Historical Fancy Dress

Category: Fancy Dress Balls

  • Of processions and prop-stands

    (Helpful tips for ball hosts and hostesses on two issues: how to arrange to show off all of the costumes present and what to do with costume props during the dancing.)

    Processions often form a prominent feature in fancy balls.  Some of them begin with a Polonaise, while others have a kind of march round the reception-rooms just before supper.  This gives an opportunity for showing off the dresses, which are frequently hidden in a crowded dance.

    When a march occurs it is correct for the characters to carry their crooks, wands, milking-stools, or any other property appertaining to their dress.

    As most of these things are much in the way whilst dancing, and are apt to get lost when left about in the ball-room, many hostesses provide a stand in the hall for their reception.  It should be lighter than an ordinary umbrella-stand, consisting of a slight frame covered with artificial flowers.

            Armstrong, Lucie.  The Ball-Room Guide.  London and New York: Frederick Warne & Co., c1880s.

  • How to apply a patch

    (Useful information for a late nineteenth-century Ball Poudré, as described here, or for 18th-century-style costumes.)

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    Powder and patches are so often adopted at fancy balls and private theatricals that a few hints as to how to apply them may not be out of place in a work like the present…

    …The complexion must be made up in the following way: — Cover the face with the finest glycerine or cold cream; now rub in the rouge with a piece of cotton-wool, commencing at the cheek-bone and working gradually downwards.  Next, cover the face with the fine pearl-powder, and outline the eye-brows with an eye-brow pencil, which may be purchased in any shade at most chemists.  Finally, powder lightly all over, to soften the effect of the rouge.

    The patches should be cut out of black sticking-plaster, the sticking side moistened and applied to the cheek.  They may be round or cruciform, or any fanciful shape.  Georgian belles used to adorn their cheeks with bows and arrows, or ships in full sail.

    There is quite a science to putting on a patch: it must never be placed on a line of the face, as it appears to extend it.  If you place a patch on the line which goes from the nostril to the lip, it will appear to draw down the mouth, and give you a sullen appearance.  A patch should be placed so as to call attention to a favourite feature, like a signpost for the stupid or unobservant.  The blackness of the patch accentuates the brilliancy of the complexion, whilst its position calls attention to the rounded cheek or sweetly curling lip.  The coquettes of old times used to hve a patch which went by the name of the "Assassin," so deadly and rapid was its effect.  Perhaps it will be better not to reveal where it was placed, as we do not wish to destroy the peace of mind of the youths of the nineteenth century.

            Armstrong, Lucie.  The Ball-Room Guide.  London and New York: Frederick Warne & Co., c1880s.

  • A Ball Poudré (Powdered Ball)

    (Here are a quartet of descriptions of an odd but apparently popular ball theme in which the only costuming done is that the ladies powder the hair.)

    Occasionally the hostess elects that her guests shall apear in costumes of a particular period, and Poudré Balls find many patrons.  Under these circumstances the lady guests only wear powder with ordinary evening dress, the gentlemen making no change from their usual attire, save perhaps that white waistcoats and button-holes are enjoined.

            Holt, Ardern.  Fancy Dresses Described, 5th Edition.  London: Debenham & Freebody, 1887.

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    Yet another kind of fancy ball is a bal poudré.  Here the guests are free to appear in ordinary evening dress but with powdered hair.  The ladies arrange their hair in imitation of some old picture, and there is plenty of variety to be obtained in this way.  One wears the long locks pertaining to one of Reynolds' beauties, another wears the piled up coiffure indulged in by the Court ladies in the reign of Louis XVI.  A piquante beauty does her hair à la Watteau, and a more serious one adopts the style of Marie Antoinette.  Powder and patches are allowable with this style of coiffure, and the powdered hair is so universally becoming that all the ladies look their best.

            Armstrong, Lucie.  The Ball-Room Guide.  London and New York: Frederick Warne & Co., c1880s.

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    A Ball Poudré

    A ball of this description is conducted upon the same basis as an ordinary ball, so far as the programme and general details are concerned.  The guests attire themselves as for a full-dress ball, except that th ladies are required to powder their hair white and wear fancy black patches upon their face; and the gentlemen to wear white vests and small button-hole bouquets.  The effect is very pretty, especially with the present artistic style of dressing which closely copies antique fashions.

            Masquerade and Carnival: Their Customs and Costumes.  London and New York: The Butterick Publishing Co., 1892.

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    A Bal Poudré

    A ball of this description is conducted upon the same basis as an
    ordinary ball, so far as the program and the general details are
    concerned.  The guests attire themselves in evening dress as is the
    custom for a ball, the only difference being that the ladies are
    required to powder their hair white and wear fancy black patches upon
    their faces; and the gentlemen to wear white vests and small buttonhole
    bouquets.  The effect is very pretty, especially with the present
    artistic style of dressing.  The minuet should be danced, also those
    dances which have a slow, graceful movement.

            Masquerades, Tableaux and Drills.  New York: The Butterick Publishing Company, 1906.