18th Century Fashionand Literature

Carla Schmidt

1770-1790’s Time of transition Informality

• Men: full formal dress goes out• Women: rigid styles give way to more

natural

1770’s Men Full formal dress found only

in court Coat cut back

• buttons no longer necessary, aluxury item

Winter – bright or dark colors,silk or velvet

Summer – pastels, lighter silk

p.208-212

1770’s Men Silhouette: tall /slim, short waistcoat,

tighter breeches, narrow sleeves(immovable arms)

Improvement of tailoring andmen’s physique

Natural hair becomes morepopular

p.208-212

1770’s Men

Young Men – “macaronis”and “élégant”• Stripes to accent figure,

tight coat, inside pocketinstead of outside, flappedpocket, nosegay in thebutton-hole, vast shoebuckles, high powdered wigs

Caricature

p.208-212

1770’s Women “The variety of fashionable dress in the

1770s and 1780s was immense” Sack dresses popular until the end of

the decade Hoop went out of fashion except at

court – hip pads replaced it Informality – jacket and skirt Strong colors

p.219-226

1770’s Women Hairstyles increase in height and

complexity• curls piled high on the head, feathers,

jewels

p.219-226

1780’s Men Trend: “It was Dr. Johnson in his ‘rusty brown’ suit, rather

than Oliver Goldsmith in his ‘bloom-coloured coat’, that fitted the mood of the last quarter of the century”

P 212-216

1780’s Men Early 1780’s – most English wore “short

white waistcoat, black breeches, white silk stockings, and a frock, generally of a very dark blue cloth which looks like black”

Goethe: The Sorrows of Young Werther – change in trends

P 212-216

1780’s Men Frock coat came in – French gave it

different styles Continent adopting English recreation

(riding) and the clothes that went with them

Shoe buckles at court used gems but outside still English style – cut steel

p.212-216

1780’s Men Round hat replacing three-cornered – more practical for

country life Plain overcoats that look almost like Greek/Roman drapery

p.212-216

1780’s Women Sack dress changes: “There was a complete

division at the waist and the skirt was set with tiny pleats into the bodice.”

p.222-228

1780’s Women 1783 Marie Antoinette

painted wearing asimple white muslin(like a shift or chemise)• Controversial painting

but the dress stylebecame fashionable.

p.222-228

French Revolution French Revolution (Estates General 1789) Sans culottes – without knee-breeches Nobles seeking to look like the rest of the

population Cotton favored over silk, velvet, lace, etc Tricolor cockade – new symbol of the

nation, lives at stake Dull colors – cost effective and mood

appropriate

Works Cited Ribeiro, Aileen. Dress in Eighteenth-

Century Europe: 1715-1789. Revised. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2002.

Democracy and Global Diversity Notes. Loras College, 2007.