FRANCE 18TH CENTURY
Feminine costumes from 1794 – 1800.
The figures are all taken from fashion journals whose year is marked by the number indicated under each figure. The period includes the last period of the convent, the rule of the board of directors and the beginning of the consulate.
While the traditional costumes from 1794, especially in their stiff waists, still follow the fashion of the rococo period, the approach to antiquity or traditional costumes considered antique began to penetrate as early as 1796. The waists became more and more shorter and the neckline deeper and deeper, until a fashion emerged that got its name from the first French empire.
The preference for matt, broken colours (pink, yellow, light blue, grey and light violet) is characteristic. The figure from the year 1799 (with the light blue half dress) also shows in the hairstyle and the hair plaster the desire to imitate Greek fashion.
Source: History of the costume in chronological development by Auguste Racinet. Edited by Adolf Rosenberg. Berlin 1888.
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