Catherine
Morland’s induction into the fashionable world of
With regard to these manifest considerations, Villemert encourages
a delicacy of style that he believes some woman violate: “Dress, employed
with management, puts beauty in its meridian; but, it appears to me,
they have sometimes abused its assistance” (64). In view of this,
the articles concerning female dress, accessories, and hairstyles
in “The Ladies’ Toilet: Fashions Represented in Engravings,” acquaint
fashionable ladies with the niceties and the plenitude of gowns, designed
for the public promenade and evening attire, for example. Noting the
styles that have succeeded and those that remain unpopular, the author
also specifies the accoutrements and fabrics, which compliment specific
public amusements: “Long silk scarves also prevail much in out-door
costume…Flowers in the hair are much worn by young ladies in evening
dress parties…During the intense warmth of the weather, about the
middle of June, white muslin dresses were seen to prevail much…” (58,
61). The proliferation of details in this magazine to which society
prescribed verifies Mrs. Allen’s fastidious attention to Catherine’s
manner of dress:
Dress was her passion…our heroine’s entrée into life
could not take
place till after three or four days had been spent
in learning what was
the newest fashion…Her hair was cut and dressed
by the best hand, her
clothes put on with care. (21)
Though Mrs. Allen’s
stylish pursuits and sensibilities engross the entirety of her interests—
“There goes a strange-looking woman! What an odd gown she has got
on!—How old fashioned it is! Look at the back” (23)— her ardor for
fashion is evocative of Austen’s fashion-conscious public. Her mindfulness
towards Catherine’s attire also facilitates social opportunities for
Austen’s heroine since her personal charm inevitably disseminates
her initial reception into
To this end, Catherine’s tutelage under Mrs. Allen, while mostly didactic
through commentary, corresponds with the elegance of style expected
of prospective brides, as indicated by Villemert: “Ornaments ought
only to assist the graces, not stifle them…If women understood welltheir interests and our’s, they would place no account on misplaced
richness, which defeats the effect of their charms, and the pleasure
we have in finding them handsome” (65). Thus, with the purpose of
preparing her for the marriage market, Catherine must epitomize the
sophistication of the haute couture. Like the popular magazines and
conduct books suggest, a genteel appearance, alone, enables the young
debutante to be favorably judged and received by prospective suitors
and their families—an ideology perpetuated by the ubiquitous readership
of fashion magazines as well. For example, in Gallery of Fashion 1790-1822 from
Plates by Heideloff and Ackerman, Sacheverell Sitwell, a twentieth-century
critic, estimates that six to eight hundred people subscribed to N.
W. von Heideloff’s Gallery of Fashion, an approximation that he contends
would generate an income sufficient to support the magazine (3).2The copiousness of fashion magazines and their subscribers affirm
the popularity and importance of women’s attire, thus rendering the
implication that fashion imposed a social obligation. Catherine’s
agency as a marriageable woman, therefore, is revealed through her
panache for clothing and culture.