[F.; = ‘tout ajustement de femme ne servant qu’ à la parure’ (Littré), primarily piece of old cloth, paper, etc., rag; f. chiffe rag.] pl. Ornamental adjuncts of a lady’s dress, ‘fal-lals’; colloquially extended to matters of feminine dress considered as an object of ornament or display.
1876. Geo. Eliot, Dan. Der., xxxix. It would stand out well among the fashionable chiffons.
1885. Pall Mall Gaz., 18 June, 3/2. With various chiffons here and there perhaps a bit of Japanese silk bunched out behind or swaddled up in front into a knot or a bow.
1888. E. M. Marsh, in Gd. Words, May, 339/1. Tea and chiffons become monotonous.
Mod. ‘What did you and Miss B. talk about?’ ‘Oh! chiffons!’
