A Most Beguiling Accomplishment

PLATE III. It represents a Woman coiffed in a cap à la Laitiere , trimmed with a dark green ribbon. Accommodage  with two curls, the chignon underneath . Earrings, as plaquettes . Plain kerchief, of Italian gauze. Fourreau  with collar, à l'Anglaise , of the color King's eye , edged with white ribbon à la Jannette . The Fourreau  is tied in front with a dark green ribbon. Gloves of the color soft sulfur , or canary's tail . Apron of plain muslin, with three pleats. Pink  shoes. --- Choice Jewelry. Earrings, and necklaces in gold pearls, lined and cut with facets , bestoned  and polished in a stone-mill. Idem . Bracelets, Purse drawstrings, Pins, Gold watch chains, cut and bestoned  the same way. Note. Decorations like these are never made in steel; they have the greatest effect in gold. Men's Buckles, with a double row of gold pearls, interlaced with silver brilliants. Watch cords, in silk, with buckles and a large gold k...

When people are discussing eighteenth-century gown styles, the fourreau  does not rank alongside the polonaise and turque ; in fact, it never seems to come up at all. The main, traditional meaning of fourreau  was for a child's dress. In Garsault's L'Art de la Lingere , infants are described as wearing various pieces of the layette until they reach three, at which point the girls are put into shifts and jacquettes , while boys wear the fourreau  until they're breeched at four or five. However, in Galerie des Modes , the caption-writer is consistent in describing the young fourreau -wearers as girls. (It's possible that this is not contradictory - Garsault was published in 1761, and a shift in word- or dress-usage may have occurred over the following two decades.) 32e Cahier, 5e Figure , 1780 The fourreau  depicted on children in Galerie des Modes  is the typical children's gown of the eighteenth century: back-closing, but otherwise very similar to wome...

The tranquil Egle dreaming of the inclination of her heart. She is Dressed in a Fourreau à l'Enfant and Coiffed à la Flore . " ... The courtesans in the realm give the tone and are copied at will by other women, of some condition that they could be. Lais * going out to an orgy perceives that a disheveled air suits her hair: in consequence, she will show herself the next day in public with her hair in disorder; and the day after, bourgeoises  and bankers' wives, patricians and ladies of the highest trimmings, let their hair fall below their belts; and the modest beauty, in order not to stand out, will be obliged to adopt the appearance of a bacchante ..." SYLVAIN MARECHAL, Notice on the mores of Paris ( Actual costumes of all the known people ), 1787 * Lais of Corinth , a hetaera in Ancient Greece

Lady of distinction in a morning fourreau with a brocaded gauze belt: she is coiffed with a galant hat, her hair in little curls and her chignon hanging . (1787) "Ladies still dress in very long fourreaux .  It is not permitted to make them, as at other times, in silk fabrics, or in colored linen: they can only be made of white linen, or plain white muslin; still, those of muslin are very rare.  One dares sometimes to wear them over pink, blue, green, or violet transparens ; but the best, and the most fashionable, is to wear them without transparens ." Le Magasin des Modes , 1787

Pretty Woman walking alone in her garden to avoid all dissipations, she engages herself entirely with sweet ideas that pleasure presents to her; this makes these flattering images which render her an agreeable solitude: she is coiffed with a hat called à la Charlotte; over her long gown she has a pelisse lined with fur with a gauze apron. (1785) " Women's actual outfits, in Paris . - The gowns and fourreaux à l'Anglaise, à la Turque, à la Janseniste,* à la Circassienne , are still in fashion.  When a Lady is in a green fourreau , à la levite , she wears a straw hat with a high crown , trimmed with a violet ribbon, with a cockade bow, the two ends of the ribbon hanging about two or three inches. "Her coiffure is a half- herisson , ended by two hanging curls; the hair hanging behind the ears, à la conselliere : the earrings are large, trembling rings; the kerchief, of trimmed linen; the mantelet of black satin, spotted; the apron of linen; petticoat of viol...

  Young Person in indolent négligée with a simple Fourreau d'Agnes, amadis sleeves, triple Kerchief, Ribbon Necklace, and Globe Cap; having an air of braving the heat of the Sun as much as the fires of Love. (1784) Globe Cap . - "The aerostatic discoveries did not fail to furnish a number of ingenious names for fashions.  The Galerie des Modes alone provides much evidence of this.  In addition to this plate, which dates to 1784, others from the same year show the globe ribbon (pl. 176), the globe hat (pl. 188), the hat à la Montgolfier (pl. 190), the demi-balloon hat (pl. 197), the hat à la Blanchard (pl. 199), the Globe cap (pl. 202).  Furthermore, the twelfth and thirteenth books of coiffures, for [1785], show the aerostatic balloon hats worn in 1783, à la inflammable air , au flying globe, au Robert's globe , etc. "To be precise, note that the first attempt of the Montgolfier brothers was on the 5th of June [1783]; that of Robert was on the...