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DIAMONDS IN FASHION: I
the normal waistline. The stage was set for the brilliant advent of the Empress Eugenie and her crinolines.
Eugenie
was not royal by birth. All the more reason to associate her with the
glory of the past. Before her marriage to Napoleon III, she was housed
in the Paris residence of Mme de Pompadour. After her marriage, she
declared her wish for a diamond necklace and a play-dairy like Marie
Antoinette's (that other queen who had a penchant for milking cows). The emperor withdrew many fine gems from be
royal treasures and had them reset for his bride. His personal wedding
gift to her was a diamond pendant. But perhaps the jewel that best
suggests the fragile, lovely Eugenie is a spray of diamond lilac
blossoms. White gauze or lilac taffeta were her favorite backgrounds
for the brilliants she wore at state balls.
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(*79)
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