Throughout this merry reign, many fantastic changes took place in
the costumes of courtiers and their followers. At the
restoration, the dress most common to women of all ranks
consisted of a gown with a laced stomacher and starched
neckerchief, a sad-coloured cloak with a French hood, and a high-
crowned hat. Such habiliments, admitting of little variety and
less ornament, found no favour in the eyes of those who returned
from foreign courts with the king, and therefore a change was
gradually effected. The simple gown of wool and cotton gave
place to loose and flowing draperies of silk and satin; the stiff
neckerchief was removed to display fair shoulders and voluptuous
breasts; the hat was bedecked by feathers of rare plumage and
rich colour; the cloaks changed hues from sad to gay; the hoods
being of "yellow bird's eye," and other bright tints. Indeed,
the prodigal manner in which ladies of quality now exposed their
bosoms, though pleasing to the court, became a matter of grave
censure to worthy men. One of these in a pamphlet, entitled "A
Just and Seasonable Reprehension of Naked Breasts and Shoulders,"
charges women of fashion with "overlacing their gown bodies, and
so thrusting up their breasts in order that they might show them
half-naked." It was not only at balls and in chambers of
entertainment, he avowed, they appeared in this manner, but
likewise at church, where their dress was "not only immodest, but
sometimes impudent and lascivious;" for they braved all dangers
to have the satisfaction of being seen, and the consolation of
giving pleasure.
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