500 Years of Fashion

An illustrated survey of women's fashion in Europe and America as it developed over 500 years of time.

In it we present artistic paintings from France, Italy, Germany, England, Spain, and America, from the opening of the fifteenth century to the end of the nineteenth century just past, from which we may gather the feminine beauty of those lands and ages, and the development of elegance and dress.

★ We are now in Italy, in the fifteenth century, when the European Renaissance had begun to dawn — in the Italy you know today, which was then a collection of independent states, such as Florence, Venice, Naples, Milan, and others.

"Portrait of a Lady" — this is the title of the artistic painting displayed above these words. Pisanello painted it around 1415, and in it he left us a display of the aristocratic dress of his day. The collar is high; the artist insisted on bringing it out, although it was not common at that time. The hair is raised upward, arranged toward the front, and ends in a braid. Simple pins are used for adornment — the ladies of Holland took this idea from the Italian women, and the use of pins became widespread among them. The gown is blue, embroidered with gilded purple, and at its top is a circle of jewel-studded buttons in place of the long necklace.

★ We are still in the same country and the same century.

A painting, which may be by the brush of Moroni or by that of Michele da Verona, whose subject is "The Betrothal of Jason and Medea." He painted it in 1470.

The idea is mythological, but the artist naturally cast it in a contemporary mold, so his women and their costumes are the women of his own age and their costumes. The women wear coverings on their heads, and beneath them small flat caps. Their hair ends in braids that swing before the ears. The sleeves are finely made. Two large buttons fasten the skirts in front.

★ England, the sixteenth century.

"Elizabeth, Queen of Britain," a painting by the artist de Passe, in which he followed the model of Isaac Oliver's picture. The year 1603.

The gown is gold and white; the Queen wore it for the first time on the day she went to pray in St. Paul's Cathedral on the morrow of the defeat of the Armada. Its sleeves are adorned with gold, and over it she put on a long necklace of jewels, pearls, and precious stones. Beneath the crown she wore curled false hair, and used pearl pins to dress it. In her right hand and her left are the scepter and the royal emblem.

★ In Germany, in the sixteenth century — the century of the Renaissance in Europe, and, in Germany, the century of the Reformation.

The painting is by the German painter Bruyn (in the year 1570), and it is the portrait of a Dutch lady of the Fassor family.

The headdress is white, finely made, exceedingly elegant, embroidered. The jacket is Spanish, its sleeves rounded and puffed out. Gloves are in common use. The garments are heavy; they weigh down the body and make it appear massive and stately.

Hortense had four sisters known for their extraordinary beauty, and she surpassed them all in it. In her fifteenth year she married a duke who later inherited from her uncle, Cardinal Mazarin, his name and his fortune. Her husband was exceedingly jealous; for that reason he would take her with him on his rounds and his travels, for fear that King Charles or the men of his court might carry her off in his absence. Until she fled, and was caught, together with her sister, dressed in men's clothing. Then she escaped once more, to England, where Charles tried to tempt her to become his mistress; but she refused and chose a man of the common people to live with!

Hortense was the friend of philosophers and men of thought, and the literature of her age spoke of her with much admiration and esteem.

She was described as having the longest hair in the world, the thickest, and the most beautiful.

★ We are now in Spain, in the eighteenth century.

In 1790 the great artist Goya painted this portrait of the Marquesa de Pontejos.

Powders are used in moderation. The hair has begun to come down more and more upon the head, and a braid of it swings beside each of the ears. The dress is gray, with a tinge of pink upon it. The sleeves are long and cling to the arms. The collar is wide and ornamented. The skirt is rounded and full. The shoe is finely made, in the shape of a triangle, the toes thrust forward.

The heir to the throne is on the left; he has no personality, and is very weak before his father the King. The Princess his wife is on the right, Bavarian by origin; she was not possessed of any great beauty, but she was attractive and kind of heart, and she loathed the court and spent her time reading or listening to music. With them are their three children, and between them hangs the portrait of the King. The table was made of silver, and cost nearly seventy thousand dollars (25 thousand Lebanese lira).

All of them wear embroidered brocade. The coats are finely tailored and cling to the body, with buttons and pockets. The shoes are very high. One of the children wears a wig, and the other two wear turbans. The Princess's dress is simple, representing the traditional tendency in the aristocracy of her day; it reveals her bosom far less than the gowns then in use at court. Her hair is braided, some of its braids falling over her face.

★ In France once more, and in the nineteenth century.

A display of the fashions of the age, appearing in one of the fashion magazines shown.

Collars have begun to take the shape of a V. The pleats and folds in the dresses have begun to increase. The braids of the hair are fewer in number than they were, and longer. The sides of the bonnets grow longer in keeping with the increasing length of the braids. The skirts still take their openings in the shape of a V as well. The use of flowers and of romantic fancies is on the increase.

★ And finally we are in England, in the middle of the nineteenth century.

This picture appeared in an English newspaper in 1848.

The headdress is of velvet, ending in white tassels. The dress is of satin, green-and-pink in color. The skirt is made up of three tiers, the edge of each of green silk with two rows of green velvet above it. The bodice is high and simple. The sleeves cling to the arms, especially at the wrists. The gloves are a pale yellow.