Therefore to write the history of female fashion in France is a more serious task than it might seem to be at the first glance. The levity of the subject is mastered by its moral interest. Montesquieu remarks, in his “Lettres Persanes,” “A certain lady takes it into her head that she must appear at an assembly in a particular costume; from that moment fifty artisans have to go without sleep, or leisure either to eat or drink. She commands, and is obeyed more promptly than a Shah of Persia, because self-interest is the mightiest ruler upon the earth.” Far from serving only as a source of frivolous talk, even when it is specially concerned with our dress and ornamentation, the subject of fashion, it has been wisely observed, has its value as a moral sign-post, and supplies the historian, the philosopher, and the novelist with a guide to the prevailing ideas of the time. Fashion, in fact, acts as a sort of thermometer of the infinitely various tastes of the day, which are influenced by many external circumstances. It is the continuous development of clothing in its thousand varying forms, in its most striking improvements, in its most graceful or most whimsical fancies. The type of dress scarcely changes within the limits of a century; but its adjuncts and characteristics vary frequently every year. To the proverb, “Tell me your friends, and I will tell you who you are,” might we not add, after serious reflection, “Tell me how such a person dresses, and I will tell you her character”? Numerous poets have defined Fashion, and for the most part petulantly and disdainfully. One of them says,— “La mode est un tyran, des mortels respecté, Digne enfant du dégoût et de la nouveauté.”[1] Another adds,— “Les modes sont certains usages Suivis des fous, et quelquefois des sages, Que le caprice invente et qu’approuve l’amour.”[2] A third remarks with truth, and less severity,— “Le sage n’est jamais le premier à les suivre, Ni le dernier à les quitter.”[3] And La Bruyère asserts that “it shows as much weakness to fly from Fashion as to follow it closely.” We must not limit the causes of Fashion to three only,—love of change, the influence of those with whom we live and the desire of pleasing them, and the interests of traders in the transient reign of objects of luxury, so that their place may be supplied with fresh novelties. There remains to be pointed out a fourth and nobler cause; it is the frequently though not always successful desire to improve the art of dress, to increase its charm, and to advance its progress. We do not undertake to relate the history of fashion in male attire, albeit its variations and singularities are by no means less numerous and remarkable than those of the history of fashion for women, which in every age has proved itself both powerful and tyrannical.