18th Century Dress

For most of the 18th century the French court continued to set fashion, followed after a time lag of months, years or decades by the rest of Europe and the New World. With the death of Louis XIV the heavy, rigid dignity of late baroque court dress gave way to the light, graceful, vivacious rococo style of Louis XV, familiar in the paintings of Watteau, Fragonard, Boucher, and Chardin. Influenced by Rousseau’s enthusiasm for nature, dress developed a delicate simplicity, especially in more rurally oriented England, as reflected in portraits by Gainsborough, Reynolds, and Romney. This tendency was increased in the 1780s, when Europe was swept by a wave of Anglomania, characterized by plainer, more masculine styles. Concurrent with these developments, an increased emphasis on walking and riding and on bourgeois domestic life led to the differentiation of formal and informal clothing. Also, children’s clothes, as a result of Rousseau and the taste for simplicity, were no longer copies of adult garments but were specially designed soft shirts, trousers, and white dresses.

The man’s collarless coat, with wide skirts (buttoned back for riding) and wide sleeves with buttoned-back cuffs (the origin of buttons on modern jacket sleeves), gradually evolved into the slender, narrow sleeved frac (swallow-tailed frock coat) with a standing collar. The waistcoat, often beautifully embroidered, followed the shape of the coat. The shirt was finished by ruffled cuffs and a variety of neckcloths, such as the flowing steinkirk, the pleated stock, the ruffled jabot, and the knotted cravat. Culottes, exposed by the frac, were bias cut for better fit. Over-garments included capes, coachmen’s coats with multiple short capes, and, later, the double-breasted English redingote (riding coat). Standardized versions of these garments gradually became the brilliant military uniforms of the period. The full-bottomed, powdered wig, a messy nuisance to active men, was gradually relegated to older men and professional men, such as judges, who still wear it in England. Most gentlemen wore a small powdered wig caught at the nape in a black bow, pigtail, or other arrangement or dressed their own hair to look like a wig. Tricorne hats, tasseled canes, quizzing glasses, huge muffs, pocketwatches, and jeweled, painted, or enameled snuffboxes and buttons all contributed to the elegance of a gentleman’s costume. Swords, which became unfashionable as they were adopted by servants, were finally relegated to the court.

For most of the period the pointed bodice of the woman’s gown changed little from that of the 17th century. The low neck was veiled by a delicate fichu (scarf) or edged by ruching. The sleeves had an important cuff at the elbow, later a ruffle. The skirt silhouette, however, changed greatly. The rigid, panniered bustle and train gave way to a loose, ankle-length, usually open contouche (sacque) with a Watteau pleat from the back of the shoulders flowing into the skirt. The quilted or embroidered underskirt was supported by the new, funnel-shaped farthingale. The robe à la française, similar but with a trailing skirt, was for court wear. When the lilting farthingale, worn by women of every class, became so huge that it would not pass through doors, it was succeeded by stately, more maneuverable panniers, which widened the hips to as much as six feet but could either be angled or raised by hand through slits in the skirt. Later the shorter polonaise, with the overskirt looped up to the back, was worn for walking. Fabrics were usually patterned silk for court wear, printed cotton for the country.

Skirt styles were balanced by changing hair styles. The graceful farthingale was topped by neat little heads of clipped powdered hair, surmounted, if the wearer was elderly or bourgeois, by a tiny lappeted muslin cap. Pretty hoods, flat straw shepherdess hats, and tricornes were worn outdoors. The wide panners, however, were balanced by towering, padded arrangements of false hair, three feet high, including such decorations as mobcaps, garlands, feathers, or perhaps a full-rigged ship. Between dressings, which required half a day’s work by a professional male hairdresser every three weeks, they became verminous. Hoods, such as the gauzy Thérèse or hooped calash, or various hats were worn outdoors with wide cloaks or short jackets.

The English influence of the 1780s introduced a new gown, often of white muslin. It was short waisted, with a long narrow sleeve, a bouffant kerchief at the neck, and a trailing skirt without panniers, its fullness drawn to the back in a bustle. With this softened style hair lost its padding and fell into a hérisson (hedgehog) of massed ringlets worn with large English leghorns (flat straw hats) or high-crowned, masculine beavers. These narrower dresses were covered by masculine greatcoats and Orientally inspired coat gowns. Throughout the period, shoes and stockings became lighter in weight and color, and fans, black throatbands, scarves, gloves, drawstring purses, parasols, and canes were important accessories. (Encyclopedia Americana, Dress: Recent Period – 18th Century)

The 18th century man was dressed in a waistcoat, or gilet, and breeches. The waistcoat was the decorative element of a man’s wardrobe. Often made from damask, satin or velvet, it featured pockets, long sleeves, delicate embroidery – showing landscapes, flowers or animals – and gold, silver or enamel buttons. Only a few of the top buttons were fastened, leaving the waistcoat open, revealing the lace-collared shirt underneath. This collar – or jabot – was tied like a scarf. Breeches stopped short at the knee, where they were met with white silk stockings done up with laces. A man’s collarless coat, a justaucorps, fitted closely to the body (the waist appeared slimmer because some men wore a corset underneath their garments), and flared slightly into a semicircle at the hips (the tails might be stiffened with whalebone), with a slit running from the waist down to open the coat at the back. The coat was often lined with silk in a color that matched the waistcoat.

In France, Louis XV was the only man permitted to wear a cloak of brocade. He stylized the garment by lifting one shoulder so that his costume underneath could be seen. Louis’ attire was lavish. His breeches billowed, his stockings were made of silk and his shoes of the finest leather.

Men’s clothing for much of the 18th century was dominated by English style. Lace and ribbon were considered frivolous in England so the lace jabot was replaced by a black silk tie. Next a white muslin scarf was tied at the neck. An Englishman’s waistcoat was cut of colored silk and stopped short at the waist, where it fell in two points.

The frac – a man’s coat – fell to mid-calf and featured long, slim sleeves. Pale green, pale yellow or sometimes black, the frac also featured in the Italian man’s wardrobe, where it was called goldoniana. By the end of the century, breeches were held up with braces. Breeches progressed down the leg so that they covered the knee and were met by stockings. By 1730 men had stopped wearing stockings under their breeches.

Although men’s dress as a whole became more sober during the 18th century, groups of eccentrics emerged. The Macaronis surfaced by 1770 in England. They were young Englishmen fresh from their European Grand Tour, whose sartorial style had been affected by time spent in Italy. The Macaronis wore frilled collars and soon a fringed lace cravat bore their name. To draw attention to themselves in the street, they wore iron heel clips, which clinked while they walked. Their style was overtly feminine and fashion historians speculate that their extreme dress not only marked, but reaction against it caused, the end of the foppish male as a commonplace sight. (Cosgrave 177)