I celebrated this year’s Bastille Day by sorting through my hundreds of images on my hard-drive and old versions of this site to categorize galleries of late 18th century (mostly french) costume. We’ll introduce this new subcategory with a summary timeline.

1780-ish Introduction of the chemise gown based on informal dressing gowns of the period
Marie Antoinette Vigée le Brun 1783

The Chemise Gown is wildly popular
1788 < em>Les Lavoisiers by David
She survived the guillotine, he did not

Martial fashions, long popular in England, make a big splash as the people are militarized
1790 Fashion Plate

1790 The Chemise Gown becomes a symbol of egalitarian revolutionary values
Comtesse de Sorcy
Jacques-Louis David

1792 Journal des Modes releases this fashion plate of an Amazone that looks suspiciously like Théroigne above!

1792 Introducing the Incroyables! Royalist fops who would riot in the streets hitting revolutionary sympathizers with big sticks.

1795 The powdered, curled wig is gone. Replaced by short clipped hair in the Roman style, and close-fit suits in sober tones
Jean-Baptiste Isabey and His Daughter

1795 similar to above. Just after The Terror, note the discreet cockade attached to his top hat
Jacques-Louis David Monsieur Seriziat