Rococo 1750-1775 Revolution 1775-95

Dr. Nidhi L Sharda, Associate Professor, NIFT, Bangalore

In Britain the mid 17th century is called Restoration, and in France the 18th century is Rococo. Fashion in the period 1750-1795 in European and European-influenced countries reached heights of fantasy and abundant ornamentation, especially among the aristocracy of France. Before a long-simmering movement toward simplicity and democratization of dress under the influence of Jean-Jacques Rousseau and the American Revolution led to an entirely new mode and the triumph of British tailoring following the French Revolution.

The term "Rococo" describes a movement in the arts in the early 18th century, in France. Rococo has been born from the Baroque era, during the age of Enlightenment. That was a time when new ideas about human existence were introduced and Rococo art is the visual representation of the optimism people felt in response to that. The word "rococo" is derived from "rocaille", meaning "rock work" or "shell work," a favorite motif of the time. It stresses purely ornamental, light, casual, irregular design. Rococo is seen both as the climax and fall of Baroque art.

Fabric

The most commonly used colours were ivory, sand, light blue, blue/grey, and pink. Colours to avoid use of these days are magenta, royal blue and violet/purple. Black, being difficult to produce and therefore expensive, was only used for the upper classes. The lower classes generally wore more muted colours. Tastes were for large floral motifs at first, then favoured smaller motifs and finally, stripes sprinkled with sprigs. Solid colours were also popular throughout. As for fabrics, lightweight silks such as taffeta, satin and damask were chosen in light, pastel colours.

Women

Women's clothing styles remained confining and cumbersome for most of the period. The hoop-skirts of the 1740s were left behind, but wide panniers (holding the skirts out at the side) came into style several times, and the aesthetic of a narrow inverted conical corseted torso above full skirts prevailed during most of the period.

FRENCH ARISTOCRATIC COURT DRESS OF 1778 WITH PANNIERS.

A lady's clothing of the Louis Quinze (XV) era was marked by the hoop skirt which came into use around 1720, shaped like the baskets in which chickens were carried to marked and therefore called panier.

Court Dress, July 1798, from Nicholas Heideloff's Gallery of Fashion. A gold overdress is worn over a spangled-satin petticoat. Only one plume is worn. Plumes and hoops were required aspects of court dress.

Panniers to support wide skirt.

"Pandora" or fashion baby. Dolls used to show current fashions, sent from France worldwide for people to order clothes by.

Hooped Dress

French silk sack-back gown with closed bodice and panniers, trimmed with bedded bands of blue satin, chenille blonde lace, flowers of gathered ribbon, feathers and raffia tassels, 1775-1780, V&A Museum no. T.180&A-1965.

Skirts were worn over small, domed hoops in the 1730s and early 1740s, which were displaced for formal court wear by side hoops or panniers which later widened to as much as three feet to either side at the French court of Marie Antoinette.

The usual fashion of the years 1750-1780 was a low-necked gown (usually called in French a robe), worn over a petticoat. If the bodice of the gown was open in front, the opening was filled in with a decorative stomacher, pinned to the gown over the laces or to the corset beneath.

Tight elbow-length sleeves were trimmed with frills or ruffles, and separate under-ruffles called engage antes of lace or fine linen were tacked to the smock or chemise sleeves.

engage antes

Wealthy women wore richly decorated gowns, often with a fancy corset above the waistline that was worn in public and adorned with bows. Wide hoops supported embroidered and trimmed skirts and quilted under-petticoats. Knee-length shifts were worn underneath, Properly dressed women wore silk stockings gathered at the knee and high-heeled shoes. Their hair was piled high on the head, often covered with elaborate and frivolous caps.

The lady wears strapless stays (Corset) over a pink chemise. Her petticoat has pocket slits to access the freehanging pocket beneath (under panniers),. "Tight Lacing, large powdered Pompadour wig, mules (slippers). Fashion Before Ease", 1770-75

Stays circa 1720

Side view of a gown of 1774 shows pleated robings and striped ribbon rosettes

Polonaise - shorter ankle length skirt, pulled up in a swag to resemble a milkmaid outfit, apron, Pompadour wig.

Use of masks to conceal identity, masquerade balls, face protection Tricorn Hat, casaquin /pelisse cape.

Riding habit

As in previous periods, the traditional riding habit consisted of a tailored jacket like a man's coat, worn with a high-necked shirt, a waistcoat, a petticoat, and a hat. Alternatively, the jacket and a false waistcoat-front might be a made as a single garment,

Redingote or riding coat 1790, with "pouter-pigeon" front. This lady wears a mannish top hat for riding and carries her riding crop

Indoor cap is trimmed with striped and dotted ribbons, and gown is trimmed with robings of ruched fabric . A lace fichu fills in the neckline.

The caraco was a jacket-like bodice worn with a petticoat, with elbow-length sleeves. By the 1790s, caracos had fulllength, tight sleeves.

The Brunswick gown was twopiece costume of German origin consisting of a hip-length jacket with "split sleeves" (flounced elbow-length sleeves and long, tight lower sleeves) and a hood, worn with a matching petticoat. It was popular for traveling.

Toward the 1770s, an informal alternative to the gown was a costume of a jacket and petticoat, based on working class fashion but executed in finer fabrics with a tighter fit.

short gown or bed gown, a patched and mended petticoat, and neckerchief,

green apron over a skirted jacket and petticoat.

La Comtesse Bucquoi wears a sashed gown with a high-necked, frilled chemise beneath, a turban on her head, and a newly fashionable scarlet shawl. 1793.

In the 1780s, panniers finally disappeared, and bustle pads (bum-pads or hip-pads) were worn for a time. By 1790, skirts were still somewhat full, though a slight bustle might still be worn). The "pouterpigeon" front came into style (many layers of cloth pinned over the bodice), In other respects women's fashions were starting to be simplified by influences from Englishwomen's country outdoors wear

Hairstyles and headgear

The 1770s were notable for extreme hairstyles and wigs which were built up very high, and often incorporated decorative objects (sometimes symbolic, as in the case of the famous engraving depicting a lady wearing a large ship in her hair with masts and sails called the "Coiffure l'Indpendance ou le Triomphe de la libert" to celebrate naval victory in the American war of independence). These coiffures were parodied in several famous satirical caricatures of the period.

Hair was powdered into the early 1780s, but the new country fashion required natural colored hair, often dressed simply in a mass of curls

By the 1780s, elaborate hats replaced the former elaborate hairstyles

shepherdess" hats tied on with ribbons were worn with the new rustic styles Flat, broad-brimmed

Mob caps

oversized mob cap trimmed with a wide satin ribbon and a kerchief pinned high at the neckline

Calash - wired hood to cover the Pompadour wig. French gown over panniers, pelisse cape.

Men's fashion

Throughout the period, men continued to wear the coat, waistcoat and breeches of the previous period. What changed significantly was the fabric. Under new enthusiasms for outdoor sports and country pursuits, the elaborately embroidered silks and velvets characteristic of "full dress" or formal attire earlier in the century gradually gave way to carefully tailored woolen "undress" garments for all occasions except the most formal. In Boston and Philadelphia in the decades around the American Revolution, the adoption of plain undress styles was a conscious reaction to the excesses of European court dress At the other extreme was the "maccaroni".

"maccaroni". in mid-18th-century England, was a fashionable fellow who dressed and even spoke in an outlandishly affected and epicene manner

Waistcoats extended to mid-thigh to the 1770s, and gradually shortened until they were waistlength and cut straight across. Waists coats could be made with or without sleeves.

The skirts of the coat narrowed from the gored styles of the previous period, and toward the 1780s began to be cutaway in a curve from the front waist.

Holding Tricorne, coat, waistcoat and breeches

long riding boots that reach the breeches.

Shirt sleeves were full, gathered at the wrist and dropped shoulder. Full-dress shirts had ruffles of fine fabric or lace, while undress shirts ended in plain wrist bands. A small turnover collar returned to fashion, worn with the stock. The cravat reappeared at the end of the period... As coats became cutaway, more attention was paid to the cut and fit of the breeches. Breeches fitted snugly and had a fall-front opening. Low-heeled leather shoes fastened with buckles, and were worn with silk or woolen stockings. Boots were worn for riding.

matching coat, waiscoat, and breeches. Coat and waistcoat have covered buttons; those on the coat are much larger. Shirt has a sheer frill down the front. America, 1792.

Justacorps, vest, and breeches. Stockings, buckled shoes, cravat, fullbottomed powdered wig.

Pigeon wing wig. Jabot, justacorps, vest, breeches, shirt, tricorn hat, stockings, buckled shoes.

Pigeon - wing wig tied with a solitaire, stock at neck, justacorps, vest, breeches, stockings, and buckled shoes.

coat and waistcoat are trimmed with narrow gold braid, and his shirt has a small turnover collar

Dark blue coat and waistcoat with fine embroidery on the edges, deep cuffs, and pocket flaps

As in the previous period, a loose, T-shaped silk, cotton or linen gown called a banyan was worn at home as a sort of dressing gown over the shirt, waistcoat, and breeches. Men of an intellectual or philosophical bent were painted wearing banyans, with their own hair or a soft cap rather than a wig.

Banyan - lounging coat, turban, vest, and cravat at neck.

Napoleon and his troops

Women- Sacque/ Watteau gown - wide hooped skirt with a pleated panel down the back from the shoulder. Pastels and floral. Short hair, lingerie caps, fans, mules ladies slippers matched dress; Male - habit (justacorps, vest, breeches), buckled shoes, white or pastel stockings, solitaire - black bow on white wig.

Children's fashion
During most of this period, the clothes worn by middle- and upper-class children older than toddlers continued to be uncomfortable-looking miniature copies of the clothes worn by adults, with the exception that girls wore backfastening bodices and petticoats rather than open-fronted robes .

Marie Antoinette and her children on an 17851786 portrait, showing the change to loose anklelength gowns for little girls. Her son wears a light blue skeleton suit

However, towards the end of the period, there was a change to styles that were more practical for children's play skeleton suits with long trousers for boys, and loose ankle-length skirts for girls.

skeleton suit with a round frilled collar and waist sash,

fall-front breeches, a full shirt, and a narrow black stock

Next

During the French Revolution (1789-1795), the elegant dress styles associated with the French nobility were replaced by simpler fashions.

This caricature contrasts 1778 and 1793 styles for both men and women, showing the large changes in just 15 years