The psychology of dress / [Frank Alvah Parsons].

  • Parsons, Frank Alvah, 1868-1930.
Date:
1920
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The psychology of dress / [Frank Alvah Parsons]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    developing and good taste being crushed, with no one to object or to dictate. This points clearly to the complete triumph of the individual idea of the eighteenth century and to the final downfall of autocratic royal dictation in matters of dress as in matters of religion, state, or public morals. This condition, as it always has, released the imagina¬ tion, the instinctive desires, and the creative powers of the queer and the undeveloped, for strivings are duly recorded in what they did, hence the medley of costumes with and without taste as well as with and without sense or reason, the first mentioned quality often redeeming and making a delight of the creations of earlier periods, even where sense and reason seemed to be entirely missing. Fashion seems always to be making new demands on her slaves and they seem ready to obey her mandates, no matter to what they may lead. The “leg of mutton” sleeve furnished the chief novelty to be exploited in the days of Charles X, but at the time of the accession of Louis Philippe in 1830 the rage for it was spent and other details or adjuncts of dress were seized upon in order to tempt the female heart, although in the basic essentials of dress there was little change. The huge bonnets known as the cabriolet gave way to tiny caps called by fancy names, such as Charlotte Corday, the peasant, the nun, the Elizabeth, the chatelaine, etc. The nets worn were a la Napol- itaine, “steeplechase rosettes” below the ears, Algerian head-dresses, Armenian toques, and white and gold Jewish turbans with strings, a la Rachel. Many novelties in colour appeared also.