LUCETTA        Why then, your ladyship must cut your hair.

JULIA  No, girl, I’ll knit it up in silken strings

With twenty odd-conceited true-love knots.

To be fantastic may become a youth

Of greater time than I shall show to be.

LUCETTA What fashion, madam, shall I make your breeches?

JULIA That fits as well as ‘Tell me, good my lord,

What compass will you wear your farthingale?’

Why, e’en what fashion thou best likes, Lucetta.   (2.7.44-52)

You’ll have to cut your hair, is Lucetta’s first response. Have you really thought this through? It’s not just about changing your clothes. And it appears that Julia has thought about it, or at least she’s a quick thinker now: no, girl, I’ll knit it up in silken strings, with twenty odd-conceited true-love knots. I’ll keep it long; I’ll make it a feature, braid it with ribbons! (The long hair isn’t at all out of the question for a man at this date; the suggestion of knots is unusual; the main point is the true-love knots. Not sure about the silken strings though.) To be fantastic may become a youth of greater time than I shall show to be: such an eccentric appearance is the sort of thing that young men a bit older than me can get away with, yes? (Julia is planning to go full emo?)

But—even more playfully, and allowing for more risqué play—what fashion, madam, shall I make your breeches? There could be a loaded pause before breeches, and Julia might be embarrassed at the thought, or at least realize how much she’s got to learn about this whole disguise-me-as-a-page plot. Lucetta is using fashion for style, cut—French, Venetian etc—rather than in the sense of trend, she’s not necessarily asking Julia how cutting edge she wants to be in her look, although that could be suggested as a follow-up to the conceited love-knots in the hair. (Actually this is making Julia sound rather like Legolas…) But how should I know? I’ve never had to think about such a thing! replies Julia. That fits as well as ‘Tell me, good my lord, what compass will you wear your farthingale?’ You might as well ask a man how wide he’d like his farthingale to be, how big a skirt he’s planning to adopt. It’s a good joke; it also underscores (even at this level) how little men and women understand each other in this play, or expect to. Why, e’en what fashion thou best likes, Lucetta!  You choose, you find me some breeches which you think are sexy! (Scope for a bit of flirtation between the women, or Julia to channel a dashing gallant: whatever you like my legs best in, darling…)