MEN IN PEACOCK'S FEATHERS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2722, 16 May 1906, Page 71

MEN IN PEACOCK'S FEATHERS.

Compared with the gay apparel worn by the dandies of the past ages, the youths of our time in the gayest of gay raiment make but a poor show.

The Bishop of Ely in the fourteenth century had a change of raiment for every day in the year. The Earl of Northumberland boasted no less than 60 cloth-of-gold suits at this time. Much later, in Queer Mary's time, the wardrobe of a bishop must have been the envy of Solomon for the variety and costliness of its contents ; and even a simple village priest wore " a vestment of crimson satin, a vestment of crimson velvet, a stole, and fanon set with pearls, gown spaced with taffetas," etc.

In the time of Chaucer the men wore clothes as many-coloured as Joseph's coat, so that while one leg would be a blaze of crimson the other would be tricked out in green, blue, or yellow, without any regard for harmony or contrast. Even as late as the middle of the eighteenth century a dandy would dress himself in a vivid green coat, a waistcoat of scarlet, yellow breeches, and blue stockings. And the gentlemen of a few years later wore, among other vagaries, a coat of light green with sleeves too small for the arms and buttons too big for the sleeves ; a pair of fine Manchester breeches, without money in their pockets ; clocked silk stockings ; a club of hair behind larger than the head which carried it ; a hat not larger than a sixpence on a block not worth a farthing. Another quaint chronicler at one fashionable epoch of our ancestors tells us "he would weare clothes so tight to ye skin that it might be well conceived the} 1 wore no clothes at all," and at another time they would wear them "so voluminous that a single suit might well have afforded raiment for a whole familie, and so stuffed out with feathers that of a verity their wearers resembled nothing 60 much as walking sacks."

A fad which had great vogue was to combine on one person the dress of all the countries of Europe. At another time shoes with square toes were the rage, and a royal proclamation was issued limiting the width to six inches. These were succeeded by shoes with the finest of points. In the time of Henry II shoes with points two feet long were worn by the fashionables, and in the reign of Henry IV these points had grown to such length that in order to be able to walk at all it was necessary to attach the tips to the knees by chains, which were of gold or silver. The tops of the shoes were carved with all kinds of curious designs and patterns.

It was a common thing in the eaTly part of the eighteenth century for a man of fashion to spend several hours daily in the hands of his valet. Among the many operations which took up this time was " the starching of the beard and the proper perfuming of the garments, the painting of the face, and anointing with oils, tinctures, essences, and pomatums." It is even said that some of the dandies of that day bathed in milk and wine " for the rejuvenation of their complexions and the rejuvenation of their energies."