Here’s Marie Antoinette in the dress she wore for her coronation in 1775:

Her outfit is, of course, an extreme example of outlandish fashion, but this was the period of French fashion history characterized by hoops, heavy cosmetics, false hair, and high heels—for both sexes.

Over in England, that very same year, Britain’s Parliament decided to take steps against all this ridiculous frippery. Here’s the bill that was introduced:

An Act to protect men from being beguiled into marriage by false adornments. All women, of whatever rank, age, profession or degree, whether virgins, maids or widows, that shall, from and after such Act, impose upon, seduce or betray into matrimony, any of His Majesty’s subjects, by the scents, paints, cosmetic washes, artificial teeth, false hair, Spanish wool, iron stays, hoops, high-heeled shoes and bolstered hips, shall incur the penalty of the law in force against witchcraft and like misdemeanours and that the marriage upon conviction shall stand null and void.

The bill did not pass, and if these paintings by Gainsborough are any indication, I’m pretty sure the English fashionistas did not share Parliament’s outrage. (These were painted at about the same period as the foiled Parliament act.) And the men in these paintings look every bit as capable of beguiling with false adornments as the women do.