For the First Time...

The First Fly

We only think of Louis XV when we talk about women's beauty spots, once so fashionable; but they date back to the time of the Crusades and were invented by the Persians and the Arabs. It was only under Louis XIII that the beauty spot made its appearance, and then it was beautifully complicated. It was almost a tattoo, but temporary, easy to remove. The first famous beauty spot, if I may say so, was that of the Duchess of Newcastle, who appeared in public with a beauty spot on her forehead, representing a stagecoach and four horses! In reality, it didn't really become fashionable until the 18th century. They were worn in the shape of a crescent, a moon, or a heart.
There was the coquette, the roguish, the precious, near the lips, the majestic on the forehead, the murderous in the corner of the eye, the playful in the fold of laughter. The Marquise Decazes wore a velvet one surrounded by diamonds.
The simple little fly is charming; however, it's better to let nature place them.

First Gloves
Among the Romans, there were no gloves, neither luxury nor ordinary. In short, gloves were not known to the Germans and Gauls until the 6th century. They were then called wants or maffula, meaning mittens.
Leather or wool mittens had no finger separations, except for the thumb, but the use of gloves with separate fingers quickly became established. It was general in the 12th century. Under Francis I, Henry IV, and Louis XIII, the use of gloves continued. It was the Directory, a period during which women wore their arms bare, that made long gloves, completely covering the arm, fashionable; they were buttonless, white, straw, or faded green. Today, gloves are essential accessories for dressing. There are all kinds; Grenoble is the center of glove manufacturing. Their price has risen considerably; goodbye to thread gloves; filoselle and imitation leathers no longer have any fans. The most humble worker has her pair of leather gloves like her silk stockings, and yet for a kiss, nothing beats the texture of a woman's skin, soft on the lips of lovers.

L. MAINARD.