Figures 7 and S show the reaction which took place against the trunk hose and padded garments among the lower ranks: the lady exhibits the stiffness of the female style of dress in the small cap, the standing fur collar, the high shoulder-puffs, and the straight pleats of the skirts. For the first time the crinoline appears, under the name of volugalla (figs. to, t)—a foreign mode, but one soon introduced into Germany. Plate 37 (fig. t) shows its extremely ungraceful form in Northern countries.
Before we follow the progress of the styles in Western Europe we turn for a moment to the East, where Byzantine influences were still at work. If we bear in mind the Russian costume (pl. 34, fig. 8), we can easily account for the styles shown on Plate 36 (figs. 12-14). Among the Russians the cloak and jacket had become united in the caftan. The head-covering has remained the same, and is still worn in the same man ner by the lower classes. The high leather boots with bright decorations were introduced from Asia. Although Herodotus speaks of them as worn by the peoples living south-east of the Euxine, we meet with the first representations of them on the equestrian pictures of the Sassanide kings (p1. 25, fig. is). They were perhaps brought to those regions by the conquering Mongolians, who, as is known, long held sway in Russia.
Among the Turks, too, who for a century had been the masters of ancient Byzantium, we perceive the same articles of clothing. The Turk, completely as be had done away with everything that savored of Greek civilization, did not disdain to adopt external comforts of life from the peoples he had subjugated. The dwelling of to-day in the entire East, with its system of building around a court, is in its arrangement simply a continuation of the Old Greek style combined with Moorish forms of architecture.
As an entirely national remembrance of his Asiatic origin the Turk clung fast to the turban (p1. 36, fig. 13), which he had designated for him self as a sign of his race upon his very tombstone, and which he never bestowed upon any of his subject peoples. To the latter belonged, during the period under consideration, the Hungarians, in whose costume (fig. 12), besides a few European additions, Oriental elements are very easily recog nizable. The costume which the modern Hungarians prize so highly as a thoroughly national one is in its origin simply a legacy from their former masters and enemies.
The heroic struggle by which the Netherlanders freed themselves from Spanish dominion attracted the attention of all Europe, and as a sort of recognition various fashions were named after them, although they may not have originated the styles. While fighting against their cruel oppressors the Hollanders wore the Spanish costume, and they did not throw it off with the Spanish yoke. The crinoline shown on Plate 37 r) was called the "Dutch hoop-skirt," although it had been used earlier in other countries, especially in France.
In Figure 2 the Spanish costume can be easily recognized, though in a roomier, lighter, and more flexible form. An essential difference which has been influential to the present time is to be noticed in the separation into two parts of the covering for the legs. The proper apparel for the lower extremities consisted henceforth of two separate garments meeting at the knee—namely, knee-breeches and stockings. This style is exactly shown on Plate 36 (fig. 7).
The remark which some one has made that the introduction of the crinoline was always followed by great wars seems verified, at least in the case of the Germans. But the fact is, that in lands where this fashion took root the mind was cramped, and its struggles, expanding not only politics, but also costume, gave to the hampered peoples on the one band a new fashion, and on the other hand let loose the terrors of war. The crinoline seemed to have disappeared after the Thirty Years' War, not, however, because of that war, but through the influence of the frivolous court of Louis XIII., which supplanted the Spaniards in the regulation of fashions.
The muddy streets of Paris—which is designated as the " nind-city " 1w its Latin name, Littaia the wearing by the ladies of high-heeled overshoes, and by the gentlemen of boots (fit. 37, fig-. 3), which were provided with spurs, and which had previously been confined to the costume of the horsemen. The gay society which saun tered in careless elegance before the shops of the Palais Richelieu (the later Palais Royal) in Paris began, though unconsciously at first, to dictate to the world what should be considered proper in dress and etiquette.