ECONOMIC EOLE OF FASHION — CLEKGET. 759 



It is this individualism directing the present style, this instability, 

 the changing at every season, which helps Paris in great measure to 

 maintain its leading influence on fashion, and this is not of recent 

 origin. Isabel of Bavaria, in 1391, and Anne of Brittany, in 1496, 

 sent to the queens of England and Spain dolls dressed in the latest 

 style. During the war of the succession in Spain the courts of Ver- 

 sailles and St. James accorded safe conduct to the alabaster doll 

 which accredited the newest fashions from the other side of the 

 Channel.^ It is Paris that " decrees the sumptuary law of nations," 

 it is she that sells the models, and the best advertisement of a 

 foreign modiste is to announce her " return from Paris." One can 

 understand that this advantage would be envied outside of France, 

 and they have tried, especially in the United States, to wrest it from 

 her. These attempts have not ceased.' It can readily be seen that 

 there is involved in this the question of a convenient center which 

 is not found elsewhere. Copying styles is so very easy that a com- 

 mittee of defense of Parisian fashions has been formed, which has 

 brought about a closer connection between the release of models and 

 the opening of the season, and there has been adopted a stamp of 

 origin, furnished by the syndics of needlework. 



While we have spoken up to this point simply of clothing and 

 hairdressing, we should not think that this is the limit of fashion's 

 domain. It controls conversation, the manner of walking, how to 

 shake hands. Such a word as " epatant " (stunning) owes to fashion 

 its recent admittance to the " Dictionary of the Academy." The 

 general use of such a drink as tea, the abandonment of wine in cer- 

 tain circles, vegetarianism, may all be regarded as fashions, likewise 

 the adoption of some state of the mind which takes the lead at times, 

 as sensitiveness or calmness. We have already spoken of architec- 

 ture and furniture. The passion for traveling and for sports be- 

 comes widespread; there is less taste for home; there is less desire 

 for books and interior ornaments. 



The influence of fashion is reflected also on the sales of works of 

 art. The great sales recently held in Paris have shown that there is 

 a revival in favor of productions of the eighteenth century. In 

 June, 1912, at a Doucet sale a pastel of " Quentin de la Tour," the 

 portrait of " Duval de I'Epinoy," purchased in 1903 for 5,210 francs 

 ($1,012), brought G60,000 francs ($132,000) ; the " Jardin de la ville 

 d'Este," by Fragonard, which sold for 700 francs ($140) in 1880, 

 brought 21,300 francs ($4,226) ; and the " Sacrifice au Minotaure," by 

 the same painter, for which 5,300 francs ($1,060) was paid in 1880, 

 was held at 396,000 francs ($79,200). Such fluctuations, of which 

 we could give many examples, are attributed by M. Paul Leroy- 



1 V. du Bled. Les Evolutions du luxe dans la Soci6t4 polie. Revue fi«onomique Inter- 

 nationale, September, 1906. 



