Page images
PDF
EPUB
[graphic][ocr errors][subsumed][subsumed][ocr errors]

LA

BELLE ASSEMBLEE.

FASHIONS

For MARCH, 1806.

EXPLANATION OF THE PRINTS OF FASHION.

No. 1. BEDFORD PELISSE and HAT, colour, || or at the ball; a circumstance arising principally La Bou de Paris, trimmed with fur to from the choice of the colours. match.

The pale yellow colour, which is extremely

No. 2. TRAFALGAR DRESS, white satin, trim- elegant in the day for beautiful women, appears med with gold, or silver lace. No. 3. YORK MANTLE and HAT, seal-skin, or Gregorian cloth, edging, orange and scarlet, India-pattern. Walking Dress.-Cambric | muslin, with work. No. 4. BEDFORD HAT, purple velvet and gold, days with the same bonnet. Some variety must

with white feathers.

No. 5. COURT DRESS CAP, white crape, and silver Tiara in front.

soiled in the evening, and tends very much to diminish the glow, and impair the brilliancy of the complexion. Dress is become so astonishingly capricious, that a lady is not considered fashionable, if she appears in public two successive

be given, either by super-adding fresh ornaments, or new-modelling the old. The colours of bonnets and gowns are so often varied, that the

No. 6. COURT DRESS BANDEAU, crape and gown which corresponds with a bonnet one day, gold.

No. 7. VELVET CAP, colour to fancy.

PARISIAN DRESSES.

No. 8. Cloth Great Coat, in the Hussar style.
No. 9. A Morning Dress.

No. 10. Cambric Bonnet, satin neckhandker-
chief, trimmed with Marten-skin.
No. 11. Complete Full Dress.
No. 12. Half Full Dress.

LONDON FASHIONS FOR MARCH. The more elegant the taste, the more superior the beauty of a lady, the less she has occasion for ornaments; her dress, therefore, should he simple and unaffected. This incontestable truth should convince our London Fashionables, that the only improvement in dress consists in a superadded simplicity and gracefulness, and not in a singularity of costume of any kind whatever. The dress that appears the most elegant in the day, would ill become the evening, at the opera, No. I. Vol. I.

is upon the next, contradictory to real taste and elegance. Our most favourite promenades have not been, during the last month, strikingly conspicuous for the display of dress; we have, how. ever, seen some very graceful Turkish-slate coloured velvet turbans, ornamented with fur of the same colour; they have a rich effect, and are confined to the nobility, and the more aspiring classes of fashion. The most prevalent pelisses are made of black velvet, with a flounce of deep rich black lace; this last walking dress is worn by all kinds of fashionables, which renders it common, and is abandoned by those who pretend to real taste and novelty. All kinds of bonnets, from a straw to a black velvet turban, are worn with black velvet pelisses; the latter turban is sometimes ornamented with a black feather, in which case it must hang gracefully over the forehead; it has then some claims to attraction, when worn by an elegant woman.Straw turbans with two pale roses, one blown, and the other a bud, is a spring hat, and likely to become fashionable: in short, velvet and straw

bonnets, are the only head-dresses worn for walk- || clining towards the opposite corner of the hat.

ing. Dome crowns and gipsey straw hats are likely to be the most prevalent fashion for the ensuing month. The ladies in the boxes of the opera, display, in general, much elegance; many wear the sleeves of their gowns cut in the Spanish style; these kind of sleeves are only seen with full dress gowns; white muslin gowns tastefully embroidered, are very general. A white or light blue satin turban, ornamented with white down, contribute much to the elegance of this half dress. Velvet mantles grace the shoulders of the London Fashionables, and when elegantly drapered on the back, are very tasteful and striking. Many ladies wear at balls, and fashionable assemblies, their hair fancifully dressed; a neat small square comb, ornamented with pearls, is placed in the front; the hair thus dressed, precludes the necessity of any other species of head-dresses.

Necklaces are fashionable, and cannot be too monastic; these kinds of necklaces are only worn in half full-dress; red coral necklaces, with a small watch set in pearls, attached to a string of red corals, are becoming fashionable. White tippets are very general; they are considered elegant and necessary; muffs are scarcely ever seen; fashion requires them to be white, when they are adopted. White or rose-coloured silk stockings, with a narrow clock, not embroidered,|| are the only silk stockings that adorn the feet of the models of fashion.

The dress of a Lady is beginning to be less sumptuous, of course it is less expensive. Lace is now almost rejected, except in the embellishment of mantles. Ridicules have completely perished, and the pocket is at length restored to its usual place. Laced half-boots, in the Chinese style, are fashionable for walking.

PARISIAN FASHIONS,

FOR FEBRUARY, 1806.

Head dress à la Ninon, are more numerous than ever, and resemble, with an encreasing exactness, their true model, Petito!'s enamel; which is to be seen at the Napoleon Museum. On each side of the face, there are now four, five, and even eight curls of hair formed into the shape of a cork-screw; and, behind, the hair is collected, sinoothed, or circularly involved, instead of being made up into a cabbage, and plaited into the figure of cork-screws. The grounds of full dress college-caps are ornamented with steel. Full dress hats are almost all turned up on one side with a loop or a button; behind the turned-up part of the hat is a feather which crosses the hat with the point of the feather in

Hats and small bonnets are, in general, made of
two colours; satin stripes of the same colour as
the edging form the ornament of the crowns of
bonnets. The ribband in the front, if any be
worn, takes place of the plaited border, and is
cut into Artichoke leaves. Black velvet for hats
and small bonnets, is as much worn as dark blue
and brown cloths are for great coats. A long
steel buckle, of an oval form, confines the vel-
vet band round the crowns of small bonnets,
which makes a conspicuous ornament for the
front of this kind of bonnets. White, grey, pale
rose, nut, chocolate, dark green, and dark yel-
low velvets are always fashionable for college-
caps. Some grounds of full dress hats, of
satin or velvet, are embroidered with the whitest
silver that can be procured; the design is a kind
of star, which is embellished with figured leaves
instead of rays. At the Milliner's, the satin for
hats and the generality of ribbands, are a style of
delicate rose colour; however, white satin and
ribbands are likely to become fashionable. The
hats of the Millinery Misses have a tuft in the
front, which descends on the eye-brows; but
the ears remain entirely uncovered. Velvet,
worked in white, and white ribbands, amply em-
broidered with velvet, have been much in request
during the last few days. Some Milliners use
dark yellow for the lining of black bonnets. Yel-
low is used to ornament black velvet college-
caps. Green pistachios are used with white. Fea-
thers are much in fashion, they are worn both in
full and half full dress. On many hair head-
dresses the bunch of flowers is worn small, placed
behind the head, and frequently concealed in the
hollow of the comb. Bengal roses, or moss
roses, are still most in vogue. Florists are not
satisfied with imitating the Bengal rose, and
the scarcest flowers of the East; they are now
endeavouring to extend their art to kitchen gar-
den plants, which they colour to the whim of
the purchaser. The honey-suckle, which is also
a flower much in vogue at Balls, is worn of all
fancy colours, such as rose, black, and dead
leaves; there are some even made to resemble
oak. Hair head-dresses are very simple; they
consist of hair smoothed at the sides, with
a braid of hair formed into a cabbage, and a tuft
of curls, or some curls hanging on the forehead;
this head-dress is considered particularly neat and
elegant. Hats, ornamented with fur, would have
been very general, had not the late incessant
rains prevented the Amazonians from gracing the
promenades. The last fashion for the above hats
is quite novel, they are made of a fawn colour;
the brims are raised on each side to the height of
the shape, and are cut round to resemble a fan.
Gowns for Balls are short, and in general of a

white or rose colour; but are always made of crape. A single ribband is worn round the waist, has long ends, and hangs in the front. A ribband, gathered tastefully, trims the inferior edging of the gown; the same kind of trimming sets off the ends of sleeves. A detached bunch of flowers is worn above the gathering of the sleeves; and two large bunches of the same flowers are fixed a little above the knees, the other a little above the inferior border of the gown.

Head-dresses à la Titus, are in general seen at Balls; they have no kind of ornaments. Long or short full-dressed gowns are almost all made of rose, white, or chamois satin, à l'Espagnole. The pelisses for dress are made à la Turque, without collars, and are not crossed over the breasts. Five buttons may be worn on the front of a ball gown, and a sloping garland of flowers may also be worn instead of flowers. The ribbands are always white, whatever kinds are worn. A bunch of flowers at the side relieves the gown from the necessity of a trimming of flowers. Fashion suggests violets for the side of gowns. The breasts are ornamented with large hanging lace, which is a fashion extremely prevalent.

Of all kinds of combs, the most adopted are those which are ornamented above the gold with a detached row of pearls. Ear-rings made of pearls, forming a bunch of grapes, and these forming serpents made of gold, or enamelled gold, are the most general. It is fashionable to wear a shawl over a great coat, pelisse, or a velvet Mameluke. The most elegant velvet for Mamelukes is light blue; but many made of black velvet are worn. Laced veils are worn in all their extent, suspended before the face; muslin veils, on the contrary, are worn divided and turned on one side of the head. An embroidered muslin ridicule is festooned with lace: we have seen some cherry-coloured velvet made into ridicules; they are richly embroidered in gold.

OBSERVATION ON FASHONS,

As they appeared to an Observer on Sunday last,

during a Promenade in Hyde Park.

THE genial mildness of an unusually fine spring, which has already decked vegetation with the budding promise of luxuriant verdure, has also banished from fashionable costume those cumbrous draperies and gross furry ornaments which so recently distinguished the prevailing taste, and were continued, through one of the mildest winters ever experienced in our atmosphere, as though British beauty were shivering under the chilling influence of Siberian skies.

The Promenade, in Hyde Park, the only general one, where beauty and fashion now deign to exhibit their combined attractions by daylight, was on Sunday last literally crouded by both; and the rival titles to rank and admiration were displayed in a fascinating contest for the palm of experience.

The dresses of the Fashionables were, for the most part, of that character called Demi-saison; the bear-muff and tippet were visible only with a few Grisettes and Dowagers of the Bourgeois. The prevailing head-dress of the leading Ton, were beaver hats à la turban, with a light trimming of snow-white swansdown; also beavers of what are termed the Spanish and Jockey forms, of various colours, were still much worn; as were bonnets and hats of straw, of different shapes; the most elegant were those gracefully turned up in front, lined with various coloured velvets, and otherwise ornamented with artificial flowers or silk trimming, agreeably to the fancy of the wearers. But the head-dresses most nouvelle and elegant, and worn by Ladies of the highest Fashion wele formed of velvets, and were principally hats or turbans, turned up with different colours of the same fabric, and trimmed with swansdown or light furs; and some which wore a superior air of novelty, were made with a drooping peak or purse, falling down behind like the undress cap of an hussar, and ornamented with silk tassels, and a small ostrich feather in front, of the same colour as the cap, which attracted much admiration.

Pelisses, and robes of velvet cloth and silk, continue to be much worn, but the most fashionable and elegant were those of dove-coloured velvet, worn loose and open before, embroidered in silk of the same colour down the front, with a running foliage of vine, or olive leaves. Spencers of silk and velvet were also much worn, and some few shawls were perceptible.

By the way, it is only wonderful that such an article of dress as the shawl should ever have found its path to fashionable adoption, in the va rious circles of British taste. In its form, nothing can be more opposite to every principle of refined taste, or carry less the appearance of that elegant simplicity at which it aims.-It is calculated much more to conceal and vulgarize, than to display or regulate the contour of an elegant form, and is totally destitute of every idea of ease, elegance, or dignity. Whatever charms it may have for the sickly taste of the tawny BELLES of the torrid zone, nothing but that "witching beauty" which occasionally veils itself in the rusticity and homeliness (like the Sun, its mists and clouds) that it may dazzle anew, with the refulgent splendor of its taste and charms, could ren.

der even tolerable the introduction of an habili-
ment, which turns any female, NOT beautiful and
elegant, into an absolute Dowdy. It is the very con-
trast to the flowing elegance of Grecian costume,
whose light and transparent draperies so admirably
display the female form; and it restores some-stancy."
thing almost as disgusting, in the upper part of fe-
male dress, as the double fortified hoop, and the
nine-times-quilted petticoat of the last century.

As to the Beaux Garcons, little of novelty appeared in their dresses to attract notice. From the almost universal prevalence of boots and lower garments, all would seem to have just come from the manege; though nine-tenths of those jockeys may be fairly classed with the dismounted cavalry. The only novelty observable with beaux of the promenade is, that their hats, from the order of the broad-slouch, are again rapidly returning to the opposite extreme: so that a fashionable jockey bonnet now bears strong resemblance to the helmet of Mambrino, celebrated in the adventures of the renowned Don Quixote; to whose equally celebrated steed Rozinante might justly be assimilated many of the bits of blood which kept up the dash of rotten-row on this occasion.

PARISIAN NOVELTIES AND CUSTOMS.-Presents of porcelain, are at this time considered

the most elegant trifle. One sees a breakfast cup, entitled "The Gift of Love." On each side of the cup are inscriptions relative to the subject. On the right side, "Love revenges Perfidy." On the left, "Love repays ConAnd the middle, "A promise of an hundred kisses payable to the Bearer." Happy the petit maitre who can present such bill when he finds pretty women that will indorse them. The dancing parties are those which present the greatest variety of fashion. Two uniform dresses are enjoined, one for the ladies, who are spectators merely, and one for those who are performers. When they go as spectators, the ladies clothe themselves most richly. A gown of velvet or satin, with a fine train, covered with gold embroidery, and a head-dress to correspond; but those who dance are very differently drest, light and sylphic; scarcely are their tender forms covered with a fold of crape; no train, no fullness on the hips, no encumbering ornaments. By this contrast in the dresses, a Gentleman can distinguish, at first sight, the Lady who chuses to dance, from her who sacrifices the pleasure to the rage of gaudy show.

London: Printed by and for J. BELL, Southampton Street, Strand.

« PreviousContinue »