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A sudden decree of fashion put an end to the fair wigs, and imposed the ' Titus ' on all women with any pretensions to a place in its ranks. The Directory belles threw away their perukes, and also sacrificed their own locks. No more hair, or at any rate as little as possible !

" The Titus mode," says La Mosangere in Lc hon Genre, the official organ of Fashion, "consists in havinsf the hair cut close to the

Titus Coiffure.

roots, SO as to restore its natural stiffness to the tube, and make it grow in a perpendicular direction." 'Merveilleuses' and 'Muscadins' each and all adopted the 'Titus,' and were closely shorn, a few long dishevelled locks being allowed to hang over the brow.

There was yet another type of ' Merveilleuses ' under the Directory. This was the 'Merveilleuse à la Carle Vernet/ still lightly clothed, still squeezed into a thin clinging skirt of 'Fie ! Fie ! pale startled' colour/ but wearing above her bodice (which was so small as to be almost invisible), and above her naked bosom, a formidable cravat, in whose folds her neck was enveloped several times, precisely like the muscadin's, while from beneath her huge plumed hat long locks of hair hunsc like dock's ears about her face.

Such was the attire and the head-dress of beaux and belles at the dawn of our century. During the Consulate and the first years of the Empire, the ' Merveilleuses ' were a little, but not much, more clothed than under the Directory. The same gowns, frequently transparent, continued to be worn, necks continued to be bared to excess in all seasons. The women of that time went out walking in tlie day, as the women of our time go to balls, 1 Fifi pâle efFarouclie.

with their bosoms and arms exposed. Their defence against cold consisted of scarfs and shawls — the forerunners of those famous

Under the Consulate.

' Cachemires,' which played so great a part in the first half of the century.

Special garments were invented, such as the little hussar vest, in 1808, which was put on over the low-necked bodice, and encircled the shoulders with its fur border, also the far less becoming spencer.

The celebrated portrait of Joséphine de Beauharnais by David, and that of Mme. Récamier by Gerard, shew us two beautiful Roman women of the time of the Emperors, reclining upon couches in the antique style, rather than Frenchwomen of less than one hundred years ago. Such however was the costume of the beauties of the salons of the Directory, those fair Parisians who crowded round Garat while he sang his ' romances,' or danced the gavotte, or the waltz, then the very newest novelty, with the handsome Trénitz.

In 1803, or 1804, the 'Titus' style of hair-dressing had ceased to be fashionable, it was ' old,' it was ' provincial.' And what of the hair that was not to be hurried into crrowins long again, immediately upon the change of taste ? The ladies bemoaned their luxuriant locks, fair, brown, or auburn, and were obliged

PREMIER EMPIRE.

to have recourse to ' fronts ' in order to display ringlets once more, and to make up their Etruscan chignons with borrowed plaits.

It was an unfortunate moment for feminine costume. Fashion itself seemed to have been conquered by the great con(|ueror, and to have devoted all the zeal and grace of its fancy to dressing magnificently, braiding, embroidering, gilding, and befeathering the innumerable squadrons of gallant swordsmen about to be despatched by His Majesty the Emperor and King to gallop all over Europe, and to be flung upon the cannon and the bayonets of its united peoples.

What, we may ask, did the Frascati Salons and the Tivoli Gardens, whither the fair ladies of the Directory in their bold undress, in their transparent tunics, and all their Athenian frippery, had resorted, think of the costumes now worn by these very same women, or by their younger sisters ?

What did they think of the ugly bogs which were called gowns, of the ridiculous sheaths,' the lainp-shade hats, and the cabriolet-hood bonnets ?

Masculine fashions were no less inelegant. Let those who would not consent to adopt them enlist in the Hussars ! The ugliness of male costume, which increased in the course of the century, had ah'eady set in.

But the women !—Here is a fine lady of 1810!

First, the skirt—there is so little bodice that the skirt forms almost the whole costume—is of print or some common stuff; it begins under the arms, hangs ungracefully down to the feet, or is cut short just over the tops of the boots ; a few folds, four or five rows of notched trimming, or three little flounces, form its sole ornament. The bodice is hardly perceptible, a tight girdle is placed close under the bosom ; for sleeves there are two thick rolls at the shoulders, which are also bared, and this hideous dress is finished off by a worked muslin tippet, or a big collar made of several rows of quilled net. The latter were the only possibly pretty features of the toilette, but even these were put on so ungracefully that they were cumbersome rather than ornamental.

Begiuniug of the liith century.

Hats and bonnets were mostly ridiculous. As all heads were full of the army and war, the ladies stuck head-gear of extraordinary shapes atop of their senseless costumes ; sometimes a kind of helmet, with a wreath and a great tuft of feathers, sometimes a big hat in the form of a shako, and even real hehnets Avere worn, and named à la Clorindc, in memory of those of the Knights-Crusaders.

For awhile small caps were the mode; these Averejust like infant's caps trimmed with lace, and gave the wearers a pretty childlike air. But the triumph of the period was the big 'cabriolet' hat, an enormous hood that stretched out far beyond the face, which was hidden in the depths of the ungainly structure. Sometimes these ' cabriolets ' boasted the monstrous addition of a tube-shaped crown, taller than the tallest shako in all His Majesty's armies.

The women of those times needed to be really handsome to captivate, in this hideous head-gear, the brilliant officers who between two victorious campaigns came to singe their hearts, like moths' wings, at the flame of bright eyes.

At balls and receptions, in the salons where the gikled military butterflies threw humble civihaus into tlie shade, the ladies, who no longer affected the triumphant airs of the 'Merveilleuses' of the preceding perioil, assumed a dove-like gentleness and timidity

Waiting for tlie couqncrors.

beneath the gaze of the plumed heroes. Their ball-dresses had extremely short skirts adorned with bunches of flowers, showing the leg and the buskin, no longer the antique cothurnus of the fair Tallien, but a buskin-shoe, tied with ribbons upon the instep.

These belles of the Empire, these sentimental Malvinas in baggy gowns, who were dreaming of the gallant warriors beyond the Rhine, wore

Large Empire Hat.

their liair either piled into a helmet-shape, or ' à la Chinoise,' drawn tightly up on the top of the head.

Serious beauties assumed the turban of the Turk. Everybody kuows the famous portrait of Mme. de Staël in her imposing turban. The salons were crowded with Parisian Odalisques, and their head-dress was pro-

Orieutal Dress and Turban.

nounced charming. After this, what is there that a pretty face and fine eyes, either lively or languorous, will not make acceptable ?

Presently these turbans grew to a vast size, and were adorned with gauze scarfs of various colours, and feathers. Under the Restoration turbans became the special wear of mammas and mothers-in-law, and gave them so comic an aspect, that it is impossible to look at the portraits of the period without laughter.