Severity of feminine costume—Long gowns and _guimpes_—Marguerite of Provence—“Fermaux”—Reappearance of splendour in dress—Eastern customs—The priests of fashion—Haberdashery and peacock-feathers—Female embroiderers—Taste for embroidery—Continual temptations—Earliest sumptuary laws—Furs—St. Louis’s opinion on dress—Prohibitions by Philippe le Bel; speech made by his wife—Crépine. Owing to the influence of the Crusades and the predilections of St. Louis, the dress of women assumed much of that severity proper to masculine garments. Under Louis VIII. a mantle had been the distinctive mark of a married woman. It is asserted that St. Louis’s daughters, whose legs and feet were ill-shaped, contrived to wear very long gowns in order to hide them. This was surely a pardonable piece of coquetry, and long skirts became the order of the day. Similar causes have led to similar results in more recent times. When once the long skirt had been introduced, it resisted many attempts to dislodge it. In the reign of Philip III. women hid their busts under a “guimpe,” and looked almost like our sisters of Charity. The coat and the guimpe seem to have been introduced by Marie, the king’s second wife, whose throat was too long, while her bust was absolutely flat, and the wives of the courtiers in this instance also copied the Queen of France. Imbued with the religious spirit that exercised at that time so great a power over the imaginations of mankind, or at any rate overmastered by it, the ladies of the court, with few exceptions, were modest in their attire. They added indeed to the elegance of their veils, but continued to wear them in obedience to ecclesiastical decrees. Queen Marguerite of Provence wore a dress close-fitting in the bodice, the sleeves were long and narrow; her mantle was embroidered with _fleurs-de-lis_, and was made with long open sleeves. Her veil was folded with a band beneath the chin, but not setting closely to the face. Her head-dress was not unlike a turban. But such humility as this could not long prevail over the malicious demon of coquetry. On the one hand, people of wealth indulged themselves in luxury and splendour, and many knights on returning from the Crusades, retained in France the habits they had acquired in the East, and on the other, the middle and lower classes tried to walk in the steps of the nobles, and the bourgeoises endeavoured to array themselves like the haughty consorts of the Crusaders.