The Costumer's Manifesto is written by Tara Maginnis, and proudly hosted by William Baker.

THE MANIFESTO IS MUTATING!  IT IS TURNING INTO A WIKI THAT CAN BECOME THE HIVE MIND OF ALL COSTUMERS, FINALLY LIVING UP TO IT'S SLOGAN: "COSTUMERS OF THE WORLD, UNITE!" YOU CAN HELP IN THIS PROCESS BY MOVING PAGES TO THE NEW SITE AT THECOSTUMERSMANIFESTO.COM, HELPING TO EDIT THE PAGES THAT ARE THERE ALREADY, AND ADDING YOUR OWN ORIGINAL INPUT.

Accessories
Book & Gift Store
Classes
Corsets & Underwear
Computers
Costumes 4 Sale
Costume e-Lists
Dance Costumes
Designs & Designers
Dolls
"Ethnic" Dress
Fashion Theory
Free eGroup
Free Stuff
Halloween
(Costume) History
How-To
Kinky Clothing
Major Sites
Military Uniforms
Movie Costumes
Museums
New Pages
Occupational & Occasion- Specific
Patterns
Questions?
Religious Dress
Theatre History
Travel for Costumers
Unite!
Vintage Clothing
Weddings
Weird Clothing

 Period Costume for Stage & Screen : Patterns for Women's Dress 1500-1800, 

The 18th Century Woman

THE FARTHINGALE REVIEWED, OR MORE WORK FOR THE COOPER, 1711

I own the female world is much estranged
From what it was, and top and bottom changed:
The head was once their darling constant care,
But women’s heads can’t heavy burdens bear--
As much, I mean as they can do elsewhere;
So wisely the transferred the mode of dress,
And furnished t’other end with the excess
What tho' like spires or pyramids they show,
Sharp at the top, and vast of bulk below?
It is a sign they stand the more secure:
A maypole will not like a church endure
And ships at sea, when stormy winds prevail
Are safer in their ballast than their sail.

Quoted in THE CORSET AND THE CRINOLINE

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 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."