Moreover, Catherine’s developing predilection for finery seems to
reverberate Villemert’s assertions “of the dress of women:” “It may
be said, that the pleasure which holds the pre-eminence among women
is that of shewing themselves, and being thought handsome. It is this
which leads them from one circle to another” (66). Here, he underscores
the affiliation between a woman’s pulchritude and her capacity to
circulate in public. Similarly, after a propitious meeting with Miss
Tilney, Catherine’s vexations, regarding her dress, perpetuate her
urbane awareness of its magnitude: “[T]he evening of the following
day was now the object of expectation, the future good. What gown
and what head-dress she should wear on the occasion became her chief
concern” (71 emphasis mine). She recognizes the frivolity of her concerns,
“yet she lay awake…debating between her spotted and her tamboured
muslin” (71). Catherine’s scrupulous desire to appeal to the Tilneys
correlates with the aesthetic values, ascribed by the “Ladies Toilet,”
which distinguishes the conception of fashion through the existence
of a woman ameliorating her beauty: “Before the empire of Fashion
was thoroughly established, and her subjects voluntarily paid to her
the homage she receives at present, we find…that beauty resorted to
every means to augment its splendour, and perpetuate its duration”
(69). The message here personifies the nature of a woman’s attractiveness—her
charms must evolve into greater beauty—a testament, corroborated by
Villemert as well: “It is a stratagem of the sex to renew the same
person, and reproduce it, with advantage, under various forms” (67).
Catherine’s evolving penchant for fashion reveals the modish tastes
and propensities of Austen’s era. With this accurate depiction of
the fashionable world of the nineteenth-century, Austen emphasizes
the significance of the debutante’s role as the epitome of elegance
and decorum. Austen, like Villemert, alludes to the reciprocal association
between these attributes and marriage—a relationship that will eventually
afford Catherine a husband.
As if attributing Villemert’s advice for young ladies in her novel,
Austen’s portrayal of a young woman’s introduction into high fashion
and courtship proliferates the genuine narratives of fashion magazines
and conduct books. Northanger Abbey imparts an honest tale of the
nineteenth-century hopeful bride, who subscribes to the laws of fashion
as the personified existence of the haute couture. Catherine’s maturation
thus embodies a refinement of style and culture—an evolving sense
of grace that would disseminate and reinvent the charms of a real-life
debutante.
Notes
1 This book, which was translated into English by Alexander
Morrice, propagates the association between the culture of fashion
and the social practices leading to marriage. Though Morrice’s treatise,
as he names it, “is intended to raise the Female Sex to their entitled
rank in Society,” his dedication to Caroline, the Princess of Wales,
emphasizes the importance of such trends in British society.
2 According
to Sitwell, little is known about Heideloff, a German, except that
“he was one of a numerous family of painters…three generations of
them,” who was raised to become an engraver and also supported himself
by painting miniatures (2). His publication first appeared in May
of 1794, and its only predecessor was a series of line-engravings
drawn by Moreau le Jeune in the Monument de Costume, appearing in
two sets in 1776 and 1783 (1). The illustrations, used by Heideloff’s
contemporaries, were replaced, in his periodical, by hand-colored
fashion plates (engravings), enhanced with gold and silver and uncharacteristic
of other magazines during this time— Menuet de la Mariee (1786), La
Promenade Publique (1792), and Promenade de la Galerie du Palais Royal (1797),
for example (Sitwell 1, 3). Moreover, Aileen Ribeiro, another modern
critic, in The Art of Dress: Fashion in
Works Cited
Anonymous.
“The Ladies’ Toilet: Fashions Represented in Engravings.” The Ladies’
Pocket Magazine 2 (1824-1840): 58, 61, 69. 7 October 2006. The Gerritsen
Collection: Women’s History Online, 1543-1945. <gerritsen.chadwyck.com>.
Austen, Jane. Northanger Abbey. 1818.
Sitwell, Sacheverell. Gallery of Fashion 1790-1822 from Plates by
Heideloff and
Ackerman.
Ribeiro, Aileen. The Art
of Dress: Fashion in
Haven:Yale UP, 1995.
Villemert, Bourdier de. The Friend of Women.
7 October 2006. The Gerritsen Collection:
Women’s History Online, 1543-1945. <gerritsen.chadwyck.com>.