Fashions of the Ages Extraordinary Historical Attire

Brief Costume History
1721-1799

Dress in 18th Century Europe till the French Revolution

Style

The Rococo period was marked stylistically by the same convoluted detail and elaborate decoration which characterized the Baroque period immediately preceding it. But despite this similarity Rococo style had, at its center a radical difference.

Where every aspect of the fine and decorative arts of the Baroque period had at its core an extreme solidity and heaviness, Rococo art, music and furniture had, as its basis, a lightness and fluidity which grew more pronounced as it progressed. Rococo forms in the decorative arts typically seem to float upwards in complex curvilinear patterns, defying both physical and emotional gravity.

The Dance by Lancret

Flowers, birds, and bows became dominant motifs in a style that highlighted a kind of idealized femininity. These forms were incorporated into all the visual arts, both fine and decorative, so that it is not surprising to find that shapes used in furniture are similar to the shapes used in costume.

Women's Dress

The 18th Century woman was the most free and well respected member of her sex in history of Western Civilization until the 20th Century. The advent of the Enlightenment had suddenly changed the rules of Western society from one where brute force constituted power to one where intelligence and reason were the admired and powerful traits. Since women had no trouble competing in this new way, for the better portion of the 18th Century women discretely ruled society and made advances in it, becoming authors, artists, doctors and business women. It is little wonder that the arts and philosophy of the time glorified women, and that the style most associated with the 18th Century, the Rococo, is replete with what psychologists call "feminine forms."

At the Opera, 1770's

The Cut of Women's Clothes 1700-1789

The style of Women’s garments in the 18th Century reflect the improving status of women in society. While the mantua of the early 18th Century was a rather simple limp garment composed of two lengths of fabric pinch pleated at the waist over the stays with wide soft sleeves sewn in, the mantua was gradually stiffened, decorated and expanded with hoops called panniers until, by mid/century it had been stylized into the Robe de Francaise a doll-cake-like structure that insured that a woman took up three times as much space as a man and always presented an imposing and ultra feminine spectacle. After 1760, women began to expand vertically as well, raising their hair with pads and pomade to a height in the 1770's that only a man on stilts could hope to emulate.

(Kohler)

French Hairdress of the 1770's from Stibbert

After 1780, a fashion for Rousseauesque naturalism took over and women adopted more "natural" looking fashions which still took up a considerable amount of space, but emphasized the natural sexual characteristics of the female figure with padded busts and bottoms and riots of cascading hair under massive hats.

All text and photos on this page are courtesy of www.costumes.org

Our 2009 schedule is filling up very quickly. Be sure to place your order ASAP to ensure a place in our schedule. In addition to standard orders we almost always have a limited number or rush orders available - even when we're fully booked. For more information please contact us.
(c)2004-2009 Fashions of the Ages LLC. All rights reserved. All images and text are property of Fashions of the Ages and may not be published, manipulated or distributed in any form without written permission from Fashions of the Ages.