Costume Adoratia: 18th century fashion: dress before and after the French Revolution

The 18th century was a century of great shifts in political and social thinking. In the beginning of the century, Europe was still dominated by the idea that monarchs were "chosen by God", and this was their true belief. This idea was so prevelant, that priests and clergymen were often present at the birth of royals in order to ordain their souls as sacrosanct to god and their "chosen position". This idea begins to fall apart with the Age of Enlightenment, an era from the 1650s to the 1780s, in which cultural and intellectual forces in Western Europe emphasized reason, analysis, and individualism rather than traditional lines of authority.

Historically, the garments we wear on our bodies are a direct link to the eras we live in. In 18th century france, prior to the Revolution, this can be seen directly in the fashions, opulent gowns, and techniques of making clothing for the elite.

Ikat Silk Dress, 1770

Early period 1700-1770: Fancy fashions

As the 18th century dawn the materials, import, and accessibility of dressmakers to make ensembles which allowed women in Europe and especially France to be fashionable was becoming a world market. Silk roads opening in the far east, travellers and explorers bringing back new prints, cottons, and trims, and a fascination with all things "different" began to culminate in this era. One of the more popular prints was the ikat print technique brought back from india, which is a dyeing technique used to pattern textiles that employs a resist dyeing process on the warp fibres, the weft fibres, or in the rare and costly 'double ikat' both warp and weft, prior to dyeing and weaving. Other popular styles were imitations of delicate China silk and brocade.

China Silk Dress, 18th Century

2 Fans, one French, one Chinese, 18th Century

These exotic prints and influences were an example that the 18th century European woman was a forward thinking fashionista. An 18th century woman's trousseau was a lifetime achievement, and she ammassed her clothes with a selection an careful thought as to each and every piece. This new emphasis on fashion is exactly the thought process that sheltered the elite European woman from the goings on of poor, political and working class life. Even so, not much had changed in the basic "function" of garment making. The basic "separates" idea of dressmaking and fitting that had been around since the Elizabethan era remained prevelant, with a gown consisting of a stomacher, panniers, robe, stays, and petticoat. One difference is that previous eras the stomacher, or frontispiece of the gown, was mixed and matched more often with other robes and petticoats because of necessity of expense. But the 18th century woman had much to prove in the fashion arena, and by the end of the 18th century, most women were asking their dressmakers for matching robes and stomachers.

Early stomacher, 18th century Often heavily embroidered or ornamented, stomachers could be tied or sewn into different robes and were therefore the most ornamented piece of a woman's wardrobe. In earlier eras, this meant a woman could mix and match her stomacher to several gowns and petticoats.

Stomacher and matching gown, mid 18th century. Differently than in previous eras, robes and stomachers were often a matched set.

Dress and matching stomacher, 1753

Wigs also were an expressive medium, as women all over Paris sought to imitate the elaborate hairdos of Madame du Pompadour and Marie Antoinette. These looks reached their pinnacle in the mid 18th century, and hairdos that featured 3-masted ships and birds singing in cages were set atop massive powdered wigs.

Satire of woman's hairdo, 18th century France. The caption reads "Coiffure a l'independence ou le Triomphe de la liberte" which translates in to Hairdo of Independence or Triumph of Liberty.

By the middle-end of the 18th century, fashion had become so aggrandized court gowns often featured panniers so wide that women could not fit through doorways. They were elaborately embroidered with metallic silk thread. The emphasis was on making the waist seem as miniscule as possible, and effect achieved in the gown below:

Court Dress, Stockholm Sweden, circa 1774

The lower classes, meanwhile, had no means to partake in such frivolity, and when magazines and newpapers of the era printed images that began to mock and denigrate the ruling elite for their fashion choices, it was noticed. While peasants starved in the streets, the resentment grew, and in 1789 thousands of people in France began to revolt.

Servant girl in silk gown, 1750s. Many servants of the elite wore their Mistresses cast offs, so it was not unusual to see a serving girl or peasant in 2nd or third generation frayed finery, which I imagine added insult to injury.

Transitional period 1770-1800:

The French Revolution leveled the playing field, and while the cause of naturalism had already been adopted by the elite prior to the revolt, it truly impacted fashion during this era. We see a marked shift from elaborate materials to quieter, simpler dresses using cottons and smaller prints. The large ikat prints and elaborate metallic embroidery of previous decades is gone.

A transitional gown, late 18th century. This straddles the fashion from earlier eras, but the stomacher is gone, and the materials are more simplistic and natural. Note the large belt with painted landscape scenes.

Women's dress, 1795, a transitional period. Though the waistline is not as extremely underbust, it effectively straddles the 2 styles with lighter softer materials and a naturalistic style. Also, the stomacher has become a thing of the past

Children, late 18th century. Transitional clothing, with naturalistic style beginning to emerge in the materials.

After the Revolution of 1789 the groundwork is laid to move away from the opulence of the previous centuries and we see an abrupt shift in 1800 to a classical dress. Often made from a single material, this look meant to mimic the classical eras of early Greece and Rome. From a societal standpoint, one could almost say France was brought back to an infantile state at the time, and was looking to "start over". It can certainly be seen in the political landscape with he fall of the noble elite in the French Revolution and the interim republics and rise of Napoleon. The new philosphy of classicism as the "pure" form of thought was a favored by Napoleon, who's agenda was to reject the idea of "sovreignty". Regardless, as several classes and age groups clung to the traditional dress (by choice or by necessity), society as a whole adopted the new look as a complete rejection of everything that had come before.

Gauze dress, 1800. An extreme departure in waistline, the waist is now directly under the bust and the dress has a conical, classical style, in a nod to early Roman and greek chitons.