Court Dress in Europe 1650-1800

Many of the garments that are presently on display in the Court Pomp & Royal Ceremonies exhibition at Versailles have been loaned by museums in other countries, including Sweden and Denmark. While at first it might seem that the French Revolution was the reason that few garments from the 18th century French court have survived, that is not actually the whole story....

In the 18th century, it was the custom of the French court that the kings and queens would retire their wardrobe after one year of wear. Those garments would be given to the ladies and gentlemen who served them at court. The courtiers could resell them, refashion them for their own purpose or dispose of them as they wished. Most of the refashioned garments ended up being sold in Parisian second-hand clothing shops.

That is the process by which the "Marie Antoinette dress" owned by the Royal Ontario Museum was refashioned in the 19th century and ended up in England. This dress attributed to the atelier of Rose Bertin (shown in the photo below) was on display at the ROM in the fall and is currently included in the Versailles exhibition Court Pomp & Royal Ceremony.

While other European royal courts followed French fashion, they did not all follow the custom of retiring their wardrobes.In particular, King Gustavus Adophus (1611-1632) decided to preserve royal garments worn during key moments of his reign, in particular two of the outfits worn during the war in Poland. This established a custom of preservation which was adopted by other Swedish kings. In other royal courts like Denmark and Poland, royal garments, especially those worn during great events during a reign, were also systematically preserved. It is many of those garments which are currently on display at Versailles.


Court Pomp & Royal Ceremonies
Court Dress in Europe 1650-1800
31 March to 28 June 2009
Chateau de Versailles

Court Costume Exhibition at Versailles

Wedding dress of Edwige Elisabeth Charlotte de Holstein-Gottorp (wife of Prince Karl of Sweden and sister-in-law of King Gustave III of Sweden), 1774

Court costume was designed to evoke the illusion of grandeur, wealth and power. In the 17th and 18th centuries, luxurious, expensive and ostentatious clothing was reserved for those at the top of the social hierarchy. Monarchs dressed for effect in textiles with gold and silver threads, laces, embroidery, and jewels to create a luxurious and lavish symbol of prosperity and power.

This week a magnificent exhibition opened at Chateau de Versailles called Court Pomp and Royal Ceremonies, Court Dress in Europe 1650-1800. This show, sponsored by Chanel, traces the history of court costume in Europe from 1650-1800 and includes 200 works (costumes, jewelery, and paintings) on loan from private collectors as well as museums like the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Pitti Palace, the Louvre, and the Royal Ontario Museum.

The exhibition encompasses seven rooms:
1. French royal costume
2. The coronation and the royal orders
3. Weddings and State ceremonies
4. The grand habit
5. Religious pomp
6. The king's day
7. Fashion and court costume

If you are a faithful reader of my blog, you will recall my many posts regarding the Marie Antoinette dress which was displayed at the Royal Ontario Museum in the fall of 2008. This dress was loaned to the Versailles exhibition and is on display in Room 7: Fashion and Court Dress. In the Versailles exhibition guide, this dress is attributed to Rose Bertin, marchandes des mode to Marie Antoinette but there is no assertion that the dress was worn by Marie Antoinette. The guide notes that the "front of the dress was modified" , "the skirt narrowed" and can "therefore no longer be presented as it was worn at the time".

It is indeed a rare treat to see garments from the 17th and 18th century on display. I can hardly wait to see this exhibition in May. Since I've already seen the dress attributed to Rose Bertin belonging to the ROM, I will be looking for:
1. The grand habit worn for the coronation of Sophie Madeleine on May 29, 1772
2. Doll's grand costume of whalebone stays, skirt, skit tail (1769-1775)
3. The wedding dress of Edwige Elizabeth Charlotte de Holstein-Gottorp (1774) in photo above


Court Pomp and Royal Ceremonies
Court Dress in Europe 1650-1800
March 31 to June 28, 2009
Chateau de Versailles

Grande robe a la francaise

A little gift for all my new blogging friends...another fashion plate.

Fashion Plate #51 (partial image), copyright Ingrid Mida 2009 12x12, Mixed Media

In the second and third quarters of the 18th century, woman's court fashion was characterized by huge skirt with paniers and high coiffures. The robe a la francaise consisted of a tight fitting bodice with a stomacher, exaggerated skirt puffed out by paniers, and a sack back (two large double pleats which hung freely at the back from shoulders to hem).

While one often sees images of Marie Antoinette dressed in this manner, she, in fact disliked the discomfort of wearing a grand corps. The corsets of the French court were much stiffer than those worn in Austria and she decided to stage her own form of corset rebellion (please refer to my posting of October 13, 2008 if you'd like to read more on that).

Women's 18th Century Court Dress in Versailles

The strict rules for admission of women to eighteenth-century French court required a woman to prove a title of nobility reaching back to 1400 (although special dispensation was made for "favourites" like the King's mistress). The regulation of court dress was a legacy of Louis XIV's plan to bring the aristocracy into line and the guiding rule was "Persons of Quality must now become Persons of Taste". Dress etiquette allowed nobles to visibly demonstrate their place in society and for many, a brilliance of style in dress became their reason for being.

For presentation at court, women had to wear le grand habit de cour (the grand habit). Full court dress consisted of a heavily boned bodice with short sleeves, a full skirt over a large hoop, and a long train. This ensemble was all made of the same fabric, typically silk or satin brocade. The skirt alone typically required 20-25 yards of fabric. Trimmings included lace, ribbons, bows, embroidery, beads, sequins, and sometimes even jewels. A tailleur de corps (always male) made the whale-boned bodice and train, a courturiere made the skirt, and a marchand de mode (like Rose Bertin) provided the trimmings, lace and adornments for the ensemble.

This elaborate and cumbersome gown made it difficult to move gracefully. According to the Marquise de La Tour du Pin the weight of the dress made it impossible to raise the foot in heels three inches high, so the correct movement was to take little gliding steps.

The grand habit was worn for the most formal court occasions such as presentations, balls, baptisms, and marriages of members of the royal family.

Given that Marie Antoinette grew up in a more informal court environment in Vienna, is it any surprise that she rebelled against such rigid dress etiquette and preferred the chemise a la reine, a simple white muslin gown?

(Source: Dress in Eighteenth-Century Europe, by Aileen Ribeiro, Yale University Press, New Haven, 2002).

Court Dress and Hoop Petticoats at the Victoria and Albert Museum

One could spend days at the Victoria and Albert Museum. On a recent visit there, I went upstairs to see the British Collection and was astonished that there is a treasure trove of costumes included amongst the exhibits of furniture and artifacts.


This dress, called a mantua, was in fashion around 1740-45 and was the grandest style of court fashion. It was so wide that a woman would have to turn sideways to go through a door. The huge skirt permits a lavish display of exquisitely embroidered flowers.



In this hands-on exhibit, I tried on a hoop petticoat. As you can see from the messy arrangement of the skirt, a dresser or lady in waiting was a necessity. I had a good chuckle but found it bulky and cumbersome and can hardly imagine having to walk around or sit in such an awkward garment.

Victoria and Albert Museum
Cromwell Road, South Knightsbridge
London, SW7 2RL
+44 0 20 7942 2000
www.vam.ac.uk