Décolleté

A term which entered the French language in the 1700s and has everywhere since then indicated the deep, generous neckline of a bodice, a blouse, or, above all, a dress. A new word was needed to differentiate the term décolleté from the term encolure, which was used to define the different shapes of a neckline. In the early 1700s, the so-called robe à la franµaise involved a generally square-shaped décolleté, deep almost to half bust, although interrupted by a flat bow (a parfait). In the century that followed, the décolleté, reduced and lowered and finally disappearing into the sleeves of evening dresses, offered the eyes a view of the completely bare shoulders of a woman forced, during daylight hours, to wear more chaste clothing. In recent times, nude fashion has gone far beyond its traditional reference to Empire Style dresses and seductive sirens. There is also a type of shoe called décolleté that is closed but tapered and, indeed, low-cut at the ankles. In the mid 1800s it had a large and medium-height heel, but during the 1930s would become decidedly elegant, with a high heel for afternoon and evening. Very much in fashion for high heels of the 1960s, the “décolleté” is at center stage in the latest fashion Collections.