Tuesday, December 20, 2011
For More: Annotated Bibliographies
Annotated Bibliographies
Ed. Philip M. Soergel. Art and Humanities Through the Eras.
Thomson/ Gale, 2005.
EBSCOhost. 1
December 2011.
Ebook from
Ebscohost entitled Arts and Humanities Through the Eras. The particular
section I am focused on is section 5 and is called The Age of the Baroque and
Enlightenment (1600- 1800). I’ll be discovering the fashion of the “Rococo”
time period in France. The “Rococo” period, as it is named (from the years
1690-1770) is included in depth in this section under “The High Tide of French
Fashion”. This is an eight-page compilation explaining how this style evolved
into what it was, what kind of fabrics, shapes, and prints were popular, and
why it began to change at the start of Enlightenment. The section provides
several images and an excerpt from Samuel Richardson’s novel Clarissa- printed
in 1748, which explains a character’s gown with great detail.
Fashion
Through History. Blogspot. April, 2006. Web.
Huge blog that has articles written by
many different authors and contributors. Has a section on The Rococo period
with much of the same information I found in the Ebook. It explains fabrics,
colors, and patterns as well as the Closed dress (one piece) and Open dress
(Two pieces). It also goes slightly into wigs and jewelry as well. Very well
researched.
Antique
Corset- The History of Unmentionables. Lace Embrace Atelier. 2003. Web.
Website sponsored by Lace Embrace corset
salon and the Vancuver Museum. Gives information on underwear and corsets from
1720 on to 1970.
Blog in which the author is an artist,
photographer, and seamstress and produced an exhibition in which she recreates
gowns and fashions from the 18th Century. Great photographs and
information on construction details such as types of stitches used or fabrics.
“The Extremities of hoops in the 1740’s.” Tea in a Teacup. Wordpress. May 26,
2011. Web. <
Monday, December 19, 2011
Intro to Blog
Your alarm rings. Groggily you slump out of bed, completely unprepared to start your day. Sound familiar? Most people need at least an hour or two (or a strong cup of Starbucks) to be productive in any sense, but at least nowadays we can get dressed and ready while still half asleep. Realize how easy it is to get dressed. Grab some jeans, a tee shirt, and your favorite pair of beat-up converse and run out the door. Getting ready was never as easy as it is now. If you follow any fashion magazines, you’ll know that styles and fads are incredibly mercurial; they change simply from season to season, so we won’t even mention how drastically different they become over decades and centuries. For women in particular, wearing anything but long gowns every day was utterly unacceptable until the late 20th Century, but we are going to go much farther back than that. Imagine waking up and having to endure the task of getting dressed if you were a wealthy or royal woman during the Rococo age (1690-1760) of France- a time period of Enlightenment or “late Baroque” that was drenched with ornate, playful, and florid styles in not only the architecture and art, but also the prodigious fashions. Think about having to layer at least nine articles of clothing to complete your outfit and having a hairstyle that was four feet high. Sounds like a lot of work, right? Well, in this blog I’m going to explain the history of just how and why the frivolous apparel of the early 18th Century came to be, and also exactly what went into getting dressed for the poor women who lived it. Keep reading to find out why you should be thanking your lucky stars that you can get away with wearing sweats to class
“Rococo”- What? When? Why?
Before we jump
into the exciting world of historical fashion, I’d first like to explain
exactly what “Rococo” means, because until now, I expect some of you may have
been thinking it had something to do with a chocolaty dessert. But no, “Rococo”
was a time period in France from around 1690-1760 that occurred during the
later supremacy of King Louis XIV and early reign of King Louis XV; it arose
from the changing styles of the Baroque era (Rococo is sometimes also referred
to as “Late Baroque”). Baroque was an Italian-influenced movement throughout
Europe which greatly contrasted the unpretentious, simple, and dark style of
the Renaissance and encompassed the ideas of reform and advanced knowledge of
the Age of Enlightenment. Baroque was characterized by exaggerated movement and
an abundance of details to create opulence and grandeur, not only in the Roman
Catholic influenced artwork and paintings, but also in architecture, dance, and
of course, fashion. At the time of the Sun King’s death, when Louis XV took the
throne at the tender age of five, his uncle, Philippe-Duke of Orléans served as
his reagent. A regent is an individual who is selected to govern and rule the
land in the event that the original leader-the King in this instance- is a
minor. Now,
Philippe was one extravagant guy who definitely adored lavish styles. It was
the Regent Philippe who favored styles that were “were lighter and less grave
than those of Louis XIV’s era” and a new fashion began to emerge for the
wealthiest of Parisians. This style was evolved to be comparable to the new
interior designs of Chateaux-very light, with elegant rounded edges and
splashes of gold that were inspired by exotic and foreign tastes (like Arabic
and Chinese). The gowns of Louis XIV’s Court at Versailles were fashioned under
strict guidelines and, while very similar to the formal wear of Rococo, had a
heavier and more serious feeling. The lighter and more graceful changes made to
fashion were a reaction to the period of Baroque, and the women of the Rococo
era comprise all of the indulgent ideas we have about fashion of the entire
18th century.
Translation, please?
Most commonly, the word “Rococo” is seen as a
combination of the French words “rocaille”, meaning stone or pebbles, and
“coquilles”, meaning shell, due to its use of these objects as themes of decoration.
The rounded and smooth notions of these objects could be recognized anywhere.
Rooms decorated in this style usually included many mirrors and large windows,
along with wood paneling carved with delicate elements over the top and bottom.
All details of the time were loosely based on ribbons, and usually consisted of
elongated C or S shapes; later, even in the patterns in gowns, birds, plant
tendrils, leaves, shells, and blossoms were common and popular decorations.
I See London, I See France…Undergarments
What is the first thing you put to get dressed?
Hopefully your answer was some type of undergarment (if it wasn’t then I don’t
want to know), and underclothing was just as important to women in the Rococo
period as it is to us. Undergarments in the 18th Century played
basically the same role as they do now- to set up a foundation for the outer
clothing, to provide a hygienic barrier between clothing and the skin, and to create
a silhouette for the outfit. During this time, undergarments also were used as
soft protection for the wearer, and we’ll get into why that was needed a little
later, because trust me, protection was a must. The universal undergarment for
women (and men, surprisingly) was called a “Shift”, or “Chemise”. These were usually made out of linen, because
it was durable, absorbent, washable, and fairly cheap. Shifts for women were
typically knee-length and had three quarter or elbow length sleeves. The
neckline was wide, but both the sleeves and neck sometimes had drawstrings that
could be adjusted and gathered up to the desired fit. This is only layer one in
our adventure of getting dressed, so read on
The Big Squeeze- Corsets and Stays
The history of the corset could provide
enough information for an entire blog itself, so I will give only a brief account
of these constricting contraptions. The corset dates back to the early 1600s
and is a garment worn tightly laced around the torso. They arose to serve many
functions: to raise and shape the breasts, to narrow the waistline and tighten
the midriff (the tiniest of waists were certainly the style that one hoped to
achieve), and lastly to improve posture and support the back. As for corsets of
the 18th century, the main purpose was for aesthetics. Corsets
during Rococo were more commonly referred to as “Stays” and were worn by all
women- for it was considered indecent not to wear one, even for non-royalty. As
with all of clothing and fabrics, quality declared social status. Stays were
arduous and time consuming to make; they usually were made with layers of a
linen canvas, lined with cords of whalebone or iron in small-stitched trenches.
In addition, leather was used to bind the upper and lower edges to keep the
bones from penetrating to the outside. Expensive corsets were decorated with
patterned imported silk on the outside layers, but hey- you buy pretty
undergarments too! Stays were laced up spiral style in the back and usually
pulled tight enough to decrease a women’s waist size by at least a few inches.
Eighteen to twenty inch midriffs were a common size for Rococo dresses. The
shape was almost like an upside-down cone, with a recognizable pointed bottom
that even further emphasized the exaggerated hips created by our next topic-
Hip Panniers.
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