THE STORY OF COSTUMES 



well-groomed men wore their old suits until they were 

 as shabby as beggar garments. When they were 

 finally obliged to buy they bought sparingly from well- 

 known sources, and this tended to simplify the cut of 

 garments by curtailing the amount of uninfected cloth 

 obtainable. 



In a much less degree the plagues affected the wear- 

 ing of wigs. For although it was believed, probably 

 with good reason, that many of the wigmaker's prod- 

 ucts were made from hair clipped from the heads of 

 plague victims, human vanity was such that even risk- 

 ing death itself was preferable to exposing gray hairs, 

 or no hairs at all. Men could bear excusably aged 

 garments better than the inexcusable marks of bodily 

 age; and so wigmakers flourished despite the plagues, 

 while their tailor neighbors starved. 



But the heyday of the wig was the eighteenth cen- 

 tury. In that age they were no longer confined to 

 the small affairs made to match and conceal crowns 

 of hair, or simply to hide gray locks, but were made more 

 as hoods and hats, and worn by all well-to-do gentle- 

 men. A gentleman would feel as ridiculous without 

 his wig at that time as one would now without 

 a collar. 



The custom of powdering the wig is said to have 

 originated through the whims of some French buffoons. 

 A troop of these performers, wishing to make them- 

 selves as grotesque as possible, covered their wigs 

 with flour. This caught the fancy of a bevy of rol- 

 licking French gallants, who imitated the buffoons, 

 and soon established a custom which came to be re- 



