A woman's gown, 1780-85, English; White cotton, block-printed with polychrome exotic flowers, 1770s, English; altered 1785-1796

A woman's gown and petticoat,1780s, English; white cotton block printed with stylised floral motifs, English, 1780s

1770's - 1780's Hair Fashion "How long had her hair been dressed? Three weeks. 'Dont that lay you under the necessity of dressing your hair every evening?' 'Oh Lord, Sir, a head properly made up, with pins, paste & pomatum, will keep a month very well.'" ~Arthur Murphy, The Old Maid (1756)…

So what were the women of the eighteenth-century like? Well, we came across this publication ‘Sketches of the Fair Sex’ written about eighteenth-century women, so we thought we would share with you…

Painted silk sack back, robe a la francaise, c 1770s

I have just a few Fashion Plates that actually depict Marie Antoinette and her husband King Louis XVI. 4 in total that I will be showing on this post. Naturally, I enjoy tinkering with images so here is a fun piece of digital art I created using one of the actual Marie images. Marie with her Mystery Lover? There has been much speculation through the years as to Marie Antoinette and her supposed lovers. Many of the rumors were just that, rumors used as propaganda against Marie Antoinette for political reasons. Unfortunately for Marie her desire to get out and have a little fun only spurred on the rumor mongers and was one of the things that lead to the French Revolution. For my art piece I've got a mystery man off to the side of my altered Marie image. So it is up to you to decide if the man is her lover, friend, husband or royal escort. The 4 Royal Fashion Plates These are from around 1780 Marie Antoinette - from "Collection d'habillements Modernes et Galants" Marie Antoinette from "Galerie des Modes" King Louis XVI - "The Just and Beneficent Monarch" from "Collection d'habillements Modernes et Galants" King Louis XVI - from "Galerie des Modes" ***** A Rainbow of Maires For my digital artpiece I used the first Marie fashion plate image and turned her into a png; then as is my passion, I started changing her colors. I used an "aqua blue" version of her for my framed creation. This is what the original image looked like once the background was removed. Marie Antoinette: EKDuncan altered version - Aqua Blue This "Aqua Blue" is the version I used for my artpiece. Marie Antoinette: EKDuncan altered version -Spring Green Marie Antoinette: EKDuncan altered version -Blueberry Marie Antoinette: EKDuncan altered version -Plum Marie Antoinette: EKDuncan altered version -Mint Marie Antoinette: EKDuncan altered version -Purple Marie Antoinette: EKDuncan altered version -Buttercup Marie Antoinette: EKDuncan altered version -Silver Marie Antoinette: EKDuncan altered version -Raspberry I just love to alter colors in Photoshop, it's so much fun!!! Now for her Mystery Man... This is the original image I started with for the Mystery Man in my digital artpiece. Yup! - I made him into a png and created a variety of gents too; because every well dressed woman needs to accessorize accordingly. the original gent now as a png image Late 1700's Gentleman - Blue Sapphire This "blue" version was used in my digital art Late 1700's Gentleman - Emerald Green Late 1700's Gentleman - Brown Late 1700's Gentleman - Olive Late 1700's Gentleman -Navy Late 1700's Gentleman -Black Late 1700's Gentleman -Maroon The Frame Here is a true EKDuncan original. This is a digitally created composite frame. Digitally created composite frame I collect vintage frames and the old metal ones are my favorite. Some of them are not very impressive on their own; however with a bit of Photoshop magic I was able to create this fancy scroll frame using bits and pieces of several from my collection. The Narrow outside edge on the above is the actual frame I started with. I doubled it to created a smaller inside edge for a bit more flash. This left me with a nice frame but I took it one step further and added the "scroll" pattern inside; which is actually the side edge from another of my vintage frames. The Background The background is actually a Regency piece from the publication Ackermann's Repository. It is the grand staircase from Carlton House in London which was built in the early 1780's so it is from the correct time period as Marie Antoinette's Dress. This is the original image I started with to created my "Marie" background You can see this and other "Interior" Ackermann images HERE There are also months of postings on Regency Era images from Ackermann's Repository including Fashion Plates. See my Posts from July 2011 - January 2012 to see them all. ****** The Finished Digital Artpiece Here one more time is my EKDuncan digital artpiece; Showing Marie in "aqua blue", her gent in "blue sapphire", my created scroll frame and the Regency era background of the grand staircase at Carlton House from Ackermann's Repository. Marie Antoinette and her lover? - an EKDuncan Original ******** I'll be back with more Pre French Revolution Fashion plates from the time of Marie Antoinette soon. Till next time... FYI - if you are wondering about my new address at "EKDuncan.com" I recently purchased the domain EKDuncan.com and have tied my ekduncan.blogspot.com account to it. I figure since I sign my work EKDuncan this will make it easier for people to find me. Either address will get you here but "ekduncan.com" is short and sweet.

Woman's overdress of hand-painted and dyed cotton, Coromandel Coast, ca. 1760-1770

Last week I showed you Elizabeth Craven, Lady Powis, in her all-over embroidered early-Stuart jacket and skirt. It’s an outfit that I love SO MUCH. Everything about it makes me happy. It’s got blossoms and berries and birds and bees and bugs and other ‘various sundrie spottes’. It’s like Spindle’s End got turned into an outfit. I want it, oh, I want it! The only reason it isn’t top of my sewing list is that I would be 70 before it was done if I started today. So, umm, slightly biased. And many of you agreed, giving it a satisfying 13 of 27 10/10. But some of you who didn’t agree really didn’t like it much, pulling the score down to 8.8 out of 10. That’s OK, I still adore it! Now, on to this week! A confession: I just wasn’t feeling Rate the Dress this week. We spent the weekend painting the house, and cleaning the house, and my Mon & Tue work schedule was incredibly hectic, and I just didn’t want to blog. …

Robe à la Française 1770s The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Which way should the stripes run on ladies sleeves 1770-1790? Let's look at striped sleeves in extant garments and images to find out?

1770's - 1780's Hair Fashion "How long had her hair been dressed? Three weeks. 'Dont that lay you under the necessity of dressing your hair every evening?' 'Oh Lord, Sir, a head properly made up, with pins, paste & pomatum, will keep a month very well.'" ~Arthur Murphy, The Old Maid (1756)…

Last week I showed you Elizabeth Craven, Lady Powis, in her all-over embroidered early-Stuart jacket and skirt. It’s an outfit that I love SO MUCH. Everything about it makes me happy. It’s got blossoms and berries and birds and bees and bugs and other ‘various sundrie spottes’. It’s like Spindle’s End got turned into an outfit. I want it, oh, I want it! The only reason it isn’t top of my sewing list is that I would be 70 before it was done if I started today. So, umm, slightly biased. And many of you agreed, giving it a satisfying 13 of 27 10/10. But some of you who didn’t agree really didn’t like it much, pulling the score down to 8.8 out of 10. That’s OK, I still adore it! Now, on to this week! A confession: I just wasn’t feeling Rate the Dress this week. We spent the weekend painting the house, and cleaning the house, and my Mon & Tue work schedule was incredibly hectic, and I just didn’t want to blog. …

1770's - 1780's Hair Fashion "How long had her hair been dressed? Three weeks. 'Dont that lay you under the necessity of dressing your hair every evening?' 'Oh Lord, Sir, a head properly made up, with pins, paste & pomatum, will keep a month very well.'" ~Arthur Murphy, The Old Maid (1756)…

Alexander Roslin (Malmö, July 15, 1718 - Paris, July 5, 1793) was a Swedish portrait painter. He combined insightful psychological portrayal with a skillful representation of fabrics and jewels. He lived in France from 1752 until 1793, a period that spanned most of his career. He died in Paris of natural causes after surviving the French Revolution and outliving many of his patrons; at that time he was the wealthiest artist in Paris. [Stockholms Auktionverk - Oil on canvas, 64 x 51 cm]

You know, it's kind of funny - although I've heard much more about the robe à la turque , I'm finding it much more difficult to ...

Alexander Roslin (1718-1793) was a Swedish portrait painter who worked in Europe painting the aristocracy, and whose work I have only recently become familiar with. This post, I have to confess co…

Which way should the stripes run on ladies sleeves 1770-1790? Let's look at striped sleeves in extant garments and images to find out?

Which way should the stripes run on ladies sleeves 1770-1790? Let's look at striped sleeves in extant garments and images to find out?

A cascade of blue #brocade festooned in flowers for a summer’s Sunday. The robe a la française offered the opportunity to show off the skills of the Lyon’s silk designers, an artistry conceived on paper and woven into reality, #1770s @HistDeerfield #fashionhistory

Which way should the stripes run on ladies sleeves 1770-1790? Let's look at striped sleeves in extant garments and images to find out?

Robe à la Française 1770s The Philadelphia Museum of Art

I've always loved short sacks, aka French jackets. I find garments with watteau pleats to be a joy to wear. There's just something about the "flying back" (a quote from the mid 18th century), particularly in silk, to be a sensory delight. I'm particularly fond of the later short sacks from the mid 1770s and later. They are shorter and don't have sleeve ruffles, often opting for sabot cuffs or rows of ruched trim. Here are a couple of extant examples of this style, both from that period: 1778 French fashion plate You can find more of my research on short sacks here. The short sacks seem to follow the same construction as the earlier sack back gowns--no waist seam with stacked inverted box pleats at the side. You can see this in the second photo above. This is the same construction as the JP Ryan pattern which I used for this gown. JPR patterns do not use period construction as they are entirely machine sewn. They also don't follow an 18th century construction sequence. I attempted to make that gown using 18th century hand sewing techniques. The one thing that was a pain to me was the construction of the lining with that pattern. There is an adjustable back with ties in the lining which seems totally unnecessary to me. I've seen some extants that have a similar lining, some other that have lining that laces in the back to make it adjustable and some with just a plain lining with a plain back, It seems to me that pregnancy would be the main reason to want to let the lining out to increase the fit. I measured the width of my lining in my gown with the ties adjusted to fit and just cut a solid back. I also eliminated the front under stomacher structure which I also didn't care for, choosing to line the bodice as I would an English gown. I also cut the jacket 4 inches shorter than the pattern. I had 7.5 yards of a striped taffeta from the $7 yard silk bin at G-Street. It's rare to find any taffeta in that bin--usually it's full of China silk, georgette, or dupioni. It just screamed to be made into some type of sack back garment. I tried to be very conservative with cutting. The stripes are very symmetrical and it was easy enough to cut the fronts and sleeves to match. The back required a little more planning in order to get the wide stripe to land in the middle of the top pleat. Once the back pleats were pinned, I basted them in place to make sure they didn't migrate when stitching. The next part of the plan was choosing how to deal with the sleeves. I wanted a sabot sleeve--which has a shaped cuff that goes over the elbow with ruching or pleated trim. The L&S Fashionable Gown pattern has these sleeves so I used the cuff pattern and adjusted it a bit to fit my sleeve. I cut the trim a bit wider--about 2 inches finished after pinking with scalloping shears. I also made sure to apply fray block on the wrong side of all my trim for this project. I wasn't sure if pleated trim would work with the stripes but I chose to use it anyway. I like the way the cuffs turned out. I pinned the cuffs on to make sure they were positioned in the right place as they had to fit correctly over the elbow. Then they were stitched in place. Next up: Trim. I cut more crosswise strips for trim, cutting them wider than the cuff trim. Finished width is about 2.5 inches. I pleated two at the same time so they would be symmetrical and match--one for each side of the front. The pleats were just pinned in place. I needed to cut a tiny strip to fill in a gap in the back of the neck. I made the stomacher and cut more trim the same width as the jacket trim. All the trim was pinned on the jacket and the stomacher. The trim was stitched in place, stitching only to the folded robing on the jacket front. Once the trim was on, I tried the jacket on to check the placement for the lacing strips which I constructed like those in this post. Once the lacing strips were in, I made a 4-loop breast knot out of some coordinating green silk taffeta. The jacket is now complete! Next up--petticoat! This outfit is being worn over a late 1770s bum pad which also has some side padding instead of pocket hoops which are more commonly worn with ball gowns or earlier sacks. I cut the petticoat panels--2 panels the full width of the 56 inch wide fabric. I wish the wide green stripe (the one on the back pleats of the jacket was centered, but it wasn't and the fabric isn't wide enough to try to center it for this project. Some creative seaming might have done the trick for a petticoat to be worn under a gown but not for a jacket. I stitched the side seams and pinned then basted the pleats. Here is the petticoat with the jacket. It still needs to be leveled at this point and is just pinned at the sides. Once the petticoat is leveled and hemmed, I will cut wide trim strips, pink them and fray check them. I leveled the petticoat to be worn over a late 70s/ early 80s bum pad. For the petticoat trim, I cut 4 crosswise strips of matching fabric 8.5 inches wide, pinked/scalloped the edges and used a tiny artist brush to coat fray block on the wrong sides of the scallops. There's no way to really pleat this fabric with even pleats to show off the stripes. I basically pleated it similarly to the narrow trim on the jacket. My original plan was to tack the pleats about an inch from the top and an inch from the bottom (they extend past the petticoat hem about an inch). I would have to press the pleats flat to do that which I didn't want to do. I thought I might just tack them at the top for a ruffle but decided to go with my original plan, also tacking them in the center as well. I like the added texture of letting the pleats poof out. I ended up using 3.5 of my trim strips. Here's the finished outfit. It still needs to be steamed and it needs some under petticoats. I've very happy with the way this turned out. I did make a floofy bonnet to wear with it: I may make some light sage green mitts using the embroidery pattern from the 1772 Ladys Magazine. I'm pleased with the way this turned out and I need to get a proper photoshoot. I'll edit to add those photos. It's just been too cold lately. I hope to make a summer short sack based on the French fashion plate above using a documented print with sheer trim to wear in July. Here are some pics from Montpelier Mansion in Laurel, MD.

Louis XV of France and his wife Marie Leszczyńska had a successful marriage and Marie gave birth to ten children, of which eight were daughters. For the French, the boys were more important, as women could not succeed to the throne. Her eldest son, Louis Ferdinand, died before he could become King, but he had three [read more]

It's been a long while since I posted anything but there's something that I've been working on for a month or so. The beginning of this post was written in late October and now I've already finished the dress I'm talking about here. I'm going to write another post with pictures of the whole outfit as soon as I can. 25th of October, 2011 After a couple of weeks of considering what to make out of the new fabric I bought just a while ago, I decided it's going to be a dress that some of you might call "a proper polonaise". For a long time I've been waiting for a chance to make something similar that was worn by Kirsten Dunst in the movie Marie Antoinette (look for photos of the particular dress at the end of this post) so now I've begun with it. The dress is going to be made out of dark purple taffeta - to mention, I've been looking for affordable dark purple taffeta for ages - with a white petticoat. So far I've drawn the pattern and fitted it for a couple of times and the cutting is next up, if lucky, already tomorrow. This is the design I'm dealing with... First off, some examples of surviving 18th century garments: Polonaise about 1775-1785 Here's a translation to what the museum has to say about this gown: "Polonaise in striped silk in salmon colour and decorations based on knitting applied to green silk taffeta. The neckline, round in the front and with folded neck. The sleeve, long and tight, closes on the wrist with 5 cylindrical buttons covered with silk thread. The seams are covered with braided cord that finishes at the waist and turns into a hanging cord and tassel. Neck, shoulders and cuffs are done in draped green silk. This dress, known internationally as “robe à la polonaise”, was called “polonesa” in Spain, and it was fashionable during the reign of Charles III. The most characteristic feature of this dress was the skirt puffed in three parts by means of a sliding cord. The Spanish identity of this polonaise is given by the decorative elements as the draping on the shoulders that hide the shoulder seams." Thanks to my friend who helped me with the translation! Oringinal: Museo del Traje: Polonesa Oringinal can be found at: Polonaise dress 1778, MET Robe à la polonaise 1774-93, MET Polonaise c. 1775-1780, Museo del Traje Examples of polonaises in paintings: Princess Amalie of Preussen (1771) by Anna Dorothea Therbusch. Portrait of an elderly lady with her daughter (1775). Queen Charlotte by Benjamin West, 1776. Unknown Woman (1779) by Jens Juel. Jane, Duchess of Gordon and her Son, the Marquis of Huntly (1778) by George Romney. Portrait of the Comtesse d’Artois, Maria Teresa of Savoy (ca. 1780) by an unknown artist. Examples of polonaises in movies: This polonaise from Sofia Coppola's Marie Antoinette (2009) was my first and main inspiration for this type of dress. You can find more screenshots of this dress on one of my favorite webpages: Marie Antoinette's Peach gown on Costumer's Guide Seeing this fashion plate was the turning point when I finally decided it's going to be a dress of this sort! At the end I left out the bows (see the design) and added a red velvet belt with a beautiful square buckle in the front... Stay tuned for photos in the near future! ;)