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.
Their Hips Don’t Lie!
Before the beginning
of Rococo, classical French court gowns had hoops under their dresses that were
fairly circular and created a “bell shaped” silhouette, but around the time of
the 1740’s and 50’s, skirt hoops became progressively wider and women tended to
abandon the previous lines for a new look- Hip “Panniers”. Panniers were thick padding
or hoops made of wire mesh or whalebone that were tied around the waist with
string at either side of the hips. The word Panier
in French means basket, which reflected the structure of these contraptions,
since (especially with the comically large versions) they were sometimes made
of metal supports weaved together. These pushed the dress out to the sides only
and not to the front or back. This new invention made the trains of these
dresses trail elegantly behind the women as they walked. Coincidently, as with
most aspects of the fashion of this era, things got a little out of hand. A
common width of a fashionable women’s skirt was around ten feet wide, but there
were records of opulent gowns with panniers that pushed the skirt out over five
yards! How did these women fit through doors? They didn’t. It was not an
unusual sight to see women turning sideways just to walk through doorways. Talk
about “hip” styles…
Don’t be Petty…Petticoats
After widening their hips to extreme
levels with Hip Panniers, the next step for the French fashionista was to put
on thier petticoats. This is where the actual outfit began to take form
(finally!). What did Rococo women love most? Layers! That’s where Petticoats
come in. An underpetticoat was sometimes worn to either add warmth in the
winter or smooth out bulges created by all those metal hoops sported on the
hips. Underpetticoats were not seen from the outside and were usually made of
white or neutral colored linen, these are comparable to shifts and are
basically another form of undergarment. Regular petticoats (layered on top), on
the other hand, were seen from the outside, especially when one was wearing the
popular Robe a la Francais- the most
stylish gown of Rococo. With this type of gown, there was a gap or “window” in
the front of the dress and the petticoat would show in this gap. For this
reason, the petticoat could either be the same fabric, color, and design as the
outside dress part, or possibly a variation of the actual dress. Sometimes the
petticoat was an accenting color or had a different style than the outside gown
to add flair and uniqueness to one’s outfit. See “Last But Not Least- The Robe
a la Francais” to find out what kinds of fabric and decorations were options
for the petticoat.
Last But Not Least- The Robe a la Francais
Finally, all of the undergarments and
accessories were in place, it was time to complete the outfit. First step was
to pin what was called a stomacher on
to the stays. A stomacher was a matching, decorative V or U shaped garment that
was needed to cover up the corset because the Robe a la Francais was basically
the shape of a jacket- it was open in the front. The stomacher also helped
create the illusion of a smaller waist by drawing attention to this area with
ribbons and bows. Now the actual gown was pinned on to the stomacher and draped
over the hip panniers. The gowns usually had sleeves that were “three-quarter”
length and ended in elaborate flounces at the elbows with lace and tulle. As
for fabrics, the most costly and impressive gowns were made out of expensive
imported silks or taffeta. At the time, there was a liking for Chinese, Indian,
and Arabic tastes in pattern and color choice because it was exotic. Gown colors
were usually pale pastels like yellow, pink, and powder blue with bright
colored accents and white or ivory lace. Patterns and prints on fabric were
just beginning to become popular, and the women of Rococo fully embraced them. Silk
material directly from China was woven and hand painted or completely
embroidered with arrays of vines, blossoms, and swirls if it was being created
for Western use. The accents were usually fashioned with brighter colored silk
thread or paint. For example, a light yellow silk gown may have had embroidery
done in vibrant red, green, or gold. Sometimes the gown had what was known as a
“sack back” which basically was extra fabric sewn into box pleats at the back
of the bodice that swept down to lay over the train. Overall, these beautiful
dresses were usually made with an abundance of material, and had pick-ups and
flounces that made them seem even fuller. They were bursting with delicate
bows, ribbon, lace, and braidwork and were the epitome of the sumptuousness of
Royal women.
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