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historical costume projects & resources

18th Century Court Ensembles Project

IMPORTANT NOTE! Most of us who stuck through this project completed our ensembles in 2014 and 2015. Therefore, I’m not going to add anyone else to this page. There is a Facebook group for this project, and a few people are still planning their dresses, so you may want to join there if you’d like to play along!

Want an over-the-top, crazy/huge/fabulous 18th century ensemble?  Who doesn’t!  Well, I’m making one for the Costume College 2014 2015 gala, and you’re invited to join me!

How It Worked

Make a court ensemble — men’s or women’s, doesn’t matter — from any country, from any period of the 18th century.  It can be historically accurate or complete fantasy, you decide!

Want to Play?

Make an 18th century court ensemble!  The deadline is Costume College 2014 2015, but you don’t need to attend Costume College to play!  Just post photos and information on your outfit on your blog, Facebook, Flickr, wherever by then!  I’ll do a round-up post on all the finished outfits, and also let people know if you’re blogging about your project as you go.

If you’re coming to Costume College 2014 2015, then it’s court dresses for the Gala, baby!

To make sure we don’t end up duplicating each other, send me an email if you’d like to stake a claim to a particular outfit, whether it be extant or in a painting/fashion plate/whatever.

Participants & Claimed Outfits

Resources

I’ll be blogging about 18th century French court dress over the coming year.  In addition, check out:


Fastes de cour et ceremonies royales (French Edition)
The Cut of Women’s Clothes: 1600-1930
Dressed to Rule: Royal and Court Costume from Louis XIV to Elizabeth II
Magnificence of the Tsars: Ceremonial Men’s Dress of the Imperial Russian Court 1721-1917
Court dress collection: Kensington Palace
Queen of Fashion: What Marie Antoinette Wore to the Revolution
Mrs. Delany and Her Circle (Yale Center for British Art)

Participating Bloggers

 

73 thoughts on “18th Century Court Ensembles Project”

  10. Sara: uniforms are court wear! That’s why I’m calling it “court ensembles” — I’m hoping we might get some boys to play!

  11. Big Ass Silver gown! It gets some silver twill out of my stash as I have no clue what to do with it otherwise. It’s not a natural fibre but hey.

    There are at least three in Sweden and a few in Russia….. so I’ll see if I have enough for Louise Ulrika’s as I have the pattern already (Payne’s History of Costume) 🙂 And have made the pannier pattern before tough hacked down to more modest size 😉

    No claimsies! I can swap to another Big Ass Silver Frock. It would also work for a silly Guarda Infanta as well 😉

  12. Also will forward to my site and see if I can get a mini Kiwi not-CoCo group to skype or something at the same time 🙂

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  15. Trystan – it looks like a freakin’ spiderweb, that’s what I call ripe for the gothifying!

  17. Quick question for anyone: Are there examples of a la Anglaise court gowns, or were they all a la Francaise? Most of the examples only show the front, so I have been unable to tell for sure.

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  19. The only thing I can think of that’s a maybe is what we now call the robe paree, a heavily embroidered dress from the 1780s. The prototypical court dress has a bodice cut like stays, essentially. Then in the 1780s the francaise came in for slightly less formal court events. That’s all France of course — you might look into the English court mantua.

  21. Count me in! I’m probably not going to copy any dress in particular but rather combine a couple if my favorites. I’m so excited this style has been in my list for years!

  22. Since I have 15 meters of lavender and silver sari silk and GOK how much silver and white brocade, I’m in. I have no idea where I’m going to wear it, but if I have to, I’ll go for a walk in the park and scare the homeless.

  23. Sarah — I’m thinking we all drop our hoops for the dinner and then put them back on! And I know my train is coming off once the dancing starts…

  27. Awwww, Victoria claimed the only one I’m crazy about. *pout* *pout* but that’s ok. I had my heart set on something else for next year. I guess you can count on me for court menswear – with a twist!

  30. Aha, there is a whole project going on! (What one miss when one is on vacation.) Well, I guess I want to be counted in as well, as I have one to finish. Hmm, there is also the Swedish national gown, which looks vastly different, but where the proper formal court gown in Sweden after 1777, replacing the robe de cour
    . Would that count too?

  33. I might possibly do two then… But, I have long had a craving for the gala version of Gustaf III’s national gown, which is in white with details in pale blue even if it looks exactly like the black version in cut, so I make a claim for that one. If not for anything else but to be able to match my husband who has the male version of it. No good pictures of it, though.

    http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Gustaf_IIIs_nationella_dr%C3%A4kt._Neue_Schwedische_Kleidertracht_der_Frauenzimmer._Dam_i_svenska_dr%C3%A4kten_-_Nordiska_Museet_-_NMA.0054237.jpg

    http://img1.liveinternet.ru/images/attach/b/0/25/83/25083968_1210934575_1.jpg

  34. Is it okay to make a court ensemble for someone else? I have always always wanted to make my male friend a fully embroidered court suit. (Machine embroidery, natch. I can’t hand embroider my way out of a paper bag.) The years have steamrolled by and I have yet to make it happen. I’m thinking this year-long challenge will spur me into action?

    I don’t have any dibs on any particular design or color, but as it won’t be going to Costume College ((wah!)) it probably doesn’t matter.

    Thanks, Kendra!

  36. If anyone is thinking of doing this Marie Antoinette gown: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Marie-Antoinette;_koningin_der_Fransen.jpg, I just did a version of it, and hanging from all those bows are little gold cameos. (I had to blow up the photo a ton to figure it out.) I have remade my outfit into something else, and have 40-50 gold cameos with bails on them that are just sitting around. If anyone would like them I would be happy to send them to a new home.

  37. Pink would be awesome! No doubt he would happily wear anything I handed to him, but I will likely not make him a pink one. We’ll see!

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  43. Hello I’m joining in! I sent a message to you, Kendra, but I didn’t put in my blog so I’m putting it here for all to see! And also I’m claiming my dress!
    It’s inspired by these two dresses (Mostly the first):
    http://fc00.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2011/090/e/8/-d3cxerx.jpg
    http://www.costumes.org/history/18thcent/general/fairholt/299.gif

    I have a color version of the second, which is English(?) from the late 18thc or early 19th. I shamelessly copied it from a library book. As for my own design, I’ll color up the picture today and scan that as well, so that you all have the real design I’m doing.
    Also here is a link to my blog:
    kiyoteacups.tumblr.com
    I *just* made it yesterday so bear with me, there are very few posts. And I think that’s it, so… wish me luck, as I wish the rest of you luck in your dressmaking!

  47. (HI EVERYONE I AM NEW!)

    I would love to participate- I am hoping to go to CoCo next year. Before coco, however, I am working on venetian Carnevale dresses so I need to get through that to see if I will 1. use what i have already made 2. so burnt out on 18th century or will alter what I have. Carnevale is in Feb so i *think* i still have soem time ….hopefully all the good dresses arent “taken”

  48. Well pooh. I wasn’t going to join this, because I need to focus on finishing all of my UFOs next year, and none of them are what I would properly define as actual court dress, but now I look at that gallery, and the 1725 portrait of the Infanta Marianna Victoria, which is a project I’ve started and plan to have finished next year, counts (I wouldn’t consider it a robe de coer) and is claimed by Izodiea. Grrr-d-gryy!

    And I’m just about to finish arobe à la française a la Lady Innes by Gainsborough. Thwarted again! I’ll have to look at my sewing list a little more closely and see if anything else qualifies, as the guidelines are way more vague than I had originally thought!

  49. Oh, what the heck, I’ll play! I’ll still have to finish the not-actually-a-robe-de-cour for Marianna Victoria PhD dress someday, and the 1680s robe de coer PhD but for now I’ve rummage in my stash and unearthed 6 metres of vintage silk drapery in dull gold which is a reasonable match for Bell’s double portrait of Marianna Victoria and Louis XV (because apparently I’m a sucker for MV) and should just be enough, because it’s rather wide.

    So I guess I have dibs on that – though actually, I think double-ups would be cool, because you could see how another person interpreted the same image.

    Ummm…and if I’m really ambitious I’ll make Louis XV’s outfit as well…but no promises!

  50. Ooh…are we allowed to modify any upper-class gown to a court ensemble? Because I really love http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/paintings/catherine-havers-37961 and have wanted an excuse to make it for a while now, only poufier and with some fly fringe and maybe flowers and embroidery and lace and who the heck knows what else. If that’s allowable, I’d love to join in! I just came across 14 yards of silk about the same color in the portrait and am dying to try it.

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