Bouffant

A bouffant /buːˈfɒnt/ is a type of hairstyle characterized by hair raised high on the head and usually covering the ears or hanging down on the sides.

Etymology

The English word bouffant comes from the French bouffante, from the present participle of bouffer: "to puff, puff out."

History

The bouffant was a mainstream hairstyle in the mid-to-late 18th century in western Europe. It was thought to be created for Marie Antoinette, as she had relatively thin hair and wanted to create the illusion of having very full hair.

The modern bouffant, considered by one source to have been invented by British celebrity hairdresser Raymond Bessone, was noted by Life in the summer of 1956 as being "already a common sight in fashion magazines."

The style became popular at the beginning of the 1960s when First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy was often photographed with her hair in a bouffant, and her style was widely imitated. Generally speaking, by the mid-1960s many well-dressed women and girls were wearing some form of bouffant hairdo, which in one variation or another remained the fashionable norm until supplanted by the geometric bob cut at the end of the decade, and the looser shag or feathered styles of the early 1970s.

Let Them Eat Cake (TV series)

Let Them Eat Cake is a British sitcom that aired on BBC One in 1999. Starring Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders, it is one of the few programmes in which French and Saunders have appeared which they did not create themselves.

Plot

It is 1782, seven years before the French Revolution. The most reviled woman in France is the ambitious and immoral Colombine, Comtesse de Vache, who stalks the halls of the Palace of Versailles, spreading terror into the hearts of her fellow aristocrats by gathering their darkest and most intimate secrets. Her loyal maid is the nymphomaniacal, former prostitute Lisette and her acid-tongued manservant is Bouffant. Colombine's constant rival is Madame de Plonge, along with her naive yet sharp-witted daughter, Eveline.

Cast