Fashion and art in the eighteenth century
Fashion Art in the 18th century
*Table of Contact:
- introduction ……………………………………….(1)
- body ……………………………………………..(2-7)
- conclusion …………………………………………(8)
- references ………………………………………….(8)
Introduction:
The 18th century saw the birth of fashion as we know it today; international, media driven, corporate, seasonal, and constantly changing. Then, as now, fashion was a major industry, centered in Paris but drawing clients, materials, and inspiration from all corners of the globe. The invention of the fashion magazine during this period ensured that new styles had a wide and immediate impact. Mass production and ready-to-wear clothing were being pioneered on a small scale, though the technology necessary to realize their full potential did not yet exist. It was an experimental, transitional period between the staggeringly luxurious fashions of Louis XIV’s ancient regime and the diversity, disposability, and accessibility of fashion in the modern age.
Body:
In previous centuries, governments regulated dress according to the wearer’s social status, through sumptuary laws. From the early 18th century, these laws never very effective-ceased to be regularly renewed. For the first time, people of all classes were permitted to wear fashionable, luxurious dress, provided that they could afford it. “Clothes were no longer an accurate indicator of class or rank.” The introduction of innovative technologies and textiles in this period made never-worn clothing more affordable than in the past. Previously, only the very wealthy bought new clothing, and almost everyone else settled for used garments. As these traditional social, legal, and economic barriers disintegrated, fashion’s influence spread from the court and aristocracy to the middle and lower social strata. Fashion was still driven by the elite, but it was produced-and, increasingly, imitated-at all levels of society.
Before the Industrial Revolution of the 19th century, when mechanization transformed the fashion industry, clothing was a major financial investment; fashionable clothing, which had an unnaturally short life span, was an extraordinary luxury. Although labor was cheap in the 18th century, fabric was expensive. The cost of a garment lay almost entirely in the cloth and trimmings, and labor made up a fraction of the price. Trimmings were often even more expensive than the fabric onto which they were sewn. Lace, for example, was handmade and could cost as much as gems; like jewellery, it would be passed down from generation to generation. Metallic trimmings, such as gold or silver braid, contained real precious metals, and they were sold by weight rather than length. Silk, wool, and linen were the basic textile fibers, though cotton grew in importance later in the century. Cheap, manufactured imitations of these textiles did not exist; however, those who could not afford high-quality fabrics could
wear lesser-quality fabrics or used fabrics. Rough/fine and plain/complex fabrics corresponded to social rank.
Most of the clothing worn in the 18th century was bought second-hand, if not third-or fourth-hand. Clothing was so valuable that it was frequently stolen. Fashionable clothing had a finite life span; after clothing went out of fashion, it was given to a servant or sold to a second-hand clothes dealer, who might alter or update the garment. This cycle of redistribution would continue until the garment was not just outmoded but threadbare. Even the wealthy frequently had garments refurbished, remodelled, or otherwise updated, rather than buying everything new. New clothing was the exception, not the rule. However, farmers and labourers had access to fashionable, high-quality clothing through the used clothing market. The same types of garments-and frequently the very same garments-were worn across the social spectrum.
Both sexes wore a layer of white linen next to their skin, which protected the expensive outer garments of wool or silk from perspiration and protected the body from dirt and vermin. Cleanliness was determined by the state of one’s linen-visible at the collar, cuffs and hem-rather than one’s outer garments or body. Men wore T-shaped linen shirts with long tails, which they tucked between their legs; women wore long linen chemises or shifts and additional layers of underskirts. Although some men wore underpants, it was not a common practice. Women did not wear underpants at all; ironically, they were considered immoral, as bifurcated garments were traditionally reserved for men. It was considered improper for a woman to show her legs, beyond the tip of her foot. Likewise, women kept their elbows covered, and wore low-cut gowns only at night or on the most formal occasions. By the end of the century, however, all these rules would be obsolete.
Fashion and Revolution (1780 – 1789)
The French Revolution marked a turning point in fashion technology history. But long before 1789, European fashion embraced the principles of liberty and equality, taking its cues from rural and sporting dress rather than from royals and celebrities. The American Revolution of 1776 filled Paris with hairstyles and gowns.Hoops, wings, and hair powder virtually disappeared from fashionable circles; women’s towering hairstyles relaxed into soft, rounded clouds of curls. Rather than matched three – piece suits, men began to wear jackets, waistcoats and breeches of contrasting color and fabrics. Men’s coat collars grew higher, and waistcoats grew shorter.They ended at the waist, and were almost always white, to show off elaborate, sometimes whimsical, embroidery. Only at the courts of Europe did formal styles persist, frozen in time by strict etiquette.
While the French set the standard of elegance for all of Europe, the English perfected what we now call sportswear. The English taste for the outdoors and physical activity produces a distinctive wardrobe of functional, comfortable garments. Many of these garments originated as rural dress, including straw hats, aprons, gaiters, and frock coats. Hats, boots, and jackets based on jockey dress (which looks very similar today) were also popular. In England, of course, jackets were only worn while actually on horseback; in France, they were worn indoors, as high fashion, to the horror of English visitors. These casual fashions – worn in England by both the landed gentry and the peasants who worked their estates – defined the French tradition of formality and luxury. Nevertheless, they found favour in the most elite circles in Europe.French fashion often distorted the natural shape of the body; English fashions accentuated it. In France, gorgeous surface embellishment masked haphazard tailored; English garments were characterized by their flawless cut and construction,
unspoiled by superfluous ornament. Long, narrow sleeves and closely fitted bodies and coats created an elegant, distinctly English line while allowing efficient movement.
Children’s dress, in the late 18th century, frocks became less fitted around the torso and hairstyles more natural. Girls continued to wear frocks until their teen years instead of adopting adult-style gowns. Instead of breeches, boys began to wear the so called skeleton suit, a transitional style between the frock and adult clothing, consisting of a shirt – made like an adult man’s shirt but with an open, ruffled collar – worn with a jacket and long trousers that buttoned together to form a one-piece garment. The already controversial practice of swaddling infants in bands of cloth virtually disappeared between 1760 and 1780; instead, enlightened mothers’ dresses their babies in loose shirt and caps.
The French revolution of 1789 produced not just a new set of garments but also a more relaxed definition of elegance. The most obvious manifestation of this phenomenon was the term sans-culottes, which described manual laborers& urban poor, who generally wore utilitarian long trousers rather than the knee-length breeches favoured by aristocrats and the bourgeoisie, paired with short jackets called carmagnoles. On both side of the political divide, sans-culottes became shorthand for revolutionaries. Along with breeches, the sans-culottes rejected lace, embroidery, diamonds, rough, silk, swords, shoe buckles, hair powder, and non-patriotic jewellery. Fashion was no longer in fashion in France, and this change had a ripple effect throughout Europe. Fashions based on military dress and the clinging, austere robes of the ancient Greeks replaced the elegant disorder of the rococo; flowing flowered silks gave way to patriotic strips and severe tailoring.
Conclusion:
•In conclusion we learnt the history of fashion and how it began and how it did developed , it was a fantastic story that how fashion evolved , and how it was monopolized only for wealthy, and that the dress was just a symbol of class and but with the passage of the time the lifestyle being different , no longer dress monopolized the wealthy and no longer also a symbol of class, also in my opinion that the dress is also symbolizes the personality of each person living within the limits of this world, and in the end I wanted to give advice for everyone “you have to wear what you like not what people like”
