The antecedent of the robe à la française was the robe volante, a form of negligée dress. Once the mantua became suitable for public dress, the wealthy required something else to wear while relaxing. The robe volante (or robe battante) was said to have been invented by Mme de Montespan, mistress of Louis XIV, in … Continue reading The Robe à la Française, or Sacque
Tag: 18th century
The Robe à l'Anglaise
At the beginning of the eighteenth century, women all over Europe wore the mantua (which itself had originated in negligée dress). This was a fairly unstructured dress made in a T-shape, with most of the fitting of the bodice and sleeves achieved with pleats. The front of the stays would be covered with a pinned- … Continue reading The Robe à l'Anglaise
18th Century Mitts and 20th Century Dresses
I have a ton of tabs open to costumes at the Met, and I figured I might as well post them and close them out. Light blue silk Pink and changeable silk Black velvet White linen Leather and calico Knitted black silk Pink and blue silk Black satin Heavily embroidered cream silk Lingerie dress (ca. … Continue reading 18th Century Mitts and 20th Century Dresses
1790s Dress
It's all cold and wet out today, so another post. This one is on all the things I'm considering when it comes to the dress that is the vanilla ice cream to the sundae that is my ensemble. (Too convoluted?) The dress doesn't necessarily have to be white cotton, but a) I'm focusing on the … Continue reading 1790s Dress
1790s Stays
The shift was easy, apart from all of the flat-felling, but the stays are proving less so. There don't seem to be any patterns of extant examples in the style I'm looking for - as I pointed out in my post on corsets of the period, most surviving pieces are either conical (early 1790s) or … Continue reading 1790s Stays
Mimic of Modes 