london fashions for november.
remarks.
no season has offered such variétés in costume as the early part of the present month. fancy dresses of the most outré description have appeared, even in the streets. short waists
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and long, full sleeves and empty, broad skirts and narrow, whole skirts, half skirts, and none at all, have been indifferently worn. for the promenade, rags and tatters of all kinds have been in much favour; very few buttons are worn; and the coats, waistcoats, and pantaloons, have been invariably padded and stuffed with hay or straw. we observed several exquisites making morning calls in scare-crow great-coats; the skirts, lappels, collars, and cuffs, picturesquely, but not too formally, jagged à la vandyke. the prevailing colours—all colours at once. wigs have been very general—both en buzz and frizzé; these have been commonly composed of deal shavings; but in some cases of tow, and sometimes horse-hair. for the evening party, a few squibs and crackers are stuck in the perruque or hat, and the boots and shoes are polished up with a little pitch or tar; sometimes a catherine wheel has been added en coquarde. frills, collars, and ruffles, of papier coupé, have entirely superseded those of cambric or lace, and shirts of every description are quite discarded. paint has been in much request, and ruddle seems to have been preferred to rouge; patches are also
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much worn, not on the countenance, but on the clothes; for these the favourite matériel is tartan, plush of any colour, or corduroy. several dandies appeared on the 5th with gloves, but they are not essential requisites to be in the ton: canes are discarded; even a riding-whip would be reckoned to evince mauvais goût, but a half-penny bunch of matches “à la main” is indispensable to a fashionable aspirant. the old practice of being carried abroad in chairs has been universally revived; and it must be confessed, that it exhibits the figure to much advantage.
amongst the nouveautés, we observed the following caractère, as making a felicitous début. the coast was à-la-militaire, of the colour formerly so much in vogue under the name of fumée de londres, turned up with flamme d’enfer. it was garni with very dead gold; and slashed à l’espagnole, back and front. the pantaloons were equally bizarre; one leg being composed of scotch tartan, and the other of blue striped bed-ticking, made very full, en matelot, in compliance with the prevailing taste for navals. the wig was made of green and white willow shavings, with a large link for a queue, tied on with a nœud of red tape. the hat, brown, somewhat darker than the devonshire beaver, but disinclining to black. it had no brim, and was without a crown. a tarnished badge of the phœnix fire office, on the bust, gave a distingué air to the whole figure, which was going down bond-street, and excited a sensation quite à-l’envie by its appearance in the world of fashion.
n.b.—we are requested to state that the above described figure was entirely invented and manufactured by little solomon levy, of hollywell-street, strand, who has a variety always on show, about the metropolis.
