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Fashion and
costumes
Link each of the paintings
to the description of the costume
that corresponds to it !
The Empire fashion
(here represented by Madame Mère,
the mother of Napoleon). After the
Revolution, women adopted a very
recognisable fashion: long straight
low-necked dresses with a belt just
below the breasts – thus imitating
the cut of certain dresses in Antiquity.
The hairstyle was also typical: rolled
in a coil and with small curls on
the forehead and the temples.
Hunting dress
✎
Here, the young Duchesse de Bourgogne is shown
wearing a hunting dress typical of the end of the reign
of Louis XIV. It was extremely refined, with a lot of
embroidery and lace, and a train intended to hang
down gracefully when she was on horseback
– in those days, women rode side-saddle.
Court dress
in the reign of Louis XIV
The queen and the ladies in her intimate circle, like
Marie-Josephe de Saxe here, had to wear what was
called full court dress. It consisted of a spectacular
costume in three parts: the “grand corps” (top),
a sort of low-necked rigid corset with stays;
the ‘”skirt” (worn over a large hooped crinoline that
gave it its wide flare, like here in this painting);
and the “tail”, a long train that could be lifted up.
The costume was richly embroidered and cost
a small fortune: up to 3,000 livres (ten times
the annual income of a family of weavers).
Widow’s dress
This spectacular widow’s costume was worn exclusively
by duchesses, in the time of Louis XIV: it consisted of a
black velvet dress lined with ermine, with a long white
holland linen veil. Here we see the dowager Duchesse
de Bourbon (before marriage called Mademoiselle de
Nantes: she was the daughter of Louis XIV and Madame
de Montespan).
The « Gaulle »
dress fashion
Marie-Antoinette remains famous
for her coquetry and the almost
extravagant luxuriance of her
hairstyles and outfits. But after
the birth of her first daughter,
Madame Royale, she adopted
a style of extraordinary simplicity
for a queen: the “gaulle” (muslin)
dress, a white muslin shift belted
at the waist, without a corset,
which allowed the body free
movement, and she wore this in
the privacy of the Petit Trianon.
A portrait of her in this dress
created a scandal in France.
But we can see here that this
fashion was adopted by her
intimate circle – in this painting,
the sister of Louis XVI, Madame
Elisabeth.