Échelle is French for "ladder" or "scale". A set of three or more jewelled dress ornaments shaped and decorated en suite but of graduated sizes, made with a metal loop on the back so as to be sewn toa woman's garment in a vertical row of diminishing size and changeable to various garments.Examples were popular in England in the Georgian period, sometimes in the form of bow-knots set with diamonds. Sometimes many mayching dress ornaments of ungraduated sizes were worn to supplementthe échelles.