Fashion History

In the 1770’s, women’s court fashion was characterized by a huge skirt that was widely expanded on each side by a pannier, and a high coiffure. This fashion expressed the pinnacle of artificial beauty; it was as if women’s dresses were architectural constructions made from fabric. By this time, the refined lightness of the rococo period had disappeared, and dark foreshadowing’s of the Revolution appeared in wardrobes. Enormously enlarged coiffures and wigs added more obscurity to the costume. The coiffures and wigs, which once looked like picturesque landscapes and flowerbeds, now became somewhat odd and extravagant, and coiffeurs, or hairdressers, played in important role in creating these extraordinary hairstyles. The 1778 victory of French frigate La Belle Poule inspired new hairstyles such as the a La Belle Poule, teh a l’lndependante, and teh a La Junon, in which scaled-down replicas of warship were put on top of the head. This became a trend at the time.

Throughout the eighteenth century, the most important point of interest in wardrobes was decorative. Especially during the 1770s, much ingenuity was put into decoration, and marchlands de mode were an active force. These merchants responsible for producing and selling decorations from head to toe, including headdresses. They gave full rein to their imaginations when decorating wardrobes, created headpieces, and in the end became responsible for setting the styles as if they had an authoritative monopoly of the fashion scene.

From the end of the 1780s just prior to the Revolution, stripes became popular and replaced extravagant embroidery in men’s fashion. The coat with striped patterns had a lapelled collar, and the length became short.

A draped thin fichu covered over the shoulder and neck, with both ends tucked into the stomacher and the bust to create an elegant pigeon breasted silhouette; however, in the nineteenth century, the fichu was replaced in popularity by the larger shawl.