Behold - number four of my countdown, the “Always Get in There Sideways Dress”. It really was like wearing a tent. Entering a room required a sequence of maneuvers (yes, enter sideways), so did getting around furniture. No sitting for this lady (who is btw Maria Louisa di Parma – she will lose her good looks but gain a sheepish husband and the kingdom of Spain). Graceful reclining is all she gets. Surprisingly the tent itself is not much of a bother. It was huge but light; filled not with endless petticoats (ahhh the nightmare of sweaty thighs!) but with a pannier and well… air. Yes, it made a woman 3-4 times wider than her partner and it did project major oddness, but it was the most comfortable part of the Grande Habit (court dress). It had nothing on the bodice and the shoes. The former was a whalebone nightmare, flattening the chest and pulling the shoulders together. Tightly. Bending was, as usual, a major no-no. Shoes looked divine but made you an invalid. They were a less hardcore version of the Chinese lotus shoe (minus the toe braking) – heels were high and frivolously curved and the entire weight of the fashionvictim’e body rested on the toes. And these were squeezed into a itsy bithsy teenee weenee exquisetly embroidered iron maiden of a shoe. So Maria Louisa would very much like to sit on that throne behind her and let her feet rest. But there is no way she will fit, poor darling.