1700-1825 Fashion
Fashion 1700-1825
Garments, in the past as today, expressed much about their wearers. Clothing has a primary purpose of protecting the body
from the elements. Beyond that purpose, wealth, status, political orientation, occupation, generation, and style, are but a few
characteristics of the wearer expressed by garments.
Until technological advances such as the Jacquard loom, cotton gin, and aniline dyes appeared, cloth was an expensive
luxury. Silk had to be imported from the Orient, cotton was a labor intensive fabric to produce and wool was limited to the lower
classes. Only the upper classes could afford the fine silks and cottons. As the middle class expanded a greater demand was
placed upon the commodity. Even so, cloth was expensive and garments were carefully maintained. The wealthy had their
clothes made as did the middle class but the lower classes often wore the discards of the wealthy (see myths about fashion at
www.vintageconnection.net)
Few remnants of early every day clothing remain because, well—it was used, and by definition, used up. Cloth is easily
damaged by wear and tear weakening the fibers; dyes and bleaches used damaged the cloth; stitching stressed the weave;
and weather wore out fabric to name a few elements that limited the life of cloth. Doll clothing, having less wear and tear,
provides a miniature view of fashion of a time and place. Several examples of very early dolls and their original clothes exist in
European collections. The Histoire des Jouets by Henri-Rene D’Allemagne refers to dressed dolls from as early as the 14th to
the 17th Centuries.
While many pieces of original clothing for dolls were long ago destroyed, many dolls and their clothes and even trousseaux
were carefully preserved. Original clothing on this site refers to garments of the time period in which the doll was made and
garments made specifically for a given doll. They may be mommy made (either the grown up mommy or the child mommy) or
couturier. Couturier means that a professional seamstress made the garment—skills that have faded rapidly in the last 200
years. Period appropriate garments are those garments made in the period of the manufacture of the doll but with no evidence
that they were made specifically for a given doll. Modern reproduction clothing in a period style is often found. These
garments can frequently be identified as not “original” by the choice of fabric, color, embellishments or construction techniques.
That in no way detracts from the beauty of the garment but the garment does not document the historical place of the piece.
Fashion includes textiles and their manufacture, style of clothing, construction details as well as location and time in which the
garment was popular. However, a given style in a given time in one place was not limited to just a small span of years and then
everyone threw out that style in favor of another. Equally, a style popular in one time period in one place may have been
popular in another time period and place. Originality of clothing is a combination of factors requiring an understanding of the
doll in context of its manufacture, purpose, travel, time, and place.
TEXTILES AND THEIR MANUFACTURE
Historical perspective of textiles and their manufacture is critical to the dating and authentication of original antique clothing. By
recognizing the materials and how they combine to form the cloth as well as the techniques used to embellish the garment,
approximation of the time the garment was constructed can be made. Reproducing, repairing and conservation of garments
also require an understanding of the textiles and techniques of their production. Textiles are flexible materials composed of a
network of natural or artificial fibers. They are formed into cloth by weaving, knitting, crocheting, knotting, or pressing fibers
together (felt). Cloth is a finished fabric ready for use such as in dressmaking.
Textiles are made from four main sources: animal, plant, mineral, and synthetic materials. Animal sources include hair and fur
such as wool from goats and sheep (including cashmere, angora, vicuna, alpaca, llama, and camel), rabbits (angora) and fibers
from worms (silk). Sources of plant material used in textile making include straw and bamboo for hats, cotton, flax, jute, hemp
and modal, Piña (pineapple fibre) and ramie are all used in clothing. Acetate, seaweed and Tencel are also plant materials
used in cloth production. Mineral materials used in clothing production include gold for cloth and embellishments and glass
fibers in space suits. Synthetic materials used in clothing include polyester, acrylic, nylon, spandex, olefin, ingeo and lurex.
Basic cloth can be embellished by dyeing, weaving together fibers of different colors, adding colored stitches to finished fabric
(embroidery), creating patterns by resist dyeing methods, tying off areas of cloth and dyeing the rest (tie-dye), or drawing wax
designs on cloth and dyeing in between them (batik), or using various printing processes on finished fabric. Woodblock printing,
still used in India and elsewhere today, is the oldest of these dating back to at least 220CE in China.
Though there is evidence of textile use dating back 25000 BC with Venus figures depicted with clothing, the oldest known
textiles date back to about 5000 B.C with the production of linen cloth in Egypt. By 3000 BC there is evidence of sheep
breeding for their woolly coats. By 200 AD there is evidence of block printing of cloth in China. Use of a loom was documented
by 300 AD. The spinning wheel appears in India by 500 AD. At this time the Chinese had developed resist dyeing. By 600 AD
wood block printing appears on textiles in Egypt. By 1000 AD examples of knitted Egyptian cotton socks were found. A silk
burial wrapping found in Spain is dated to 1275. As technology, travel and communication improved the revolution to the
clothing industry sped up. In 1764 the spinning jenny was developed. 1784 dates the power loom. 1793 produces the first
cotton mill in the United States. 1794 sees the invention of the cotton gin. 1856 finds the first synthetic dyes. Polyester
appears in 1953. Cloth is cheap and easy to produce so that the presence or quantity of cloth is no longer the expensive luxury
it once was. However, the quality of the cloth still distinguishes affluence.
Locally available material limited fabric choices for garments until explorers brought back goods from other parts of the world.
Europeans wore wool, linen and cotton until trade routes after the Crusades developed between Europe and China providing
silk to Europeans. Establishment of trade routes was critical to obtaining the goods that afforded wealth and status to
European rulers. This spawned the European desire to build their own porcelain factories (and the subsequent development of
the bisque and china dolls) as well as to develop the fashion industry as conspicuous displays of wealth. The two industries of
porcelain dolls and fashion merged in the marketing of this wealth to other countries initially as presents to family of the ruling
classes and means to market the latest fashions to later marketing of dolls and fashions as toys in and of themselves.
STYLE OF CLOTHING
Throughout history, style changed with the definition of beauty. The definition of beauty is a complex combination of the
perception of individual physical traits based upon criteria universal to all cultures, criteria specific to a given culture, and
subjective judgment. Research suggests members of all cultures hold a higher regard for symmetrical physical features,
regardless of ethnic background. As cultures evolve, they provide criteria for what is and is not acceptable in that society.
What is acceptable becomes beautiful. Hence during the Renaissance, when food was scarce, obesity was considered
beautiful in the female form. Obesity is seldom considered beautiful in present day society where health is a greater concern
(and has a greater impact on wealth) than quantity of food. Political changes, technological developments, and societal
priorities all influence beauty of a given time in history. Those in power in society are in a position to allow their personal
judgment of beauty to influence society in general. Hence, clothing of a time reflects more than the choices of the individual
wearer but also information about the wealth, status, occupation, generation, and style of the wearer expressed by the
garments. Changes in style of clothing closely reflect the changes in politics, wealth, status, occupation, generation and style
of the wearer (and the doll owner).
CONSTRUCTION DETAILS
Fashion prior to 1790
Clothing to protect the body was formed from two major sources, animal hides and textiles. Animal hides were used in cultures
with little resources to textiles including early man, African cultures, the Native Americans and cultures of the far north. After the
13th century, most Western cultures primarily used textiles. While the focus of this section is the fashion of the Western
cultures as expressed in doll clothing from the 18th century onwards, a brief overview of clothing from textiles prior to the 18th
century gives perspective.
During the time of the pharaohs in ancient Egypt, Tara Maginnis notes (www.costumes.org):
Clothing was not in any way a practical necessity in Ancient Egypt. Egypt (and most of the rest of North Africa) was not the
mainly desert country it is today, subject to the temperature extremes that a dry climate engenders. Then it was a lush, food-
producing country, subject to annual flooding, and a warm, humid climate. Clothing was therefore a luxury item of no great
practical value. Slaves and the poor in surviving Ancient Egyptian art are therefore usually depicted in little more than
loincloths. As people went up the social scale more clothing and jewelry was worn, but even then the drapery of the clothing is
light and designed more to accentuate the shape of the body than conceal it. The most elaborate Egyptian clothing was worn
by the Pharaohs and their queens as symbols of power. …
Ancient Greek dress was more voluminous than that of the Egyptians, and was most often made of fine woolens, although it is
thought that the Greeks also had regular access to linen, hemp cloth and silk. The primary garment of Ancient Greek clothing
was the Chiton, an all-over body garment made from a large rectangle of cloth wrapped once around the body from right side to
right side. This garment was then pinned at the shoulders and tied at the waist or hips, and draped in hanging folds about the
body. Young men generally wore short chitons, and older men and women longer ones. Older men also often are depicted
wearing long draped mantles either alone or over a chiton . A smaller rectangle worn over one shoulder by travelers and young
men was called a Chalmys.
... Greek fabric was far more elaborate than the Egyptians, and included complex border designs both woven in and
embroidered. Like Egyptian dress, Greek clothing was centered in an aesthetic that idealized the human body, rather than
attempting to conceal its’ natural shape. The Greeks made many clothing decisions based on this aesthetic that were less than
practical choices: Pinning garments closed instead of stitching, rarely wearing sandals or shoes despite a rocky landscape,
draping garments around the body for warmth during cold instead of making garments with sleeves or trousers as their near
neighbors the Phrygians (see at right) did.
Roman dress at first glance appears to be identical to Greek dress in it's draperies and design. Closer inspection, however,
reveals many important changes. First, the basic garments are sewn, not pinned, and close on both sides. Second, elaborate
fabric decoration nearly disappears, and bold patterns on garments are nonexistent. Sandals, boots and shoes are common,
virtually all men wear them, and many women. …Their clothing included the Tunica (which is, as you have already guessed, a
simple t-tunic), the Stola (the female version of the same thing), the Toga (a extra long half-circle wool mantle worn by male
citizens) and the Palla, a large, long (8 yard) drape or scarf worn by women outdoors. …Late Roman and "Byzantine" dress
(400-1460) is more body covering than earlier Roman costume, usually including long sleeves and long hems. This is generally
assumed to be a reaction to the growing Christian view that the body was not beautiful, but a pit of vice. When the tunica is
shorter (only on men) the lower limbs are encased in trousers, a "barbarian" invention first adopted by the Roman army and
lower classes, and eventually (after some aristocratic resistance) by all men. The toga remained for emperors and other high
officials in this period, but in vestigial form as a long thin (about 6") strip wrapped round the torso in the traditional manner (see
above).
Long half circle capes were part of male court dress, worn in place of the old toga over the new long sleeved tunica. The most
notable feature of the Eastern Empire's dress is its’ surface decoration. Unlike the earlier period which left fabric largely
undecorated, the people of the Byzantine/Romanian Empire used all manner of woven, embroidered and beaded surface
embellishment, particularly on Church vestments and court dress. This style of decoration, and many of the garment shapes,
survive to this day in the priestly vestments of Orthodox churches in Greece, Eastern Europe and Russia.
Contemporary with the first part of the Eastern Empire's rule in the western Mediterranean (late Roman and Byzantine),
Western Europe was going through the period known as the "Dark Ages". One rather pithy scholar pretty well summed up the
era (400-900ce) as "five hundred years of camping out". Warfare was pretty constant, commerce pretty nearly dead, and stable
social and educational institutions almost non-existent.
Like the Eastern Empire the dress of Western Europe seems to have consisted of the long sleeved tunic, half circle capes, &
trousers. Western men are more often depicted in the short tunic and trouser combination than in long tunics. Shoes and
boots were also worn in place of sandals.
It has been suggested that the reason that clothing became longer, heavier and more fitted in this era is that the world weather
pattern shifted at that time to make Europe the much colder continent it is now. (In Roman times the weather was so warm in
Northern Europe that they had successful vineyards in England, far north of where it is possible to grow them now).
Another clothing variation popular in Europe was the wearing of a short tunic over a longer fuller one. This was done by
persons of both sexes. The over tunic was often heavily embroidered in a manner similar to the Byzantine style.
Women's dress was often similar to the style mentioned above, or simply consisted of a long tunic with a more tight fitting
sleeved one beneath. Married women, with the exception of queens, generally veiled their hair, but this was not a hard and fast
rule.
In 800ce Charles the Great (aka Charlemagne) was crowned "Holy Roman Emperor" by the Pope in Rome, thus setting up a
smaller, rival empire in the West to Romania/Byzantium. In this period (known now as Carolinan) the shape of the old tunic
changed by widening at the bottom. Eventually the lower part of the garment (now more often referred to as a gown) was cut
like a full skirt.
By the 1000-1200 ce known as "Early Gothic" (another name intended as a pejorative provided by people at a much later date)
the usual cut of the gown (and shorter over tunics) was pretty usually with the wide or circular bottom. Sleeves on the over
gowns and/or tunics get wider (especially on women's dress) and there is an overall fashion for conspicuous consumption of
fabric.
There had been a pretty popular belief in Western Europe in the years leading up to the first Millennium, that the Christian
Second Coming, End of the World, and Judgment Day would happen in the year 1000. This did not really encourage people to
build earthly cities for the future or spend time or cash on worldly matters. So material culture, including dress, was pretty
limited in its’ ostentation before this date. When the world did not end, people in the centuries that followed became more
sanguine that The End was not Near, and began displaying more interest in frivolous worldly matters such as dressing better
than one's neighbors. This is partly why conspicuous consumption of fine fabric suddenly became popular.
Fabric production also became much easier in this era through the invention of two labor-saving devices: The spinning wheel
and the horizontal loom which increased both fabric quality and production nearly tenfold.
When the Pope encouraged the various warring Christian kings of Western Europe to go to the Holy Land to fight the rising
kingdoms of Islam, the "Crusaders" had a chance to see civilized people (the Byzantines and Moslems) some of whom dressed
in silks daily. Europeans instantly coveted these things to such a degree that they happily sacked and pillaged from the
Byzantines (who were in theory the allies they had been sent to help) as much as from the Saracens and Turks.
By the 12th-13th Centuries they had pillaged the technology from the East to make velvet, and Western clothing became more
extravagant with each generation.
The trend towards greater extravagance in dress, found in the 11th -13th centuries, increases throughout this whole period.
Several factors were at work pushing high fashion towards greater and greater consumption: increased exports from the East
in the wake of The Crusades, increased production and improved quality of textiles in the West, the wealth of a rising urban
tradesman class, and the sudden increased inherited personal wealth of the survivors of the Black Plague (1350-1400).
In Italy these factors operated at a peak because fine fabric production and importation was the cornerstone of the Northern
Italian economy. Huge fortunes were made in the Florentine and Venetian city republics by merchants and manufacturers who
had no lands or titles with which to claim nobility. These wealthy merchants sought out a way to buy the status that they
craved. With fabric as their stock in trade they dressed more lavishly than the landed nobility, and spent fantastic sums on
private and public art and architecture to gain social recognition.
The competition in dress took a new twist in this period. Once one has enough gowns and surcoats in the finest fabrics, and all
your peers have the same, how do you compete? Conspicuous consumption will only take you so far, you can only wear one
set of clothes at a time. This is when Western dress took it's long trip into fashion and fads. The Italians began to take fabric
and cut it and piece it in a complex fashion to fit close to the body, and have a recognizable "cut" that could be adopted and
discarded as a "fashion". By combining the intricate cut, piecing and fit usually found in skin-sewn cultures and applying it to
fabric, the Italians acquired the means to make clothing with a planned obsolescence. This meant that (as now) clothing could
go out of fashion faster than it would wear out. This put anyone, even an aristocrat, without the means to continuously buy new
clothing in a place somewhat lower than that of the very rich.
Northern Europe to a lesser degree went through a similar change at this time. Many villages and small towns grew into cities
in this period, buoyed up by the wealth that the tradesmen who lived in them generated. Cities did not fit into the feudal social
structure of the time, and so had to develop social structures of their own. Not surprisingly they too adopted fashion as a
marker of wealth and status, and the fashions of the cities came to be the fashions of the courts and aristocracy.
French women's headdresses of the 15th Century (Stibbert)
As a result this era had a lot of different fashionable garments and accessories in it, a number of which were quite extreme in
style. Poulaines were long pointed shoes, worn mainly by men in Northern Europe, these shoes had padded toe points that
could extend as far as a full foot length in front of the foot itself, and often present a rather phallic appearance.
15th Century poulaines (Kohler)
Other fashion extremes included the Hennin, a woman's conical headdress popular in Northern Europe of the 15th Century,
The Chaperon, a turban like headdress worn in Italy and the North, The Houppelande, a graceful unisex gown which used an
amazing quantity of fabric both on the body and trailing on the ground, and parti colored dress, a fashion of piecing many
different fabrics together into a single garment, and then there is the Codpiece a padded section of a man's hose intended to
contain the sex organs.
Both in the North and in Italy, dress got progressively longer, and more vertical in line as the 15th Century went on. By 1500
upper class dress is heightened by headdress, lengthened with trains and hanging sleeves, and appears to be drawing an
obvious parallel with the verticality of the late Gothic religious architecture of the time.
Dr. Maginnis’ website is designed as an online course with excellent information, resources, links and pictures of early
costuming. Please visit it for more information at www.costumes.org.
FASHION 1700-1790 UP TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION
Cloth
For the nobility and newly formed middle classes, clothing was made of cotton and silk throughout Europe and Asia. Brocaded
and stripped silk were popular. At this time, England prohibited the importation of silk, ribbons and laces as these imports
competed with locally produced goods. Consequently, only the very rich in England could afford the smuggled goods whose
silk scraps found their way to English dolls’ costumes. There was no such restriction on the importation of silk to Europe so
continental dolls were often clothed in silks. Undergarments were more likely padded and quilted homespun cotton or linen
then wool as wool was considered “common”.
Manufacture:
The looms upon which the cloth was made were narrow, most cloth was only 18-20 inches wide. Therefore, many small pieces
of fabric were stitched together to form the fitted garments popular in the 18th and 19th centuries. The best garments were
lined with linen or cotton while cheaper doll dresses were lined with paper. Edges were finished with a pinking iron. Little
sewing was used; instead two-piece pins fastened the garments.
The invention of the Jacquard loom produced intricately woven patterns in contrast to the 17th century prints of usually one
color on cotton or linen. Large and bold floral and geometric patterns were common in the first half of the 18th century. These
patterns gradually were refined and made smaller first with a diagonal design and then a lacier design. By the 1730s, three
dimensional toile type designs were popular. The 1740s produced designs of flowers in symmetrical patterns, then meander
patterns in the 1750s, until the 1760s when the patterns became small and offset with stripes. Improved spinning and weaving
techniques in the 1760s produced an industry devoted to making printed cotton and linen cloth at a reasonable cost such that
all classes could afford the goods. Silk gradually was replaced at the end of the century with lightweight cottons and linens.
As skilled laborers immigrated to the United States, they brought with them skills learned in Europe. In 1793, the first cotton mill
was formed in Rhode Island beginning the manufacturing side of the textile industry in America. Cotton was grown cheaply in
the South beginning the supply side of the textile industry. Unfortunately, cotton has many tiny seeds that must be removed
from the bolls before it can be spun. With the invention in 1794 of the cotton gin, cotton could be grown in the South;
processed much cheaper than by hand, sent to the North to be milled into cloth making cotton cloth in America much more
affordable. Ultimately, the United States became an important supplier of cotton to England and Europe, providing Europe a
critical role in the Civil War.
Dye:
Dyeing cloth provided a distinction between common and royal or noble or wealthy. Dyeing skills and secrets as well as
printing methods moved from China, through the Middle East including Persia, Rome and Greece to Europe and England.
Independently, the Americas had also developed textiles, dye and printing methods different from those which had traveled from
China. As the skills traveled from the East and West, the Europeans developed the political structure to “protect” their
industries, requiring their colonies to support their industries until the colonies rebelled and developed their own industries.
Following is a time line of the development and movement of dye and printing from both East and West to Europe.
As early as 2600BC are written records of the use of dyestuffs used in China. Wool dyeing was established as a craft in Rome
by 760 BC. Alexander, in 331BC, finds 190 year old purple robes when he conquers Susa, the Persian capital. By 55 BC,
Romans found painted people "picti" in Gaul dyeing themselves with Woad (same chemical content of color as indigo). Roman
graves were found with madder and indigo dyed textiles, in the 2nd century. In the Late 4th Century, Emperor Theodosium of
Byzantium issued a decree forbidding the use of certain shades of purple except by the Imperial family on pain of death,
solidifying purple as a royal color.
Dyes had existed in China for years. Expanding the art and industry, a Chinese manuscript mentions dyeing with wax resist
technique (batik) in the 7th century. Chinese did not develop protectionist policies as they were an in demand high quality
resource. Europe, however, looked to develop its own textile industry. By 925, the Wool Dyers' Guilds were first initiated in
Germany followed in 1188 with the first mention of Guilds for Dyers in London. The only blue dye of the period, Woad, began
to be raised extensively in Germany in 1290. The 3 major dyes were now: woad, madder and weld, providing the colors blue,
red and yellow. Pope Paul II, in 1464, introduced the so-called "Cardinals' Purple" which was really scarlet from the Kermes
insect. This became the first luxury dye of the Middle Ages just as Imperial Purple (Murex from mullosks) had been for the
ancient world. Add to this the invention by Cennino Cennini of Padua, Italy in the 1500s of the printing of cloth (block printing)
in his treatise called Method of Painting Cloths by Means of Moulds and the textile industry of Europe flourished.
At the same time halfway across the world, Aztecs under Montezuma conquered the Mayans. 11 Mayan cities paid a yearly
tribute of 2000 decorated cotton blankets and 40 bags of Cochineal (insect dye) each. Pizarro and Cortez in 1519 find that
there was cotton in Central and South America. They sent back brightly printed fabrics showing that the Indians knew about
block printing prior to the Conquest. Cochineal from Mexico and Peru was now being shipped back to Spain. Gold was not the
only treasure sought in the Americas.
Drebbel, a Dutch chemist, in 1630, produced a new brilliant red dye from cochineal and tin. In 1688, James II, of England,
prohibited exportation of un-dyed cloth from England to help bolster the home industry for English dyers over that of the
Scottish dyers thus protecting the industry at home. Meanwhile Germany was developing its own industry in
1689 when the first calico printworks was begun in Germany at Augsburg. William III signed a law in 1708 prohibiting the
importation of printed silks, this only made calicos and silks more popular. Eight years later, there were more than 30 laws in
England prohibiting the importation of calico and cotton; prints became more popular than ever. According to these laws,
textiles could not be imported and at the same time, England’s colonists had to procure their textiles from English industry.
Consequently, smuggling of the Chinese goods was a flourishing business and discontent of the colonists was growing.
Protectionism ultimately did not work.
A method of bleaching linen with kelp (seaweed) was introduced in Scotland in1727 producing a brighter white as a “color”.
Arkwright's spinning frame in England (aka the Spinning Jenny) was used in 1769. Chlorine was discovered in 1774 Swedish
chemist, Scheele, when he noted that hydrochloric acid destroyed vegetable colors. In the same year, Prussian Blue and
Sulphuric acid were available commercially. Bancroft introduced in 1775, the use of quercitron bark as a natural dye. It yields a
yellow, brighter than fustic, and is from the inner bark of North American oak. North America was now a supplier of dye and
fiber but had to be a consumer of the English product made from American resources. Also, now there were several shades of
blue and purples, several reds and yellows. Green was made by overdying blue with yellow. In England in 1785, Bell, who had
invented printing from plates, developed roller printing. Three years later, picric acid became available (yellow dye and
disinfectant) produced another form of yellow.
European countries prevented the emigration of skilled textile workers to the colonies. Samuel Slater escaped from England to
America in 1790, with a memory of English textile machinery. He developed the American textile industry in Rhode Island. Elis
Whitney developed the cotton gin in America in 1793. An American, Francis Cabot Lowell, visited England and returned with
ideas and plans for a power loom. America was no longer dependent upon England for textiles. See Trestain, Dating Fabrics
for an extensive discussion of dyes and designs in the American textile industry. She documents samples of fabric design and
color.
Embellishments of the clothing of the time included:
GALLOON is a decorative woven trim sometimes in the form of a braid and commonly made of metallic gold or silver thread,
lace, or embroidery. Galloon is used in the trim of military and police uniforms, and as trim on textiles, drapery and upholstered
furniture.
GIMP is a narrow coarse of silk, cotton or wool with a cord or wire interlaced.
FURBELOWS: a ruffle, frill, or furbelow is a strip of fabric, lace or ribbon tightly gathered or pleated on one edge and applied to
a garment, bedding, curtain or other textile as a form of trimming.
LACE:
According to Dr. Maginnis:
form patterns. As so defined, lace is distinguished from open-textured woven fabrics such as gauze; from knotted openwork
such as net and macrame; from tatting, a lacey knotted fabric made with a small shuttle; and from crocheted and knitted
openwork, in which the fabric is formed by looping a single thread into a textile by means of a hook (crochet) or long needles
(knitting). All these techniques, however, are capable of producing delicate, lacelike fabrics that are often grouped with true
laces in a more general use of the word. Even more closely associated with laces are certain kinds of embroidery, such as filet,
buratto, and tambour work, which are forms of embroidery on a net ground; and, especially, drawnwork and cutwork. In
drawnwork, threads are removed from the cloth, and in cutwork, sections are cut from the fabric; in both cases, the remaining
threads are embroidered and the empty spaces filled in with lace-making stitches. (definition from the History Channel article
referenced below).
There are two types of true lace: needlepoint and bobbin lace. Needlepoint lace is created by marking a pattern, fastening the
pattern to a ground or light cloth and then stitching the border through the paper and cloth. Subsequent stitches forming the
patterns are stitched between the previous stitches without piercing the pattern or ground. Bobbin or pillow lace is made by
marking a pattern and pinning it to a pillow. Pins mark the pattern in three dimensions. The thread from the bobbins is wound,
twisted and interwoven among the pins to form the lace. (Today lace may include some forms that are tatted, crocheted or
embroidered).
Lace was generally made of linen prior to 1800, cotton until 1900 and rayon after that. Machines for lace making were in use
since 1813. Lace was a sign of wealth prior to 1800, lost favor (especially on men's clothes) in the early 1800s, then became
more popular in the mid 1800s for women's garments.
In the 17th Century, lace making was a noblewoman's pursuit. By the 18th Century lace making became an industry of its own
with major centers in Italy, France and Belgium. Examples of lace from this time:
16-17 C Insertion Lace Guipere Needle Lace
Mechlin Lappets
Late 18th C bobbin lace Late 18 C non-continuous lace
NET,
SEQUINS,
SILK EMBROIDERY work is a decorative form of surface embroidery using silk and a variety of different embroidery stitches to
follow a design outline applied to the fabric. This technique is found in early Chinese textiles.
CREWEL WORK is a decorative form of surface embroidery using wool and a variety of different embroidery stitches to follow a
design outline applied to the fabric. The technique is at least a thousand years old.
METALLIC THREAD was commonly used and its corrosive properties have resulted in much damage to fabric and lace.
TWO PART PINS were frequently used to close human and doll garments.
Cost
Asia made cloth of wool, cotton, linen and silk for centuries. Europe made cloth from cotton, linen and wool. After the
Crusades in 1200 AD, when overland trade routes were in relatively common use, cloth was both locally made and imported
from Asia to Europe. By 1700s, as Europe extended its rule around the globe, many colonies were limited to trade with their
mother countries. Because of the protections European governments afforded to the local guilds of the time, parts of the British
Empire such as the United States were prevented from developing a local industry to make cloth and ultimately clothing. This
protectionist policy kept the cost of cloth in the colonies high. Silk had to be imported from China to both the Americas and
Europe making it the ultimate luxury fabric. As such it was very expensive and clothing made of it was for special occasions or
signified wealth. These protectionist policies were partly responsible for the Revolutionary War and the drive for not only
independence from British rule but independence from British industry.
Style
Europe
The style at this time is referred to as Rococo. It is characterized by a lightness and fluidity not found in the preceding heavy,
awe inspiring and religiously complex Baroque period. Common themes were flowers, birds, bows, anything that curves
upward or suggests lightness. The advent of the Enlightenment had suddenly changed the rules of Western society from one
where brute force constituted power to one where intelligence and reason were the admired and powerful traits. Since women
could compete in this new way, for the better portion of the 18th Century women discretely ruled society and made advances in
it, becoming authors, artists, doctors and business women. It is little wonder that the arts and philosophy of the time glorified
women, and that the style most associated with the 18th Century, the Rococo, is replete with what psychologists call "feminine
forms."
Infants, and dolls representing them, wore long dresses. When children were old enough to walk, and the dolls representing
them, the clothes were floor length, the same length as adult clothing. Both girls and boys wore dresses. Boys donned the
attire of adult males at approximately 4-5 years. At this time too shoes and socks were made for both children and their
representative dolls. Heels were not found on shoes for small children but were found on shoes for older children and adults.
Stays were worn by children and dolls and dresses often had leading strings (fabric or trim strips attached to the back of the
shoulders).
Child with leading strings on her dress
detail of picture by Pieter de Hooch
Common styles were round dresses early in the century (dress not open in the front to show the petticoat), open front robes in
the middle of the century, and sacque back dresses later.
A sacque back dress is a dress with pleated panels from the neck to the floor. There were two variations. A la francaise used
box pleats from neck to floor while a la anglaise pleats were stitched down from the neck to the waist and then fell to the floor.
Very late in the century polonaises appeared. Polonaise is a robe pulled up on the sides from the hem to mid leg to show the
“coat” or petticoat underneath.
Polonaise gown from the 1770s
Bodices were lined with low or square necklines with a kerchief or modesty panel tucked into the stomacher or bodice.
Stomachers were ornamental stiffened panels worn as the front of a bodice.
Open gown over stomacher and petticoat, 1592. Queen Elizabeth.
Necklines also defined the length of a stomacher. There was a brief period during the court of Louis XIV, when the neckline and
stomacher actually were below the breasts, which were covered by a transparent ruffle of fabric called a fichu. The nipples
could then be rouged or even pierced and decorated with pearls or other gemstones. This fashion did not take off, and, for the
most part, the necklines ranged from demure to daring, but still covered the breasts.
Often the top of the shift (later called a chemise) showed at the top of the stomacher as a modesty panel. These were
generally of lace or muslin. Tight elbow length sleeves were adorned with one to three layers of lace falling to the wrist.
Sometimes the lace was not attached to the sleeve but the shift underneath. The stays might show between the front panels of
the robe or there may be a separate stomacher. The stomacher came to the waist or slightly below.
With the exception of the sacque back dress, the dress was generally sewn at the waistline though infrequently, the bodice was
a separate jacket.
Early in this century, the mantua, originally a loose gown, then later an overgown or robe typically worn over an underdress or
stomacher and petticoat was popular. The mantua featured elbow-length, cuffed sleeves. In the earliest mantuas, the long
trained skirt was looped up behind to reveal the petticoat beneath.
As the century progressed, the mantua was embellished and stiffened with panniers. Round gowns were gathered more to the
sides and back with less fullness in front.
Trains were generally reserved for court dress or dolls depicting those at court. Petticoats were silk with often elaborate
decoration and quilting. They showed in the front of the robe.
Often there were slits in the sides to access the separate pockets worn tied around the waist. Pockets may be simple white
Marcella (cotton quilted fabric or coarse pique) or embroidered.
Under the petticoat and robe were worn a hoop petticoat (panniers in France during this century), undercoat, stays and a shift
(later called a chemise). The wide hoop made the silhouette of the lady three times the width of a man. This was a physical
incarnation coinciding with the shift in social thought from power as braun to power as brain, including women in the power
circles. Often a thick coat (under petticoat) was made of Marcella while a second thinner one was made of linen or muslin.
Stays were either separate pieces of clothing or attached to the bodice of the dress. They were laced up the back through silk
embroidered eyelet holes. They often had shoulder straps and flaps to extend below the hips.
The shift or chemise was worn between the skin and the silk dress to decrease soiling of the expensive silk.
Women did not wear underpants/trousers or drawers. It was not common for drawers to be worn until the hoop skirt made
accidents (wind wiping dresses or falls) markedly embarrassing.
Aprons of linen or cotton were common and extended the length of the dress.
Ribbon or bead chokers were common jewelry of the time.
Shoes may be silk (brocade or embroidered), velvet or leather of any color. They may or may not have a heel as heels were
added to shoes as children grew up. Socks were usually white but may be red or pink.
Hats of some kind were worn indoors and out. Caps, bonnets, hats and hair ornaments were common.
Tara Maginnis on her website (http://costumes.org) notes:
America
The fabrics used in America between 1640--1780 were simple and plain; colonists were largely unskilled in fabric making, so
textiles were primarily imported. By 1656, Americans were recognizing that their lack of knowledge was making them all-too
reliant on England; they began to desperately try to import textile makers from Europe. At this same time England was offering
protection to “foreigners” living in England and those who would come to England with knowledge of the textile trades.
In 1766 (in Providence, Rhode Island), the "Daughters of Liberty" was formed by a group of upper-middle class young women.
They spent their days spinning to free America from its reliance on Europe for textiles--which actually did help the colonists
when the Revolutionary war was launched. Many colonists found it economically necessary to create their own basic fabrics
and clothing, anyway; but the finer cloths--the brocades and damasks, for example--were purchased from Europe.
Colonists with lingering European taste insisted upon British wools, in particular. American sheep were coarse wool types, and
couldn't produce the finer, soft wools of English sheep. Yet, in the 1630s, the colonial legislative body passed several laws
forbidding the purchase or wearing of such fine fabrics--because, they said, colonists were becoming far too worldly.
Although widely available in colonial America, cotton was not expertly created by the colonists; it was very coarse when made in
the colonies. American silks were generally of poor quality, also. Most cotton was imported from England (and originated in
India), and heavy silks from England and France were bought in small quantities. Linen was another popular fabric; it was
typically woven in a simple fashion and was found in both coarse and fine qualities. It was common to bleach this fabric, rather
than dye or print it.
Calico (now a small flower print in cotton or cotton/polyester) was actually a plain weave cotton that looked much like the linens
of the time. It was often white, and sometimes colored. muslin was a variety of calico, and chintz was traditionally considered a
type of calico by the British, although colonists in the 18th century usually referred to it as a type of fabric made in India by a
new technique called "resist-dying."
wool flannel was common for men's clothing and underwear, and women's petticoats; colonists preferred to make it at home.
Osnaburg (a staple cotton today) was usually an unfinished linen in early America, but could also refer to wool or cotton; this
was popular for men's clothing. Broadcloth (now a cotton or cotton blend) was a common wool; cashmere was also a soft
woolen. Some wool fabrics were even finished to imitate fine silk taffetas and moires for women's gowns and men's jackets.
Many lawns were imported, and could be broad, fine, extra-fine, or printed. Serge was a worsted twill cotton and when (in 1780)
it was made in black and blue, it was called denim. Dimity (now a sheer cotton) was a heavy, sometimes twilled cloth in colonial
times.
Most colors could be achieved by the professional, and colonial women usually grew their own plants for creating dyes, and
brought them to their dye-maker. The basics (black, brown, green, red, etc.) were all available, and indigo blue was a much
sought-after shade.
By 1840, many of America's textiles were coming, once again, from England. No commercial dyes were made in the U.S.A., with
the exception of indigo, which was made in South Carolina.
There were several religious groups that were noted for their fabrics during this epoch; among these were the Shakers, who
grew their own flax, and raised sheep and some silk worms. These textiles were often dubbed, appropriately, "Shaker Goods."
Mormons were also regarded as fine fabric makers, especially when it came to silks. Mormon women raised silk worms in their
backyards, and while other American women could typically only managed to raise enough silk for a pair of stockings or gloves,
the Mormons were well known for weaving fine dresses from their silk.
Since 1800, sheer muslin (a very fine, transparent cotton) from India was popular, as was velvet (made from silk), taffeta (also a
type of silk), moire (typically silk, also), poplin (made from silk and wool combined), crepe (a type of coarse silk), and percale
(either a glazed linen or fine cotton.) Plain cotton was the rule for working clothes, and gingham (cotton with threads in two
different colors, woven to make checks) was also sometimes used. Damask (usually a figured fabric of silk or linen), nanking (a
yellow-tinted cotton), broadcloth, and flannel were all staples. The lower classes relied heavily on the soft cotton burlap-type
fabric of flour sacks for nightgowns, underwear, and sometimes trousers; these sacks were either bleached, unbleached, left
plain, dyed, or printed.
China
1790-1815 WAR YEARS AND THE FRENCH EMPIRE
The French Revolution affected the French doll trade with a significant drop in production. Napoleon even stopped the practice
of exchanging dolls among the courts. German and English dolls and fashion filled the void created when the French worked to
resolve their internal social upheaval.
By the 1780s the natural theories of Rousseau became prominent in Western thinking. Accordingly, dress gradually became
less stiff and emphasized the curves and lines of the body. Panniers gave way to dome shaped dresses and then to Empire
Style dresses. Hairstyles became less pompous and more natural as well. Simple lines of Greece and Rome became popular
in both hairstyles and clothing. This was reflected in the dolls of the time.
Muller Papier Mache Continental Wooden 1810
Original “Dome” dress Courtesy Theriaults
Tara Maginnis notes:
As the French Revolution progressed, different women's styles were adopted that appeared to have reference to the
revolutionary politics, social structure and philosophy of the time. In the early 1790's, for example, the "English" or man-tailored
style was favored as it hinted towards the leanings of constitutional monarchy. There was a brief fashion for plain dresses in
dark colors during the Terror of 1792, but when the Directory took over French fashion again went wild, trying out
“Rousseauesque” fashions in "Greek", "Roman", "Sauvage" and "Otaheti" (Tahitian) styles.
These styles became the prevailing style during the reign of Emperor Napoleon from the late 1790s-1815.
Beau Brummell, the leader of male sartorial fashion in England in this period was noted for wearing only black with a white shirt
for formal evening wear, a marked departure from the style of the previous century. Tubular and fitted trousers also move from
a radical fashion statement to everyday wear for most men of the upper classes.
Cloth
Thin cottons and silks, net and gauze predominated. Fewer dolls were made during this time due to the French Revolution and
the clothes made were of thin cottons and silks. It is little wonder that, from this period, few dolls, much less dolls in original
clothes, are found. Fabric was plain, print or plaid. Trim and pantaloons were usually white.
Manufacture, dye, embellishments
Manufacture:
In 1794 Three Frenchmen set up first calico printing.
By 1798 Oberkampf (in Jouy, France) pleased Napoleon by showing him a roller printer made from a cannon Napoleon had
seized from the Pope. This began the famous Toiles de Jouy production still popular in traditional décor today.
1802 Sir Robert Peel brought out a resist method, actually a batik technique done on large scale necessary to decrease the
cost of commercial printing.
1825 Mathias Baldwin began the first American production of engraved metal rollers for calico printing which were used in the
Philadelphia area and could produce 300 yards of fabric per day.
Ribbon
Beautiful ribbons, once only affordable by the nobility of the French society in the 17th century, experienced renewed interest
and adoration. Not only are they beautiful to behold, wonderful to use as embellishments, and sensuous to the touch, ribbons
were also used to express emotions and feelings of pride, reward accomplishments and excellence, and provide opportunities
for hours of creative expression.
Although the first ribbon factory in the United States was founded in 1815, ribbons were being made in Europe for some time.
Colonial Americans had rejected the use of ribbons due to anti-English political feelings. In France and then England, the use of
ribbons represented nobility, in fact at one point, English Parliament reserved the wearing of ribbons by only nobility. At first
ribbons were made in the homes of peasant farmers on looms that they rented from the manufacturers.
The invention of an advanced loom capable of weaving numerous ribbons at one time, heralded a breakthrough in the
production of ribbons. The popularity was such that the number of looms in Basle, Switzerland, a leading ribbon producing
region, went from 1,225 in 1775 to 7,631 in 1870.
The introduction of the jaquard loom around 1815 and the floral and pictoral ribbons that it made, further expanded the use and
desire for lovely ribbons. At the height of their popularity as a fashion embellishment during the 17th and 18th centuries, ribbons
were favored by men as well as women. Shoes and hats were lavishly trimmed with ribbon rosettes and cockades. Garments
were excessively embroidered and embellished with ribbons of silk and gold. In fact, one male garment in the Victoria and Albert
museum is trimmed with 250 yards of ribbons.
Embroidery including tambour work: Tambour embroidery is a chain stitch created on a frame of two hoops similar to that used
today.
Tambour work after 1820
Flounces are deeply gathered or pleated ruffles.
Vandyking is a series of pointed denticulations on an edge or border i.e. like those made with pinking irons or later shears.
Some fringe and braid was used.
Cost
As technological advances in production and transportation were made, the overall cost of producing fabric and dress goods
dropped gradually. The gradual drop was largely due to the increasing middle class maintaining a healthy demand.
Style
Europe:
Since the French Revolution beginning in 1789 with the fall of the Bastille and continuing with the Napoleonic Wars interfered
with the production and transportation of goods through the region, German and English doll producers filled the void. German
producers, including Muller, Voigt and Kestner supplied heads to the French trade. English producers of luxury wax dolls
flourished. They also provided the lead for style of the time.
Fashion went through its own revolution during this time. Not only did fashion reflect the politics of the time (dark plain clothes
during the height of the war, increasing discrimination between men and women as philosophy shifted from the relative equality)
but also the increasing influence of Rousseaux’s naturalism and the increasing influence of Egyption, Roman and Greek styles.
Common styles were:
Bodice with kerchief tucked in neckline or crossed at waist 1790-1800 and
Empire Style after 1795
Diamond shaped back seams and sleeves set far back after 1800
Long sleeves covering part of the hands (see next picture)
The thin fabrics common at the time fostered the use of spencers. Pink long sleeved spencer
The Spencer, dating from the 1790's, was originally a woolen outer tail-coat with the tails cut-off. It was worn as a short waist-
length, double-breasted, man's jacket over a long-tailed coat as extra covering. In its most authentic and fashionable form it
would have been decorated with military medals in a manner after its name-sake George Spencer, 2nd Earl Spencer (1758-
1834). Spencer, it was thought, singed the tails of his tail-coat while standing beside a fire and then cut off the ends, unwittingly
starting a new fashion. Other stories say Spencer—frustrated by his tails catching on brambles—tore the tails off his coat when
hunting one
The dark over robe is a Pellise
It was soon adopted as a popular women's fashion on both sides of the Atlantic during the 1790-1820 Regency style. The
Spencer was worn as a cardigan is worn today, as a short form of jacket to just above waist level cut on identical lines to the
dress.
The use of the term spencer continued well into the 19th century to mean more generally any type of short jacket or coat.
Pelisses are almost indistinguishable from Redingotes. The latter term is more popular after 1815 and is frequently used for
French fashions. The pelisse was a type of light overcoat fashionable at this time. It was cut on similar lines to the dress, a
short waistline, long sleeves and a high neck.
The pelisse has a somewhat more mundane genesis than the spencer: with the fashion of the time favoring lightweight fabrics
with almost no underclothing, women were literally freezing to death. 1803 was a devastating year for the fashionable lady; a
goodly number of them perished from the "muslin disease," the popular name given a French influenza epidemic credited with
carrying off scores of scantily dressed ladies who'd braved the frigid weather in little more than wispy sheaths. To counteract
death by fashion, the pelisse and spencer soon became standard wear among Regency belles. The pelisse, however, was a
better choice of outerwear for cooler weather. An overdress or coat dress, the pelisse fit relatively close to the figure (though
not tight) and was styled along the same high-waisted lines as the dress of the day. Pelisses were often lined or edged with fur
and, in fashionable circles, more or less replaced the fur-lined cloaks of the earlier periods. Pelisses were also heavily and
variously trimmed with fur, swansdown, contrasting fabric, frog fastenings, etc. practically from their beginning. In May of 1810,
a London Miss writes to her country sister: "Pelisses, as is usual at this season are in much request. They are chiefly
composed of twill sarsnets (fine silk), either shot or figured; some reaching to the feet, clasped at regular distances from the
throat to the bottom; others are of a demi-length, rounded at the ends and confined with festooned ropes of floss silk with
tassels in the center." (Ackermann's)
Choice of fabric for pelisses and spencers was dictated largely by the season. In the Spring months, the pelisse might be
fashioned of silk, satin or light velvets; in the summer, lighter fabrics, such as sarsnet, light silks, or even muslin might be
employed. Winter, of course, brought out the fur lined velvets and wools.
The Lady on the right is wearing a spencer and the one on the left wears a Pelisse
Lady's Monthly Museum (1802)
Waistlines gradually moved from the natural waist to the Empire style often associated with Napoleonic period.
Full skirts were gradually replaced with long tubular skirts. V necklines appeared. Long tight sleeves often covered the hand.
1740 Open Robe & Petticoat 1750 Dress & Panniers 1805 Dome Dress 1810 Empire Style
This combined with the long leather gloves (depicted as the leather arm on a doll) suggested wealth as it would be impossible
to work in either garment. Skirts tended to be full to the back and side with less fullness to the front. Bodices tended to have a
diamond shape seaming (Insert pic of back of Muller dress) causing the wearer to throw the chest up and forward. Dresses
and undergarments often were gathered from strings in casings at the neck and or waist. Pantalets or leglets were common.
These derived from the Egyptian garb tied at the waist and ankles. Pantalets being the diminutive term for the pantaloons worn
by women. Spanish influence appeared after 1808.
Girls and boys: Low round necklines with wide round collars that are pleated called goffered. Collars extend to the high
waistlines.
Sleeves are long and tight with ribbon around the high waist. For girls, two wide pleated ruffles or ruches at the bottom of the
skirt which extends just below the knee are often seen.
Close fitting hat or poke bonnet with white feather trim. Bands of white ruching frame the entire face and appear to belong to
the cap worn under the bonnet.
Ladies adopted dress of children but with longer skirts. Sleeves were puffed often for formal occasions and sometimes worn
over long sleeves. When embroidery was used to decorate the bottom of the skirt was often scalloped.
or vandyked. Tambour embroidery was common (a chain stitch embroidery). Because of the thin fabric, ladies wore pelisse,
spencers, or tippets (short capes and scarves). Underclothes are more common and include the petticoat, chemise and
sometimes a corset. Shoes had pointed toes until 1807, then rounded toes. Pockets gave way to reticules
Reticules replace separate pockets: The reticule bag was a new accessory in the late 1790s because women had carried their
pockets about their waist when their gowns had been large enough to hide them.
Reticule Handbags and Purses.
Reticules were pretty small decorative purse like bags, similar to an evening bag of today and which held a lady's belongings.
Some had steel hoops which gave a concertina like framed effect. Others might be circular with ribbon drawstrings and feather
trimmed. Still others might be steel mesh trimmed with pailettes and steel fringe beading.
By the 1820s the reticules had become proper handbags either soft drawn up leather or rigid and buckled hard leathers or
decorative materials. Folding small fans, and shot silk or taffeta parasols with ivory handles were used as decorative, rather
than functional accessories. Huge fur, feather or shirred silk muffs began the era only to disappear totally by 1811, ending the
fashion with smaller rounder muffs.
Shoes for both children and adults were flat heeled. Dresses were shorter for girls than for ladies with ankle length pantaloons
showing below the skirt.
Infant dolls and therefore their clothes are seldom found.
Little girls and little boys both wore dresses at this time. Little girls wore shorter dresses with their pantaloons showing while
ladies were longer dresses.
While these are the types of garments worn at the time, no reference to a doll trousseaux of this time was found.
At the beginning of the century, men’s fashions were very formal with gilt and lace or plain simple Quaker style. By the end of
the century, the more formal style phased out to be almost exclusively dark Quaker style. During the century the cut of a man’s
coat changed from the full wide style of the 1700s to the lighter cut away from the front.
Increase in fashion magazines occurred at the end of the 1700s. Earliest known catalogs of dolls appear between 1793 and
1812. “The lady dolls seem to be of stylized shape with large bosom and a thin waist at about the natural level, and wear
round, dome-shaped, floor length skirts.” Neckerchiefs are still popular as are hats. The dolls in this article are all original and
clearly demonstrate the fashion of the time.
Resources
Coleman, Dorothy, Elizabeth, and Evelyn. Collector's Book of Dolls' Clothes Costumes in Miniature: 1700-1929. New York:
Crown Publishers 1975.
Gosh, Pat. www.dollcostumersguild.com Site for information on making appropriate period costumes for dolls
LACE,. (2009). The History Channel website. Retrieved 07:51, Jan 21, 2009, from http://www.history.com/encyclopedia.do?
articleId=214192.
Maginnis, Tara, http://www.costumes.org. Site is well organized with excellent pictures and links.
Trestain, Eileen. Dating Fabrics A Color Guide 1800-1960. American Quilters Society, Paducah Ky. 1998.
www.vintageconnection.net resource for information on period costumes including fastenings
www.offray.com resource for history of ribbon
www.fashion-era.com
www.hal.ucr.edu Site for information on Regency dress
www.mini-magic.com Resource for silk ribbons and miniature trims
www.spnea.org New England History Museum
www.straw.com Reference for the history of dyes
www.vroma.org Reference regarding dress of the Roman Empire
www.history.com History Channel collection of articles
www.pastpatterns.com Overview of history of fashion and person sized patterns from many fashion periods
www.gallery.vintagehatshop.com Resource with pictures of headware throughout history
www.orignals-by-kay.com Overview of history of fashion and patterns from many periods
www.koshka-the-cat.com Overview of history of fashion and person sized patterns from many fashion periods
www.robinstokes.com 1860s prints from Godeys
www.history.rochester.edu/godeys 1850s prints from Godeys
www.usc.edu/e_resources Complete Godeys Ladies Book 1830-1880. Must be a member of USC to access electronically.
Other colleges also have access to this complete information. Contact your local University library for information.
www.powerhousemuseum.com lace classification system with description and examples of antique laces
www.marlamallett.com Exquisite examples of lace from her personal collection
Garments, in the past as today, expressed much about their wearers. Clothing has a primary purpose of protecting the body
from the elements. Beyond that purpose, wealth, status, political orientation, occupation, generation, and style, are but a few
characteristics of the wearer expressed by garments.
Until technological advances such as the Jacquard loom, cotton gin, and aniline dyes appeared, cloth was an expensive
luxury. Silk had to be imported from the Orient, cotton was a labor intensive fabric to produce and wool was limited to the lower
classes. Only the upper classes could afford the fine silks and cottons. As the middle class expanded a greater demand was
placed upon the commodity. Even so, cloth was expensive and garments were carefully maintained. The wealthy had their
clothes made as did the middle class but the lower classes often wore the discards of the wealthy (see myths about fashion at
www.vintageconnection.net)
Few remnants of early every day clothing remain because, well—it was used, and by definition, used up. Cloth is easily
damaged by wear and tear weakening the fibers; dyes and bleaches used damaged the cloth; stitching stressed the weave;
and weather wore out fabric to name a few elements that limited the life of cloth. Doll clothing, having less wear and tear,
provides a miniature view of fashion of a time and place. Several examples of very early dolls and their original clothes exist in
European collections. The Histoire des Jouets by Henri-Rene D’Allemagne refers to dressed dolls from as early as the 14th to
the 17th Centuries.
While many pieces of original clothing for dolls were long ago destroyed, many dolls and their clothes and even trousseaux
were carefully preserved. Original clothing on this site refers to garments of the time period in which the doll was made and
garments made specifically for a given doll. They may be mommy made (either the grown up mommy or the child mommy) or
couturier. Couturier means that a professional seamstress made the garment—skills that have faded rapidly in the last 200
years. Period appropriate garments are those garments made in the period of the manufacture of the doll but with no evidence
that they were made specifically for a given doll. Modern reproduction clothing in a period style is often found. These
garments can frequently be identified as not “original” by the choice of fabric, color, embellishments or construction techniques.
That in no way detracts from the beauty of the garment but the garment does not document the historical place of the piece.
Fashion includes textiles and their manufacture, style of clothing, construction details as well as location and time in which the
garment was popular. However, a given style in a given time in one place was not limited to just a small span of years and then
everyone threw out that style in favor of another. Equally, a style popular in one time period in one place may have been
popular in another time period and place. Originality of clothing is a combination of factors requiring an understanding of the
doll in context of its manufacture, purpose, travel, time, and place.
TEXTILES AND THEIR MANUFACTURE
Historical perspective of textiles and their manufacture is critical to the dating and authentication of original antique clothing. By
recognizing the materials and how they combine to form the cloth as well as the techniques used to embellish the garment,
approximation of the time the garment was constructed can be made. Reproducing, repairing and conservation of garments
also require an understanding of the textiles and techniques of their production. Textiles are flexible materials composed of a
network of natural or artificial fibers. They are formed into cloth by weaving, knitting, crocheting, knotting, or pressing fibers
together (felt). Cloth is a finished fabric ready for use such as in dressmaking.
Textiles are made from four main sources: animal, plant, mineral, and synthetic materials. Animal sources include hair and fur
such as wool from goats and sheep (including cashmere, angora, vicuna, alpaca, llama, and camel), rabbits (angora) and fibers
from worms (silk). Sources of plant material used in textile making include straw and bamboo for hats, cotton, flax, jute, hemp
and modal, Piña (pineapple fibre) and ramie are all used in clothing. Acetate, seaweed and Tencel are also plant materials
used in cloth production. Mineral materials used in clothing production include gold for cloth and embellishments and glass
fibers in space suits. Synthetic materials used in clothing include polyester, acrylic, nylon, spandex, olefin, ingeo and lurex.
Basic cloth can be embellished by dyeing, weaving together fibers of different colors, adding colored stitches to finished fabric
(embroidery), creating patterns by resist dyeing methods, tying off areas of cloth and dyeing the rest (tie-dye), or drawing wax
designs on cloth and dyeing in between them (batik), or using various printing processes on finished fabric. Woodblock printing,
still used in India and elsewhere today, is the oldest of these dating back to at least 220CE in China.
Though there is evidence of textile use dating back 25000 BC with Venus figures depicted with clothing, the oldest known
textiles date back to about 5000 B.C with the production of linen cloth in Egypt. By 3000 BC there is evidence of sheep
breeding for their woolly coats. By 200 AD there is evidence of block printing of cloth in China. Use of a loom was documented
by 300 AD. The spinning wheel appears in India by 500 AD. At this time the Chinese had developed resist dyeing. By 600 AD
wood block printing appears on textiles in Egypt. By 1000 AD examples of knitted Egyptian cotton socks were found. A silk
burial wrapping found in Spain is dated to 1275. As technology, travel and communication improved the revolution to the
clothing industry sped up. In 1764 the spinning jenny was developed. 1784 dates the power loom. 1793 produces the first
cotton mill in the United States. 1794 sees the invention of the cotton gin. 1856 finds the first synthetic dyes. Polyester
appears in 1953. Cloth is cheap and easy to produce so that the presence or quantity of cloth is no longer the expensive luxury
it once was. However, the quality of the cloth still distinguishes affluence.
Locally available material limited fabric choices for garments until explorers brought back goods from other parts of the world.
Europeans wore wool, linen and cotton until trade routes after the Crusades developed between Europe and China providing
silk to Europeans. Establishment of trade routes was critical to obtaining the goods that afforded wealth and status to
European rulers. This spawned the European desire to build their own porcelain factories (and the subsequent development of
the bisque and china dolls) as well as to develop the fashion industry as conspicuous displays of wealth. The two industries of
porcelain dolls and fashion merged in the marketing of this wealth to other countries initially as presents to family of the ruling
classes and means to market the latest fashions to later marketing of dolls and fashions as toys in and of themselves.
STYLE OF CLOTHING
Throughout history, style changed with the definition of beauty. The definition of beauty is a complex combination of the
perception of individual physical traits based upon criteria universal to all cultures, criteria specific to a given culture, and
subjective judgment. Research suggests members of all cultures hold a higher regard for symmetrical physical features,
regardless of ethnic background. As cultures evolve, they provide criteria for what is and is not acceptable in that society.
What is acceptable becomes beautiful. Hence during the Renaissance, when food was scarce, obesity was considered
beautiful in the female form. Obesity is seldom considered beautiful in present day society where health is a greater concern
(and has a greater impact on wealth) than quantity of food. Political changes, technological developments, and societal
priorities all influence beauty of a given time in history. Those in power in society are in a position to allow their personal
judgment of beauty to influence society in general. Hence, clothing of a time reflects more than the choices of the individual
wearer but also information about the wealth, status, occupation, generation, and style of the wearer expressed by the
garments. Changes in style of clothing closely reflect the changes in politics, wealth, status, occupation, generation and style
of the wearer (and the doll owner).
CONSTRUCTION DETAILS
Fashion prior to 1790
Clothing to protect the body was formed from two major sources, animal hides and textiles. Animal hides were used in cultures
with little resources to textiles including early man, African cultures, the Native Americans and cultures of the far north. After the
13th century, most Western cultures primarily used textiles. While the focus of this section is the fashion of the Western
cultures as expressed in doll clothing from the 18th century onwards, a brief overview of clothing from textiles prior to the 18th
century gives perspective.
During the time of the pharaohs in ancient Egypt, Tara Maginnis notes (www.costumes.org):
Clothing was not in any way a practical necessity in Ancient Egypt. Egypt (and most of the rest of North Africa) was not the
mainly desert country it is today, subject to the temperature extremes that a dry climate engenders. Then it was a lush, food-
producing country, subject to annual flooding, and a warm, humid climate. Clothing was therefore a luxury item of no great
practical value. Slaves and the poor in surviving Ancient Egyptian art are therefore usually depicted in little more than
loincloths. As people went up the social scale more clothing and jewelry was worn, but even then the drapery of the clothing is
light and designed more to accentuate the shape of the body than conceal it. The most elaborate Egyptian clothing was worn
by the Pharaohs and their queens as symbols of power. …
Ancient Greek dress was more voluminous than that of the Egyptians, and was most often made of fine woolens, although it is
thought that the Greeks also had regular access to linen, hemp cloth and silk. The primary garment of Ancient Greek clothing
was the Chiton, an all-over body garment made from a large rectangle of cloth wrapped once around the body from right side to
right side. This garment was then pinned at the shoulders and tied at the waist or hips, and draped in hanging folds about the
body. Young men generally wore short chitons, and older men and women longer ones. Older men also often are depicted
wearing long draped mantles either alone or over a chiton . A smaller rectangle worn over one shoulder by travelers and young
men was called a Chalmys.
... Greek fabric was far more elaborate than the Egyptians, and included complex border designs both woven in and
embroidered. Like Egyptian dress, Greek clothing was centered in an aesthetic that idealized the human body, rather than
attempting to conceal its’ natural shape. The Greeks made many clothing decisions based on this aesthetic that were less than
practical choices: Pinning garments closed instead of stitching, rarely wearing sandals or shoes despite a rocky landscape,
draping garments around the body for warmth during cold instead of making garments with sleeves or trousers as their near
neighbors the Phrygians (see at right) did.
Roman dress at first glance appears to be identical to Greek dress in it's draperies and design. Closer inspection, however,
reveals many important changes. First, the basic garments are sewn, not pinned, and close on both sides. Second, elaborate
fabric decoration nearly disappears, and bold patterns on garments are nonexistent. Sandals, boots and shoes are common,
virtually all men wear them, and many women. …Their clothing included the Tunica (which is, as you have already guessed, a
simple t-tunic), the Stola (the female version of the same thing), the Toga (a extra long half-circle wool mantle worn by male
citizens) and the Palla, a large, long (8 yard) drape or scarf worn by women outdoors. …Late Roman and "Byzantine" dress
(400-1460) is more body covering than earlier Roman costume, usually including long sleeves and long hems. This is generally
assumed to be a reaction to the growing Christian view that the body was not beautiful, but a pit of vice. When the tunica is
shorter (only on men) the lower limbs are encased in trousers, a "barbarian" invention first adopted by the Roman army and
lower classes, and eventually (after some aristocratic resistance) by all men. The toga remained for emperors and other high
officials in this period, but in vestigial form as a long thin (about 6") strip wrapped round the torso in the traditional manner (see
above).
Long half circle capes were part of male court dress, worn in place of the old toga over the new long sleeved tunica. The most
notable feature of the Eastern Empire's dress is its’ surface decoration. Unlike the earlier period which left fabric largely
undecorated, the people of the Byzantine/Romanian Empire used all manner of woven, embroidered and beaded surface
embellishment, particularly on Church vestments and court dress. This style of decoration, and many of the garment shapes,
survive to this day in the priestly vestments of Orthodox churches in Greece, Eastern Europe and Russia.
Contemporary with the first part of the Eastern Empire's rule in the western Mediterranean (late Roman and Byzantine),
Western Europe was going through the period known as the "Dark Ages". One rather pithy scholar pretty well summed up the
era (400-900ce) as "five hundred years of camping out". Warfare was pretty constant, commerce pretty nearly dead, and stable
social and educational institutions almost non-existent.
Like the Eastern Empire the dress of Western Europe seems to have consisted of the long sleeved tunic, half circle capes, &
trousers. Western men are more often depicted in the short tunic and trouser combination than in long tunics. Shoes and
boots were also worn in place of sandals.
It has been suggested that the reason that clothing became longer, heavier and more fitted in this era is that the world weather
pattern shifted at that time to make Europe the much colder continent it is now. (In Roman times the weather was so warm in
Northern Europe that they had successful vineyards in England, far north of where it is possible to grow them now).
Another clothing variation popular in Europe was the wearing of a short tunic over a longer fuller one. This was done by
persons of both sexes. The over tunic was often heavily embroidered in a manner similar to the Byzantine style.
Women's dress was often similar to the style mentioned above, or simply consisted of a long tunic with a more tight fitting
sleeved one beneath. Married women, with the exception of queens, generally veiled their hair, but this was not a hard and fast
rule.
In 800ce Charles the Great (aka Charlemagne) was crowned "Holy Roman Emperor" by the Pope in Rome, thus setting up a
smaller, rival empire in the West to Romania/Byzantium. In this period (known now as Carolinan) the shape of the old tunic
changed by widening at the bottom. Eventually the lower part of the garment (now more often referred to as a gown) was cut
like a full skirt.
By the 1000-1200 ce known as "Early Gothic" (another name intended as a pejorative provided by people at a much later date)
the usual cut of the gown (and shorter over tunics) was pretty usually with the wide or circular bottom. Sleeves on the over
gowns and/or tunics get wider (especially on women's dress) and there is an overall fashion for conspicuous consumption of
fabric.
There had been a pretty popular belief in Western Europe in the years leading up to the first Millennium, that the Christian
Second Coming, End of the World, and Judgment Day would happen in the year 1000. This did not really encourage people to
build earthly cities for the future or spend time or cash on worldly matters. So material culture, including dress, was pretty
limited in its’ ostentation before this date. When the world did not end, people in the centuries that followed became more
sanguine that The End was not Near, and began displaying more interest in frivolous worldly matters such as dressing better
than one's neighbors. This is partly why conspicuous consumption of fine fabric suddenly became popular.
Fabric production also became much easier in this era through the invention of two labor-saving devices: The spinning wheel
and the horizontal loom which increased both fabric quality and production nearly tenfold.
When the Pope encouraged the various warring Christian kings of Western Europe to go to the Holy Land to fight the rising
kingdoms of Islam, the "Crusaders" had a chance to see civilized people (the Byzantines and Moslems) some of whom dressed
in silks daily. Europeans instantly coveted these things to such a degree that they happily sacked and pillaged from the
Byzantines (who were in theory the allies they had been sent to help) as much as from the Saracens and Turks.
By the 12th-13th Centuries they had pillaged the technology from the East to make velvet, and Western clothing became more
extravagant with each generation.
The trend towards greater extravagance in dress, found in the 11th -13th centuries, increases throughout this whole period.
Several factors were at work pushing high fashion towards greater and greater consumption: increased exports from the East
in the wake of The Crusades, increased production and improved quality of textiles in the West, the wealth of a rising urban
tradesman class, and the sudden increased inherited personal wealth of the survivors of the Black Plague (1350-1400).
In Italy these factors operated at a peak because fine fabric production and importation was the cornerstone of the Northern
Italian economy. Huge fortunes were made in the Florentine and Venetian city republics by merchants and manufacturers who
had no lands or titles with which to claim nobility. These wealthy merchants sought out a way to buy the status that they
craved. With fabric as their stock in trade they dressed more lavishly than the landed nobility, and spent fantastic sums on
private and public art and architecture to gain social recognition.
The competition in dress took a new twist in this period. Once one has enough gowns and surcoats in the finest fabrics, and all
your peers have the same, how do you compete? Conspicuous consumption will only take you so far, you can only wear one
set of clothes at a time. This is when Western dress took it's long trip into fashion and fads. The Italians began to take fabric
and cut it and piece it in a complex fashion to fit close to the body, and have a recognizable "cut" that could be adopted and
discarded as a "fashion". By combining the intricate cut, piecing and fit usually found in skin-sewn cultures and applying it to
fabric, the Italians acquired the means to make clothing with a planned obsolescence. This meant that (as now) clothing could
go out of fashion faster than it would wear out. This put anyone, even an aristocrat, without the means to continuously buy new
clothing in a place somewhat lower than that of the very rich.
Northern Europe to a lesser degree went through a similar change at this time. Many villages and small towns grew into cities
in this period, buoyed up by the wealth that the tradesmen who lived in them generated. Cities did not fit into the feudal social
structure of the time, and so had to develop social structures of their own. Not surprisingly they too adopted fashion as a
marker of wealth and status, and the fashions of the cities came to be the fashions of the courts and aristocracy.
French women's headdresses of the 15th Century (Stibbert)
As a result this era had a lot of different fashionable garments and accessories in it, a number of which were quite extreme in
style. Poulaines were long pointed shoes, worn mainly by men in Northern Europe, these shoes had padded toe points that
could extend as far as a full foot length in front of the foot itself, and often present a rather phallic appearance.
15th Century poulaines (Kohler)
Other fashion extremes included the Hennin, a woman's conical headdress popular in Northern Europe of the 15th Century,
The Chaperon, a turban like headdress worn in Italy and the North, The Houppelande, a graceful unisex gown which used an
amazing quantity of fabric both on the body and trailing on the ground, and parti colored dress, a fashion of piecing many
different fabrics together into a single garment, and then there is the Codpiece a padded section of a man's hose intended to
contain the sex organs.
Both in the North and in Italy, dress got progressively longer, and more vertical in line as the 15th Century went on. By 1500
upper class dress is heightened by headdress, lengthened with trains and hanging sleeves, and appears to be drawing an
obvious parallel with the verticality of the late Gothic religious architecture of the time.
Dr. Maginnis’ website is designed as an online course with excellent information, resources, links and pictures of early
costuming. Please visit it for more information at www.costumes.org.
FASHION 1700-1790 UP TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION
Cloth
For the nobility and newly formed middle classes, clothing was made of cotton and silk throughout Europe and Asia. Brocaded
and stripped silk were popular. At this time, England prohibited the importation of silk, ribbons and laces as these imports
competed with locally produced goods. Consequently, only the very rich in England could afford the smuggled goods whose
silk scraps found their way to English dolls’ costumes. There was no such restriction on the importation of silk to Europe so
continental dolls were often clothed in silks. Undergarments were more likely padded and quilted homespun cotton or linen
then wool as wool was considered “common”.
Manufacture:
The looms upon which the cloth was made were narrow, most cloth was only 18-20 inches wide. Therefore, many small pieces
of fabric were stitched together to form the fitted garments popular in the 18th and 19th centuries. The best garments were
lined with linen or cotton while cheaper doll dresses were lined with paper. Edges were finished with a pinking iron. Little
sewing was used; instead two-piece pins fastened the garments.
The invention of the Jacquard loom produced intricately woven patterns in contrast to the 17th century prints of usually one
color on cotton or linen. Large and bold floral and geometric patterns were common in the first half of the 18th century. These
patterns gradually were refined and made smaller first with a diagonal design and then a lacier design. By the 1730s, three
dimensional toile type designs were popular. The 1740s produced designs of flowers in symmetrical patterns, then meander
patterns in the 1750s, until the 1760s when the patterns became small and offset with stripes. Improved spinning and weaving
techniques in the 1760s produced an industry devoted to making printed cotton and linen cloth at a reasonable cost such that
all classes could afford the goods. Silk gradually was replaced at the end of the century with lightweight cottons and linens.
As skilled laborers immigrated to the United States, they brought with them skills learned in Europe. In 1793, the first cotton mill
was formed in Rhode Island beginning the manufacturing side of the textile industry in America. Cotton was grown cheaply in
the South beginning the supply side of the textile industry. Unfortunately, cotton has many tiny seeds that must be removed
from the bolls before it can be spun. With the invention in 1794 of the cotton gin, cotton could be grown in the South;
processed much cheaper than by hand, sent to the North to be milled into cloth making cotton cloth in America much more
affordable. Ultimately, the United States became an important supplier of cotton to England and Europe, providing Europe a
critical role in the Civil War.
Dye:
Dyeing cloth provided a distinction between common and royal or noble or wealthy. Dyeing skills and secrets as well as
printing methods moved from China, through the Middle East including Persia, Rome and Greece to Europe and England.
Independently, the Americas had also developed textiles, dye and printing methods different from those which had traveled from
China. As the skills traveled from the East and West, the Europeans developed the political structure to “protect” their
industries, requiring their colonies to support their industries until the colonies rebelled and developed their own industries.
Following is a time line of the development and movement of dye and printing from both East and West to Europe.
As early as 2600BC are written records of the use of dyestuffs used in China. Wool dyeing was established as a craft in Rome
by 760 BC. Alexander, in 331BC, finds 190 year old purple robes when he conquers Susa, the Persian capital. By 55 BC,
Romans found painted people "picti" in Gaul dyeing themselves with Woad (same chemical content of color as indigo). Roman
graves were found with madder and indigo dyed textiles, in the 2nd century. In the Late 4th Century, Emperor Theodosium of
Byzantium issued a decree forbidding the use of certain shades of purple except by the Imperial family on pain of death,
solidifying purple as a royal color.
Dyes had existed in China for years. Expanding the art and industry, a Chinese manuscript mentions dyeing with wax resist
technique (batik) in the 7th century. Chinese did not develop protectionist policies as they were an in demand high quality
resource. Europe, however, looked to develop its own textile industry. By 925, the Wool Dyers' Guilds were first initiated in
Germany followed in 1188 with the first mention of Guilds for Dyers in London. The only blue dye of the period, Woad, began
to be raised extensively in Germany in 1290. The 3 major dyes were now: woad, madder and weld, providing the colors blue,
red and yellow. Pope Paul II, in 1464, introduced the so-called "Cardinals' Purple" which was really scarlet from the Kermes
insect. This became the first luxury dye of the Middle Ages just as Imperial Purple (Murex from mullosks) had been for the
ancient world. Add to this the invention by Cennino Cennini of Padua, Italy in the 1500s of the printing of cloth (block printing)
in his treatise called Method of Painting Cloths by Means of Moulds and the textile industry of Europe flourished.
At the same time halfway across the world, Aztecs under Montezuma conquered the Mayans. 11 Mayan cities paid a yearly
tribute of 2000 decorated cotton blankets and 40 bags of Cochineal (insect dye) each. Pizarro and Cortez in 1519 find that
there was cotton in Central and South America. They sent back brightly printed fabrics showing that the Indians knew about
block printing prior to the Conquest. Cochineal from Mexico and Peru was now being shipped back to Spain. Gold was not the
only treasure sought in the Americas.
Drebbel, a Dutch chemist, in 1630, produced a new brilliant red dye from cochineal and tin. In 1688, James II, of England,
prohibited exportation of un-dyed cloth from England to help bolster the home industry for English dyers over that of the
Scottish dyers thus protecting the industry at home. Meanwhile Germany was developing its own industry in
1689 when the first calico printworks was begun in Germany at Augsburg. William III signed a law in 1708 prohibiting the
importation of printed silks, this only made calicos and silks more popular. Eight years later, there were more than 30 laws in
England prohibiting the importation of calico and cotton; prints became more popular than ever. According to these laws,
textiles could not be imported and at the same time, England’s colonists had to procure their textiles from English industry.
Consequently, smuggling of the Chinese goods was a flourishing business and discontent of the colonists was growing.
Protectionism ultimately did not work.
A method of bleaching linen with kelp (seaweed) was introduced in Scotland in1727 producing a brighter white as a “color”.
Arkwright's spinning frame in England (aka the Spinning Jenny) was used in 1769. Chlorine was discovered in 1774 Swedish
chemist, Scheele, when he noted that hydrochloric acid destroyed vegetable colors. In the same year, Prussian Blue and
Sulphuric acid were available commercially. Bancroft introduced in 1775, the use of quercitron bark as a natural dye. It yields a
yellow, brighter than fustic, and is from the inner bark of North American oak. North America was now a supplier of dye and
fiber but had to be a consumer of the English product made from American resources. Also, now there were several shades of
blue and purples, several reds and yellows. Green was made by overdying blue with yellow. In England in 1785, Bell, who had
invented printing from plates, developed roller printing. Three years later, picric acid became available (yellow dye and
disinfectant) produced another form of yellow.
European countries prevented the emigration of skilled textile workers to the colonies. Samuel Slater escaped from England to
America in 1790, with a memory of English textile machinery. He developed the American textile industry in Rhode Island. Elis
Whitney developed the cotton gin in America in 1793. An American, Francis Cabot Lowell, visited England and returned with
ideas and plans for a power loom. America was no longer dependent upon England for textiles. See Trestain, Dating Fabrics
for an extensive discussion of dyes and designs in the American textile industry. She documents samples of fabric design and
color.
Embellishments of the clothing of the time included:
GALLOON is a decorative woven trim sometimes in the form of a braid and commonly made of metallic gold or silver thread,
lace, or embroidery. Galloon is used in the trim of military and police uniforms, and as trim on textiles, drapery and upholstered
furniture.
GIMP is a narrow coarse of silk, cotton or wool with a cord or wire interlaced.
FURBELOWS: a ruffle, frill, or furbelow is a strip of fabric, lace or ribbon tightly gathered or pleated on one edge and applied to
a garment, bedding, curtain or other textile as a form of trimming.
LACE:
According to Dr. Maginnis:
- Lace enjoyed popularity in the Rococo period unprecedented in history. Where the wearing of lace during the 17th
Century was restricted by law to the nobility, and during the 19th Century, by custom, to women, its use knew no
such bounds during most of the 18th Century. Anyone who could possibly afford to (do so), wore lace as a status
symbol. The more money, the more lace. "Alencon" lace was considered the most elegant and aristocratic, due to its
rarity and high cost. Brussels, Mechlin and Binche laces were very popular until the 1750’s when they were eclipsed
by Valenciennes lace and Blonde lace. Locally produced bobbin and needle laces were patronized by the middle and
upper classes for non-court wear, and so the locality of a patron might predetermine the lace he used for informal
occasions.
Lace patterns of the early 18th Century tend toward the heavy simple patterns of the previous century. Laces become
lighter and visibly more complex in pattern as time wore on. During the 1720’s, patterns were separated by a
translucent ground of increasing size. In the 1730’s and 40’s, the ground was itself patterned with different dot
patterns known as "modes."
Laces continued to become lighter with more ground and less pattern. After the mid 1760’s, lace patterns declined
and quantity of simple lace became more desired than quality. Lace continued to get lighter, cheaper, and less
fashionable for the rest of the century, going out of style for men by the 1790’s and high fashion women by 1800.
Late 18th Century lace was regaled to the underground of women’s lingerie where it stayed, and transformed from a
status symbol into an erotic accessory for women
form patterns. As so defined, lace is distinguished from open-textured woven fabrics such as gauze; from knotted openwork
such as net and macrame; from tatting, a lacey knotted fabric made with a small shuttle; and from crocheted and knitted
openwork, in which the fabric is formed by looping a single thread into a textile by means of a hook (crochet) or long needles
(knitting). All these techniques, however, are capable of producing delicate, lacelike fabrics that are often grouped with true
laces in a more general use of the word. Even more closely associated with laces are certain kinds of embroidery, such as filet,
buratto, and tambour work, which are forms of embroidery on a net ground; and, especially, drawnwork and cutwork. In
drawnwork, threads are removed from the cloth, and in cutwork, sections are cut from the fabric; in both cases, the remaining
threads are embroidered and the empty spaces filled in with lace-making stitches. (definition from the History Channel article
referenced below).
There are two types of true lace: needlepoint and bobbin lace. Needlepoint lace is created by marking a pattern, fastening the
pattern to a ground or light cloth and then stitching the border through the paper and cloth. Subsequent stitches forming the
patterns are stitched between the previous stitches without piercing the pattern or ground. Bobbin or pillow lace is made by
marking a pattern and pinning it to a pillow. Pins mark the pattern in three dimensions. The thread from the bobbins is wound,
twisted and interwoven among the pins to form the lace. (Today lace may include some forms that are tatted, crocheted or
embroidered).
Lace was generally made of linen prior to 1800, cotton until 1900 and rayon after that. Machines for lace making were in use
since 1813. Lace was a sign of wealth prior to 1800, lost favor (especially on men's clothes) in the early 1800s, then became
more popular in the mid 1800s for women's garments.
In the 17th Century, lace making was a noblewoman's pursuit. By the 18th Century lace making became an industry of its own
with major centers in Italy, France and Belgium. Examples of lace from this time:
16-17 C Insertion Lace Guipere Needle Lace
Mechlin Lappets
Late 18th C bobbin lace Late 18 C non-continuous lace
NET,
SEQUINS,
SILK EMBROIDERY work is a decorative form of surface embroidery using silk and a variety of different embroidery stitches to
follow a design outline applied to the fabric. This technique is found in early Chinese textiles.
CREWEL WORK is a decorative form of surface embroidery using wool and a variety of different embroidery stitches to follow a
design outline applied to the fabric. The technique is at least a thousand years old.
METALLIC THREAD was commonly used and its corrosive properties have resulted in much damage to fabric and lace.
TWO PART PINS were frequently used to close human and doll garments.
Cost
Asia made cloth of wool, cotton, linen and silk for centuries. Europe made cloth from cotton, linen and wool. After the
Crusades in 1200 AD, when overland trade routes were in relatively common use, cloth was both locally made and imported
from Asia to Europe. By 1700s, as Europe extended its rule around the globe, many colonies were limited to trade with their
mother countries. Because of the protections European governments afforded to the local guilds of the time, parts of the British
Empire such as the United States were prevented from developing a local industry to make cloth and ultimately clothing. This
protectionist policy kept the cost of cloth in the colonies high. Silk had to be imported from China to both the Americas and
Europe making it the ultimate luxury fabric. As such it was very expensive and clothing made of it was for special occasions or
signified wealth. These protectionist policies were partly responsible for the Revolutionary War and the drive for not only
independence from British rule but independence from British industry.
Style
Europe
The style at this time is referred to as Rococo. It is characterized by a lightness and fluidity not found in the preceding heavy,
awe inspiring and religiously complex Baroque period. Common themes were flowers, birds, bows, anything that curves
upward or suggests lightness. The advent of the Enlightenment had suddenly changed the rules of Western society from one
where brute force constituted power to one where intelligence and reason were the admired and powerful traits. Since women
could compete in this new way, for the better portion of the 18th Century women discretely ruled society and made advances in
it, becoming authors, artists, doctors and business women. It is little wonder that the arts and philosophy of the time glorified
women, and that the style most associated with the 18th Century, the Rococo, is replete with what psychologists call "feminine
forms."
Infants, and dolls representing them, wore long dresses. When children were old enough to walk, and the dolls representing
them, the clothes were floor length, the same length as adult clothing. Both girls and boys wore dresses. Boys donned the
attire of adult males at approximately 4-5 years. At this time too shoes and socks were made for both children and their
representative dolls. Heels were not found on shoes for small children but were found on shoes for older children and adults.
Stays were worn by children and dolls and dresses often had leading strings (fabric or trim strips attached to the back of the
shoulders).
Child with leading strings on her dress
detail of picture by Pieter de Hooch
Common styles were round dresses early in the century (dress not open in the front to show the petticoat), open front robes in
the middle of the century, and sacque back dresses later.
A sacque back dress is a dress with pleated panels from the neck to the floor. There were two variations. A la francaise used
box pleats from neck to floor while a la anglaise pleats were stitched down from the neck to the waist and then fell to the floor.
Very late in the century polonaises appeared. Polonaise is a robe pulled up on the sides from the hem to mid leg to show the
“coat” or petticoat underneath.
Polonaise gown from the 1770s
Bodices were lined with low or square necklines with a kerchief or modesty panel tucked into the stomacher or bodice.
Stomachers were ornamental stiffened panels worn as the front of a bodice.
Open gown over stomacher and petticoat, 1592. Queen Elizabeth.
Necklines also defined the length of a stomacher. There was a brief period during the court of Louis XIV, when the neckline and
stomacher actually were below the breasts, which were covered by a transparent ruffle of fabric called a fichu. The nipples
could then be rouged or even pierced and decorated with pearls or other gemstones. This fashion did not take off, and, for the
most part, the necklines ranged from demure to daring, but still covered the breasts.
Often the top of the shift (later called a chemise) showed at the top of the stomacher as a modesty panel. These were
generally of lace or muslin. Tight elbow length sleeves were adorned with one to three layers of lace falling to the wrist.
Sometimes the lace was not attached to the sleeve but the shift underneath. The stays might show between the front panels of
the robe or there may be a separate stomacher. The stomacher came to the waist or slightly below.
With the exception of the sacque back dress, the dress was generally sewn at the waistline though infrequently, the bodice was
a separate jacket.
Early in this century, the mantua, originally a loose gown, then later an overgown or robe typically worn over an underdress or
stomacher and petticoat was popular. The mantua featured elbow-length, cuffed sleeves. In the earliest mantuas, the long
trained skirt was looped up behind to reveal the petticoat beneath.
As the century progressed, the mantua was embellished and stiffened with panniers. Round gowns were gathered more to the
sides and back with less fullness in front.
Trains were generally reserved for court dress or dolls depicting those at court. Petticoats were silk with often elaborate
decoration and quilting. They showed in the front of the robe.
Often there were slits in the sides to access the separate pockets worn tied around the waist. Pockets may be simple white
Marcella (cotton quilted fabric or coarse pique) or embroidered.
Under the petticoat and robe were worn a hoop petticoat (panniers in France during this century), undercoat, stays and a shift
(later called a chemise). The wide hoop made the silhouette of the lady three times the width of a man. This was a physical
incarnation coinciding with the shift in social thought from power as braun to power as brain, including women in the power
circles. Often a thick coat (under petticoat) was made of Marcella while a second thinner one was made of linen or muslin.
Stays were either separate pieces of clothing or attached to the bodice of the dress. They were laced up the back through silk
embroidered eyelet holes. They often had shoulder straps and flaps to extend below the hips.
The shift or chemise was worn between the skin and the silk dress to decrease soiling of the expensive silk.
Women did not wear underpants/trousers or drawers. It was not common for drawers to be worn until the hoop skirt made
accidents (wind wiping dresses or falls) markedly embarrassing.
Aprons of linen or cotton were common and extended the length of the dress.
Ribbon or bead chokers were common jewelry of the time.
Shoes may be silk (brocade or embroidered), velvet or leather of any color. They may or may not have a heel as heels were
added to shoes as children grew up. Socks were usually white but may be red or pink.
Hats of some kind were worn indoors and out. Caps, bonnets, hats and hair ornaments were common.
Tara Maginnis on her website (http://costumes.org) notes:
- The art of moving gracefully in the 18th Century was an integral part of daily living for the upper classes and the
rising middle classes. In this highly class conscious era, movement was the ultimate status symbol, since it was the
one art that could not be purchased, but had to be painstakingly learned over time. The art of movement was learned
from three main sources; dancing masters, etiquette books, and costumes, the latter re-enforcing the teaching and
dictums of the previous two. Of all the motions, dancing was the most difficult and most admired. Learning to dance
gracefully helped to teach one to move gracefully, and was, therefore, taught to upper class children almost as soon
as they could walk. To re-enforce the correct movement patterns children were also dressed like miniature adults at
an early age, and corseted to insure correct posture.
The most popular dance of the entire 18th Century was the minuet, a stately, disciplined dance that required superb
body control concealed beneath apparent effortlessness. Its movement patterns highlighted the clothing to its best
advantage, and the clothing in turn dictated the movement patterns.
For example, men’s heads were to be held up "free and easy" without sudden movements, a stance that was re-
enforced by the wig, which was held on to the head by faith alone. Women, who wore their own hair were allowed to
tilt their heads to one side as long as they avoided all "affected motions of the head" which might disturb their coiffure.
Shoulders and arms had to look relaxed, the upper arms curving gently away from the torso not dropping down
straight at the sides, a pattern re-enforced by the very high cut armholes which made it uncomfortable to do anything
but hold the arms slightly away from the torso. Elbows were always slightly bent, and the cut of 18th Century sleeves
is curved at the elbow to allow for this.
Men's legs showed very clearly in tight breeches and stockings and so they adopted a permanent balletic stance of
4th position "turn out" to show the curve of the legs to the best advantage.
If a gentleman led his body with his calves a lady led with her bosom. Her corset did most of the display work for her,
compressing her shoulders and waist, straightening her posture and pushing her bosom up and forward. The instant
a lady started to slump, a gentle prod from her corset bones reminded her to straighten up.
However, a woman’s skirt was the most challenging item to manage in motion both for herself and for those around
her.
Panniers were a visible status symbol, extending out the skirt up to four feet on each side. To manage panniers, a
woman had to think before she moved. Too narrow doorways would have to be entered sideways, chairs could only
be sat on if they were without armrests, carriages had to be entered carefully, often with a footman pushing from
behind.
Panniers posed challenges to those surrounding the lady as well. For walking, a gentleman had to stand slightly in
front of the lady’s skirt in order to take her arm. While moving on the dance floor, he was obliged to dance at arm’s
length.
Since the panniers added so many challenges of their own to the skirt, trains were not very popular and the skirt
usually cleared the floor by a few inches. This called attention to the lady’s feet as the only part of her lower anatomy
shown in public. Beautiful but uncomfortable, shoes were then shown in the graceful small footwork highlighted in
dances such as the galliard, minuet, and gavotte.
What is obvious is that clothing in the 18th Century was constructed not for comfort in movement, but for beautiful
movement, meant to give pleasure to the viewers, and to transform the self into a living work of art. Or as it is put in
The Art of Dancing in 1724: "Let us imagine ourselves as so many living pictures drawn by the most excellent
masters, exquisitely designed to afford the utmost pleasure to the beholders.
America
The fabrics used in America between 1640--1780 were simple and plain; colonists were largely unskilled in fabric making, so
textiles were primarily imported. By 1656, Americans were recognizing that their lack of knowledge was making them all-too
reliant on England; they began to desperately try to import textile makers from Europe. At this same time England was offering
protection to “foreigners” living in England and those who would come to England with knowledge of the textile trades.
In 1766 (in Providence, Rhode Island), the "Daughters of Liberty" was formed by a group of upper-middle class young women.
They spent their days spinning to free America from its reliance on Europe for textiles--which actually did help the colonists
when the Revolutionary war was launched. Many colonists found it economically necessary to create their own basic fabrics
and clothing, anyway; but the finer cloths--the brocades and damasks, for example--were purchased from Europe.
Colonists with lingering European taste insisted upon British wools, in particular. American sheep were coarse wool types, and
couldn't produce the finer, soft wools of English sheep. Yet, in the 1630s, the colonial legislative body passed several laws
forbidding the purchase or wearing of such fine fabrics--because, they said, colonists were becoming far too worldly.
Although widely available in colonial America, cotton was not expertly created by the colonists; it was very coarse when made in
the colonies. American silks were generally of poor quality, also. Most cotton was imported from England (and originated in
India), and heavy silks from England and France were bought in small quantities. Linen was another popular fabric; it was
typically woven in a simple fashion and was found in both coarse and fine qualities. It was common to bleach this fabric, rather
than dye or print it.
Calico (now a small flower print in cotton or cotton/polyester) was actually a plain weave cotton that looked much like the linens
of the time. It was often white, and sometimes colored. muslin was a variety of calico, and chintz was traditionally considered a
type of calico by the British, although colonists in the 18th century usually referred to it as a type of fabric made in India by a
new technique called "resist-dying."
wool flannel was common for men's clothing and underwear, and women's petticoats; colonists preferred to make it at home.
Osnaburg (a staple cotton today) was usually an unfinished linen in early America, but could also refer to wool or cotton; this
was popular for men's clothing. Broadcloth (now a cotton or cotton blend) was a common wool; cashmere was also a soft
woolen. Some wool fabrics were even finished to imitate fine silk taffetas and moires for women's gowns and men's jackets.
Many lawns were imported, and could be broad, fine, extra-fine, or printed. Serge was a worsted twill cotton and when (in 1780)
it was made in black and blue, it was called denim. Dimity (now a sheer cotton) was a heavy, sometimes twilled cloth in colonial
times.
Most colors could be achieved by the professional, and colonial women usually grew their own plants for creating dyes, and
brought them to their dye-maker. The basics (black, brown, green, red, etc.) were all available, and indigo blue was a much
sought-after shade.
By 1840, many of America's textiles were coming, once again, from England. No commercial dyes were made in the U.S.A., with
the exception of indigo, which was made in South Carolina.
There were several religious groups that were noted for their fabrics during this epoch; among these were the Shakers, who
grew their own flax, and raised sheep and some silk worms. These textiles were often dubbed, appropriately, "Shaker Goods."
Mormons were also regarded as fine fabric makers, especially when it came to silks. Mormon women raised silk worms in their
backyards, and while other American women could typically only managed to raise enough silk for a pair of stockings or gloves,
the Mormons were well known for weaving fine dresses from their silk.
Since 1800, sheer muslin (a very fine, transparent cotton) from India was popular, as was velvet (made from silk), taffeta (also a
type of silk), moire (typically silk, also), poplin (made from silk and wool combined), crepe (a type of coarse silk), and percale
(either a glazed linen or fine cotton.) Plain cotton was the rule for working clothes, and gingham (cotton with threads in two
different colors, woven to make checks) was also sometimes used. Damask (usually a figured fabric of silk or linen), nanking (a
yellow-tinted cotton), broadcloth, and flannel were all staples. The lower classes relied heavily on the soft cotton burlap-type
fabric of flour sacks for nightgowns, underwear, and sometimes trousers; these sacks were either bleached, unbleached, left
plain, dyed, or printed.
China
1790-1815 WAR YEARS AND THE FRENCH EMPIRE
The French Revolution affected the French doll trade with a significant drop in production. Napoleon even stopped the practice
of exchanging dolls among the courts. German and English dolls and fashion filled the void created when the French worked to
resolve their internal social upheaval.
By the 1780s the natural theories of Rousseau became prominent in Western thinking. Accordingly, dress gradually became
less stiff and emphasized the curves and lines of the body. Panniers gave way to dome shaped dresses and then to Empire
Style dresses. Hairstyles became less pompous and more natural as well. Simple lines of Greece and Rome became popular
in both hairstyles and clothing. This was reflected in the dolls of the time.
Muller Papier Mache Continental Wooden 1810
Original “Dome” dress Courtesy Theriaults
Tara Maginnis notes:
As the French Revolution progressed, different women's styles were adopted that appeared to have reference to the
revolutionary politics, social structure and philosophy of the time. In the early 1790's, for example, the "English" or man-tailored
style was favored as it hinted towards the leanings of constitutional monarchy. There was a brief fashion for plain dresses in
dark colors during the Terror of 1792, but when the Directory took over French fashion again went wild, trying out
“Rousseauesque” fashions in "Greek", "Roman", "Sauvage" and "Otaheti" (Tahitian) styles.
These styles became the prevailing style during the reign of Emperor Napoleon from the late 1790s-1815.
Beau Brummell, the leader of male sartorial fashion in England in this period was noted for wearing only black with a white shirt
for formal evening wear, a marked departure from the style of the previous century. Tubular and fitted trousers also move from
a radical fashion statement to everyday wear for most men of the upper classes.
Cloth
Thin cottons and silks, net and gauze predominated. Fewer dolls were made during this time due to the French Revolution and
the clothes made were of thin cottons and silks. It is little wonder that, from this period, few dolls, much less dolls in original
clothes, are found. Fabric was plain, print or plaid. Trim and pantaloons were usually white.
Manufacture, dye, embellishments
Manufacture:
In 1794 Three Frenchmen set up first calico printing.
By 1798 Oberkampf (in Jouy, France) pleased Napoleon by showing him a roller printer made from a cannon Napoleon had
seized from the Pope. This began the famous Toiles de Jouy production still popular in traditional décor today.
1802 Sir Robert Peel brought out a resist method, actually a batik technique done on large scale necessary to decrease the
cost of commercial printing.
1825 Mathias Baldwin began the first American production of engraved metal rollers for calico printing which were used in the
Philadelphia area and could produce 300 yards of fabric per day.
Ribbon
Beautiful ribbons, once only affordable by the nobility of the French society in the 17th century, experienced renewed interest
and adoration. Not only are they beautiful to behold, wonderful to use as embellishments, and sensuous to the touch, ribbons
were also used to express emotions and feelings of pride, reward accomplishments and excellence, and provide opportunities
for hours of creative expression.
Although the first ribbon factory in the United States was founded in 1815, ribbons were being made in Europe for some time.
Colonial Americans had rejected the use of ribbons due to anti-English political feelings. In France and then England, the use of
ribbons represented nobility, in fact at one point, English Parliament reserved the wearing of ribbons by only nobility. At first
ribbons were made in the homes of peasant farmers on looms that they rented from the manufacturers.
The invention of an advanced loom capable of weaving numerous ribbons at one time, heralded a breakthrough in the
production of ribbons. The popularity was such that the number of looms in Basle, Switzerland, a leading ribbon producing
region, went from 1,225 in 1775 to 7,631 in 1870.
The introduction of the jaquard loom around 1815 and the floral and pictoral ribbons that it made, further expanded the use and
desire for lovely ribbons. At the height of their popularity as a fashion embellishment during the 17th and 18th centuries, ribbons
were favored by men as well as women. Shoes and hats were lavishly trimmed with ribbon rosettes and cockades. Garments
were excessively embroidered and embellished with ribbons of silk and gold. In fact, one male garment in the Victoria and Albert
museum is trimmed with 250 yards of ribbons.
Embroidery including tambour work: Tambour embroidery is a chain stitch created on a frame of two hoops similar to that used
today.
Tambour work after 1820
Flounces are deeply gathered or pleated ruffles.
Vandyking is a series of pointed denticulations on an edge or border i.e. like those made with pinking irons or later shears.
Some fringe and braid was used.
Cost
As technological advances in production and transportation were made, the overall cost of producing fabric and dress goods
dropped gradually. The gradual drop was largely due to the increasing middle class maintaining a healthy demand.
Style
Europe:
Since the French Revolution beginning in 1789 with the fall of the Bastille and continuing with the Napoleonic Wars interfered
with the production and transportation of goods through the region, German and English doll producers filled the void. German
producers, including Muller, Voigt and Kestner supplied heads to the French trade. English producers of luxury wax dolls
flourished. They also provided the lead for style of the time.
Fashion went through its own revolution during this time. Not only did fashion reflect the politics of the time (dark plain clothes
during the height of the war, increasing discrimination between men and women as philosophy shifted from the relative equality)
but also the increasing influence of Rousseaux’s naturalism and the increasing influence of Egyption, Roman and Greek styles.
Common styles were:
Bodice with kerchief tucked in neckline or crossed at waist 1790-1800 and
Empire Style after 1795
Diamond shaped back seams and sleeves set far back after 1800
Long sleeves covering part of the hands (see next picture)
The thin fabrics common at the time fostered the use of spencers. Pink long sleeved spencer
The Spencer, dating from the 1790's, was originally a woolen outer tail-coat with the tails cut-off. It was worn as a short waist-
length, double-breasted, man's jacket over a long-tailed coat as extra covering. In its most authentic and fashionable form it
would have been decorated with military medals in a manner after its name-sake George Spencer, 2nd Earl Spencer (1758-
1834). Spencer, it was thought, singed the tails of his tail-coat while standing beside a fire and then cut off the ends, unwittingly
starting a new fashion. Other stories say Spencer—frustrated by his tails catching on brambles—tore the tails off his coat when
hunting one
The dark over robe is a Pellise
It was soon adopted as a popular women's fashion on both sides of the Atlantic during the 1790-1820 Regency style. The
Spencer was worn as a cardigan is worn today, as a short form of jacket to just above waist level cut on identical lines to the
dress.
The use of the term spencer continued well into the 19th century to mean more generally any type of short jacket or coat.
Pelisses are almost indistinguishable from Redingotes. The latter term is more popular after 1815 and is frequently used for
French fashions. The pelisse was a type of light overcoat fashionable at this time. It was cut on similar lines to the dress, a
short waistline, long sleeves and a high neck.
The pelisse has a somewhat more mundane genesis than the spencer: with the fashion of the time favoring lightweight fabrics
with almost no underclothing, women were literally freezing to death. 1803 was a devastating year for the fashionable lady; a
goodly number of them perished from the "muslin disease," the popular name given a French influenza epidemic credited with
carrying off scores of scantily dressed ladies who'd braved the frigid weather in little more than wispy sheaths. To counteract
death by fashion, the pelisse and spencer soon became standard wear among Regency belles. The pelisse, however, was a
better choice of outerwear for cooler weather. An overdress or coat dress, the pelisse fit relatively close to the figure (though
not tight) and was styled along the same high-waisted lines as the dress of the day. Pelisses were often lined or edged with fur
and, in fashionable circles, more or less replaced the fur-lined cloaks of the earlier periods. Pelisses were also heavily and
variously trimmed with fur, swansdown, contrasting fabric, frog fastenings, etc. practically from their beginning. In May of 1810,
a London Miss writes to her country sister: "Pelisses, as is usual at this season are in much request. They are chiefly
composed of twill sarsnets (fine silk), either shot or figured; some reaching to the feet, clasped at regular distances from the
throat to the bottom; others are of a demi-length, rounded at the ends and confined with festooned ropes of floss silk with
tassels in the center." (Ackermann's)
Choice of fabric for pelisses and spencers was dictated largely by the season. In the Spring months, the pelisse might be
fashioned of silk, satin or light velvets; in the summer, lighter fabrics, such as sarsnet, light silks, or even muslin might be
employed. Winter, of course, brought out the fur lined velvets and wools.
The Lady on the right is wearing a spencer and the one on the left wears a Pelisse
Lady's Monthly Museum (1802)
Waistlines gradually moved from the natural waist to the Empire style often associated with Napoleonic period.
Full skirts were gradually replaced with long tubular skirts. V necklines appeared. Long tight sleeves often covered the hand.
1740 Open Robe & Petticoat 1750 Dress & Panniers 1805 Dome Dress 1810 Empire Style
This combined with the long leather gloves (depicted as the leather arm on a doll) suggested wealth as it would be impossible
to work in either garment. Skirts tended to be full to the back and side with less fullness to the front. Bodices tended to have a
diamond shape seaming (Insert pic of back of Muller dress) causing the wearer to throw the chest up and forward. Dresses
and undergarments often were gathered from strings in casings at the neck and or waist. Pantalets or leglets were common.
These derived from the Egyptian garb tied at the waist and ankles. Pantalets being the diminutive term for the pantaloons worn
by women. Spanish influence appeared after 1808.
Girls and boys: Low round necklines with wide round collars that are pleated called goffered. Collars extend to the high
waistlines.
Sleeves are long and tight with ribbon around the high waist. For girls, two wide pleated ruffles or ruches at the bottom of the
skirt which extends just below the knee are often seen.
Close fitting hat or poke bonnet with white feather trim. Bands of white ruching frame the entire face and appear to belong to
the cap worn under the bonnet.
Ladies adopted dress of children but with longer skirts. Sleeves were puffed often for formal occasions and sometimes worn
over long sleeves. When embroidery was used to decorate the bottom of the skirt was often scalloped.
or vandyked. Tambour embroidery was common (a chain stitch embroidery). Because of the thin fabric, ladies wore pelisse,
spencers, or tippets (short capes and scarves). Underclothes are more common and include the petticoat, chemise and
sometimes a corset. Shoes had pointed toes until 1807, then rounded toes. Pockets gave way to reticules
Reticules replace separate pockets: The reticule bag was a new accessory in the late 1790s because women had carried their
pockets about their waist when their gowns had been large enough to hide them.
Reticule Handbags and Purses.
Reticules were pretty small decorative purse like bags, similar to an evening bag of today and which held a lady's belongings.
Some had steel hoops which gave a concertina like framed effect. Others might be circular with ribbon drawstrings and feather
trimmed. Still others might be steel mesh trimmed with pailettes and steel fringe beading.
By the 1820s the reticules had become proper handbags either soft drawn up leather or rigid and buckled hard leathers or
decorative materials. Folding small fans, and shot silk or taffeta parasols with ivory handles were used as decorative, rather
than functional accessories. Huge fur, feather or shirred silk muffs began the era only to disappear totally by 1811, ending the
fashion with smaller rounder muffs.
Shoes for both children and adults were flat heeled. Dresses were shorter for girls than for ladies with ankle length pantaloons
showing below the skirt.
Infant dolls and therefore their clothes are seldom found.
Little girls and little boys both wore dresses at this time. Little girls wore shorter dresses with their pantaloons showing while
ladies were longer dresses.
While these are the types of garments worn at the time, no reference to a doll trousseaux of this time was found.
At the beginning of the century, men’s fashions were very formal with gilt and lace or plain simple Quaker style. By the end of
the century, the more formal style phased out to be almost exclusively dark Quaker style. During the century the cut of a man’s
coat changed from the full wide style of the 1700s to the lighter cut away from the front.
Increase in fashion magazines occurred at the end of the 1700s. Earliest known catalogs of dolls appear between 1793 and
1812. “The lady dolls seem to be of stylized shape with large bosom and a thin waist at about the natural level, and wear
round, dome-shaped, floor length skirts.” Neckerchiefs are still popular as are hats. The dolls in this article are all original and
clearly demonstrate the fashion of the time.
Resources
Coleman, Dorothy, Elizabeth, and Evelyn. Collector's Book of Dolls' Clothes Costumes in Miniature: 1700-1929. New York:
Crown Publishers 1975.
Gosh, Pat. www.dollcostumersguild.com Site for information on making appropriate period costumes for dolls
LACE,. (2009). The History Channel website. Retrieved 07:51, Jan 21, 2009, from http://www.history.com/encyclopedia.do?
articleId=214192.
Maginnis, Tara, http://www.costumes.org. Site is well organized with excellent pictures and links.
Trestain, Eileen. Dating Fabrics A Color Guide 1800-1960. American Quilters Society, Paducah Ky. 1998.
www.vintageconnection.net resource for information on period costumes including fastenings
www.offray.com resource for history of ribbon
www.fashion-era.com
www.hal.ucr.edu Site for information on Regency dress
www.mini-magic.com Resource for silk ribbons and miniature trims
www.spnea.org New England History Museum
www.straw.com Reference for the history of dyes
www.vroma.org Reference regarding dress of the Roman Empire
www.history.com History Channel collection of articles
www.pastpatterns.com Overview of history of fashion and person sized patterns from many fashion periods
www.gallery.vintagehatshop.com Resource with pictures of headware throughout history
www.orignals-by-kay.com Overview of history of fashion and patterns from many periods
www.koshka-the-cat.com Overview of history of fashion and person sized patterns from many fashion periods
www.robinstokes.com 1860s prints from Godeys
www.history.rochester.edu/godeys 1850s prints from Godeys
www.usc.edu/e_resources Complete Godeys Ladies Book 1830-1880. Must be a member of USC to access electronically.
Other colleges also have access to this complete information. Contact your local University library for information.
www.powerhousemuseum.com lace classification system with description and examples of antique laces
www.marlamallett.com Exquisite examples of lace from her personal collection
Sacqu back dress a la
francaise from Southcoast
Historical Society
francaise from Southcoast
Historical Society
This close up shows the
original underslip of the
1805-1810 Muller Papier
Mache with the enbroidered
scalloped edge.
original underslip of the
1805-1810 Muller Papier
Mache with the enbroidered
scalloped edge.
courtesy Theriaults
courtesy Theriaults
