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The Rise and Fall of the Ruff. And other things...

Mademoiselle de Maupin, seventeenth century Paris Opera star

I'm not sure how to approach this blog entry. The article below is a generalized lampooning of women's fashions, focusing in particular on Mademoiselle de Maupin. Not the REAL Mademoiselle de Maupin (aka Julie d'Aubigny), pictured above, but the Mlle. Maupin featured in Theophile Gautier's 1834 novel entitled "Mademoiselle De Maupin"! Confused? I am as well:) I've posted the article in it's entirety, with a few images thrown in for fun. Queen Elizabeth I popularized the ruff, and it is said that the ruff died on the gallows with Anne Turner. We have an image of Madame Frontenac, with a, well, a large hat.

It seems that the author used Mademoiselle de Maupin as a jumping-off point to satirize other objectionable fashions. It's rather scatter-shot, but amusing.

It's quite possible that this article is a lampooning of the book, not having read it, I don't know... The original La Maupin was reputed to be quite a swashbucker~!

A CONSCIENTIOUS CHRONICLE OF PRETTY WOMEN'S PRETTIEST FROCKS.

(By an Unborn Babe-)

Chapter XXV.—After The Ruffs. Away with the ruffs. Here is another style, rather different. How do you like it? The sleeves still large, the collar very large indeed, but lying down now, and no end of a hat!' "Je me suis figure," says Theophile Gautier, writing of Mademoiselle De Maupin,—" Je me suis figure bien souvent le costume que porterait mon heroine: une robe de velours ecarlate nu noir, avec des creves de satin blanc ou de toile d'argent, un corsage ouvert, une grande fraise a la Medicis, un' chapeau de feutre capricieusement rompu comme celui d' Helena Systerman, et de longues plumes blanches frisees et crespelees."

Goodness only knows why ruffs went out. It could not possibly be only because they were a little bit uncomfortable, for every right-thinking woman would suffer indescribable torments, and does suffer them every day, to be pretty. Yellow starch had become unfashionable, it is true, since Mrs. Turner, the cosmetic seller, went to the gallows with a yellow ruff round her neck, to be hanged for her share in the poisoning of Sir Thomas Overbury. You may see from this that it was somewhat of an unenlightened age. Later on, Mr. Walker, a hatter in a small way in Fetter Lane, had the good fortune to sell one of his hats to Muller the murderer. Only a few years have elapsed since then, and I see Mr. Walker's shop has stretched itself nearly a third of the length of the lane. If another murderer would only go and buy another hat of him, he would most likely require the other two-thirds, at least, to conduct his business.


MADEMOISELLE DE MAUPIN.

Mme Maupin

Queen Elizabeth having died (leaving behind her a wardrobe of three thousand gowns), ruffs somehow began to get smaller, and died away altogether at last. Meanwhile stockings became popular. Queen Elizabeth's black silk ones I have already told you of. When Mary Queen Of Scots went to the scaffold, she wore stockings of blue worsted, clocked and tipped with silver, and under them another pair of white. Public attention having been directed to ladies' stockings, it would appear that garters got to be thought about too, for we find them manufactured for ladies at this period of gold and silver, costing four and five pounds a pair. "Honi soit," &c.


At the time of the civil wars of the Fronde, the French ladies seem to have gone in for extremely large hats, and in this particular, as well as in others, they extinguished the male creature very effectively. It was, then that Madame De Chevreuse was working wonders in diplomacy. Madame De Frontenac reviewed the troops. The " Grande Mademoiselle " fired big guns. Mme. Coatquen forced hitherto invincible Turenne to capitulate. What were all the men about? Where were they? How many were there? There were only two; and both wore petticoats—Mazarin and Gandi.

Lady Frontenac, image source, Gutenberg

There is much self-assertion and determination about our fair friend with the large hat, and that ridingwhip she carries looks as if it could give a pretty good slashing cut, if needs were. I trust no such occasion ever arose, and that all treated her with proper respect, and that she never lost her temper and gave it to the groom, say—or her husband, or anything of that kind.


source: Judy, or the London serio-comic journal, Volume 18, 1876


....................................................

Anne Turner on her way to the gallows
wiki commons

The ruffs then generally worn fell under the severe censure of Dr. Bulwer, who observed, "It is hard to derive the abominable pedigree of cobweb lawn, yellow starched ruffs, which so much disfigure our females, and render them so ridiculous and fantastical; but it is well known that fashion died at the gallows with her who was the supposed inventrix of it." The person thus alluded to was Mrs. Turner, the widow of a physician who was hanged for assisting in the poisoning of Sir Thomas Overbury. The yellow starch used for these ruffs was introduced by this infamous woman from France. The circumstance of her wearing one on the scaffold soon terminated the fashion.


source: Fashion then and now, by Lord William Pitt Lennox

Mademoiselle de Maupin, based on the real Julie d'Aubigny. A Photogravure Reproduction by Boussod Valadon and Co from a Water colour painted in 1897 and contained in Six Drawings illustrating Mademoiselle de Maupín published by Leonard Smithers and Co 1898. Wiki Commons

The History of the Corset

article source: "The Lady's Realm", Volume 10
publication date unknown.



VANITY, indisputably supposed to be woman's ruling passion, has ever been the prime motive for the enhancing of her personal charms. As ancient as history is the corset, and it is impossible to decide whose invention it is. Naturally its origin is imputed to a woman who in her inordinate vanity endeavoured to reduce the size of her waist, being in no wise daunted by the agony entailed in the unnatural contortions necessary to correct what she evidently deemed to be one of Nature's errors.

animal hide corset

The corset, from being originally but a stiff piece of animal hide, has passed through many curious and somewhat hideous phases, ere attaining its present state of perfection.


Its invention is ascribed to a woman, and it is held, that through the vain practice of this one single woman centuries ago, the corset has become, as it is to-day, a universal and very necessary adjunct to a lady's wardrobe. The tale of its development is to a certain extent a tale of the progress of reason. Certain it is, as positive evidence proves, in the olden times the article was worn by men and women alike— the breadth of the chest and shoulders of the former being accentuated by the diminution of their waists. This being the case, I am inclined to doubt a woman being its originator, as female vanity is but the outcome of civilisation. We all know that among barbaric tribes, as also in the animal kingdom, the male is the handsomest and most elaborately decked or plumaged. In Indian and savage tribes the chiefs and young men inscribe on their bodies,  and in the case of birds their plumage is always the richest.

cane corset

Women were in the early ages such poor, subservient creatures, being very little above the level of animals, that it seems hardly creditable that from her could emanate the idea of the corset, which there is no doubt was in the first instance made use of for male adornment. Corsets are supposed to have existed in all parts of the world as far back as in mythological days, but we can only trace the practice of its use to early barbarian times. The corset which we find indispensable in this present century is but an improvement on the idea of the savages, who appear to have been the first to make practical use of the article. The savage corset was a mere suggestion of what has followed, and consisted of a stiff piece of animal hide, through which holes were punctured by means of a sharpened stone. This was bound round the figure like a girdle and then drawn together by means of a thong of hide which served as a lace; it was never allowed to crease, and therefore bound the waist with the compactness of the modern corset. But the idea was too crude, and proved but a stepping-stone to a more elaborate design, which, being made of cane, proved plastic to the figure—pointing to the fact that woman, evidently obeying the decree of her lord and master, now adopted the corset, as this improvement on common hide, being made of rattan cane arranged spirally about the figure, and being actually covered with cloth or rare fabric, lent itself more readily to the natural and graceful curves of her form.

practical corset

The pernicious habit of tight lacing, which has ever been, and still is, so strongly inveighed against, is by no means an evil which can be looked upon as the outcome of modern civilisation. A Grecian lady's costume was never complete without a girdle of linen stiffened with reeds and pieces of flat wood, and this corset of the early period, which speedily became so universally adopted in every quarter of the globe, possessed neither the redeeming qualities of grace nor of harmless durability, being nothing more nor less than a very evident self-inflicted rack of torture. But the decree had gone forth—a small waist was alone to be admired, and women submitted, even as nowadays, heedless of the discomfort occasioned by many of Dame Fashion's mad freaks, enduring agonies under a smiling countenance in their desire to please and their inordinate love of admiration.


Hindoo women underwent a rigid system of training in order to secure the long, slender waist which is to this day deemed a mark of beauty; and the women of Java went even greater lengths, actually risking their lives by eating a poisonous stuff called "ampa," in their endeavour to reduce their avoirdupois. In Ceylon perfection was never attained until the waist could be clasped by two hands. The Bible points to the fact that the wearing of stays was customary among Jewish women. We read in Isaiah, "instead of a girdle there shall be a rent, and instead of a stomacher there shall be a girding of sackcloth."

brocade corset: 18th century

It was not, however, till the middle ages that what may reasonably be termed the antecedent of the modern corset first came into vogue. As early as in 1043 a monk wrote a pamphlet against the follies of fashion, giving therein the first historical representation we have of the corset, ridiculing the atrocious practice of tight lacing, and illustrating his article with a woman's figure encased in this "seductive garment." This pamphlet is preserved in the British Museum. In 1361 authentic mention is again made of the corset, only this time it has changed from an inner to an outer garment. Princess Blanche, daughter of Edward III., is described as the possessor of a magnificent corset, consisting of a girdle of beaten gold studded with procious gems.

man's corset

French chronicles show that corsets were worn equally by both sexes from the reign of St. Louis to the beginning of the fifteenth century. These corsets varied considerably in length and shape, sleeves of different modes, often lined with fur, being frequently attached to them; but although a recognised fashion, the wearing of corsets up to this date was a matter of purely personal taste. Then, with Catherine de Medici's ascent to the throne, the habit became compulsory. She gave her subjects no choice, issuing an edict to the effect that all women of good birth and breeding should wear corsets which would reduce their waist to the abnormal size of thirteen inches.

steel corset

Let us hope that the women of that period were built proportionately small, otherwise the iniquitous habit might be likened to the Chinese method of squeezing the feet into machines in order to circumvent their natural growth. Not only did Catherine make the decree, but she invented the necessiry article of torture, the wearing of which ultimately produced the diminutive waist decreed. It was called a "corps," and consisted of an inflexible corsage hardened and stiffened by every possible means. Into this the body was pinched and forced, while over the "corps " was clasped a perfectly fitting corset-cover, constructed of thin plates of steel, which was fashioned in two pieces, and opened on a hinge. These steel covers were usually covered with richly embroidered fabrics—or in the case of the steel being perforated, as was a favourite fashion, beautiful designs in silk were interwoven in and out of the holes ; and no dress was considered complete without its corslet of silk and steel.

steel corset cover

This rigorous treatment of the body lasted throughout the sixteenth and, indeed, until the early part of the seventeenth century, when more pliable materials for the fabrication of corsets were adopted. Beautifully embroidered quilted satin bodices now replaced the painfully unyielding structure of Catherine's invention. These were stiffened with whalebone, and the natural curves of the figure were more studied than hitherto. They were made short at the hips, with a long back and front, the latter tapering to an artistic V.

V- corset, Louis XVI

The next change in their history took place in the early part of the eighteenth century, when leather stiffened with whalebone came into use. Reformation, however, was the order of the day, and its leaders were successful for a short time in banishing the hitherto victorious corset and resuscitating the discarded girdle. With this innovation classic robes became popular, and for fifty years held sway, until in 1810 fickle fashion returned to its old friend, and we read again of "a corset finished with steel, a hoop over an inch in width curving round the upper line.


A few lines taken from some old Press cuttings describe aptly the position of the corset as regards its hold on fashion:

When hoops were worn by women fair,

 A nuisance they were found; 

One ran against them everywhere— 

The hoops were always round.

And they retarded, it was clear,

  The rise of womanhood, 

For by the fashion of her sphere 

Each woman was confined.

When hoops went out, by some cracked brain,

  The bustle was designed, 

And woman's fashions, it was plain, 

Were getting quite behind.

The bustle also saw its day,

  Though to it they adhered 

For years, ani when it passed away, 

The clinging dress appeared.

And as it suited old and young,

  'Twas worn without demur; 

To fashion woman long had clung, 

Now fashion clung to her.

In time the train became the style,

  And every woman wore it; 

In fact the fashion for a while 

Swept everything before it.

And thus the years new fashions bring,
Which flourish and decay; 

  The corset is the only thing 

 That ever came to stay.

straight-front corset

About this time manufacturers commenced to advertise their wares, which points to progress in the trade. "Corsettier special" cropped up for both men and women, and no one could be without this very necessary garment. In 1820 a practical corset for tight lacing was invented, being made in three pieces. It laced at the sides as well as the back, and this was generally worn until towards the middle of the last century, when it became the fashion to have one's corset specially made. The stay-maker did a thriving trade, and the tailors found they were obliged to bow to the universal fashion and give their rendezvous in their own establishments, partitioning off little compartments where "monsieur" or "madame" might be fitted to their corsets.

"erect form" corsets

 This was the golden age for the corsettiers, when no woman considered herself "well turned out" unless confident that her "corsage" was moulded over a corset marvellously designed to fit her form.


Robert Verley, a Frenchman, first conceived the idea of manufacturing corsets wholesale. He started looms for this purpose at Bar-le-Duc, and his unbounded success inspired confidence, and soon tempted competitors to take up the new industry.

Bonton corsets

Works sprang up in various countries. America was not behindhand. A woman opened an establishment in Sixth Avenue, New York; but during its infancy the trade became the largest and most prosperous in Germany, the yearly importation running into millions. Thousands of women were employed at the looms, and thousands likewise worked on the same industry at home, embroidering the various corsets.


In 1870, however, the Americans built and started enormous factories, and in consequence the German industry received a severe check. They were obliged to lower their prices considerably, in order to compete with the new influx in the market. The woven corset was at the same time practically abandoned in favour of the stitched article, which has held its own to the present day. Factories are now to be found in all parts of the world, where these invaluable articles are turned out wholesale—the fundamental principle of the design differing very little from that worn in 1850. The hideous hip
pads have been, if not entirely abandoned, very much modified—in fact, all the various latterday improvements have been built on its foundation. No woman nowadays who desires to be considered "smart" and bien mise would venture to appear in public corsetless! Happily for all concerned, we have left behind, with the days which have gone by, those instruments of torture, the steel corslet, with its utter disregard for the anatomical correctness of shape.

tight-lacing

The beruffled, tight-laced, waspwaisted maiden is also replaced by a healthy, well-developed, vigorous young woman, eager to exercise her limbs and muscles in sports which had hitherto been debarred her; and with this healthier product of latter days has come a more thinking generation, who, realising how hampered and handicapped they were by so tight and unyielding an article encircling their body, discarded it, adopting the more natural corset of to-day, with its thin steels or pliable bones; and with its advent, tight-lacing has almost entirely died a natural death—being the exception now, rather than the rule. Tennis, golfing, cycling, boating, and all the numerous sports recently opened up to women, admit of no strained or unnatural compression of the body.


Would-be reformers in dress are still ever ready to argue that the wearing of this article is injurious in more ways than one; but this idea is now almost entirely exploded. Tight lacing is necessarily harmful; but physicians have come to recognise the fact that a well-fitting corset is rather a support to the figure, instead of having the injurious effect which is so frequently attributed to it.

Martyrs of Fashion, 1902

Martyrs of Fashion- three ideals of headdresses

source: "The Strand" Magazine, Volume 24, 1902

~Some articles are just too good! This is the entire article, with original illustrations. I am SO curious as to the identity of the actress alluded to in the article, but I can't find anything beyond this article. Also, the methods/practices described here are benign compared to those of today. Much more "false" looking and not without their dangers, but not so invasive.


The last sentence of the article~ "They have committed the fault of passing the boundary at which care of the person ceases to be justifiable, and are after all much less attractive than a healthy milkmaid." -is interesting. Milkmaids were envied for their clear, smooth complexions... and the reason that they had such clear, smooth skin is because they caught a weaker variation of smallpox from cows, thereby escaping the disfiguring effects of smallpox...the resultant pock-marks.


Lots of tid-bits here. Enjoy!

To take care of her person, to correct certain imperfections which disfigure a pretty face, to dress with taste, to obey the exigencies of fashion is, for a woman, not only a permissible coquetry, but almost a conventional duty. At the same time, if to that extent the art of the toilette is quite legitimate, as much cannot be said for the means taken by some women to give themselves the appearance of a beauty denied to them by Nature. To what learned, complicated, and strange recipes they have recourse, to what sufferings they subject themselves light-heartedly, is hardly believable; and beyond question the price paid is a very heavy one for the acquisition of a fictitious beauty—which deceives nobody.

Is it not the dream of almost all women to be beautiful and to remain young? And who thinks of reproaching them for it? What moralist would be so severe as to blame them? To take particular care of her toilette, to select what adornments may assist in giving an agreeable expression to her visage, and to correct whatever faults it may have—nothing is less blamable, nothing is more natural; only the question here is one of extent, a matter of degree. By the side of this wholly allowable coquetry there is another, at which we cannot refrain from smiling, unless we are inclined to feel pity for those who are under its influence: it consists in the complete substitution of artifice for Nature in carrying out a labour of vanity and falsehood which, when all is done, misses its end, since the effect it produces is of the most repugnant kind.

To fashion or cultivate her beauty, then, becomes an art in which all the arts are employed, a science to which all the sciences lend their aid—in which chemistry and medicine, surgery and painting, physics, statuary, and mineralogy all have parts to play.

But it is not only time, trouble, and money that have to be paid in such a case; patience, resignation, and endurance are also demanded. Who is there who does not know the sufferings to which some women will condemn themselves, duped by a mirage of beauty? Who does not know to what lengths they will carry the cruelties of self-martyrdom? Let us call up this spectacle, let us look upon this self-inflicted torture of coquetry pushed to mania, and see how much strength of will may be put at the service of frivolity.

The first merit which calls admiring attention to a woman, and has at all times been celebrated by the poets, is freshness of complexion. The women of Corinth took a bath of perfumed olive oil for two hours daily. In Rome the vapour-bath, followed by douches and massage, occupied the mornings of elegant ladies. Nero's wife, the Empress Poppsea, invented baths of asses' milk, in which she indulged twice a day. Flocks of several hundred asses followed the Court wherever it went, to insure the toilette of the Empress.

Under the Directory Madame Tallien tried baths of crushed strawberries and raspberries. But what is the sort of bath that has not been contrived? Baths of grape and olive skins, of Bordeaux wine, and of champagne have been used. A French doctor recommended baths of fresh blood, and in hundreds of towns bathing-places were provided in the public slaughter-houses. Other votaries of fashion were advised to bury themselves inside the bodies of dead animals, and even in manure-heaps. Modern science has replaced these strange prescriptions by baths of glycerine, and by ammomacal, electric, and chemical baths.

But even those revolting expedients for giving a beautiful hue to the skin were, perhaps, less matters of torture than the wearing through the night of masks, sometimes rigid, sometimes repulsive. In Rome the usage of the mask was so general that it was called the domestic, or husband's, mask. It was fabricated by special slaves every evening, with a paste made of bean flour, or with a mucilaginous product found in the nests of certain sea-birds; or, again, with the sweat of lambs.

In France the domestic mask was in use down to the seventeenth century. We owe to Henry III., who wore it, the recipe for a mask made of flour and white of eggs. This composition hardened on the face during the night, and was softened in the morning with a lotion of chervil. Haricot bean flour, fresh cream, honey, and olive oil entered into the preparation of these masks, which moulded themselves to the features. The chroniclers have left many ironical descriptions of these "stone faces," in which the features of these "elegants" were encased at nightfall, to be broken on the return of daylight and give to view—at least for a few hours—a complexion intact and youthful.

Let us not, however, too strongly accuse of fantasies the "elegants" of other days, with their "stone faces." In the dressingroom of some voluntary victim of coquetry in 1902, what are those freshly-cut and carefully-secreted beefsteaks, lividly raw and red, with powder-boxes near them? Presently, with much of mystery, those steaks will be adjusted with minute care by a lady'smaid to the cheeks of her mistress, held in their places with a bandage, and not removed before the next morning. This energetic recipe is said to be a more effective refresher of the complexion than chemical baths or "beauty pills" poisoned with arsenic; at any rate, the application of it demands courage, mystery, and discretion.

But, defiant of masks, fleshly compresses, and arsenical potions, little deformations will show themselves: tiny indiscreet folds of the skin at the corners of the mouth; the epidermis shrinks about the eyes; the surface of the forehead loses its smoothness; the first wrinkle threatens to assert itself. Treatment at once energetic and immediate is called for. Quickly a veritable arsenal is laid under contribution to eradicate this minim of defect. Behold a series of instruments of hardwood and metal, that look like models of garden implements! They are all for use in the processes of " face massage." For one or two hours daily for weeks —it may be for months—a practitioner employs these tools upon the face of his patient with minute care. Each one of the muscles that may act upon the unfortunate pucker in the skin must be massaged in accordance with the importance of the part it plays. Frictions of alcohol and the application of wet bandages terminate each operation. The wrinkle got rid of, partial masks maintain the smoothness of the epidermis so laboriously obtained, until renewed massage becomes requisite a little later on.

"In the Rooms of a 'Parisian Beautifier'"

The electric treatment is more delicate still: it demands the application of a continuous or intermittent current to the extremities of each of the muscles to be fortified. Five or six electrodes may be applied simultaneously to a face that is becoming wrinkled. The intensity of the currents being very weak, innumerable seances are necessary; and, even if not made painful, the operation is, at least, a very tedious one. Add to this that it has to be accompanied by interior medication—that the patient must be fattened or made thinner, according to the state of the epidermis. The suppression of a wrinkle, therefore, may represent three months of assiduous care, of two hours a day, by mechanical or electrical treatment.
So far, only the preservation intact of Nature's work has been dealt with ; now we come upon something more difficult—the remedying of some of its errors, their curtailment or total elimination. Numerous stories have been told to us of savages scalping their prisoners, of their putting them to death at slow fires; it is to similar tortures a woman will unhesitatingly submit herself who has made the distressing discovery that her upper lip is developing a moustache, or is shadowed by a too positive growth of down, or that her cheeks are being invaded by a hairy excrescence. Depilatory operations are always painful—often dangerous.

The Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans had for this disagreeable growth on the visage the same aversion as ourselves: they tore out both down and hair by very energetic means, extirpating them either with tweezers or by placing on the spot a plaster composed of pitch and quicklime. All the so-called "depilatory" preparations have a caustic base, like the rusma of the Orientals, and burn and injure the skin to a certain depth.

Modern operators practise extraction also. An extremely fine point of hard wood is dipped in crystallizable acetic acid, then applied to the skin beside the hair to be destroyed, which is gently drawn by tweezers. Several applications are made, at intervals of a few minutes; the skin softens, and the point penetrates. The skin then gives way to the least strain put upon it. Whatever the skill of the artist may be, however, the operation is a most painful one —so painful that the extraction of five or six hairs at a sitting is as much as a patient can endure.

modeling brows with electric needle

Electricity may here be introduced. Into the hair itself is inserted a needle of nickelled platinum, through which a conductor causes a current of 4,000 or 5,000 amperes to circulate for a variable period.
Scars often result from this energetic mode of treatment. Besides which, the caprice of electricity, which has its irony, has to be counted with; it may happen that, though it destroys the hair itself, it strengthens the root from which it has sprung and causes a growth of new down, finer and more abundant than ever. The red-hot iron is always the supreme resource—and the supreme torture. This light down was a mere suspicion—a mere shadow; but imagine that a pimple may appear on this epidermis, or perhaps a wart, or streaks and patches of red spread over it! And remember that it is the finest skins that are most exposed to misadventures of that sort' Let surgery come to our assistance; let it cut, slash, tear, and uproot. With a silken thread it strangles excrescences —burns them with acids, or tears away by fragments stains of the skin. This very delicate operation goes on for weeks. Josephine Beauharnais had the patience to allow sixty freckles to be removed from her face with the aid of the knife.

But all these operations appear pale and com monplace by the side of the heroism displayed two years ago by a celebrated actress, to whom truly belongs the martyr's crown. Driven to desperation by seeing her beauty compromised by a series of superficial alterations in her complexion, she decided to have the skin of her face completely changed! She found doctors who undertook the performance of this strange operation, which extended over seven weeks — seven weeks of uninterrupted suffering. All the skin of her face was chemically burned, then detached bit by bit. At the end of two months of suffering the old epidermis had entirely disappeared and been replaced by a skin as rosy, thin, and tender as that of a new-born child! So disconcerting was the aspect of this babylike complexion to a woman of thirty that the desperate actress found herself more ill-looking after the operation than she had thought herself to be before undergoing it, and had to seclude herself for a month to allow her new skin to age a little. At the end of four months, however, the result was perfect; the best friends of the heroic actress all declaring that she was " unrecognisable," so completely was she rejuvenated and transformed!

Seventeenth Century Face Patches

We have suppressed undesirable hairs, blotches, and warts: let us now add to them! We have been at much pains to do all this; and we will now do as much in an opposite direction. It was in the seventeenth century that the use of "patches " was inaugurated. They were cut out of thin black silk or sarcenet, gummed on the back, in the forms of crescents, suns, stars, and comets. They resembled on a face the signs of the Zodiac. They were an indispensable accessory to the play of the features. The placing of them on the temples, near the eyes, and at the corners of the mouth was a special art. A woman of quality always wore from eight to ten, and never went out without her box of patches for the replacing of those that fell off, or for the addition of fresh ones, as occasion might require.

Each one of these patches had a characteristic name: at the corner of the eye, "the impassioned"; in the middle of the cheek, "the gallant"; near the lips, "the coquette"; on a pimple, "the concealer." When she had these all properly placed, a fashionable lady looked as if she had met with some accident to her skin. Even to-day we see ladies who have had little pieces of brown india-rubber inserted under their skin to imitate moles or " beauty-spots."

That is only the beginning. We are now going to witness the whole work of ornamenting a face, of which there is not a feature that cannot be learnedly modified. First, the eye. In antiquity the art of enlarging and darkening the pupil was already known. Ovid says: "The surroundings of the eyes should be slightly darkened, a fine powder blown under the lids to make them appear brilliant and larger, the eyelashes tinted with sepia, the arc of the eyebrows lengthened."

To-day the transformation is not merely superficial. By the absorption of certain poisonous substances—atropine and belladonna, amongst others — a dilation of the pupil is obtained, making it look more expressive and luminous. Around the eye so enlarged some skilful touches with a pencil, prolonging the external opening of the lids; and the application of a flesh-paint, the basis of which is lamp-black, to the lashes, will give a look of brightness to the eyes. Besides all this there needs, for enframing these perfected eyes, well-designed eyebrows and thick lashes. Partial extraction of the hair of the brows and repeated massages may serve to modify their curve.

At the Court of Peter the Great the Russian women of fashion adopted a radical means, that of having their eyebrows entirely extracted, substituting for them a thick layer of black-lead, perfectly designed. Sometimes artificial eyelashes, slightly moistened with collodion, are placed under the natural lashes, which they enlarge. Of course, this work of art must be minutely renewed every day; the effect of belladonna is only momentary; paints become dimmed, and the false eyelids are never of a solidity to be altogether trustworthy.

The face is now to become a veritable palette, on which are all the tones of white, of blue, and of red, to simulate a young and brilliant complexion.

White, called silver or pearl-white, furnishes the first coat and groundwork of the picture. Is it generally known that the elementary essential of all whites is alabaster, pounded and pulverized in special mills mostly installed at Paris? Our "elegants" exhaust every year a quarry of fine marble for the making-up of their faces. The white is spread with a pad of cotton-wool or soft brush, more thickly on the parts where there are wrinkles, or where they may be threatening to appear. The red, chosen from among seventeen shades between rose and vermilion, is laid on lightly in layers and graduated from the top of the cheeks to the beginning of the neck. Finally, with pastels made of powdered talc and indigo, the artist traces in simple lines the course of the veins. One may suppose that the picture is then finished. But what varieties and subtleties enter into this making-up! A visage intended to shine under the rays of powerful lights cannot be treated in the same way as one intended to be seen in the light ot day: there is a red for the evening, a red for the theatre, and another for the town, for the country, for the sea! There is one make-up for fetes and another for simple entertainments!

Even painting has for some years given place to a process highly mysterious and jealously secreted by its practisers: that of enamelling. It substitutes for the outfit of paints a small solid envelope, transparent
and coloured, which covers the face with a coat of enamel. While the most successful make-up of paint cannot long resist exposure to heat, and must be renewed at least once a day, enamel lends the face a brightness that may endure for several weeks. Its inconvenience is the ceramic stiffness, the immobility in which it holds all the features while giving them a brilliant appearance. Its application, moreover, is a long and painful operation. To fix, cold, upon the skin the colouring powers, recourse must be had to acids of a dangerous character. Part of the enamelling must be done in darkness, and two or three days of interrupted treatment are indispensable for rendering the application definitive.

Powdering the Hair

Grave accidents, chronic affections of the skin, often result from enamelling that has been too energetically performed. But the very risk seems to add temptation to this mysterious operation; and who would not brave it to obtain the pearly splendour which turns the visage into a piece of art pottery? Scraped, massaged, polished, electrified, a halo of blue about the large and flashing eyes, the whole face brilliant, this work of art has now to be crowned with a harmoniously-adapted head of hair.

At times when fashion requires that its followers shall have hair of a dark blonde or mahogany colour, what is to be done with black hair but dye it? And what can be done with a thin or failing crop of hair but strengthen it by useful additions, enrich and thicken it?

Dyeing the Hair Venetian Blonde

The Orientals and Egyptians, preferring black hair, obtain it by the use of a lotion composed of Indian ink and rose-water. The young Jewesses used gold-dust to brighten their hair, and it is from them came the fashion of powdered hair. In Rome the "elegants" used dyes of gold colour, greens, and blues. Some of their recipes were very strange. There was one in which the juice of hellebore was mixed with honey and pounded rats' heads. In old France simple powder was at first sufficient; under Charles IX. it was violet, red under Louis XIII. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries white only was used. Mercier, in 1783, protested against the frightful quantity of starch which this fashion caused to be consumed, affirming that cities like London and Paris swallowed up as much meal daily as would have sufficed for the nourishment of ten thousand hungry people.

Modern chemistry lends itself to the most fantastic variations. Who knows what part chance may play in scientific discoveries? It is not less so in regard to capillary art. A doctor visiting a potash manufactory noticed the admirable golden hues of the hair of all the workwomen. A dye with a potash base was immediately combined, producing the Venetian blonde so greatly in vogue of late years. The same effect was formerly attained by exposing the hair to the sun, as shown in the following illustration from an old print. By accident also was the discovery made that the first greying of chestnut hair may be stayed by a lotion of tea. All grades of colour, from black to blonde, are obtained from preparations more or less dangerous, the least peril incurred being the weakening of the growth of hair and the provocation of premature baldness.

The most beautiful heads of natural hair do not equal certain marvellous wigs. In all times women have occasionally worn wigs. "Let us picture to ourselves," wrote M. de Saporta, "Mary Stuart on the scaffold: the executioner raises his axe, decapitates the poor Queen, and, seizing by its long hair the head dripping with blood, cries with all his might: 'God save Queen Elizabeth!' But the distresses of all kinds endured by Mary had stripped her of the blonde tresses of which she had once been so proud: the executioner grasped nothing but a wig, while the head, denuded of its covering, fell noisily on to the floor of the scaffold. For the rest, the Queen of England's head was no better furnished than that of her victim, and her red wig is not less famous."

The eighteenth century must be reached to find that the art of wig-making has attained the highest pitch of perfection—and ridiculousness. Then appeared the headdresses called "opera - boxes," which increased the height of a woman's face to 72m. from the bottom of her chin to the top of her piled-up hair; or those, more extravagant still, called puffs, in which the hair was raised stage above stage, stretched upon frames. In 1774 the Duchesse de Chartres appeared at the opera, her head dressed with a pyramidal puff on which were seen the Due de Beaujolais, her eldest son, in the arms of his nurse, a parrot pecking at a cherry, a little negro, and ciphers made of hairs, even of the Due de Chartres and of Princes.

Though less exacting, our present fashions demand an abundance of hair which has been discreetly augmented by fictitious additions. France alone consumes yearly more than 400,0001b. weight of hair in the making of some 30,000,000 wigs. It is the most costly of artificial beauties, for it has first to be purchased, then kept in order by being die sed daily by the aid of a multitude of products and numerous auxiliaries. The outlay on certain elegant heads of hair would serve to maintain fifteen persons— bald or not.

Now we come to the mouth. On the lips is placed a freshening pigment; on the gums a special rose. The tongue is scraped and rubbed with soft velvet. The teeth are ornamented and fabricated at will. The Annamite women carefully cover their teeth with a salve composed of bone-charcoal, sawdust, and honey; this is an elegance among savages. How much more civilized appears to us the recent fashion of rich American ladies, who, in cavities cut or filed in the hollows of their teeth, set rubies, pearls, diamonds, so that a sparkle underlines every smile of their opened lips?

It is now the turn of the earmodeller. The practice of moulding the ears, which has again become fashionable, is a very old one: the improved shape is effected by training the outer shell of the ear by binding it over pieces of wood of different forms; a cunning ointment is laid over all, and even the least aesthetic ears do not resist this treatment.

And now we come to the nose - maker. Nothing is rarer than a well made, nose; and need it be said of what importance the nose is? To - day noses are remade, refashioned, augmented, the curve of them changed at pleasure. Electric massage, the introduction of cylindrical and expanding sponges into the nostrils, are powerless to effect this prodigy; to achieve it, the skin must be moulded from beneath. The form of the nose chosen, Greek or aquiline, straight or upturned, is carefully moulded in plaster of Paris, with exact dimensions; of this a plaster mould is applied to the nose to be transformed, at the base of which, beneath the skin, a fine syringe charged with pure vaseline is introduced. The process of injection is then carried out, the vaseline penetrates under the skin, which it raises and presses closely against the mould; the pressure on the syringe is maintained until the vaseline injected becomes firm. The mould is then removed, and the nose, recently depressed and ill shapen, exactly resembles the model, only a little discoloured. A trifling daub of red, with some blue veins pencilled, completes this veritable creation, this triumph of modern cosmetics.

 Perhaps you may now declare yourself satisfied with your face. It has cost you quite enough. But, no! Beauty is a matter of proportions. All is lost if you are too big or too little, if you have feet too long, hands too short, a neck too long, a figure too heavy or too thin. What then? You are too tall; your height must be lessened. Your limbs are too long; very well, they must be shortened; too short, they must be lengthened. Let us resign ourselves again heroically to the torture, therefore: an inch has to be taken from the length of our neck, or as much added to it.

To accomplish this there are infallible means. How many processes are there for reducing fat, from the endless band in which women of middle age are swathed to the modern electric corset furnished with invisible batteries! Your limbs are too short? Swedish gymnastics will lengthen and stretch them, by means of apparatus very much resembling some ancient instruments of punishment. The size of a hand cannot be much diminished, but by repeated massages its heavy form may be modified, its fingers better arranged, and their nails freed from flesh. These are objects of great care and energetic treatment. When an ill-formed or ill-placed nail resists the action of polishers and artificial enamel, some "elegants "do not hesitate to submit to have it wholly removed by the burning of its base with acid; the new nail is then, from its birth, treated with infinite care. An actress in London with rare courage is reported to have had the nails on both hands replaced in this way. In Paris alone more than 3,000 specialists are engaged in the fabrication and preservation of beautiful hands.

Is that the end? Not yet. The idea of leaving motion, gesture, attitude, to chance! One must learn to walk, to smile, to execute the least gesture according to a harmonious rhythm. The commonest gesture is taught and repeated that is calculated to increase the effect of the least acquired grace. In fine, when nothing of Nature has been left, the pupil has acquhed the full mastery; the work is complete.

And that work is, veritably, the creation of a new being, artificial and elegant, in whom nothing remains, or at least is visible, of the imperfections imposed by Nature. But are these artificial chefs d'ceuvre worth as much as the sincere and imperfect work of Nature? Painted and enamelled, tinted and moulded to admiration, the heroines of coquetry may at least reproach themselves with having been too successful. They have committed the fault of passing the boundary at which care of the person ceases to be justifiable, and are after all much less attractive than a healthy milkmaid.

removing wrinkles with electric needle

electricity as cure for baldness

Delicate, pale, transparent skin...

This ideal of beauty persisted throughout centuries, in fact, it goes all the way back to ancient Rome. Class was conveyed by the fact that privileged hands were idle and smooth, not roughened by work or exposed to the elements. The face was also not exposed to the sunlight, lest the damaging rays tan and roughen the skin. The moneyed classes did not have to involve themselves in physical labor and the weather.

Lady Elizabeth Grey, Blueblood

A sure sign of privilege and wealth can be seen in this portrait of Lady Elizabeth Grey, circa 1619. If nature no longer provides the transparent, glowing skin of youth, well, that can be painted on. The transparency can be indicated by a delicate tracing of a blue vein here and there, such as the vein on her temple.  I was surprised to learn that this practice persisted into the 20th century~!

recipe- Perfumes and cosmetics, by Askinson, 1922

cosmopolitan, vol. 19

Another necessity to an artistic "make-up" of the face is the blue tint used in tracing veins. The ingredients of one variety are French or Venetian chalk made into a paste with gum-Arabic water, and tinted to the proper depth with Prussian-blue. The mixture comes in little jars accompanied by small leather pencils made expressly for the purpose, and it is said that if the work is well done the effect is very natural.


A more easily obtained tint is made of grease colored to the proper shade. It comes in pencil form and is simply drawn over the skin wherever a vein shows through. The mark is then softened down by rubbing, and the veins thus accentuated make the skin seem all the fairer and more delicate.


source: Beauty--its Attainment and Preservation, by Butterick Publishing Company, 1892

A complete guide to "making up", 1895

the Windsor Magazine. 1895

"I have done the best I could under the circumstance in seeking information from a delightfully worldly little French book that has come into my hands, and deals with the profoundest mysteries of the toilette.

The anonymous writer says: — The process of "making-up" requires to be undertaken with extreme care, for nothing can be more dreadful or in worse taste than the face of a woman whereon colours seem to have been laid with a trowel. The first essential for the success of the operation is abundance of light, so that the subject may see herself exactly as she is. 

Every woman must have the courage to begin by examining her countenance in detail and noting its imperfections, since her object is to remedy these. When the process is over, she must look at herself with unfriendly and critical eyes, and, if possible, in the broad light of day or in a sidelight, for then and then only can she be certain that she has not made of herself a mere painted figure-head. Mirrors reflect only a part of the luminous rays that strike the face, and so conceal in part its imperfections. This must be considered and allowed for.

To obtain a fresh, transparent complexion by artificial means the following course must be pursued :—Instead of beginning with milk-white paint, first spread over the skin a coat of liquid rouge, sufficiently diluted with water to be put on very evenly and in successive layers. Then apply the white, but white of the most absolute transparency is necessary. It may be had of a kind that shows through it even the tiniest blue veins. If the complexion be naturally florid, white paint alone will suffice. Liquid paints have not the drawback of plastering the skin and producing those motionless masks of colour that ruin the facial expression. Always put on too little paint rather than too much. Never use pink paints or powders, which give a violet or bluish tinge to the complexion. Before retiring to rest remove the make-up with strawberry cold cream or cream of cucumbers.

When rouging, if the face be thin and worn, apply the rouge low down and far back on the cheeks. Should the face, on the contrary, be over full and round, place the rouge high up and near the nose. Be careful to soften off the edges.

Blue paints and pencils are sold to accentuate the veins. This operation, like the preceding, must be conducted with the utmost delicacy. For the eyebrows mever use pencils, which destroy the hairs and produce an unnatural effect. Dark powder sold for the purpose is far superior, or even soot lightly laid on with a camel's hair brush.

To make-up the eyelashes sprinkle a few drops of kohl on a tooth brush and close the lashes upon it. A very fine line may be drawn with soot or kohl from the centre of the under eyelid to the outer corner of the eye.

The great danger in all "make-up" is, however, the danger of overdoing it, of "turning dimples into wrinkles," as Westland Marston said. Those who habitually "make-up" grow accustomed to the look of their own faces and pile on powder or colour to a ridiculous extent without being at all conscious of it."

source: "The Windsor Magazine", Volume 1, 1895

A beauty of the Period