn,
That the good King, surprised to hear
A story as singular,
Called this Knight;
And enchanted with his farcical humor,
In having laughed to the sparkles,
To attach to his person,
Made him quit his attic;
And that, thanks without a doubt to this jest,
The Monarch, in his Estates,
Had soon the pleasure to see the agony,
Without fatiguing the Magistrates,
The great Breeches-lover.

* That of the Infante, later Philip IV.
** The Lieutenant of Police.

More about → Cabinet des Modes, 13e Cahier, 2e Planche

Cabinet des Modes, 10e Cahier, 1ere Planche

April 1, 1786

ONE of the greatest Philosophers of the era of Louis XIV, said, "I do not know why one rebukes a Fashion which, dividing men's height into two equal parts, takes a whole part for the bust, and leaves the other for the rest of the body." (Surely the three and a half quarters of our Petits-Maîtres were never imagined to have a matching authority which justified their actual taste!) Since several years back, one was sensible that in fact, in order for a coat to have grace, it had to divide the height into two equal parts. Could there be clothes deformed more than the coats that they wore, less than six years ago? Their great length, which descended much lower than the waist, and their very short basques, which hit at the middle of the thigh, and scarcely extended to the garter, gave them a sacklike shape, to which one seemed to have applied little pockets. Today, our coats are cut with an agreeable elegance, and there is reason to believe that, while good taste doesn't degenerate, only their fashion will remain.

The Frock coat that the young Man wears that we drew in the FIRST PLATE, has a short height, marked by buttons attached on the hips, with long basques with pockets, descending to under the garter, and which sleeves open à la Marinière, with two buttons. It is only new in its fabric and color. It is of Bourbon wool, with Moorish grey scales.

The Collar, climbing to the cheeks, and descending almost on the shoulders, is of a black silk velvet.

For some time, one wore Buttons as large as a six-franc écu, which trimmed, or rather covered coats: their deformities made them pass rapidly. One adopted, recently, buttons as wide as a three-livre écu: this sage proportion assures them a long reign. Those attached to our Frock coat are of this latter width. They are of chased silver gilt, or gilded and chased copper. We can prevent ourselves from regretting plain Buttons.

The young Man wears under his Frock coat a Gilet of pink satin, with wide black stripes across it: between the stripes is a brocade representing a Knight and a Foot Soldier. This Knight and this Foot Soldier never walk together, between the same stripes. Our Petits-Maîtres wear versicolored Gilets, and there are none today with a reigning color. We have adopted the one that we have represented, as to please particularly by its composition.

The Breeches of the young Man are of dark straw colored cotton wool: three little white buttons close the sides over the garters. His silk Stockings have long stripes, blue and white. His Shoes have squared tips. His Buckles are oval. On his head is a Hat à l'Androsmane, which covers a rather long squared Grecque, and four large Curls on each side, of which three are under and one is above. A Cadogan fastened a little low holds the hair in the back.

Our young Man carries under his left arm a Bamboo Cane with a golden apple, and two very large Watches in his pockets.

Before finishing this detail, we must say that the color which begins to reign for the wool, is the very dark natural green, alternately called Dragon-Green.

The Frock coat is of the cut and fashioning of M. Delcroix, Tailor, residing in rue Jean-Tison, near the Louvre. M. Delcroix dresses a very great number of young People, who have chosen him because of his taste. He gives grace to clothing, and makes, to a certain point, bodily defects disappear. One can, in all confidence, write to him to make oneself dressed fashionably.

More about → Cabinet des Modes, 10e Cahier, 1ere Planche

Cabinet des Modes, 4e Cahier, 2e Planche

January 1, 1786

PLATE II.

It represents a Man in an Overcoat.
Hat à l'Androsmane.
Overcoat of wool, bottle colored.
Buttons of mother of pearl.
Gilet of black silk fabric, dotted with green flowers; buttonholes embroidered in white silk scallops.
Breeches of sulfur-colored wool. Buttons of white metal.
White stockings striped with blue.
Shoes with slightly squared toes.
Oval silver buckles.
In the hand a cane of Bamboo.

Overcoats.

They are still worn in scarlet with a collar of black velvet.
In blue wool, with smooth buttons of mohair in the same color.
In striped wool, sky blue, grey, or green ground, with a black stripe across.

Redingotes.

The lightest and warmest are those in the shape of pelisses, descending to the heels.
They are of grey, puce, or any other color taffeta, padded and quilted.
They are also made in padded and quilted camlet, with a taffeta lining.

Gilets.

Of long silk plush, flesh-colored, canary's-tail, blue, red, dark green, gold, violet, and canary's-tail mixed.

More about → Cabinet des Modes, 4e Cahier, 2e Planche

Cabinet des Modes, 3e Cahier, 2e Planche

No. 1

It represents a Bust of a man, coiffed with an ordinary Wig, with three straight curls en marron.*  Squared top, in little curls.  The hair in a queue.

No. 2

It represents a Bust of a Magistrate, coiffed with an ordinary squared Wig, with curls en marron.  Top squared in little curls.

No. 3

It represents a Bust of a Man, coiffed with a Wig without a ribbon, having, for body, only a type of fashionable filet.  Top squared in vergettes** in front, and in a hérisson in the back.  Dressing with two curls, one on the other.

No. 4

It represents a Bust of a Man, coiffed in a Wig without fabric, up-to-date. Squared top in front, with a simple natural crinkle. Three curls at the bottom, one above, losing itself in the hérisson. The back hair, in a tied-up braid.

One finds Wigs like these four that we just described, at the shop of M. ADAM DEFFAUX, Master Wigmaker, rue de la Vielle Draperie, near the Palais, in Paris.

The talents of M. Deffaux are not confined to that; he replenishes heads, hair, without using sticky pomade, or such other means that to hold them together. This up-to-date retrimming covers the top of the head, the back, the temples, and imitates nature, to make one believe that this is real hair. He has the art also of only redoing the back of a bald head, an accident to which an infinity of people are subjected.

His fabricless and up-to-date wigs perfectly imitate the natural, and unite all the possible conveniences. They never prevent perspiration, and never produce any effect injurious to the health; one can even sleep with these Wigs; they have neither spring nor  curl which can be incommoded. Moreover, they are susceptible to all types of accommodage:*** one can have three curls to make four of them, five, unite them into one, and give them varied forms.

These ribbonless wigs that of a fabric of hair, and for a body an up-to-date thread, uniting the same advantages as the preceding.

M. Adam has also invented diverse sorts of Toupets, without fabric and without ribbon, fashionable, this that one could not imitate again in the present. One observed that the practice of these ribbons produces a thickness and a stripe on the forehead; M. Adam is coming up to only make to appear two or three hairs which flutter inequally, with an address which renders perfectly well the truth; in a word, his Wigs comb the same as natural hair; one can put pins in the curls, not using horsehair, not strong hairs for the frisure.

What M. Adam makes for men's Wigs, he also does for women's, Chignons, Toupets, Switches, etc.

New gilets.

Fabrics à la d'Estaing, embroidered in silk.
Glazed black and gold.
Glazed black and green.
Glazed violet and gold.
Glazed blue and green.
Glazed violet and green.

* "a buckle of the hair over the ear, tied up with a ribband"
** "little iron rods"
*** arrangement of the hair

More about → Cabinet des Modes, 3e Cahier, 2e Planche

Cabinet des Modes, 1er Cahier, 2e Planche

It presents a young Man en chenille.*  Round hat with a high crown, hair tressed and tied en cadogan.  Frock coat of green and Paris mud wool, mixed.  Striped gilet.  Sulfur breeches, very tight, molding to the thigh, with only three buttons.  The garter tied with cords instead of buckles.  Striped stockings, white and light violet, mixed.  Shoes tied with cords.

Men wear, when they are en chenille, the hat en Jocquay.  It has a squared crown, from 4.5 inches to 5 inches deep; 3.5 or 3.75 inches in the brim, falling down in the front and back; trimmed with a ribbon and a steel buckle with diamond points, under which is sometimes put a rosette of black ribbon.

Informal stockings, when one is en chenille.
Striped stockings, white and Paris mud mixed.
Violet and dark green, mixed.
Violet and Paris mud, mixed.
Green and Paris mud, mixed.

* See Galerie des Modes, 35th book, 3rd figure: "Déshabillé that young people put on in the morning and which consists of a rateen or coutil frock coat, a black or white taffeta cravat, hair in a queue or pulled up with a comb, long breeches known under the name of pantaloons, or artistically worked brodequins."

More about → Cabinet des Modes, 1er Cahier, 2e Planche

Galerie des Modes, 61e Cahier, 5e Figure

Young Officer in a Zebra Coat, calling someone to give an account of his services.

"The zebra of the king's cabinet has become the model of the current fashion; all fabrics are striped, coats, gilets, resemble the skin of the handsome onager. Men, young and old, are in stripes from head to toe: the stockings are also striped."

SEBASTIEN MERCIER, Tableau de Paris, 1787

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Galerie des Modes, 58e Cahier, 6e Figure

The enticing Ogler, he is coiffed with a hat à la Mexborough and dressed in a striped Coat.

Oglers. - "Paris is full of these ruthless oglers who plant themselves in front of you and fix their immobile and confident eyes on your person: this custom no longer passes as indecent, by becoming common.  Women are not offended by it, provided that it happens at spectacles and on promenades; but if one tries to look at them thus in a circle of people, the ogler will be taxed with insolence, and treated as impolite."

SEBASTIEN MERCIER, Tableau de Paris, 1784.

More about → Galerie des Modes, 58e Cahier, 6e Figure

Galerie des Modes, 58e Cahier, 5e Figure

Stock-jobber of the Palais Royal, at the public school, he is dressed in a morning Coat and coiffed with a Jockey Hat.

"... An élégant whose ears and feet offer to view the most extraordinary buckles, we approached; he had one of these hats in the form of a bell, which have never coiffed anyone well; one of these gilets where the pockets almost touch the chin ... Two watches enriched with brilliants passed successively between his hands, a large ring flatters his pride ..."

The Talk of the Palais Royal.

More about → Galerie des Modes, 58e Cahier, 5e Figure

Galerie des Modes, 58e Cahier, 4e Figure

 The Adonhiramite Philosopher,* dressed in a light Coat trimmed with oval Buttons in English Steel: walking on the Boulevards.

"Of indecent short gilets, shameless breeches, without pockets, and which cannot hold an écu coin nor a watch, this is the strange dress of the day.  The fool of the bon ton, gloved in his clothes, could not bend his knee or sit.  What is he doing? he sits by leaping and gets up in the same way.  Without this carousel, the fabric creases.  Adam, with his fig leaf, was more decently dressed than these latter giddy children, walking at the Palais Roayl in tight breeches, canary-tail colored."

SEBASTIEN MERCIER, Tableau de Paris, 1788

* A member of the Adonhiramite sect of Freemasonry.

More about → Galerie des Modes, 58e Cahier, 4e Figure

Galerie des Modes, 58e Cahier, 2e Figure

Gallant with beautiful watch, looking for the sun at noon to check it, he is dressed in a ciselé Velvet Coat, egg-shaped Buttons, English Stockings, etc.

Baron's Costume.

"Scarlet frock coat, with black collar higher than the ears, to better set off his face, and six-franc coins for buttons: black gilet with three rows of buttons like lentils which touch each other; white breeches; serpent-skin stockings; waxed shoes; silver pins; for the coiffure, five blown-out curls on each side; in back, a queue three inches long and 5/12" in circumference; on the toupet, for the defects of the hair, a mastic of powder and pomade, cut with care on the forehead to imitate spikes; that which gives a very young air."

Les Chiffons, by Mlle Jovette, mender, Paris, 1787

More about → Galerie des Modes, 58e Cahier, 2e Figure

Galerie des Modes, 56e Cahier, 5e Figure

Petit-Maître in Wool Coat, the Pockets, the Collar, and the Buttonholes embroidered: Gilet with pockets, also embroidered etc. (1787)

Petit-Maître. - "Couldn't one add that the Petit-Maître sometimes wants to pass for a wit because he has a little memory, and a little reading, overall from newspapers, from the wits of authors and from the little dictionaries: because he speaks in a nimble  and often ironic way of everything related to exacting and severe morals?  If he takes the burden of preaching, he prefers the study of a comedic role to that of a good chapter of Domat or the Pandects of Pothier;* he loves taking his ennui and leisure out to different spectacles more than attending a scholarly conference on law.  If, to the contrary, it is the party of the sword that he embraces, it is not the laudable desire to be useful to his country and his king, it is for the pleasures that he will find there and because he makes a vow to pass his life in the idleness of visiting, entertainments of all kinds and often in the more dishonorable excesses.  If he engages in the laws of marriage, it is to keep the liberty of missing his appointments, of mocking those appointments, and leaving a tender and virtuous spouse to run after dishonored women for their excess and for love of money, the only motivation of their false love."

The Paper without Title, November 11, 1777

*Jean Domat (1625-1696) and Robert Joseph Pothier (1699-1772), both legal scholars

More about → Galerie des Modes, 56e Cahier, 5e Figure

Galerie des Modes, 55e Cahier, 6e Figure

1. Petit-Maître in a spotted Coat, white revers, little painted Vest, silk Stockings. 2. Vischoura* of satin, trimmed with fur. 3 and 4. Painted and embroidered vests etc. ... (1787)

" ...A few Gilets have recently been invented where one sees from the top to the bottom very pretty little people, galant or comic scenes, grape harvests, hunts, etc.  On some others one sees pass in review a regiment of Infantry, Cavalry, Dragoons, etc.  One is assured that a man who is passionate for beautiful things has ordered a dozen gilets that offer scenes from Richard Coeur-de-Lion, la Folle par Amour, la Folle Journée, etc.** so that his wardrobe becomes a curious repertoire of theatrical plays."

Journal Général de France, November 19, 1786

* The Visherka River (francized to Vischoura) is in western Russia; this is probably another unfitted eastern-inspired garment like the polonaise.

** Richard Coeur-de-Lion premiered in 1784; Nina, ou la Folle par Amour in 1786; la Folle Journée, ou la Mariage de Figaro in 1784.

More about → Galerie des Modes, 55e Cahier, 6e Figure