The History of Fashion in France

The History of Fashion in France is by Augustin Challamel and treats the dress of women from the Gallo-Roman period to the present time. The title page says the work is from the French of M. Augustin Challamel, by Mrs. Cashel Hoey and Mr. John Lillie. The contents list, under the introduction, various definitions of fashion, the grave side of its history, quotations from the poets, the character of Frenchwomen and Paris as the temple of fashion.

A quoted passage says the married ladies, and the young ladies at the court of Louis XI., no longer wore trains to their gowns, and on their heads wore round padded caps with peaks half a yard in height. Olivier de la Marche is quoted as recommending, in his poem “Le Triomphe des dames” (1464), that fine ladies wear costumes of allegorical and moral significance, viz., slippers of humility, shoes of diligence and stockings of perseverance. A passage on artificial flowers says the industry had only been introduced in France in the year 1738, and that a man named Séguin, a native of Mende, succeeded in manufacturing artificial flowers quite equal to those of Italy.