Read and translate the text. A growing middle class of tradesmen, bankers, merchants, doctors, and lawyers flourished in this century

A growing middle class of tradesmen, bankers, merchants, doctors, and lawyers flourished in this century. They had an increasing passion for fashionable clothing and were determined to make their mark in society. The skills of dressmakers and tailors increased throughout the century.

In order to satisfy the demand, quicker and cheaper manufacturing methods were invented, for spinning, weaving, and printing fabrics. By the end of the century, the Indus­trial Revolution based on the cotton industry was in full swing.

France remained the international center of style. Men's clothes at the French court con­tinued to be made in gorgeously colored silks. By the middle of the 18^th century, coats developed stiffened full skirts. Powdered wigs grew smaller and were tied at the back of the neck. Tight knee breeches matched the color of coats, but contrasting vests were popular. From the 1770s rich silk and gold embroidery decorated with sequins was the fashion for court, wedding, and evening wear.

The cut of women's dresses fell into four basic styles. Firstly there was a formal court dress. A stiff silk bodice was attached to huge skirts held out with panniers (hooped petti­coats). A long train, often edged or lined with fur, was hung from the shoulders. For more informal functions a less grand but equally elaborate style was worn. A quilted or em­broidered underskirt was worn over pannier hoops, which, by 1760, had changed from a dome shape to flat at the front and back. Over this, the dress was cut open down the full length of the center front. The extreme width of the panniers had an interesting effect on the architecture of the period. The banisters of staircases were specially curved to allow the skirts to pass through. From the 1770s the overskirt was often hitched or looped up in a style called the polonaise (the Polish style).

By the early 1780s a new design was intro­duced, it marked a vital modernization in women's clothing. Dresses were made of light­weight plain muslin and cut with the bodice and skirt stitched together. There was no underskirt and the dress was worn with a simple sash at the waist. This style was called after the French queen Marie Antoinette, who popularized the style in France in the early 1780s. This style was based on the new simpler dresses worn by young girls.

Information on these French styles was spread from the 1770s onwards through the new development of engraved, hand-colored fashion plates. French styles were thus closely followed all over Europe, from Russia to Sweden, Spain and Italy. In the United States of America both the cut of the dresses and European silks were imported from England, France and the Netherlands, for those who could afford them. In London everything in the French style was admired by fashionable women, though the cost of a court dress was so high that for the price of a few silk dresses it was possible to buy a small house.

English gentlemen, who enjoyed hunting and farming on their country estates, how­ever, were not keen on the bright, wide-skirted coats worn in Paris. They pre­ferred their more comfortable woolen frock coats or riding coats. From the 1770s English styles in men's clothing were taken up in France and thereafter the cut of men's coats grew slimmer.

Owing to the growth of the cotton industry, the clothing of poor people - farm laborers and factory workers - was made largely of cotton by 1800. Women wore cheap printed dresses with tall, old-fashioned hats and cloaks, while men wore simple corded and brushed corduroy coats and breeches over plain linen shirts. For Sunday the best, plain, dark, wool suits were worn.

Дата добавления: 2015-07-08