ABSTRACT
In Germany certain journals were received from Paris full of descriptions and engravings in which the fashions appeared exaggerated and distorted. French fashions ‘which seemed to have wings since they travelled so far’ changed so rapidly that the Germans had the greatest difficulty in keeping up. The Duke of Gotha kept a secretary whose sole task was to inform him month by month of the Parisian fashion. The most picturesque method of distributing French fashions throughout Europe was doubtless La Poupee de la rues Saint-Honore. Armed with models from France, German women tried to appear in the latest fashion. The painstaking German women then believed that they were dressed in the latest French fashion, but the dolls took a long time to make their round, and often gave the smart ladies of the little courts ideas which were very out of date. The roads in Germany often became quagmires, as can be learned from sundry travellers’ accounts.
