756 ANNUAL EEPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1913. 



Until the thirteenth century, women's costumes were chiefly tunics 

 or robes, marked by plain and natural simplicity. It was only to- 

 ward the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, under Francis I and 

 Henry II, that dresses w^ere designed following the lines of the body. 

 Women then appeared with fitted doublets, skirts, and wraps with 

 collars. The sleeves were leg-of-mutton and balloon shaped, filled 

 with plaits, or very tight, and these shapes often have been imitated 

 in our day. This was the starting point of fashion which will sleep 

 only for perpetual reawakening, making evolutions in irregular 

 cycles at the will of its creators. Under Henry III we find the 

 pointed waist, held in place by a stiff corset, the puffed sleeves ; the 

 dress already had the hoop-petticoat which fashion revived again 

 in 1830. 



The reign of Henry IV brought us the gi-eat bell skirt, built on 

 springs, which we find later with the crinoline. This tendency 

 toward fullness in the skirt kept increasing until 1605, bringing 

 some dresses to enormous proportions, with ruffles adding to their 

 size. Then, toward the end of the seventeenth century the fullness 

 diminished, giving way to padded dresses, concealed under mantle 

 wraps, and in 1880 they reappeared again. Eeduction in the size of 

 the skirt continued until about 1750 when fullness again came into 

 fashion, and by 1785 the skirts were ridiculously full, expanded with 

 gi-eat hoops. There was another reaction and the hoop-skirt gave 

 way first to the bustle, then in 1793 came the one-piece dress, with 

 a running string and without ornamentation. Greek robes were seen 

 at* fetes and on the stage. The directoire dress, very close-fitting, 

 exaggerated the plaited style and resembled the trousers skirt of 

 recent date. The empire costume, with the waist high under the 

 bosom, was only another transformation of the directoire dress, 

 showing at that time a tendency to fullness in the form. 



After 1805 the cycles began to shorten, the wheel turned faster, and 

 without stopping, until we find a general style used by all classes of 

 society. Skirts were worn very full again toward 1810 and, passing 

 through all sorts of gradations, with a partial return of fullness in 

 the back, ended in 1860 to 1865 in the culminating point of the crino- 

 line. This marks the departure from Orientalism and brings us to- 

 ward the epoch when very simple and straight robes Avere worn until 

 we reach the other extreme, the clinging gown, not forgetting the 

 harem skirt, an exaggerated revised edition of the eccentricities of 

 the period from 1805 to 1815. We must pause to resume slowly but 

 surely the march toward the puffed or padded styles.^ 



How is fashion created? Since the days of Worth in 1846, it has 

 been the w^ell-known modiste who has been the creating artist. His 



1 r;u!lctin (Jes Soies et des Soieries, Aug. 18, 1911. 



