| LEGEND TO THE ILLUSTRATIONS IN THE PRINT BELOW Print Specifics:
The Craze for Shawls: THE SHAWL BECAME AN IMPORTANT PART of women's dress in France around the turn of the 19th century. Shawls came from Asia, where traditionally they had been wrapped around the head. The illustrations opposite show the types of shawls popular between 1802 and 1814 and the different ways in which they were worn. Although all shawls were basically of the same shape, they could take on an almost infinite variety of styles and forms, according to the ways in which they were folded, draped or tied. Rectangular or square, they could either be folded into four or two, or folded diagonally into a triangle. Alternatively, as worn by the lady on the far right of 1, or her neighbor, who is holding a small girl's hand, they could be folded diagonally into two unequal parts, so that two embroidered parts were visible. Some were knotted in front (see the girl on the bottom right of 1), and some had tassels at the corners, but all were worn with an air of studied carelessness. Shawls were made in many different sizes and were worn for all seasons. The materials used included cotton, wool, silk, cambric, muslin and lace, and the colors were equally various: canary, green white, poppy-red and blue were all the favorites. It was the advent of cashmere, though, that really made the shawl popular. This soft, rich material, made from the pelt of a Tibetan mountain goat, had first been seen in 1755, when it had generally been rejected at court. But later it reappeared with a vengeance. So much so, in fact, that the Journal des Dames et des Modes commented in 1815: "Ladies (and also, of course, their husbands) will recall the time when cashmere shawls were the height of fashion. The things ladies would have to do to obtain these precious pieces of material! They would invent 1,000 reasons why they had to have one. The richest only needed to say that it was the fashion; the middle-class women needed to look like everyone else; and the poorest women claimed that cashmere would be good for their health and would last longer than anything else. Even if there was no other reason, women would resort to the refrain that a cashmere shawl was the only acceptable proof of true love." When the craze for shawls first started, women refused to be parted from them. They were worn at all times - even for dances, when they would be draped in a classical fashion around the shoulders, or simply folded over an arm. Some shawls were long and thin, like scarves (no. 3 in 2nd row). This style used the shawl more as an accessory than a covering, swathing the bare neck. The shawl was a fitting garment for an age that revered and imitated classical times, and it reached the height of its glory when a dance - the Dance of the Shawl -was dedicated to it. In this dance, an important part was played by a delicate silk shawl - similar to the one worn by the lady in 6, top row Martin2001 Satisfaction Guaranteed Policy!
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