Well then let me tell them that if these nets, instead of being green cord, were made of the hardest diamonds, or stronger than that wherewith the jealous god of blacksmiths enmeshed Venus and Mars, I would break them as easily as if they were made of rushes or cotton threads." But just as he was about to press forward and break through all, suddenly from among some trees two shepherdesses of surpassing beauty presented themselves to his sight- or at least damsels dressed like shepherdesses, save that their jerkins and sayas were of fine brocade; that is to say, the sayas were rich
farthingales of gold embroidered tabby.
It was in Queen Anne's time that the bone was in its glory, the
farthingale being then all the fashion.
A bell with an old voice - which I dare say in its time had often said to the house, Here is the green
farthingale, Here is the diamondhilted sword, Here are the shoes with red heels and the blue solitaire, - sounded gravely in the moonlight, and two cherrycoloured maids came fluttering out to receive Estella.
The age had not so much refinement, that any sense of impropriety restrained the wearers of petticoat and
farthingale from stepping forth into the public ways, and wedging their not unsubstantial persons, if occasion were, into the throng nearest to the scaffold at an execution.
Ruffs and
farthingales sweep on an off the stage magnificently, and this matriarchal society seems to have hit gold.
This slim, attractively designed volume traces what historians have deduced about underwear's beginnings, and leads chronologically through
farthingales, crinolines, corsets, and bustles into the disputed origins of the bra.
When you see Merry Wives performed traditionally the women look as fat as him (Falstaff) in their
Farthingales. And the 1920s is a fun time to set it in.
With complete disregard for Poe's chronological existence, 1809-1849, the characters instead are depicted in slyly grotesque garments that reference the dark world inhabited by Poe, incorporating black, spikey umbrella
farthingales, bizarre top hats and twisted morning coats, in a witty interpretation of Poe's morose and moribund poetry.
Conversely, although clothing or accessories such as the feathers,
farthingales, French hoods, wigs, and high cork heels are associated with ladies, they are not reserved exclusively to them; anybody wealthy enough can easily buy them in the market.
Originally written in 1477, at the request of the city council of Valladolid, the treatise defends the council's adoption of ordinances restricting certain new female fashions, especially caderas (thigh padding), gorgneras (neck-pieces, "bibs") and verdugos (skirt hoops, "
farthingales"), which had evidently become popular at Isabel's court in Valladolid at this time.
Over a bowl of white roses it stepped, that stood on the windowsill with dew-drops on their petals, and so into the room, touching with pale fingers the roof-beams; the milk-white figured hangings; the bottles on the white onyx table: angelica water, attar of roses, Brentheian unguent made from the honey of Hyperborean flowers; the jewels laid out beside them; the mirrors framed in filigree work of silver and white coral; gowns and
farthingales of rich taffety and chamblet and cloth of silver that lay tumbled on chairs and on the deep white soft velvet carpet; all these it touched, so that they took form, but as yet no colour.
Louis Shakespeare trades its doublets and
farthingales for aluminum-foil spacesuits and vintage kitsch miniskirts for its late-night parody spin-off company, Magic Smoking Monkey Theatre.