Green’s Dictionary of Slang

a fashionable prostitute.

1909

(ref. to 1880) J. Ware Passing Eng. of the Victorian Era 70/1: Champagner (Mus. Hall, 1880). Lorette. Within the last twenty years the marvellous increase in the consumption of champagne [...] has been most marked. Directly the tap-stopper was invented and ‘fizzing’ wine came to be sold by the glass, the ladies who chiefly frequent the better parts of music-halls at once showed their elegance by deserting gin, rum, and other horrors for this less damaging, however adulterated, drink. Hence the poor souls who could not command the ‘sparkling’ and its adjuncts, either from want of good looks, good breeding, or good clothes, assimilated the new popular drink and its female consumers.