THE MILLINER, AND THE LADY'S DRESS-MAKER. THE MILLINER. 1. THE milliner is one who manufactures and repairs bonnets and hats, for ladies and children. Her business requires the use of pasteboard, wire, millinette, silks, satins, muslins, ribands, artificial flowers, spangles, and other materials, too numerous to be mentioned. 2. The first part of the process of making a hat, or bonnet, consists in forming a crown of millinette; which operation is performed on a block, of a suitable size and shape: and to this is applied pasteboard, or millinette, edged with wire. The foundation having been thus laid, it is usually covered and lined with some of the materials just enumerated, and finished by applying to it the trimmings required by the fashion, or by the individual customer. 3. Ladies' hats are also made of rye straw, and a kind of grass, which grows in Italy: those made of the latter material are called Leghorns, from the name of the city, in or near which they are principally made. A few years since, these had almost superseded those made of straw; but the latter, of late, have nearly regained their former ascendency. 4. In the United States, and likewise in various parts of Europe, there are several establishments for making straw hats, in which the proprietors employ females to perform the whole labour. The straw is first cut into several pieces, so as to leave out the joints, and then whitened by smoking them with the fumes of brimstone. They are next split longitudinally into several pieces, by a simple machine, F and afterwards plaited with the fingers and thumbs. The braid, or plait, thus produced, is formed into hats, according to the prevailing fashion. 5. Great quantities of straw are, also, plaited in families, especially in the NewEngland states, and sold to neighbouring merchants, who, in turn, dispose of it to those who form it into hats. The milliners usually keep a supply of Leghorn and straw hats, which they line and trim according to the fancy of their customers. 6. Head-dresses were probably, used nearly as early as any other part of dress; and their form and material have likewise been equally variable. In the early days of Rome, the head-dress of the women of that city was very simple; and when they went abroad, which was seldom, they covered their faces with a veil; but when riches and luxury had increased, dress became, with many, the principal object of attention; hence, a woman's toilet and ornaments were called her world. 7. The head-dresses of the ladies, in various parts of Europe, especially in the eighteenth century, were particularly extravagant; being sometimes so high, that the face seemed to be nearly in the centre of the body. In 1714, this fashion was at its height, in France; but two English ladies, visiting the court of Versailles, introduced the low head-dresses of their own * country. 8. The high head-dresses had no sooner fallen into disuse in France, than they were adopted in England, and even carried to a greater degree of extravagance. To build one of these elevated structures in the fashionable style, both the barber and milliner were necessary. The head-dresses || of the ladies of the present age, are characterized by great simplicity, when com pared with those of several periods in preceding ages. THE LADY'S DRESS-MAKER. 1. This business is nearly allied to the foregoing, and is, therefore, often carried on in conjunction with it. This is especially the case, in villages and small towns, where sufficient business cannot be obtained in the exclusive pursuit of one branch. 2. The customers of the lady's dressmaker, are not always easily pleased, as they frequently expect more from her skill than it is possible to accomplish. She, however, can do much towards concealing the defects of nature; and, by padding and other means, can sometimes render the person tolerably well proportioned, when, in its natural shape, it would be quite inelegant. It is to be regretted, however, that dress-makers are guided by fashion and whim, in moulding the external form of females, rather than by the best specimens of the human figure, as exhibited by eminent painters and sculptors. 3. The dress-maker should have some acquaintance with the anatomy and functions of those parts to which pressure is usually applied: for, who that knows the structure, size, and office of the liver, and other internal organs of digestion and vitality, would venture to apply to them a compressive force, calculated to interfere most seriously, if not dangerously, with their healthful action? 4. The fashions for ladies' dresses are chiefly procured from France, and the dress-makers from that country are, therefore, often preferred by fashionable ladies: sometimes, however, a dress-maker, having a name with a French termination, will answer the purpose. 1. It is the business of the barber to cut || Before this time, however, many of the and dress the hair, to make wigs and false Greeks shaved their beards. curls, and to shave the beards of other In ancient times, he used also to trim the nails; and even at the present day, in Turkey, this is a part of his employment. men. 2. The precise period when men began to shave their beards, is not certainly known. It appears that the practice was common among the Israelites, in the time of Moses; as that legislator has left on record a prohibitory law concerning it. They probably borrowed the custom from the Egyptians. It is stated by Plutarch, that Alexander the Great ordered his men to be shaved, that their enemies might not lay hold of their beards in time of battle. 3. The practice does not appear to have been introduced amongst the ancient Romans, until about the year 296 before the Christian era, when Paulus Ticinius Mænas brought to Rome a number of barbers from Sicily. Scipio Africanus was the first man who shaved his beard every day. 4. At first, the barbers had no shops, but shaved their customers at the corners of the streets. After a while, they followed their vocation in shops, or shades; and, at this period, it was customary for females to officiate in the various branches of the art. These places, however, were frequented only by the poorer class of the people, as opulent families generally kept slaves for the performance of these duties. The day on which a young Roman first cut off his beard, was celebrated by him and his friends as one of peculiar interest; and this much-desired indication of manhood was consecrated to some one of the gods, generally to Jupiter Capitolinus. 7. Among the European nations that have been curious in whiskers, the Spaniards have been particularly distinguished; and the loss of honour among them used to be punished by depriving the individual of his whiskers. 8. The Portuguese were but little, if at all, behind the Spaniards, in their estimate 5. The return of barbarism, in the fifth of these valuable ornaments. As an eviand sixth centuries, banished this custom dence of this, it is stated, that in the reign from the western empire of Rome; nor of Catharine, Queen of Portugal, the brave was it again revived until the seventeenth || John de Castro, having taken the castle of century. During the reigns of Louis XIII. || Diu in India, and being afterwards in and Louis XIV. of France, both of whom want of money, applied to the inhabitants ascended the throne in boyhood, the cour-of Goa to loan him one thousand piastres, tiers and fashionable people began to use the razor, that they might appear with smooth chins, and thus resemble, in this particular, the youthful monarchs. From France, the fashion, at length, spread all || over Europe. At one time, in the reign of the English queen Elizabeth, the fellows of Lincoln's Inn were compelled by statute to shave their beards at least once in two weeks: omission was punished with fine, loss of commons, and finally with expul and, as security for that sum, sent them one of his whiskers, telling them that, "All the gold in the world cannot equal the value of this natural ornament of my valour." The people, in admiration of his magnanimity, sent him the money, and, at the same time, returned his incomparable whisker. 9. In the reign of Louis XIII. of France, whiskers attained the highest degree of favour. They also continued in fashion during the early part of the succeeding France, took a pride in wearing them. It was no uncommon thing, at that time, for the ladies to comb and dress the whiskers of their beaux; and the men of fashion were particular in providing whisker-wax, and every article necessary to this agreeable pastime. sion. 6. The custom of shaving was intro-reign: Louis XIV. and the great men of duced into Russia by Peter the Great, who compelled his subjects to pay a tax for the privilege of retaining their beards. This singular impost was exceedingly unpopular, and excited greater complaints amongst the people, than any other measure of that emperor. The decree was rigidly enforced, and every one who would not, or could not, pay the tax, was forcibly deprived of this favourite ornament, if he would not remove it voluntarily. Some of the people saved the sad trimmings of their chins; and, that they might never be entirely separated from these precious relics, ordered that they should be deposited with their bodies in their coffins. 10. The whiskers of the Chinese philosopher Confucius, attached to his idol, which is preserved by his countrymen, are supposed to be capable of conferring upon those who might wear them, a portion of the wisdom and manly beauty of that illustrious sage. Great care, however, is taken that none shall enjoy these great personal qualifications, by such easy means; as decapitation is the penalty for plucking the whiskers from the position which they occupy. 11. When the practice of shaving off the beard was again revived in Europe, instrumental music was employed in the barber's shop, to amuse customers waiting their turn; but at the present time, newspapers are furnished for this purpose. In taking off the beard, soft water, good soap, a brush, and a sharp razor, are the usual requisites. The razor should be placed nearly flat on the face, and be moved from point to heel. Barbers usually have many regular customers, each one of whom, in general, has a box of soap and a brush appropriated to his individual use. 12. In ancient times, great attention was paid to dressing the hair. The Hebrew women plaited, and afterwards confined it with gold and silver pins: they also adorned it with precious stones. The Greeks, both male and female, at nearly every period of their ancient history, wore long hair, which they usually permitted to hang gracefully upon the shoulders, back, and sometimes upon the breast. 13. Adult males, among the Romans, usually wore their hair short, and dressed with great care, especially in later ages, when attention to this part of the person was carried to such excess, that ointments and perfumes were used even in the army. The hair was cut for the first time, when the boy had attained his seventh year, and the second time when he was fourteen years old. His locks, at each cutting, were commonly dedicated to Apollo or Bacchus. 14. Both men and women, among the Greeks and Romans, sometimes permitted their hair to grow in honour of some divinity. The Jews, also, when under the vow of a Nazarite, were not permitted to trim their hair or beards. In grief and mourning, the Romans suffered their hair and beards to grow: the Greeks, on the contrary, when in grief, cut their hair and shaved their beards, as likewise did some of the barbarous nations of early time. 15. Artificial hair began to be fashionable, at an early period; and was used by the Greeks, Carthaginians, and Romans. In the time of Ovid, blond hair was in great favour at Rome; and those ladies who did not choose to wear wigs, powdered their hair with a kind of gold dust. They wore hanging curls all round the head, to which they were fastened with circular pins of silver. Every wealthy Roman lady of fashion kept at least one slave, to frizzle and curl the hair. 16. The time when wigs first came into use, cannot be now ascertained. It is certain, however, that they were worn by females a long time before they became fashionable among the men. 17. Wigs, perukes, or periwigs, were revived in the seventeenth century. In the reign of Louis XIII., or about the year 1629, they became fashionable at Paris; and, as that city was generally imitated by the rest of Europe, in things of this nature, they soon became common. The wigs were very large, as may be seen by examining ancient portraits, and were covered with a profusion of hair-powder. At first, it was disreputable for young people to wear them, as the loss of the hair, at an early age, was attributed to a disease, which was, of itself, discreditable. 18. When wigs were first introduced into England, some of the clergy opposed them violently, considering their use more culpable than wearing long hair, since, as they alleged, it was more unnatural. Many preachers inveighed against wigs in their sermons, and cut their own hair F2 |