I. THE STORY OF PERIOD COSTUMES:II. EGYPT AND ASSYRIA

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Mrs. Langtry (Lady de Bathe) in Evening

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This is a theme, the detailed development of which lies outside the purpose of our

book. It has delightful possibilities, however, if the plentiful data on the subject,

given in scientific books, were to be condensed and simplified.

CHAPTER XV

I. THE STORY OF PERIOD COSTUMES

A Résumé

"UR present modes of dress (aside from the

variations imposed by fashion) are the resultant of

all the fashions of the last 2000 years."

W. G. SUMNER in Folkways.

The earliest Egyptian frescoes, invaluable pre-historic data, show us woman as she

was costumed, housed and occupied when the painting was done. On those age-old

walls she appears as man's companion, his teacher, plaything, slave, and ruler;--in

whatever rôle the fates decreed. The same frescoed walls have pictured records of

how Egypt tilled the soil, built houses, worked in metals, pottery and sculpture.

Woman is seen beside her man, who slays the beasts, at times from boats propelled

through reeded jungles; and hers is always that rigid outline, those long, quiet eyes

depicted in profile, with massive head-dress, and strange upstanding ornaments,

abnormally curled wig, and close, straight garments to the feet (or none at all),

heavy collar, wristbands and anklets of precious metals with gems inset, or chased

in strange designs. About her, the calm mysterious poise and childlike acquiescence

of those who know themselves to be the puppets of the gods. In this naïveté lies one

of the great charms of Egyptian art.

As sculptured caryatide, we see woman of Egypt clad in transparent sheath-like

skirt, nude above the waist, with the usual extinguishing head-dress and heavy

collar, bracelets and anklets. We see her as woman, mute, law-abiding, supporting

the edifice; woman with steady gaze and silent lips; one wonders what was in the

mind of that lotus eater of the Nile who carved his dream in stone.

Those would reproduce Egyptian colour schemes for costumes, house or stage

settings, would do well to consult the book of Egyptian designs, brought out in

1878 by the Ecole des Beaux Arts, Paris, and available in the large libraries.

On the walls of the Necropolis of Memphis, Thi and his wife (Fifth Dynasty)

appear in a delightful hunting scene. The man in the prow of his boat is about to

spear an enormous beast, while his wife, seated in the bottom, wraps her arm about

his leg!

Among the earliest portraits of an Egyptian woman completely clothed, is that of

Queen Taia, wife of Amenophis, Eighteenth Dynasty, who wears a striped gown

with sleeves of the kimono type and a ribbon tied around her waist, the usual

ornamental collar and bracelets of gold, and an elaborate head-dress with deep blue

curtain, extending to the waist, behind.

Full of illuminating suggestions is an example of Woman in Egyptian decoration,

to be seen as a fresco in the Necropolis of Thebes. It shows the governess of a

young prince (Eighteenth Dynasty) holding the child on her lap. The feet of the

little prince rest on a stool, supported by nine crouching human beings--men; each

has a collar about his neck, to which a leash is attached, and all nine leashes are

held in the hands of the child!

The illustrations of the Egyptian funeral papyrus, The Book of the Dead, show

woman in the rôle of wife and companion. It is the story of a high-born Egyptian

woman, Tutu, wife of Ani, Royal Scribe and Scribe of the Sacred Revenue of all

the gods of Thebes. Tutu, the long-eyed Egyptian woman, young and straight, with

raven hair and active form, a Kemäit of Amon, which means she belonged to the

religious chapter or congregation of the great god of Thebes. She was what might

be described as lady-in-waiting or honorary priestess, to the god Amon. She, too,

wears the typical Egyptian head-dress and straight, long white gown, hanging in

close folds to her feet. One vignette shows Tutu with arm about her husband's leg.

This seems to have been a naïve Egyptian way of expressing that eternal

womanliness, that tender care for those beloved, that quality inseparable from

woman if worthy the name, and by reason of which with man, her mate, she has run

the gamut of human experience, meeting the demands of her time. There is no

dodging the issue, woman's story recorded in art, shows that she has always

responded to Fate's call; followed, led, ruled, been ruled, amused, instructed, sent

her men into battle as Spartan mothers did to return with honour or on their shields,

and when Fate so decreed, led them to battle, like Joan of Arc.

II. EGYPT AND ASSYRIA

In Egypt and Assyria the lines of the torso were kept straight, with no contracting

of body at waist line. Woman was clad in a straight sheet-like garment, extending

from waist to feet with only metal ornaments above; necklace, bracelets and

armlets; or a straight dress from neck to meet the heavy anklets. Sandals were worn

on the feet. The head was encased in an abnormally curled wig, with pendent

ringlets, and the whole clasped by a massive head-dress, following the contour of

head and having as part of it, a curtain or veil, reaching down behind, across

shoulders and approaching waist line. The Sphinx wears a characteristic Egyptian

head-dress.

PLATE XIX

Mrs. Condé Nast, artist and patron of the arts,

noted for her understanding of her own type

and the successful costuming of it.

Mrs. Nast was Miss Clarisse Coudert. Her

French blood accounts, in part, for her innate

feeling for line and colour. It is largely due to

the keen interest and active services of Mrs.

Nast that Vogue and Vanity Fair have become

the popular mirrors and prophetic crystal

balls of fashion for the American woman.

Mrs. Nast is here shown in street costume.

The photograph is by Baron de Meyer, who

has made a distinguished art of photography.

We are here shown the value of a carefully

considered outline which is sharply registered

on the background by posing figure against

the light, a method for suppressing all details

not effecting the outline.

Photograph by Baron de Meyer

Mrs. Condé Nast in Street Dress

III. EGYPT, BYZANTIUM, GREECE AND ROME

During the periods antedating Christ, when the Roman empire was all-powerful,

the women of Egypt, Byzantium, Greece and Rome, wore gilded wigs (see Plate I,

Frontispiece), arranged in Psyche knots, and banded; sandals on their feet, and a

one-piece garment, confined at the waist by a girdle, which fell in close folds to the

feet, a style to develop later into the classic Greek.

The Greek garment consisted of a great square of white linen, draped in the deft

manner of the East, to adapt it to the human form, at once concealing and

disclosing the body to a degree of perfection never since attained. There were

undraped Greek garments left to hang in close, clinging folds, even in the classic

period. It is this undraped and finely-pleated robe (see Plate XXI) hanging close to

the figure, and the two-piece garment (see Plate IV) with its short tunic of the same

material, extending just below the waist line in front, and drooping in a cascade of

ripples at the sides, as low as the knees, that Fortuny (Paris) has reproduced in his

tea gowns.

An Englishwoman told us recently that her great-great-grandmother used to

describe how she and others of her time (Empire Period) wet their clothes to make

them cling to their forms, à la Grecque!

The classic Greek costume was often a sleeveless garment, falling in folds, and

when confined at waist line with cord the upper part bloused over it; the material

was draped so as to leave the arms free, the folds being held in place by ornamental

clasps upon the shoulders. The fitting was practically unaided by cutting; squares or

straight lengths of linen being adjusted to the human form by clever manipulation.

The adjusting of these folds, as we have said, developed into an art.

The use of large squares or shawls of brilliantly dyed linen, wool and later silk, is

conspicuous in all the examples showing woman as decoration.

The long Gothic cape succeeds it, that enveloping circular garment, with and

without the hood, and clasped at the throat, in which the Mother of God is

invariably depicted. Her cape is the celestial royal blue.

The stained silk gauzes, popular with Greek dancers, were made into garments

following the same classic lines, and so were the gymnasium costumes of the

young girls of Greece. Isadora Duncan reproduces the latter in many of her dances.

In the chapter entitled "The Story of Textiles" in The Art of Interior Decoration, we

have given a résumé of this branch of our subject.

The type of costume worn by woman throughout the entire Roman Empire during

its most glorious period, was classic Greek, not only in general outline, but in

detail. Note that the collarless neck was cut round and a trifle low; the lines of

gown were long and followed each other; the trimming followed the hem of neck

and sleeves and skirt; the hair, while artificially curled and sometimes intertwined

with pearls and other gems, after being gilded, was so arranged as to show the

contour of the head, then gathered into a Psyche knot. Gold bands, plain or

jewelled, clasped and held the hair in place.

In the Gold Room of the Metropolitan Museum; in noted collections in Europe; in

portraits and costume plates, one sees that the earrings worn at that period were

great heavy discs, or half discs, of gold; large gold flowers, in the Etruscan style;

large rings with groups of pendants,--usually three on each ring, and the drop

earrings so much in vogue to-day.

Necklaces were broad, like collars, round and made of hand-wrought links and

beads, with pendants. These filled in the neck of the dress and were evidently

regarded as a necessary part of the costume.

The simple cord which confined the Greek woman's draperies at the waist, in Egypt

and Byzantium, became a sash; a broad strip of material which was passed across

the front of body at the waist, crossed behind and then brought tight over the hips to

tie in front, low down, the ends hanging square to knees or below.

In Egypt a shoulder cape, with kerchief effect in front, broadened behind to a

square, and reached to the waist line.

We would call attention to the fact that when the classic type of furniture and

costume were revived by Napoleon I and the Empress Josephine, it was the

Egyptian version, as well as the Greek. One sees Egyptian and Etruscan styles in

the straight, narrow garment of the First Empire reaching to ankles, with parallel

rows of trimming at the bottom of skirt.

The Empire style of parted hair, with cascade of curls each side, riotous curling

locks outlining face, with one or two ringlets brought in front of ears, and the

Psyche knot (which later in Victorian days lent itself to caricature, in a feather-

duster effect at crown of head), were inspired by those curled and gilded creations

such as Thaïs wore.

Hats, as we use the term to-day, were worn by the ancients. Some will remember

the Greek hat Sibyl Sanderson wore with her classic robes when she sang

Massenet's "Phédre," in Paris. It was Chinese in type. One sees this type of hat on

Tanagra Statuettes in our museums.

Apropos of hats, designers to-day are constantly resurrecting models found in

museums, and some of us recognise the lines and details of ancient head-dresses in

hats turned out by our most up-to-date milliners.

Parasols and umbrellas were also used by Assyrians and Greeks. Sandals which

only covered the soles of the feet were the usual footwear, but Greeks and

Etruscans are shown in art as wearing also moccasin-like boots and shoes laced up

the front.

Of course, the strapped slippers of the Empire were a version of classic sandals.

As we have said, the Greek gown and toga are found wherever the Roman Empire

reached. The women of what are now France and England clothed themselves at

that time in the same manner as the cultured class of Rome. Naturally the Germanic

branch which broke from the parent stem, and drifted northward to strike root in

unbroken forests, bordering on untried seas, wore skins and crudely woven

garments, few and strongly made, but often picturesque.

Though but slightly reminiscent of the traditional costume, we know that the

women of the third and fourth centuries wore a short, one-piece garment, with large

earrings, heavy metal armlets above the elbow and at wrists. The chain about the

waist, from which hung a knife, for protection and domestic purposes, is

descendent from the savage's cord and ancestor to that lovely bauble, the chatelaine

of later days, with its attached fan, snuff-box and jewelled watch.

PLATE XX

Mrs. Condé Nast in an evening gown. Here

again is a costume the beauty of which

evades the dictum of fashion in the narrow

sense of the term.

This picture has the distinction of a well-

posed and finely executed old master and

because possessing beauty of a traditional

sort will continue to give pleasure long after

the costume has perished.

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