Swords used in Dress

Might it not have happened that swords went out of fashion after the middle of the last century, and were revived towards its close? In old prints from 1700 to 1720, they appear to have been universally worn; later they are not so general. In 1776-90, they appear again. My grandmother (born in 1760) well remembers her brother, of nearly her own age, wearing a sword, say about 1780. Some of Fielding's heroes wore "hangers."