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DIAMONDS IN FASHION: I
home,
began to be popular. One of her children, Margaret de Valois, became a
leader of fashion and finally the queen of Henry IV.
It
took another Medici, however, to bring sartorial magnificence to the
French court. She was Marie Medici, who followed Margaret de Valois as
the wife of Henry IV and long outlived him. It is Marie's many
portraits, painted by the master Flemish painter, Rubens, and others,
which depict this queen with jewels in her curled hair, on her
forehead, at her throat, and in her ears. She even wore rings on her
thumbs. In olden days, incidentally, long velvet sleeves were sometimes slashed to show bracelets, and gloves had small holes to reveal rings.
Besides
introducing additional Italian jewelry into the French court, Marie
became mother of Louis XIII and ancestress of those half-brilliant,
half-mad, Louis', whose women-folk, whether queens or mistresses,
founded the tradition of French elegance. Fashions in France remained
more or less dormant after that and until Louis XIV was married at the
age of twenty-one to his cousin, the Infanta Maria Theresa. This little
lady came to him from a country which already was a treasure-house of
jewels. Yet it soon became evident to those within the royal palace
that Louis's queen was fond neither of him nor of his diamonds and
other jewelry. She must have known, too, that the three most important
women in his life (Louise de la Valliere, Madame de Montespan, and
Madame de Maintenon) were dictating the fashions of the day, ignoring
her in spite of her natural desire for quiet beauty. She was jealous of
them. But it must be admitted that they did much to affect the fashion
not only of the French but of the world.
For a century and a quarter laces, satins, brocades, and ribbons embellished the feminine form. Flower forms rose
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