English and North American, no, but I've seen two portraits of Marie Antoinette wearing what could only be velvet.
Perhaps the writer didn't mean an article of clothing in velvet. In my understanding of the phraseology of the time (which is vague at best) "wearing velvet" could just mean a velvet ribbon or somesuch. Claudine ----- Original Message ---- <snipped> Another question while I am here: I've been reading TH Breen's _The Marketplace of Revolution_ ,which I recommend to anybody doing 18th Century American historical costume, as to make his case he's assembled a lot of information from varied sources on the social connotations of clothing made of imported goods. Among the materials he quotes are published rants about people dressing above their station, and the threat to good order represented by maids in chintz. In at least one of these, the rant-writer is upset that even servant- girls go about in velvet. I had been under the impression that in 18th century fashion, velvet was primarily used in men's garments. Anybody have an example of a woman's velvet anything in the English colonies of North America in the 1700s? _______________________________________________ h-costume mailing list h-costume@mail.indra.com http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume
