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INTRODUCTION.
BUT, WHAT ARE WE TO WEAR?
This is the first exclamation on receipt of an invitation to a Fancy Ball, and it is to assist in answering such questions that this volume has been compiled.
It does not purport to be an authority in the matter of costume, for, as a rule, the historical dresses worn on such occasions are lamentably incorrect. Marie Stuart appears in powder; Louis XIV. wears a beard; and Berengaria distended drapery. No one would probably view the national costumes with more curiosity than the peasantry they are intended to portray, although certain broad characteristics of the several countries are maintained by Fancy Ball-goers.
Several hundred characters, which a long and varied experience has proved to be the favourite and most effective, are here described, with every incidental novelty introduced of late years. A glance through these pages will enable readers to choose which will best suit them, and learn how they are to be carried out.
Among the Costumes adapted to BRUNES are Africa, Arab Lady, Arrah-na-Pogue, Asia, Autumn, Bee, Gipsies of various kinds, the Bride of Abydos, Brigand's Wife, Britannia, Buy-a-Broom, Carmen, Cleopatra, Colleen Bawn, Connaught Peasant, Diana, Druidess, Earth, Egyptian, Erin, Esmeralda, Fenella, Fire, Greek, Luti, the Indian Girl, Harvest,
