ABSTRACT
O N E of the results of the encouragement given to French industry by Louis X I V and his minister Colbert was the great development of the silk trade in France : by the end of the seventeenth century Lyons was producing silks, velvets, brocades, etc., of the most luxurious quality, with rich flowing floral patterns. Woman's dress adapted itself to these new silks, the simple drapery of the earlier style becoming more and more elaborate and the skirts more and more voluminous until finally they required support. A t first hippads attached to the stays were sufficient ; later, at the turn of the century, heavy petticoats, often stiffened with paste or glue, were w o r n — i n France these were known as criardes, from the rustling noise they made in movement. Finally came the whaleboned petticoats. England seems to have started this fashion, for it is in English journals dating from 1709 that we first hear of them.
