Step 1:

Read the online "lecture" on dress in the 18th Century below and click on any links that interest you.  You are not required to read all the material on all the links, however:

Dress in 18th Century Europe till the French Revolution

Style

The Rococo period was marked stylistically by the same convoluted detail and elaborate decoration which characterized the Baroque period immediately preceding it. But despite this similarity Rococo style had, at its center a radical difference.

Where every aspect of the fine and decorative arts of the Baroque period had at its core an extreme solidity and heaviness, Rococo art , music and furniture had, as its basis, a lightness and fluidity which grew more pronounced as it progressed. Rococo forms in the decorative arts typically seem to float upwards in complex curvilinear patterns, defying both physical and emotional gravity.

The Dance by Lancret

Flowers, birds, and bows became dominant motifs in a style that highlighted a kind of idealized femininity. These forms were incorporated into all the visual arts, both fine and decorative, so that it is not surprising to find that shapes used in furniture are similar to the shapes used in costume.

Women's Dress

The 18th Century woman was the most free and well respected member of her sex in history of Western Civilization until the 20th Century. The advent of the Enlightenment had suddenly changed the rules of Western society from one where brute force constituted power to one where intelligence and reason were the admired and powerful traits. Since women had no trouble competing in this new way, for the better portion of the 18th Century women discretely ruled society and made advances in it, becoming authors, artists, doctors and business women. It is little wonder that the arts and philosophy of the time glorified women, and that the style most associated with the 18th Century, the Rococo, is replete with what psychologists call "feminine forms."

At the Opera, 1770's

The Cut of Women's Clothes 1700-1789

The style of Women’s garments in the 18th Century reflect the improving status of women in society. While the mantua

of the early 18th Century was a rather simple limp garment composed of two lengths of fabric pinch pleated at the waist over the stays with wide soft sleeves sewn in, the mantua was gradually stiffened, decorated and expanded with hoops called panniers
(Kohler)
until, by mid/century it had been stylized into the Robe de Francaise a doll-cake-like structure that insured that a woman took up three times as much space as a man and always presented an imposing and ultra feminine spectacle. After 1760, women began to expand vertically as well, raising their hair with pads and pomade to a height in the 1770's that only a man on stilts could hope to emulate.

Watch YouTube - I Want Candy in Marie Antoinette for a film interpretation of the styles of this era.

French Hairdress of the 1770's from Stibbert

After 1780, a fashion for Rousseauesque naturalism took over and women adopted more "natural" looking fashions which still took up a considerable amount of space, but emphasized the natural sexual characteristics of the female figure with padded busts and bottoms and riots of cascading hair under massive hats.

Step 3:

Continue reading the Lecture:

Men's Dress

Gentleman in the fashion of 1693, Young man of the bourgeoisie in 1710  (Quicherat)

The Enlightenment caused a number of changes in men’s values as well. Intelligence and wit were prized about physical prowess of any kind and the army became a profession only resorted to by the poorer, younger sons of the gentry. Military dress played less of a part in the fashion inspiration for men’s clothes as a result, and women’s dress, Asiatic dress, and Country clothing were turned to as sources of inspiration instead.

Court dress of 1750, Man in redingote 1729 (Quicherat)

It should be noted that at this time period high fashion and everyday dress for the nobility became separated into two distinct entities, for example, a mid-18th Century English Duke might wear laces, gilt embroidery and velvets at a formal occasion yet wear simple dark Quaker built clothes during the day, almost indistinguishable from what a middle class shopkeeper might wear.

The Dominant style in the the early part of the century was with the formal mode of dress which gradually phased out, until in 1800, almost all that was left was the informal day dress. Throughout the century the two styles existed side-by-side, usually cut along the same lines and only distinguished by color, fabric and trimming.

The Cut of Men's Clothes 1700-1789

The predominant cut in 1700 was full skirted but soft with strong vertical lines introduced with rows of buttons, long hanging cravats, and full-bottomed wigs.

Man of 1739 from 18th Century Color Plates by Dion Clayton Calthrop

As women began to adopt the full skirted pannier style, men’s dress did likewise, expanding their skirts through the 1740's, till the trend reversed, and coat skirts softened again and were cut less fully.

By 1760 coats were being cut away from the front, and vest were cut at hip length.

c. 1760 formal dress from Color plates of original 18th Century costumes from Karl Kohler's "Kostumekunde"

The 1770’s introduced the small standing band collar and small flat collar.

man of c.1779-80

The 1780’s are marked by shorter waistcoats, and fold over collars.

late 1780's man from a print in Tara's collection.

General Notes

The comparative stability and prosperity of this period, compared to the turmoil of the preceding two centuries meant that there was a huge expansion in the production of luxury goods of all kinds.  Expensive, frivolous, non essential items such as snuff boxes, folding fans, wigs, fur muffs and cosmetics were popular with fashionable persons of both genders. Fashion items were produced in more luxurious styles, both because of the economic good times for the rich and middle classes, but due to several technological innovations.  Patterned fabrics for example were produced in larger quantities and more varied styles due to the adoption of the Jacquard loom (incidentally a very early ancestor of the computer). Faceted diamond and rhinestone jewelry  became common due to the invention of the Brilliant cut for stones. Other items such as women's shoes and men's waistcoats simply became more delicately made and decorated with fine fabrics and embroidery.

18th Century Costumes from the Victoria and Albert Museum as seen in "Old English Costumes" c.1908

Religious conservatives continued to preach against the vanity of these fashions, but their sermons on dress  were far more moderate than in the preceding century. The attitude is more one of coaxing through logic and sentiment rather than a berating the fashionable for their sins. "Plain dress" groups like the Quakers managed to design versions of "plain dress" that were so tasteful, well-made and refined looking that late in the Century many English and American men of style adopted their dress regardless of their religious views.

The lower classes' dress continued to be ragged and wretched as the Agricultural Revolution continued to force peasants off of the farm and into city trades. This massive labor displacement, which continued into the 19th Century is what created the urban proletarian workforce that made the Industrial Revolution possible in the 1790's-to the present.

Milk Maid
Jean-Baptiste Greuze
Buy This Art Print At AllPosters.com

Lower class tennant farmers get dressed:

All this stability in style was brought to an abrupt end in 1789 when the French Revolution pitched Europe into it's second sharp transition period.

This Concludes Week #6's Lesson Return to Class Index

c.1730-1740  from Color plates of original 18th Century costumes from Karl Kohler's "Kostumekunde"

Full Toilette under Louis XV from Plates of 18th Century French Women's Dress by Hoey

Chrome 14:  Ladies' Fashions of the reign of Louis XVI from The 18th Century; It's Institutions, Customs and Costumes: France 1700-1789 by Paul Lacoix

  A simple dress of striped poplin with a quilted petticoat. 1780-95. From 18th Century Costumes from the Victoria and Albert Museum as seen in "Old English Costumes" c.1908

1779 from 18th Century Color Plates by Dion Clayton Calthrop

Textiles for Colonial Clothing

Silk Designs of the Eighteenth Century : From the Victoria and Albert Museum, London

Man of 1700 from 18th Century Color Plates by Dion Clayton Calthrop

Men's Seventeenth & Eighteenth Century Costume : Cut and Fashion

18th Century Costume Links

Timeline Images for Study: 

Early 18th Century

Mid 18th Century 

Late 18th Century Pt 1

The Aristocrats, copyright BBC, 1999

See also 18th Century Costume Movies

Home   Questions   Buy Books and More    About Me

This Page is part of The Costumer's Manifesto by Tara Maginnis, Ph.D.  Copyright 1996-2010.   You may print out any of these pages for non-profit educational use such as school papers, teacher handouts, or wall displays.  You may link to any page in my site.