“Ah! Quelle Antiquité!!!”
1793 meets 1774
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
Adoption of the Robe à la Anglais
Ducreux 1790
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
1791
Women donating their jewelry to the Patrie
1791 Robe à la Anglais festooned with tricolor ribbons and cockades and a tricolor yoyo!
1791 Robe à la Anglais with Republican sensibilities
1792 Théroigne de Méricourt took the equestrian/martial fashion to an extreme
1792 Journal des Modes releases this fashion plate of an Amazone that looks suspiciously like Théroigne above!
1792 Sans-culotte
1792 Fashion Plate Journal des Modes
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
1795 Madame Seriziat’s matching portrait to above by David. Note her cockade is even more discreet than her husband’s
Madame Seriziat
1798 The high-waisted grecian chemise gown is now the primary silhouette
Gabrielle-Josephine du Pont
Léopold Boilly