![]() Instead of the plain brown cloth suit we had last seen him in, with unpowdered hair and a single curl, we now beheld a furiously powdered and pomatumed head with six curls on each side, a little skimming dish of a hat. William Hickey in 1769 noted the complete transformation of a friend of his after a visit to France: By the late 1760s wigs were dressed very high on the head, a feature the macaronis exaggerated by adopting a very small hat called a Nivernois, named after the French Ambassador in London. The bright colours and silken stuffs and the lavish use of lace, all of which characterised the dress of the macaroni, were either imported or imitated so also was the new narrow cut which in effect turned the coat into a tail coat. Throughout the 18th century the snobbery which was an essential part of fashion meant that the fabrics and styles of clothing that were most admired came from abroad and in particular from France and Italy. ![]() In fact, some of the original founders of the Macaroni club were keen to encourage the arts by offering medals and prizes for painting, sculpture, music and poetry but this worthy aim was soon lost sight of in the pursuit of new sartorial fashions. But they soon proved, they had very little claim to any distinction, except in their external appearance. Our young travellers, who generally catch the follies of the countries they visit, judged that the tide of Macaroni was very applicable to a clever fellow and accordingly they instituted a club under this denomination, the members of which were supposed to be the standards of taste in polite learning, the fine arts and the genteel sciences and fashion, amongst the other constituent parts of taste, became an object of their attention. The Italians are extremely fond of a dish they call Macaroni, composed of a kind of paste and, as they consider this as the summum bonum of all good eating, so they figuratively call everything they think elegant and uncommon Macaroni. The origins of the term were more fully explained in the Town and Country Magazine for March 1772, when the craze was at its height: In 1764 Horace Walpole explained to the Earl of Hertford that the macaronis were a club, 'which is composed of all the travelled young men who wear long curls and spying-glasses' he attributed their extreme fashions to the wealth brought back from India. The actual word 'macaroni' does not seem to have appeared until the early 1760s. His clothing, as described by Smollett, was luxurious and extravagant the lavish and bright fabrics and jewellery (in a period when men's everyday clothing was beginning to favour darker colours and woollen cloth), the care of the complexion and the replacing of the conventional wig with bag and side curls, with the hair in ringlets all contributed to his startling appearance. But the most remarkable parts of his furniture were, a mask on his face, and white gloves on his hands which did not seem to be put on with an intention to be pulled off occasionally, but were fixed with a curious ring on the little finger of each hand.Ĭaptain Whiffle's name passed immediately into the 18th-century vocabulary as being synonymous with effeminacy some years later a 'Billy Whiffle' meant a macaroni. The knees of his crimson velvet breeches scarcely descended so low as to meet his silk stockings which rose without a spot or wrinkle on his meagre legs, from shoes of blue Meroquin, studded with diamond buckles that flamed forth rivals to the sun. ![]() ![]() His coat, consisting of a pink-coloured silk lined with white, by the elegance of the cut retired backwards, as it were, to discover a white satin waistcoat embroidered with gold, unbuttoned at the upper part to display a brooch set with garnets that glittered in the breast of his shirt, which was of the finest cambric edged with right Mechlin. dressed in this manner a white hat garnished with a red feather adorned his head from whence his hair flowed upon his shoulders in ringlets tied behind with ribbon. These young men affected great sensibility and were famous for their effeminate dress they were, in fact, the latest in a long line of young men in the 18th century (and before) who, by exaggerating current styles and trends in dress, started new fashions.Įarlier in the century they had been called 'beaux' a famous example of this kind of fashionable young man is described in Smollett's novel Roderick Random (1748) where Captain Whiffle: In the last quarter of the 18th century, an age of extravagant fashions, the style of clothing adopted by the macaronis attracted much contemporary comment. ![]()
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