Les fleurs artificielles sont encore le genre de coëffure qui sied le mieux aux dames

Kürzlich trug ich für ein Ensemble von 1804 ein Diademe aus Seidenrosen, aber auch ein paar Jahre später hatte "Centyeux" ganz klare Ansichten zum Thema "Schmuck"

    Les fleurs artificielles sont encore le genre de coëffure qui sied le mieux aux dames, qui épuise le moins la bourse des maris, et par conséquent le plus généralement adopté. Les diamans et les pierres précieuses ont bien aussi leurs charmes; mais n'en a pas qui veut, et souvent celle qui en porte, pleure en secret le moment où la fantaisie lui a pris de se faire si brillante. Aussi ne voit-on de diamans qu'aux femmes extrêmement opulentes, et à celles qui sont bien loin d'être. Les dames qui occupent un juste milieu dans la société ne veulent point d'une parure dont l'éclat les rendroit suspectes: dans un pays où tout brille de luxe et de toilette, elles ne peuvent s'en tenir raisonnablement à la simple nature; mais elles n'emploient l'artifice que pour les fleurs: artifice bien innocent et bien excusable, qui embellit leur figure sans porter atteinte à la pureté de leur ame.
    LE CENTYEX

Journal des Dames et des Modes No. 1 (Quinzième Année.) 5 Janvier, 1811.
Via Bunka Gakuen https://digital.bunka.ac.jp/kichosho/file/No.414/414-0015-003.jpg

Trouvaille du Jour - Non-seulement elles se serrent...

A translation of this paragraph has already been translated during the Journal Journey 1811 - I thought it might be interesting to share the original text - I came across it today again while reading up something else.
It is by Centyeux what translates for those readers unfamiliar with the Journal des Dames et des Modes - to be taken cum grano salis. But no smoke without fire...

-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-
 On a beaucoup crié contre les corsets: et nos dames avoient non-seulement abandonné les corsets, mais, sans robe, sans fichu, elles alloient presque en chemise. De cet excès d'abandon, les femmes sont tombées dans un autre. Non-seulement elles se serrent, s'entourent de baleines et de buscs comme autrefois, mais les corsets du jour sont plus grands et plus forts que ceux d'autrefois. Un corset actuel presse non- seulement l'estomac, la taille, les épaules; mais entoure et comprime tout le buste de manière à ne permettre à la femme ainsi emmaillotée aucune espèce de movement. Que l'on envie à présent le sort de ces grandes dames dont la parure jette tant d'éclat! elles ne peuvent ni rire, ni manger, ni se baisser, ni se tourner. Que dis-je? elles peuvent à peine respirer. Le moindre soupir peut faire casser le cordon, et mettroit le désordre dans leur toilette: heureuses les bonnes femmes, les mères de famille, qui vivent tranquillement au sein de leur ménage: elles reçoivent, non pas les complimens des adulateurs, mais les caresses de leurs enfans, et vivent, la tête, l'esprit, le corps en liberté, et la conscience en repos.
    LE CENTYEUX

Journal des Dames et des Modes, No.4 (Quinzième Année.) 20 Janvier, 1811.

-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-

I must say, I again am more than grateful for the counter-movement in the period, for tailors like J.S. Bernhardt, who kept a record of an alternative, and published it - and even more so to Sabine Schierhoff at "Kleidung um 1800", who woke J.S. Bernhardt from a deep archival slumber back in 2013, and wrote multiple articles, called "Schnürleibstudien" - and I am more than pleased to see more living history folks taking to them. (Wouldn't it be great if they'd all use #bernhardtstays so we could follow their projects on a simple hashtag?)

The list of articles - including an explanation of Bernhardts scaling method even I understand:

https://kleidungum1800.blogspot.com/2013/05/short-stays-studies-schnurleib-studien.html

https://kleidungum1800.blogspot.com/2014/05/short-stays-studies-schnurleib-studien.html

https://kleidungum1800.blogspot.com/2018/02/js-bernhardt-1790er-schnurleib-studien.html

I think many of us who sew owe Sabine a lot for having dug out that document and made it accessible to us, because I can say without reservation: It's the most comfortable corset I have, and I am sure even the severe Centyeux would approve of the form it gives, as well of the comfort this corset offers. (I use "Corset" here in the French meaning. I also like calling a fichu a fichu when referring to a french text and not a handkerchief. Yes, I am a terrible snob.)

If you think that this is just a German thing... I give you a two lines in the Journal des Dames et des Modes from 31 January 1811: 

Journal des Dames et de Modes, No. 6 (Quinzième Année.) 31. Janvier 1811
via gallica.bnf.fr

Isn't this something? I love how intertwined this period is, how sources and persons interact, and we stumble over them where we least expect them. 

Trouvaille: Dancing is soo complicated and tiring these days...

That's January 16, 1804

Dancing today is so complicated, so intricate and fatiguing, that in an assembly twenty good dancers meet four good gentlemen dancers: after five or six years of training, a dancer is exhausted; the ladies, who are more graceful by making less of an effort, or rather to whom this kind of exercise is more favorable, the ladies, as I say, are dancing well, dancing much and are dancing for a long time.

Trouvaille: The Velletri Pallas, the Blockbuster in December 1803

Just imagine, how wonderful it would be if you are meeting in 'Good Society'*, and the topic of choice isn't the weather, but art. And even better, ancient Roman art!

One cannot present oneself in good society* these days without saying something about the Pallas of Velletri, and without reciting some passages from Valérie, the latest fashionable novel.

We've already read a little bit about Valérie in a recent post, but what is so special about the Pallas Velletris?  

I am sure that you have seen pictures of the Velletri Athena, even without knowing her name: 

Source: https://fr.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fichier:Athena_type_Velletri.jpg

C Wikimedia Commons

A print from 1810, at the V&A 

http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O1157692/pallas-de-velletri-print-bouillon-pierre/

© The V&A  

She was discovered near Velletri in Lazio in 1797, and entered the collection of the Musée Napoléon** in December 1803. This translates that this wonder if the antique world made her appearance just days before this issue of the Journal des Dames was published. If you have ever stood in front of this imposing goddess (or a copy of it), who appears serene, beautiful, knowing, offering shelter, you understand how she became the talk of society. She was the embodiment of this new era, of a period when the spirit of consular Rome was considered to be the guiding light.

Monsieur being spellbound by a copy of her a couple of years back. The plaster copy's home is in the collection of the University of Bern, Switzerland.
© A. Reeves

More modern information can be found on the Louvre's website: 

http://www.louvre.fr/en/oeuvre-notices/athena-known-pallas-velletri

* the 'Bonne Société was defined by Helmina de Chezy, a contemporary observer and society correspondent as members of former court circles, of good society, but actively excluding Nouveaux Riches who obtained their fortuned by speculation during the revolution. 

** The Musée Napoléon is known today as The Louvre. But back in 1803 the collection was renamed Musée Napoléon. By the way - did you know you can also search the Louvres Collection database online? 

Trouvaille: a little less in the head

It's no secret that I along with other people love good zingers (Dowager duchess, I'm looking at you...), and for anyone with such a taste, the Journal des Dames is a treasure trove, usually signed off by Centyeux. (Nom du plume of the editor)

Sadly not everything translate well into English, but I'll love such snippets, and I'd like to share:

That reads 27 December 1803, as usual courtesy of the BNF

An elegant fop's hair is blockingly cut at the front, and rather short/shaved on the sides: on top of the head the hair is cut high and teased into the shape of fishbones; on the sides there is some sort of empty bit named Luck's Way, at the forehead a bushel of hair falls down to the eyes, another bunch falls in curls like a tail. 

That is the description of current styles given by Mr Crépon (creper = teasing hair, Crepon = hair rat), the wig maker. This analysis leads to the conclusion that there is much to say about the outside of a fop's head: there would be much less to analyse on the inside. 

O cerebrum caput etc....

P.S.: I'm by no means well equipped using use hair dressers terms, but to me it reads as some sort of 1980ies mullet hairdo ;-)

The Modern Woman...

...Doesn't carry a réticule, nor something else, but a book :-)

Today's Trouvaille from Journal des Dames et des Modes, Nr 3, Year 8 (October 1803)

The ladies go out in the morning. According to fashion, they carry neither money, nor a handkerchief, nor a réticule in their hand, but a book. Therefor the daily stroll becomes a meeting point for blue stockings. We don't see them anymore at Rennelagh; and in the evenings the fashionable family splits as such: Madame goes to watch Miss Duchesnois or Elleviou, the children visit the Pittoresque and Mechanical theatre, and Monsieur goes to Frascati.

*******

Mlle Duchesnois: a famous tragic actress. https://fr.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catherine-Joséphine_Duchesnois

Mlle Duchesnois was a rival to today better known Mlle Georges, and a protégée of Joséphine Bonaparte. 

http://museosphere.paris.fr/sites/museosphere.paris.fr/files/styles/large_fiche/public/images/ca_s3_pajou_v1_24215-3.jpg?itok=yskAX7OM

The Ranelagh is a théâtre established in 1722, mostly performing comedies, thus a meeting point for the Young and Beautiful.

http://www.theatre-ranelagh.com/fr/le-theatre/histoire

The Frascati is like the Ranelagh or the Tivoli one of the hotspots for all the Bright a Young Things. 

Famous for Ices.

https://fr.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Café_Frascati

Thus the interpretation is: Madame is fashionably (read superficially)redirected towards tragedy (the higher form of theatre), the Children are enthused by technical novelties, while Monsieur visits the ice-cream parlour.