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Elisabeth Louise Vigée-LeBrun, Comtesse Marie Dubarry. 1789, oil on canvas. Musée St.-Didie.
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A Letter from Marie Antoinette to her mother, Maria Theresa dated June 13, 1776....
Showing posts with label Rose Bertin. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Rose Bertin. Show all posts
18th Century Fashion Rules: Colors and Cuts
120 Objects From the Life of Marie Antoinette and Louis XVI
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| Attributed to Jean-Babtiste Andre Gautier D'Agoty, Marie-Antoinette in front of the Temple of Love, oil on canvas. 41 x 33cm. Christie's. |
Well I am totally shocked to learn one of my favorite portraits of Marie Antoinette went up for grabs, and sadly I didn't have the $17,000 laying around to pick it up.
Christie's held the Collection Marie-Antoinette design auction in Paris. This sale features 120 objects ranging from architectural plans, paintings, fans, miniatures, books, documents, sculptures, and more. The items gathered for this sale are ah-mazing. I seriously suggest you take a flip through the catalog - it is fantastic!
Georgiana Duchess of Devonshire Writes to her sister...
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| Reynolds, Joshua. Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire & her Daughter.: 1786. Chatsworth. |
Don't tell Marie Antoinette!
A Queen's First Appearance or Marie Antoinette's hair
The Ideal Gift for any Lady of Quality
Marie Antoinette set many fashion standards, as we all know so well, with the help of Rose Bertin. The woman became a household name, her shop, Le Grand Mogol in Paris, infamous. The façade was done up in marble and inside featured portraits of the royal queens of Europe and beyond (if they were clients of Mdm Bertin!) If you weren't convinced her shop was the place to be, the new gowns on display would have done the trick!
This dressmaker, if you will, was well known to dabble in haberdashery, and her hats were truly a big seller. She designed hats for all occasions and had them displayed at her shop. If you were in the market for a hat, you could visit her store and be shown up to thirty unique hats at once!One reason the hats were so in demand was their affordable price. Although they were still pricey, in comparison with a Bertin gown, it was quite manageable. Fashionable women with smaller annual incomes would do just as well to have three Rose Bertin hats than one gown.
Her hats also became popular gifts for men to buy for ladies. There was no sizing or worries about color. At Mdm Bertin's shop, gentlemen could only be sold items that were at the height of fashion, so ladies could rest assured the gift would be perfect every time.
Hello Gorgeous! A Rose Bertin Gown in Canada
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| Marie Antoinette’s court dress, attributed to dressmaker Marie Jeanne “Rose” Bertin, France 1780s. Purchased by C.T. Currelly. Photo by Joe Lewis |
Everyone (literally - link, link, link, link, link!) has been raving about this gown, and I just cant blame them! Visit the Royal Ontario Museum website, and check out how fabulous this gown really is! It will be on display through Sunday and if you are in the area you must stop by!
For those of us who are not as fortunate as our Canadian friends, the website gives us a good look at the piece.
You may be wondering about the shape. Altered to fit a Victorian owner, the shape is off, and some material is lost to time. Trust me it does not take a hard look to re-alter the dress visually and understand how splendid it was. It is just stunning, and if you are use to looking at gowns in paintings and fashion plates, it becomes overwhelming imagining yourself in a sea of these glittering silk gowns, softly shining by candlelight glow.
Check out this video from the Royal Ontario Museum on the garment again more details found on the R.O.M. website.
Femme of the Week: Rose Bertin
Many have said that Rose Bertin, born Marie-Jeanne Bertin, was not a dress maker at all, merely a dress 'decorator'. Rose Bertin was the famous milliner to Marie Antoinette's court. I had to throw in this image of Cagliostro, because apparently *waves fan* Rose Bertin contacted a psychic to learn about her future when she was a young inexperienced girl. She found out that she would be very successful, and according to legend, things picked up quickly for her.She began working for Mlle. Pagelle at the Trait Galant. Another rumor had it that one of the costumers was the 
She set up shop soon after, Au Grand Mogol, on the Rue de St. Honoré. She had the shop painted yellow with purple accents, and kept pretty shop girls to help costumers. She also hung portraits of her most well to do and popular clients on the walls. Rose was a true business woman and knew how to make it work!
She made hoop skirts that would reach 18 feet in circumference, and decorated them with brocades, silks and rich velvets. She knew how to apply spangles in pleasing arrangements that would highlight ladies in just the right way. She, like Rami, could create elegant flounces of fabric and lace. She knew how to take an ordinary dress and leave it dripping with garlands and flower blooms. The designs were not always symmetrical and were all unique.
Two times a month Rose would put her strongest desgins on a doll / mannequin and send it to the courts of Europe. Two times a week she would bring orders and designs to Versailles to show Marie and her favorites. If you wanted to purchase an item from the Grand Mogol you might have been looking at:
Decorated Silk Hats : 60 livres
Plain Straw Hats (only a few feathers or blooms) : 20-40 livres
Court Dress: 1,900 - 2,800 livres ... no real equivalent maybe around $8,400
*Gossip. Sheer gossip!
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