Marie Antoinette's

Detail from Anonymous, Possibly connected to Antoine Caire-Morand. Two Costume Designs or Portrait Types. 1785-1790, Pen and black ink, graphite, gouache. The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Enjoy the colors, styles, feathers and art. Historical fashion designs for the 18th century woman!

Michel Garnier, Elegant Looking at a Miniature Portrait. 18th century, oil on canvas. Sotheby's Paris.

Some Wednesday eye-candy. I am absolutely in love with this painting- I mean look at her shoes! That hair! That hat!

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!

Two rooms of her shop held her designs, and customers could browse and choose what they liked.  She owned the upstairs of the shop, as well, where her employees worked.  She employed thrirty seamstresses who worked adding the flowers, ruffles, ribbons, lace and trim to all the custom orders that were received.

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.

The mob cap came en vogue in the 18th century.  The style was popular for decades due to its simplicity.  I love this first image, The Coquette at her Toilet. It is a scene of a modiste showing off her latest mob cap, in hopes of a sale at a young woman's toilet.

It was typically made of a white gauze or a light muslin fabric, and the edges would curve around the face.  Often gathered, with a puffy crown, the edges would be left as ruffles or frill.

 The tyre or tire was the string or band used to fasten the cap.  This term may have come from the Greek tiara or french tirant (purse/boot string).  The sides of the cap were left to fall down along the side of the face, and it could be tied under the chin.  Another option was to put a straw hat on top of the cap, which could be decorated with feathers, flowers etc.

The overall effect of the cap, especially if it were very ruffled, was a soft look about the face.  The sides were usually left down and covered much of  the face.  Believe it or not, these masking qualities left it quite desirable with women who were "conservative or plain."  This appeal of the cap kept it popular for many years.


In 1762, a mob cap which "crossed under the chin, fastened behind with ends hanging down," took off among the women in the Ranelagh Gardens.  So many women would flock to walk through the gardens in this style that it was promptly declared the Ranelagh Cap. Even the middle class, if they could not afford caps, would fashion the style from handkerchiefs. 

What did the men think? Some found the mob cap "more plain than becoming."  This view of the cap was wide-spread and as late as the 1820's American women were noted for shunning the fashion.

The mob cap could easily be decorated with colored ribbons and flowers.  Antoinette also sported the style, as seen in her portrait by Vigee Le Brun.  What do you think of the mob cap?