Francois Louis Joseph Watteau Fashion Plate 1789

In the 1780s the styles from the previous decade continued to exist popularized, emphasizing more casual clothing in both womenswear and menswear. At the same time, fashion publications were becoming a vital part of spreading trends and fashion news.

The informal styles for men and women that were introduced in the previous decade were firmly entrenched by 1780s. For the former, the frock coat with a high turned-downwards neckband and wide lapels, hip-length sleeveless waistcoat, and breeches that outlined the shape of the thighs dominated men's daytime wardrobes. For the latter, in addition to the robe à 50'anglaise, robe à la polonaise, robe à la lévite, robe à la circassienne, and caraco-and-petticoat combination that gained popularity in the 1770s, the robe à la turque, the redingote (the Gallicization of "riding coat"), and the chemise were new options for daywear. A more regular fashion press that emerged in the 1770s continued to expand, disseminating new styles more rapidly to a wider audition.

Womenswear

Apart from the chemise, the various styles referred to above were open robes worn over matching or contrasting petticoats and characterized by a fitted bodice that closed at the center front, unremarkably with hooks and eyes or curtained lacing (Figs. 1-5). The shaped pattern pieces were sometimes lightly boned at the middle front and eye back seams, ensuring a smooth line (Figs. 1-3, five). In the preceding decade, the eye dorsum panels of the robe à 50'anglaise were stitched down as far as the waist and released below to create the fashionable fullness of the brim (see 1770-1779 overview); in the 1780s, the tightly pleated skirt was cut separately from the bodice, which ended in a pronounced Five at the centre back waist, accentuating the curve of the lower spine (Figs. i, ii, 4, five, 6). As in the 1770s, the preferred fabrics for women'due south daytime garments were plain or minimally patterned lightweight silks—stripes of even width were especially in vogue—and cottons that were more suitable to gowns with close-fitting bodices and finely pleated skirts (Figs. one-6).

In Adelaïde Labille-Guiard's monumental Cocky-Portrait with Two Pupils, Mademoiselle Gabrielle Capet and Mademoiselle Carreaux de Rosemonde (Fig. vii), exhibited at the Salon of 1785, the artist, who two years earlier was 1 of the few women to be admitted to the Académie Royale de peinture et de sculpture,

"presented herself to a large and diverse Parisian audience as a protean figure, not only as an aggressive portraitist but likewise in the guise of a fashionable sitter." (Auricchio 45)

Seated at her easel, brushes in mitt, Labille-Guiard wears a luminous pale blue satin robe à 50'anglaise, lined in white silk, with a matching petticoat with ane visible seam along her left leg. Ruffles of delicate floral-and-foliate patterned lace and white silk bows decorate the depression wide neckline typical of the 1780s and the cuffs of her tight-fitting, elbow-length sleeves. Behind her, Mademoiselle Capet also wears a robe à fifty'anglaise of soft brown silk taffeta accessorized with a sheer white bonnet, fichu, and sleeve ruffles with matching silk ribbons, while Mademoiselle Carreaux de Rosemonde has sensibly covered her apparel with a white linen or cotton smock to protect it from her oil paints.

In her reading of this painting, fine art historian Laura Auricchio draws attention to Labille-Guiard's skill at depicting "a boundless array of materials" including "the shine of satin, the intricacy of lace, the delicacy of feathers… the deep shadows of plush velvet… the porcelain texture of flawless pare" and the "cornucopia of visual treats," including Labille-Guiard herself in her fashionable and highly impractical wearing apparel (fifty). The creative person'due south flirtatious presentation of her "elaborately clothed but voluptuously revealed body" is closely allied to "another form of commercial imagery associated with women—the fashion plate" (51). Auricchio suggests that ii 1784 plates from the Galerie des Modes (Fig. 8) may take provided inspiration for the artist (51). Labille-Guiard thus "simultaneously demonstrated that she possessed the skills required of a portraitist… [and] declared an affinity with the earth of trade that was forbidden to academicians and to well-bred women akin" (Auricchio 51).

Fig. ane - Nicolas Dupin (French). Page from Gallerie des modes, 1778-1785. Engraving; 23 ten 16 cm. Paris: National Library of French republic. Source: BnF Gallica

Fig. 2 - Designer unknown (French). Robe à fifty'Anglaise, ca. 1785-87. Silk. New York: The Metopolitan Museum of Art, C.I.66.39a, b. Buy, Irene Lewisohn Bequest, 1966. Source: The Met

Fig. 3 - Designer unknown (French). Robe à fifty'Anglaise (detail), ca. 1785-87. Silk. New York: The Metopolitan Museum of Art, C.I.66.39a, b. Purchase, Irene Lewisohn Bequest, 1966. Source: The Met

Fig. 4 - Artist unknown (French). Robe à la Turque, Nov 1, 1786. Engraving. Tokyo: Bunka Gauken University Library, SB00002310. Source: Bunka Gauken

Fig. 5 - Joshua Reynolds (British, 1723-1792). Selina, Lady Skipwith, 1787. Oil on canvas; 128.3 10 102.2 cm. New York: The Frick Collection, 1906.1.102. Henry Dirt Frick Bequest. Source: The Frick

Fig. half dozen - Designer unknown (British). Gown, ca. 1780. Cotton fiber, resist- and mordant-dyed, block-printed, painted and lined. London: Victoria and Albert Museum, T.217-1992. Source: V&A

Fig. seven - Adélaïde Labille-Guiard (French, 1749-1803). Self-Portrait with Two Pupils, Marie Gabrielle Capet (1761–1818) and Marie Marguerite Carreaux de Rosemond (died 1788), 1785. Oil on canvas; 210.eight ten 151.1 cm. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Fine art, 53.225.5. Gift of Julia A. Berwind, 1953. Source: The Met

Fig. 8 - Nicolas Dupin (French). Plate from the Galerie des Modes, 1778-1785. Engraving; 23 x 16 cm. Paris: National Library of France. Source: BnF Gallica

Fig. ix - Artist unknown (French). Redingote Magasin des modes nouvelles, April 20 1787. Engraving. Tokyo: Bunka Gakuen Library, 070379307. Source: Bunka Gakuen

Although women had worn masculine-inspired wool riding habits throughout the eighteenth century, in the 1780s the redingote constituted fashionable solar day attire (Fig. 9). This coat dress was too based on menswear with a high neckband, broad lapels, and double-breasted closure with outsized buttons, and was ofttimes accessorized with paired lookout fobs (Fig. ix)—another nod to a current fad amidst stylish young men. Few redingotes have survived, but their popularity in this decade is evident in the pages of the Galerie des Modes (1778-1787) and the Cabinet des Modes that began publication in 1785 and inverse names twice before ceasing in 1793. In Nov 1786, the retitled Magasin des Modes Nouvelles françaises et anglaises illustrated a young adult female in a redingote of "lemon-yellow wool, with apple tree-green stripes" with a collar and lapels à la marinière (sailor) and a double-tiered "ample gauze fichu" with its ends knotted "en cravatte" (Fig. 10). Barely visible under the hem of her mannish garment are her highly feminine shoes of pink satin trimmed with a black silk ribbon (Fig. ten). At the terminate of the two-page description that provides further details of her ensemble, "frizzed" crew, and "chapeau-bonnette…très bouffante," the editor notes that "our Ladies accept adopted the fashion of redingotes" from English language women. In spite of the flamboyantly trimmed hats and frail footwear that generally accompanied the redingote, its visual similarity to men's apparel prompted the aforementioned critiques that were leveled at women throughout the century for transgressing gender boundaries past their adoption of tailored riding suits. In 1789, The Lady's Magazine worried that,

"[O]f late, I think, women announced, in their great coats, neckcloths, and half-boots, with so masculine an air, that if their features are non very feminine indeed, they may easily be mistaken for young fellows; particularly when a watch is suspended on each side of a petticoat." (Waugh/Women 127) (Fig. ix)

While wool redingotes were about closely associated with men'southward fashionable daywear, they were also made of silk. A watercolor cartoon of Marie Antoinette dating to about 1780 (Fig. 11) shows the queen in an ivory redingote (likely silk) with a black collar and zigzag trimming and narrow bands of fur edging the skirt fronts and petticoat hem. An extant example in the collection of Palais Galliera (Fig. 12) with an impressive scalloped double collar is of yellow silk taffeta. In her portrait by Labille-Guiard, the Comtesse de Selve (Fig. 13) wears a chic double-breasted nighttime grey velvet redingote with gold cord crisscrossed around the buttons similar to the plate in the Magasin des Modes nouvelles and a matching hat with a single white plume.

Fig. x - Duhamel (French). Cabinet des modes, ca. 1778-1785. Engraving; 23 x 16 cm. Paris: National Library of French republic. Source: BnF Gallica

Fig. xi - Artist unknown (French). Marie Antionette in a Redingote, ca. 1780. Engraving. New York: BGC Visual Media Resources Collection, 214248. Source: Mode Muse

Fig. 12 - Designer unknown (French). Redingote and Skirt, ca. 1780-1785. Tafetta, silk. Paris: Palais Galliera, 1988.121.4ab. Source: Dreamstress

Fig. 13 - Adélaïde Labille-Guiard (French, c. 1749-1803). Comtesse Charlotte Elisabeth de Selve (1736-1794), 1787. Oil on sheet. Source: Wiki

The dress that would gain item prominence in the 1780s and the post-obit decade was the white muslin chemise, or chemise à la reine (Fig. fourteen). Although Marie Antoinette was vilified in 1784 for allowing herself to be portrayed in this jumpsuit gown (Fig. 15) adorned merely with a matching double-ruffled neckband, shallow cuffs, and a sheer, gold-colored sash, the chemise was worn past many women beyond the socio-economic spectrum and "the evolution of this pivotal garment illuminates a period of profound modify in French style and society" (Chrisman-Campbell 172; see also 172-199). Every bit wearing apparel historian Kimberly Chrisman-Campbell points out, although "the chemise à la reine was like to the female undergarment in construction… it was not identical [and] it bore a closer resemblance to the unstructured white gowns traditionally worn by immature children of both sexes" (Chrisman-Campbell 172). Unlike the two-piece styles described above, the chemise was put on over the head and did not require a pannier and, while muslin was a favorite option for this dress, "crêpe, silk gauze, backyard, and linen were too used"  (Figs. xiv, 15) with some of these lightweight fabrics being washable (Chrisman-Campbell 174-175). Sold by couturières and marchandes de modes, the chemise'southward

"combination of practicality and novelty made [it] an essential part of the fashionable female person wardrobe even before it received Marie-Antoinette's endorsement and the soubriquet 'à la reine.'" (Chrisman-Campbell 172, 176)

In its early iteration, the chemise was loose-plumbing equipment, with the backlog fabric gathered at the neckline and shoulder seams and controlled at the waist by a broad sash, usually of a contrasting color (Figs. 14, 15). A rare surviving example of a chemise in the drove of the Manchester City Galleries "with channels sewn into the sleeves for ribbons" is similar to those worn by Marie Antoinette and Madame Lavoisier (Fig. 16), depicted with her husband by Jacques-Louis David in 1788 (Chrisman-Campbell 193). The way of arranging the sleeves into puffs seen in both paintings was called "attachées sur les bras" (Chrisman-Campbell 193). David has meticulously recorded the sheerness of Madame Lavoisier's chemise—the dark forest floor and hem of her white petticoat are visible through the gown's transparent cotton railroad train.

While French women eagerly adopted the robe à l'anglaise, the redingote, and other English styles of dress and headwear, English women were quick to don the chemise (Fig. 17). An admiring husband's description of his wife'due south charms on an outing to Ranelagh (a pop London pleasure garden) that was published in the Lady'due south Magazine in 1786 might well apply to Madame Lavoisier's ensemble:

"She had nil on merely a white muslin chemise, tied carelessly with celestial blue bows; white silk slippers and slight silk stockings, to the view of every impertinent coxcomb peeping under her petticoat. Her hair hung in ringlets down to the bottom of her dorsum…" (quoted in Cunnington/Underclothes 92)

Some other husband, also "cited" in the Lady's Magazine in the aforementioned year that Marie Antoinette's portrait was displayed at the Salon, was confounded by his married woman's advent in her "new frolic" that was "like none of the gowns [she] used to wearable" and further perplexed by her explanation that she was garbed in a "chemise de la reine," since he was non a "primary of French." On learning that she was, in consequence, wearing "the queen's shift," he remonstrated "…what will the world come to, when an oilman'southward wife comes downwardly to serve in the shop, not only in her shift, but that of a queen" (quoted in Waugh/Women 123).

Fig. 14 - Nicolas Dupin (French). Chemise à la reine, ca. 1778-1785. Engraving; 23 x 16 cm. Paris: National Library of France. Source: BnF Gallica

Fig. xv - Élisabeth-Louise Vigée Le Brun (French, c. 1755-1842). Marie-Antoinette, ca. 1783. Oil on canvas; 92.7 ten 73.1 cm. Washington: National Gallery of Fine art, 1960.vi.41. Timken Collection. Source: NGA

Fig. xvi - Jacques Louis David (French, 1748-1825). Antoine Laurent Lavoisier (1743–1794) and Marie Anne Lavoisier (Marie Anne Pierrette Paulze, 1758–1836), 1788. Oil on canvas; 259.vii x 194.6 cm. New York: The Metopolitan Museum of Art, 1977.x. Purchase, Mr. and Mrs. Charles Wrightsman Gift, in laurels of Everett Fahy, 1977. Source: The Met

The chemise popularized the faddy for white more broadly in this decade equally is axiomatic in portraits and fashion platesshowing women in white, ii-piece cotton wool and silk gowns and in surviving garments (Figs. eighteen, 19). In 1786, the Comtesse de Provence, the queen's sister-in-law, sat for Joseph Boze who depicted her in high-styled robe à l'anglaise and petticoat of gleaming ivory silk satin trimmed with scallop-edged lace and matching bowknots and a satin-striped fichu (Fig.  twenty). The following yr, the Magasins des Modes nouvelles illustrated a immature woman in a "fourreau" (a gown with back panels stitched from the back of the cervix to the hem) of white linen over a petticoat of white [silk] taffeta, and informed its readers that for forenoon walks, especially during fine conditions, white fourreaux, robes à fifty'anglaise, and caracos with matching petticoats (Fig. 21) should exist worn over white underpetticoats and that blueish, pink, purple, and other colored underpetticoats, or "transparens," were out of manner.

Fig. 17 - George Romney (English, 1734-1802). Mrs John Matthews, 1786. Oil on canvas. London: Tate Museum, N04490. Presented past Miss Winifred Bertha de La Chere in accordance with the wishes of her uncle, Henry, 1st Viscount Llandaff 1929. Source: Tate

Fig. 18 - Elisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun (French, 1755–1842). Comtesse de la Châtre (Marie Charlotte Louise Perrette Aglaé Bontemps, 1762–1848), 1789. Oil on canvass; 114.iii 10 87.six cm. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 54.182. Souvenir of Jessie Woolworth Donahue, 1954. Source: The Met

Fig. xix - Designer unknown (British). Robe à l'anglaise, ca. 1780. Cotton wool, flax. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1982.291a, b. Gifts in memory of Elizabeth Lawrence, 1982. Source: The Met

Fig. twenty - Joseph Boze (French, 1745–1826). Marie-Joséphine-Louise de Savoie (1753–1810), comtesse de Provence, 1753. Oil on canvas; 192 x w 134.5 cm. Westerham: National Trust, Hartwell Firm, 1548062. souvenir to the National Trust with the house as a hotel by Richard Broyd, 2008. Source: Fine art UK

Fig. 21 - Designer unknown (English). Caraco and Petticoat, ca. 1789. Fine white linen, embroidered in silk. Paris: Musée de la Fashion et du Costume, 1959.97.four. Source: Dreamstress

Fig. 22 - Maker unknown (French). Gazette des atours de la Reine Marie-Antoinette pour l'année 1782, 1782. Taffeta, silk. Paris: Athenaeum nationales, AE/I/6 n°2. Source: ARCHIM

In the 1780s, Queen Marie Antoinette, who spent extravagantly on her wardrobe and could afford the most richly brocaded silks, purchased the newly fashionable lightweight, drapey fabrics for both her informal daywear and her formal gowns. The pages of the Gazette des Atours de Marie Antoinette, an album containing fabric swatches of gowns made for the queen in 1782 (Fig. 22), are filled with taffetas (plain woven silks) in solid colors and stripes, some with ikat patterning, that were used for "Robes Turques," "Lévites," "Robes angloises," "Redingotte," "Grands habits," "Robes sur Le petit panier," and "Robes sur Le grand Panier" (James-Sarazin 41-44) (Figs. two, 4, 12). The inscription adjacent to a swatch of cream-colored taffeta ordered for a one thousand habit to be worn at Easter indicates that the dress was trimmed past "Mlle Bertin," who likely lavished yards of iii-dimensional trimmings onto this entirely evidently fabric. In 1783, Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun reprised her 1778 portrait of Marie Antoinette (much admired by the royal consort) in which the queen wears a frothy grand habit of white silk with white-and-gilt trimmings (Vigée-Lebrun updated the queen'southward crew in the later version) (see 1770-1779 overview) A (slightly) less formal dress (probably a robe parée) dating to the 1780s (Fig. 23) in the collection of the Royal Ontario Museum said to have been worn by Marie Antoinette is of ivory satin embroidered in silk and metal threads and sequins with ribbon swags, tassels, and delicate florals and leafage in shades of pink, green, blueish, and ivory.

Barbara Johnson (1738-1825), daughter of a clergyman from Olney, Buckinghamshire, who kept an album with fabric swatches of all her gowns (Figs. 24 & 25) commencement in 1746 at the age of 8, bought several examples of understated silks and cottons for gowns and petticoats in the 1780s. These included a "Callicoe" with black-and-tan stripes patterned with tiny sprigs in September 1780; a "Cherry double Taffety" [plainly weave] and "an English language Chintz" with a blue, reddish, and greenish floral design on a white ground in 1781; "a strip'd Satin" in dark greenish and dusty rose-pink in December 1782; "a brown taffety" in June 1785; and 2 more than "Callicoe[south]," one with a small meandering vine design in blue, yellow, and dark-green on a blackness basis in August 1787 and another with pocket-size floral-and-foliate sprigs in yellow, deep pinkish, white, and lite brown on a black ground in October 1789 (Rothstein/Barbara Johnson'south Album of Styles and Fabrics). While many British and French chintzes featured white or light-colored grounds, dark grounds such as green, brown, and black, known equally "ramoneur" (chimney sweep) in French, were particularly popular in this decade and the 1790s (Fig. 25).

In addition to domestically produced printed cottons that targeted a range of consumers, elite women favored expensive, skillfully painted-and-dyed and embroidered Indian cottons for the refinement of their embellishment and the high quality of the material itself (Figs. 26, 27).

Fig. 23 - Designer unknown (French). Marie Antionette's dress, ca. 1780s. Ivory satin with silk, metal thread, sequins. Toronto: Majestic Ontario Museum. Source: ROM

Fig. 24 - Artist unknown. Page from Barbara Johnson'south Anthology of Styles and Fabrics, ca. 1780s. Paper, parchment, textiles. London: Victoria and Albert Museum, T.219-1973. Source: Five&A

Fig. 25 - Artist unknown. Page from Barbara Johnson's Album of Styles and Fabrics, ca. 1780s. Paper, parchment, textiles. London: Victoria and Albert Museum, T.219-1973. Source: V&A

Fig. 26 - Designer unknown (English language). Clothes (robe à 50'anglaise), ca. 1780s. White cotton chintz with polychrome indian floral print; "compères" front with lacing; border of printed textile at center front, hem and cuffs.. Kyoto: Kyoto Costume Institute, AC6978 91-eleven-ane. Source: KCI

The main difference between the female person silhouette of the 1770s and that of the 1780s was the latter's rounder shape that was accomplished with understructure, accessories, in item, the fichu, and changes in hairstyles (Figs. 1, 5, 7, 13, 20). Although the corset (at present often half-boned) was still essential in the creation of the fashionable body, the various two-piece gowns referred to higher up would generally have been worn with a cork-filled crescent pad, known in Britain equally a "imitation rump" or "dried bum" and in France as a "cul de Paris" (Cunnington 336) (Figs. 28, 29). If not tied securely around the waist, the tapes might come loose, equally seems to have occurred in at least ane instance every bit reported by Town and Country Mag in 1785:

"Lost: a Lady's Rump in fine preservation, coming from the City Ball." (Cunnington/336)

The admiring husband at Ranelagh noted that although his wife was unencumbered by stays under her white muslin chemise, allowing for the "advantageous" display of "her easy shape," her long ringlets "rested upon the unnatural protuberance which every fashionable female person at present chuses to affix to that part of her person," as seen in the portrait of Marie Anne Lavoisier (Fig. 16) (quoted in Cunnington/History of Underclothes 92).

To rest this posterior rotundity, women wore large white cotton, linen, or gauze fichus loosely folded and crossed over the bust, sometimes with the ends tied effectually the back of the waist, creating a pouter-dove effect (Figs. 1, 5, 8, 18). In 1786, Sophie de la Roche commented on the "get-upwards of four ladies, who entered a box during the 3rd play."

Their "wonderfully fantastic caps and hats perched on their heads" drew "loud derision" from the audition, and "their neckerchiefs were puffed upwards and so high that their noses were scarce visible, and their nosegays were like huge shrubs, large enough to conceal a person." (quoted in Waugh/Women 125)

Large muffs, that were a point of way for both young women and men in the 1780s, further exaggerated this silhouette particularly when held directly in front of the bust (Fig. thirty). Caricaturists relentlessly satirized the pros—depending on one's point of view—and mostly cons of these spherical female proportions (Figs. 31, 32).

Although sizable coiffures connected to be stylish in the 1780s, the verticality of the previous decade's hairstyles was replaced by an aureole-like shape that too involved the employ of false hair, pulverisation, and pomatum (Figs. 5, 8, 13, 16, twenty). To accommodate these new coiffures that were more than conducive to headwear, milliners confected hats and bonnets of suitably large dimensions with expansive brims and crowns topped with extravagant ribbons, feather, and other ebullient decorations. The Galerie des Modes and Cabinet des Modes (and its subsequent versions) chart the frequent changes in these all-important accessories that communicated the wearer's familiarity with the latest novelties that even the Chiffonier'south editor sometimes best-selling varied only slightly from what he had heralded equally the nigh au courant style in the previous issue (Figs. 4, 5, viii, 9, x, thirteen, 17, 18, 20, thirty, 33). In his Tableau de Paris (1783), the social commentator and urban ethnographer Sebastien Mercier commented on the fleetingness of women's fashions—including headwear—that were out of date earlier he could put them to pen. The women of easy virtue who patrolled the Palais-Royal—a favorite hunting ground—

"walk two by two to grab men'due south eyes dressed in the latest spoils of the milliner, mad modes too, some of them, which last a day or two, and then are forgotten even by their ain inventors.  The names of these fashions would fill a dictionary of several volumes folio; however, we have no such useful guide every bit withal…."  (Mercier 207)

In French republic, the straw hat, associated with English country life, was sartorial shorthand for way's affinity with the pastoral (Figs. 1,7, 15, 17, xviii). The marchande de modes (Fig. 33), or milliner, reigned supreme in the last decades of the eighteenth century. The relative simplicity of women's main garments in both shape and fabric during this catamenia was almost obscured by their accompanying accessories and trimmings (Fig. 34) including "feathers, ribbons, tassels, lace, artificial flowers and other ornaments" that were provided past these fashion merchants and often considerably pricier than the gowns themselves (Chrisman-Campbell 52).

Fig. 27 - Designer unknown (French). Robe à 50'anglaise, ca. 1784-1787. Cotton, metallic, silk. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1991.204a, b. Purchase, Isabel Shults Fund and Irene Lewisohn Bequest, 1991. Source: The Met

Fig. 28 - Designer unknown (British). Stays, 1780-1789. Linen, linen thread, ribbon, chamois and whalebone. London: Victoria and Albert Museunm, T.172-1914. Mrs Strachan. Source: V&A

Fig. 29 - R. Rushworth (British, active 1785–86). The Bum Shop, July 11th, 1785. Manus colored etching; 31 x 44 cm. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1970.541.12. The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund and Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, by Commutation, 1970. Source: The Met

Fig. 30 - Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun (French, 1755-1842). Madame Molé-Reymond, from the Italian Comedy (1759-1833), ca. 1786. Oil on woods. Paris: The Louvre, MI 694. Reymond, Maurice Gabrielle Hélène Françoise (model'southward daughter). Source: Louvre

Fig. 31 - Creative person unknown (British). The Summertime Shower, or Mademoiselle Par, a Pluye, May 16th, 1786. Etching, manus colored; 23.viii x 27.3 cm. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1971.564.190. The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1971. Source: The Met

Fig. 32 - George Townley Stubbs (British, c. 1756-1815). The Inconvenience of wearing apparel, 1786. Hand-coloured etching. London: The British Museum, 1851,0901.298. Donated by: William Smith, the printseller. Source: Yale University Library

Fig. 33 - Creative person unknown (French). Les Belles marchandes de Paris, 1784. Paris: Bibliothèque nationale de France. Source: BNF

As dress historian Kimberly Chrisman-Campbell notes,

"marchandes de modes were user-friendly (if problematic) symbols of class, consumption, and sexuality. By displaying themselves to public view in magasins de modes (style shops) and in the streets, [they] provoked controversy and curiosity" and these women "came to personify fashion itself, with all its glamour and foibles." (Chrisman-Campbell 53-54)

The near renowned marchande de modes in Paris was Rose Bertin, whose shop, "Au Grand Mogol," was on the exclusive Rue St. Honoré. Bertin's services to the fashion-obsessed Marie Antoinette secured her reputation among an affluent international clientele who were willing—when they settled their bills, sometimes on an annual footing—to pay her exorbitant prices and made her the target of critics, who decried her undue influence over the queen and what was perceived as her familiarity with—and even insolence towards—her high-ranking customers.

In improver to dressmakers who were instrumental in the invention and dissemination of new styles, the burgeoning fashion press on both sides of the Channel kept women in urban centers as well as rural areas increasingly up to date with changes in style. In France, the Cabinet des Modes, edited by Jean Antoine Brun, appeared in October 1785, slightly overlapping with the Galerie des Modes (1778-1787). Published every fifteen days until October 1786, "it provided its subscribers with three colour engravings and eight pages of text on the latest fashions" (Jones 181). Over the next three years until Dec 1789, the journal, renamed Magasin des Modes nouvelles françaises et anglaises was edited by Louis Edme Billardon de Sauvigny, and, in February 1790—just six months after the fall of the Bastille—Brun took the helm once again and changed the championship to Journal de la mode et du goût (Jones 181). The Cabinet des Modes (and its subsequent iterations) "provided a detailed view of how the 'fashion system' worked…and explicit commentary on the nature of la mode…[besides as] regularly discussing its ain function in the culture of way" (Jones 181). In her examination of this journal, historian Jennifer Jones argues that "the fashion press played a crucial function in disseminating a new vision of the relationship between women, fashion, and commercial civilization" and "relegating" fashion and its associations with frivolity and ephemerality to "the realm of gustatory modality rather than the serious realm of art and politics" (Jones 180).

Fig. 34 - Michel Garnier (French, act. 1793-1814). A Fashionably Dressed Young Woman in the Arcade of the Palais-Imperial, 1787. Source: Pinterest

Significantly, although publications similar the Galerie des Modes and the Chiffonier des Modes depict upper-class men and women, they simultaneously reflect the growing consumption of manner that encompassed the heart and working classes and marker a shift in the locus of trendsetting styles from the court to the urban center of Paris (Jones 182).

In England, Barbara Johnson's album attests to the popularity of what were known as Pocket Books that were "issued especially for women [and] appeared in quantity…during the 2d half of the eighteenth century" (Rothstein 36). These small books included "pages ruled for engagements month by month" equally well as a variety of information such every bit "hackney carriage rates; new taxes… new country dances, songs, cookery recipes…[and] one or two fashion engravings" (Rothstein 36). Beginning in 1754, Johnson affixed engravings from "16 named publications, too as many unidentified plates" to the pages with her fabric swatches (Rothstein 36). From her home in Buckinghamshire, Johnson had access to The Ladies Complete Pocket Book (commencement published in 1758 and one of her favorites, judging by the fifteen times that identified engravings appear in the album between 1770 and 1825); The English Ladies Pocket Companion or Useful Memorandum Volume; Carnan's Ladies Complete Pocket Book; The Ladies New Memorandum Book amidst several others (Rothstein 36-37) (Figs. 24, 25). In improver to Pocket Books, more fashion-focused magazines were besides available such equally The Lady'southward Magazine (the fourth publication with that proper name) that began in 1770 (Rothstein forty).

Style Icon: LOUISE CONTAT (1760-1813), French extra

Fig. 1 - Jean-Baptiste Greuze (French, 1725–1805). Louise Contat, ca. 1786. Pastel. Source: Wiki

Fig. 2 - Jacques Philippe Joseph de Saint Quentin (French, b. 1748). 'The mad day, or the spousal relationship of Figaro', ca. 1784. Carving; xvi.4 x 10 cm. New York: The Met, 2012.136.58.2. Phyllis Massar, 2011. Source: The Met

In 1784, Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais' controversial play and succès fou, The Marriage of Figaro, ensured the reputation of Louise Contat as a gifted actress and style trendsetter (Fig. 1). Although leading actresses and ballet dancers had set new styles throughout the century, the institution of a regular fashion press beginning in the 1770s added to their visibility and renown and reinforced the mutually beneficial relationship betwixt fashion and the theatre. Beaumarchais himself recognized this human relationship in the preface to the published edition of Figaro:

"Because characters in a play show themselves to accept low morals, must we banish them from the stage? What should we seek at the theatre? Foibles and absurdities? That'south well worth the trouble of writing well-nigh! They are like our fashions; we tin can't correct them, so nosotros change them." (quoted in Chrisman-Campbell 215)

Born in Paris in 1760, Louise Contat debuted at the Comédie-Française at age 16 in 1776 in the part of Atalide in Jean Racine'southward 1672 play, Bajazet. In response to the mixed reviews that best-selling her "charming figure," just found her talent somewhat defective, Contat undertook further dramatic studies and lessons in elocution. Following subsequent performances in Zaïre and Britannicus, she was fabricated a sociétaire of the Comédie Française in 1777—a conclusion that may too accept been prompted by her liaison with a high-ranking admirer, with whom she had 2 children. Dubbed the "Vénus aux belles fesses" past the cloak-and-dagger printing, Contat next attracted the attention of Charles Philippe, comte d'Artois, younger brother of Louis 16, and in December 1780, she gave birth to their son. As mistress to a member of the royal family, Contat's career benefited and she was offered enviable roles. Her beauty and vivacity were particularly well suited to ingénue parts and her appearances in Le Vieux Garçon past Paul-Ulric Dubuisson, Les Courtisanes by Palissot, and La Coquette corrigée in the early 1780s brought her acclaim. Following her breakout part in The Marriage of Figaro, Contat enjoyed many farther theatrical triumphs playing lovers, coquettes, and young mothers. In 1785, the actress was awarded a pension from the imperial treasury, and she remained loyal to the Bourbon family unit afterward the outbreak of the Revolution in July 1789.

Although she was a confirmed royalist, Contat was protected past leading members of the Revolutionary government subsequently the fall of the monarchy in August 1792; however, she was imprisoned in 1793, sentenced to death, and narrowly escaped the guillotine. In 1799, she returned to the Comédie-Française, where she reclaimed her pre-Revolutionary successes, performing until her retirement in 1809. Her salon, that she established during the Directoire (1795-99), drew guests from the highest echelons of Ancien Authorities club. Contat died of cancer in 1813 and is buried in Père Lachaise cemetery in Paris.

Although Beaumarchais's play The Hairdresser of Seville (1775), the first in his trilogy that introduced the scheming, upstart character of Figaro, was well received, it was the second, The Marriage of Figaro, that became a sensation (Figs. 2, 3, iv). Following its wildly successful first performance at the Comédie-Française in front of a packed house filled with members of the aristocracy, the play spawned a host of feminine fashions, named for both male and female person characters including Figaro, Suzanne (maidservant to Countess Almaviva, the object of Count Almaviva'due south want, and Figaro'southward married woman-to-be), and Chérubin (a male page), that filled the pages of the Galerie des Modes (1778–87) and the Cabinet des Modes (1785–86). A 1785 plate (Fig. 5) from the old presents a "young and elegant Suzanne" belongings a letter of the alphabet to "her beloved Figaro" dressed in a muslin "caraco" (jacket bodice) and skirt—typical attire for a lady'southward maid that "crossed over into fashion in the 1780s," largely due to Figaro (Chrisman-Campbell 212). In the same twelvemonth, a "brilliant nymph" of the Palais-Royal, with a coiffure "à la Suzanne" and a juste (another proper name for a hip-length jacket) "à la Figaro," offers "to the eyes of the public the charms of her face and the elegance of her shape" that attract high praise, while some other "nymph" walking in a public promenade with hopes of meeting an admirer wears a hat "à la Chérubin" (Fig. 6). The Cabinet des Modes illustrated a (presumably respectable) woman in formal apparel accessorized with a gauze bonnet "à la Figaro" (Fig. 7).

In its issue of November 20, 1786, the Magasin des Modes nouvelles referred to bonnets "à la Turque" and "à la Randan" (known by some every bit "à la Bayard") that owed their origin to the "exquisite gustation of the famous Actress who played the function of Madame de Randan in Les Amours de Bayard, a new comedy by Grand. Monvel". Lest its readers were unaware of the identity of this "famous Actress," the editor added a note clarifying that she was "Mademoiselle CONTAT, who had already created hats à la Suzanne, à la Figaro, &c".

Fig. 3 - J. Coutellier (French, 1776-1789). Louise Contat in the Role of Suzanne in Pierre Beaumarchais's "Le Mariage de Figaro" (The Union of Figaro), ca. 1784. Engraving. New York: BGC Visual Media Resources Collection, 215945. Source: Alamy

Fig. 4 - J. Coutellier (French, 1776-1789). Jeanne-Adelaide Olivier in the Role of Chérubin in Pierre Beaumarchais's "Le Mariage de Figaro", ca. 1784. Source: Alamy

Fig. 5 - Nicolas Dupin (French). Folio from Gallerie des Modes, ca. 1778-1785. Engraving; 23 ten 16 cm. Paris: National Library of French republic. Source: BnF Gallica

Fig. 6 - Nicolas Dupin (French). Folio from Gallerie des Modes, ca. 1778-1785. Engraving; 23 x 16 cm. Paris: National Library of France. Source: BnF Gallica

Fig. 7 - Creative person unknown (French). Bonnet de gaze soufflée, à la Figaro, surmonté de deux plumes blanches soutenues par une guirland de fleurs, Dec 1st, 1785. Engraving. Tokyo: Bunka Gakuen University Library, SB00002310. Source: Bunka Gakuen

In 1787, the Galerie des Modes depicted a young adult female in a redingote with steel buttons and a wide-brimmed hat with striped ribbons and a large standing frill dubbed "à la Contat" after the actress herself (see Chrisman-Campbell 215). In attempting to explain the success of Contat's hats, the Magasin des Modes nouvelles suggested at least one reason why women desired to re-create extra fashions:

"Most of our ladies who have adopted these hairstyles have convinced themselves that they will make conquests equally striking [equally Mlle Contat'due south characters had made on phase and Mlle Contat had fabricated off stage], or at least volition have the same seductive aura as Mademoiselle Contat." (quoted in Jones 189-190)

However, the journal cautioned its readers against too closely emulating actresses and to limit their toilettes to the private rather the public sphere: "Ane must have the most minor, decent, naïve, soft and circumspect tone: the least bit of freedom, the slightest arrayal, will give ane the look of a prostitute" (quoted in Jones 190). In spite of the appreciation of their talents, their enormous popularity, and their acknowledged roles equally fashion leaders, actresses were equated with the "nymphs" who sold their bodies—presumably to the highest bidder—until the plow of the twentieth century.

Menswear

Fig. ane - Thomas Gainsborough (English, c. 1727-1788). George Drummond, ca. 1780s. Oil on canvas; 233 ten w 151 cm. Oxford: The Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology, WA1955.62. Source: Art Great britain

Fig. 2 - Designer unknown (English or French). Riding coat, ca. 1780s. Wool plain weave, total finish, with metallic-thread embroidery. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Fine art, M.2007.211.46. Source: LACMA

As in the 1770s, the principal influence of fashionable menswear came from England. The trend towards simplicity and informality of the English language country gentleman'south attire that took concord in that decade became more than pronounced in the 1780s and was emulated by fashionable young men in France and elsewhere on the Continent (Figs. i, 2). In the French upper-case letter, frock coats, jockey hats, and riding boots were expressions of the Anglomania that swept the country at this time, equally indicated by the renamed Magasins des Modes Nouvelles françaises et anglaises. Sebastien Mercier deplored this obsession with all things English:

"Just now English clothing is all the rage. Rich human being'southward son, sprig of dignity, counter-jumper shop clerk—you come across them dressed all alike in the long coat, cutting close, thick stockings, puffed stock; with gloves, hats on their heads and a riding switch in their hands. Not one of the gentlemen thus attired, nevertheless, has ever crossed the Channel or tin can speak one word of English language… [E]nglish coats, with their triple capes, envelop our young exquisites. Small boys wearable their pilus cutting circular, uncurled and without pulverization…" (Mercier 148-149)

Although the writer conceded that "the dress is keen, and implies a most verbal cleanliness of person," he notwithstanding implored his "young friend[s]" to "continue your national frippery" and to

"apparel French once more, wear your embroidered waistcoats, your laced coats; powder your hair… continue your hat under your arm, and clothing your two watches, with concomitant fobs, both at once. Grapheme is something more than wearing apparel." (Mercier 148)

Beyond these imitations of English language wearing apparel that he constitute distasteful, Mercier likewise noted other objectionable imports from France's longstanding rival:

"Shopkeepers hang out signs—'English Spoken Here.' The lemonade-sellers even have succumbed to the lure of punch, and write the discussion on their windows… [T]he racecourse at Vincennes is copied from that at Newmarket. … [A]ll these modes and drinks and customs would have been rejected, and with disdain, by the Parisians of 30 years ago" (Mercier 149).

According to Mercier, the equine fascination among his male compatriots (that would persist into the nineteenth century) resulted in the abandonment their mistresses:

"Young men are mad nearly horses, and for some time have ignored the ladies of the Opera—the courtisanes resent this treatment; the young men take them out less and their horses more; until the evening, all clothes like grooms; they expect bad-mannered in dress clothes." (quoted in Waugh/Men 108)

A dashing speculator striding in the Palais Royal (Fig. three)—seemingly having just dismounted—wears a full English language ensemble comprising an umber-colored frock glaze with an imbricated design, straight-cutting striped waistcoat, thigh-hugging buckskin breeches, a "Jockey" lid, striped stockings, riding boots, and spurs. In July 1786, the Magasin des Modes Nouvelles showed a young homo, ready "to mount his horse," in a "dragon-dark-green" double-breasted coat with female parent-of-pearl buttons, a striped waistcoat, leather breeches, paired watch fobs, and "Bottes Anglaises" with silver spurs (Fig 4). Describing the sights and sounds of the Palais-Royal, Sebastien Mercier observed that

"you can hear [the young men] coming from ane cease of the place to the other, by the tinkle of chains for the two watches they wear." (Mercier 206)

While young Frenchmen embraced the form of English language attire, they often preferred more than lively patterns and hues than the subdued, solid colors preferred by their counterparts across the Channel (Fig. 3). Throughout the 1780s, stripes decorated coats, waistcoats, and stockings (Fig. five). In 1787, Mercier attributed this fashion to the zebra in the king'southward menagerie:

"coats and waistcoats imitate the handsome creature'southward markings as closely as they can. Men of all ages accept gone into stripes from caput to foot, fifty-fifty to their stockings." (quoted in Ribeiro/Dress in Eighteenth Century Europe 208).

Although the waistcoat had been a focal point of the suit throughout the century, information technology provided additional center-communicable interest in the 1780s and 1790s, especially when worn with a plainly glaze and/or breeches; like women's hats, these garments signified the wearer'due south individual taste and attention to the latest trends that were oft inspired by topical events including theatrical productions (such as Henry Purcell's opera, Dido and Aeneas) and literature equally well as exotic animals (Figs. 6-8).

Fig. 3 - Artist unknown (French). Stock Market Speculator in Forenoon Clothes and Chapeau Jokei, Book IV, plate 282, 1787. Engraving. New York: BGC Visual Media Resources Collection, 203592. Source: Dikats

Fig. iv - Artist unknown (French). English language Boots and Striped Waistcoat, ca. 1780s. Engraving. Tokyo: Bunka Gakuen University Library, SB00002310. Source: Bunka Gakuen

Fig. 5 - Nicolas Dupin (French). Galerie des modes et costumes français, ca. 1778-1787. Engraving. Tokyo: Bunka Gakuen Academy Library, BB00114340. Source: Bunka Gakuen

Fig. 6 - Designer unknown (French). Waistcoat, ca. 1780s. Silk, linen. London: Victoria and Albert Museum, 256-1880. Source: 5&A

Fig. 7 - Designer unknown (French). Embroidered Waistcoat, ca. 1785-1795. Silk, embroidery. New York: Cooper Hewitt, 1962-54-47. Bequest of Richard Cranch Greenleaf in retentiveness of his mother, Adeline Emma Greenleaf. Source: Cooper Hewitt

Fig. 8 - Designer unknown (French). Waistcoat, ca. 1780-1789. Silk, linen, embroidery. London: Victoria and Albert Museum, T.49-1948. Source: Five&A

Fig. 9 - Joseph Wright of Derby (English, c. 1734-1797). Sir Brooke Boothby, 1781. Oil on sheet. London: Tate Museum, N04132. Bequeathed by Miss Agnes Ann Best 1925. Source: Tate

Fig. 10 - Joseph Boze (French, 1745-1826). Louis-Stanislas-Xavier, comte de Provence (subsequently King Louis XVIII, King of France) (1755-1824), 1786. Oil on canvas; 194 10 138 cm. Buckinghamshire: Hartwell Firm, 1548061. Source: National Trust

Fig. 11 - Designer unknown (French). Suit, ca. 1780-1785. Silk, velvet, foil, sequins. Los Angeles: Los Angeles Canton Museum of Art, M.2007.211.950a-c. Source: LACMA

The contrast between men's informal day and formal evening wear is evident in Joseph Wright of Derby'due south portrait of Sir Brooke Boothby (Fig. nine) and Joseph Boze's depiction of the Comte de Provence, younger brother of Louis XVI and future Louis XVIII (Fig. 10). Dress historian Aileen Ribeiro notes that while Boothby's

"portrait has been seen, both in pose and in dress, every bit influenced past late Elizabethan and Jacobean melancholy… the costume is certainly not indicative of a melancholic déshabillé, just a definite statement of high style." (Art of Clothes 48)

Carefully reclining on the ground in a wooded landscape and holding a copy of Rousseau. Juge de Rousseau, Boothby wears a three-piece matching accommodate of soft brown wool consisting of a slim-fitting double-breasted frock with turned-down neckband and broad lapels and tight sleeves that take been unbuttoned at the wrist to beget greater ease of move, a double-breasted waistcoat, and close-fitting breeches secured with buttons in a higher place the outer genu, white silk stockings, and black low-heeled buckled shoes (Fig. 9). The neutral colour and plainness of his suit sets off the whiteness of his equally plain white linen shirt and cravat, tied in a bow. Ribeiro notes that "Oxford Street in London was famous for its shops selling a wide range of cottons and linens, and was peculiarly admired by foreign visitors in the 1780s" (Fine art of Apparel 48). Set at an bending on Boothby'south unpowdered hair is a hat with a circular brim and a round crown known as a "wide-awake"; by the 1780s, this style "largely replaced the cocked three-corner lid which became the preserve of the conservative and the former-fashioned" (Ribeiro/Art of Wearing apparel 49).

At the other end of the spectrum, the Comte de Provence, seated on a gilded chair upholstered in red damask, wears a richly embroidered addiction à la française with coat and breeches of pale blue silk glittering with aureate spangles and a coordinating white silk waistcoat, covered in embroidery (Fig. 10). A old page to Louis Xvi described the rex'south formal dress of the 1780s that closely corresponds to Provence's adjust:

"on Sundays and ceremonial occasions his suits were of very beautiful materials, embroidered in silks and paillettes. Often, every bit was the fashion and then, the velvet coat was entirely covered with little spangles, which made information technology very dazzling." (quoted in Waugh/Men 107)

The belatedly-eighteen-century formal adjust was distinguished from the frock not only past its rich materials, but by its standing collar that emerged in the 1760s and grew in peak through the terminate of the century, unmarried-breasted closure, and the inverted-V shape of the single-breasted waistcoat skirts. While the placement of the embroidery on Provence's glaze along the eye front edges, cuffs and pocket flaps is consistent with that seen in earlier decades, the fragile floral sprays and bowknot motifs are typical of the terminal quarter of the century and reflect an overall change in artful from the heavier, lush ornamentation that previously characterized this blazon of decoration (Fig. xi). Throughout the century, clients purchased uncut panels embroidered with all the pieces of the suit that were subsequently fabricated up past a tailor for the individual wearer (Fig. 12).

Dissimilar Boothby's patently linen, Provence's shirt frill and cuffs are of floral needle lace (probably French) and, although his buckled shoes are low-heeled like the Englishman's, their red color had been associated with the French court since the reign of Louis XIV. (Fig. x). Similarly, Provence's powdered and curled wig with its queue encased in a black silk purse was strictly relegated to courtroom clothing past the last decades of the century. And, like the folio's description of his brother the king, the count wears a jeweled epaulet and the blue ribbon with the Order of the Holy Spirit that, along with aloof titles, would be abolished in the early years of the Revolution (Waugh/Men 107).

At the meeting of the Estates General in May 1789, called for the starting time time since 1614 by Louis Xvi in 1788, the sartorial display of wealth and status that distinguished the aloof members of the First Manor became a lightning rod for the country's centuries-long social, political, and economic inequities. Rejecting both his class and its prerogative to wearable silks and lace, the Comte de Mirabeau joined the Third Manor and donned the prescribed blackness wool suit and obviously linen, in which he was depicted by Joseph Boze (Fig. 13)—the same creative person who had painted the Comte de Provence (Fig. 10) 3 years earlier.

PALAIS-ROYAL

Many Galerie des Modes plates locate the fashionable figures in the Palais-Purple (Figs. 3, fourteen). Following its refurbishment in this decade by the hugely wealthy anglophile Philippe d'Orléans, duc de Chartres, cousin of Louis XVI, whose family had lived in the Palais-Royal since the second half of the seventeenth century, it became the epicenter of Parisian highlife frequented by elite club, bourgeois men and women, dodgy speculators, ladies of the dark, and tourists from all over Europe and beyond (Fig. 34 in womenswear). The elegant, arcaded galleries were filled with shops, auction galleries, concert rooms, gambling clubs, Turkish baths, cafés, and brothels (Fig. 15). John Villiers, an English visitor in 1788, found the shops:

"the best in Paris, which produce a biggy rent to the Duke. Every affair that is rich, vivid, and cute, is exposed to sale, at these dissimilar boutiques; the splendour of which, together with the pleasantness of the walks, and the croud [sic] of well-dressed company makes this place truly enchanting and delightful." (quoted in Chrisman-Campbell 57)

Clothing shops—and the possibility to transform oneself—were prominent in what was derisively referred to as "le Palais marchand:"

"Go to the Palais-Royal dressed equally an American savage, and in the space of half an hr, you volition exist dressed in the most perfect fashion." (quoted in Chrisman-Campbell 57-58)

Fig. 12 - Designer unknown (French). Embroidered panels for a homo's arrange, 1780s. Silk embroidery on woven silk, satin stitch; stem stitch, knots and silk net; 114.9 × 56.v cm. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1982.290a–eastward. Buy, Irene Lewisohn and Alice L. Crowley Bequests, 1982. Source: The Met

Fig. 13 - Joseph Boze (French, 1745-1826). Count of Mirabeau (1749-1791), 1789. Oil on canvas; 214 ten 116 cm. New York: BGC Visual Media Resources Collection, 207630. Source: AKG

Fig. fourteen - Nicolas Dupin (French). Galerie des Modes, 48e Cahier, 5e Figure, pl. 222, ca. 1785. Source: Mimic of Modes

For the more skeptical Paris-dweller, Sebastien Mercier, this "Pandora'due south Box," characterized by sensory overload, was filled with seductive attractions that could lead to ruin (Mercier 205). Declaring it "unique; goose egg in London, Amsterdam, Vienna, Madrid can compare with information technology. A man might exist imprisoned within its precincts for a year or 2 and never miss his liberty…," he also warned of the "vices [that] concur sway there" and the venality of the "prostitutes [and] the stock-exchange dealers [who] meet here three times a day; coin is their ane topic, and the prostitution of the State…" (Mercier 202, 205).

Although "prices [were] triple, quadruple the prices anywhere else," the Palais-Regal was never without those who came and paid, "especially the foreigners [similar Villiers], who dear having everything the middle of man can desire assembled in one place, nether one roof, for their pleasance" (Mercier 206).

On July 12, 1789, equally the political state of affairs in French republic (and Paris, especially) became more unstable, Camille Desmoulins, a young lawyer from Picardy, made an impassioned speech to the oversupply gathered in the gardens of the Palais Royal, exhorting his fellow citizens to take up arms. Ii days later, the Guardhouse, the hated symbol of absolute monarchy and tyranny, was stormed by an angry mob and, over the adjacent several months, completely destroyed.

Fig. 15 - Philibert Louis Debucourt (French, 1755-1832). The Palais Royal Gallery's Walk, 1787. Color aquatint on newspaper. Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 1924.1344. Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Potter Palmer, Jr.. Source: AIC

L eading into the eighteenth century, new philosophies emerging from the Age of Enlightenment were changing attitudes about childhood (Nunn 98). For example, in his 1693 publication, Some Thoughts Apropos Educational activity, John Locke challenged long-held behavior near best practices for child-rearing. A slightly subsequently child evolution theorist was Jean Jacques Rousseau. Locke and Rousseau both put forward full general principles about children's dress. However, it was non until the 1760s that their ideas were conspicuously reflected in children'southward wear (Paoletti).

Locke and Rousseau advocated that young children receive more regular hygiene. They also believed that dressing children in many layers of heavy fabrics was bad for their health. For those reasons, linen and cotton fabrics were preferred for babies and very young children because they were lightweight and hands washable (Paoletti).

Although the tradition was in reject, some infants may accept been swaddled. Swaddling was a very long-held European tradition where an infant's limbs are immobilized in tight cloth wrappings (Callahan). The practice was losing popularity due to popular cover of the opinions of Locke and Rousseau who opposed the practice (Paoletti).

Babies were then dressed in "slips" or "long dress" until they began to crawl (Fig. 1) (Callahan). These were ensembles with very long, full skirts that extended beyond the feet (Nunn 99). Babies also wore tight-fitting caps on their heads.

Once a child was condign mobile, they transitioned into "short clothes" (Callahan). Unlike long wearing apparel, these ensembles ended at the ankles, allowing for greater freedom of movement (Callahan). Short gowns had dorsum-opening bodices and sometimes "leading strings" fastened at the back or tied under the arms (Magidson). Leading strings were streamers of fabric used to protect young children from falling or wandering off ("Childhood")

The manner for curt clothes in the 1780s had emerged in the 1760s: a white frock worn with a colored sash effectually the waist (Fig. 2). This style was worn by very young children of both sexes. The most common sash colors were pink and bluish, although they were not used to point gender. A colored underslip may have also been worn, which would evidence through the translucent white top material (Paoletti). While this mode originated with very small children, it quickly became more pervasive. By the 1780s, girls sometimes wore this style of dress even into their teenaged years (Nunn 99).

The 1780s saw a significant development in fashion for immature boys. Previously, immature boys wore skirted gowns until they were "breeched" past age seven, and so wore developed menswear styles (Reinier). However, new to the 1780s was a transitional type of ensemble for young boys chosen a "skeleton adapt," which they would wear from approximately ages three to seven (Fig. 3) (Callahan). Skeleton suits

"consisted of ankle-length trousers buttoned onto a brusk jacket worn over a shirt with a wide collar edged in ruffles" (Callahan).

Older boys would so article of clothing ensembles resembling developed menswear, although the fit was typically looser and more relaxed.

Fig. 1 - Thomas Gainsborough (English, 1727-1788). Item from The Baillie Family, ca. 1784. Oil on sheet; 250.8 × 227.3 cm. London: Tate Museum, N00789. Bequeathed by Alexander Baillie 1868. Source: Tate

Fig. ii - George Romney (English, 1734-1802). Lady Anne Barbara Russell and her son, ca. 1786-vii. Oil on canvas; 144 ten 113 cm. Private collection. Source: Wooley & Wallis

Fig. 3 - Francisco de Goya y Lucientes (Spanish, 1746-1828). Manuel Osorio Manrique de Zuñiga (1784–1792), 1787-88. Oil on canvas; 127 ten 101.6 cm. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 49.7.41. The Jules Bache Collection, 1949. Source: The Met

The Baillie Family, circa 1784, depicts James Baillie with his wife and 4 children (Fig. iv). Baillie's wife holds a babe wearing a long gown, which extends well by the baby's anxiety. The young boy wears a dark blue skeleton adapt with a white collar, which is extremely similar to the one worn in The Oddie Children, circa 1789 (Fig. 5). Still, one notable exception is the pinkish sash tied around his waist. The younger Baillie girl wears a white gown with a blue waist sash, and lifts her skirt to reveal a dark blue underslip. Her ensemble is non unlike those worn past the Oddie girls. The older Baillie daughter wears a more mature way of gown, yet she wears a pervasively fashionable waist sash similar her younger siblings.

Fig. iv - Thomas Gainsborough (English, 1727-1788). The Baillie Family, ca. 1784. Oil on canvas; 250.8 × 227.three cm. London: Tate Museum, N00789. Ancestral by Alexander Baillie 1868. Source: Tate

Fig. 5 - William Beechey (English, 1753-1839). The Oddie Children, 1789. Oil on canvas; 182.ix x 182.6 cm. Raleigh: Due north Carolina Museum of Art Foundation, 52.9.65. Purchased with funds from the Land of North Carolina. Source: Wikimedia Commons

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