It will run through the beginning of the Capetian dynasty to nowadays and will focus on everything related to France and its history.
Feel free to submit!
Détail de robe à la française, Europe, vers 1725Soie
© 2010 Museum Associates/LACMA
Pourpoint de Charles de Blois / Charles de Blois’ doublet
It is one of the rare civilian costume that survived from the end of the Middle Ages, probably thanks to its “relics” status. According to the tradition the doublet was honored in the Église des Carmes in Angers where it remained until the Revolution, and belonged to Charles de Blois, who claimed the duchy of Brittany and died at the battle of Auray in 1364 - he was considered as a Saint. But there’s no evidence to prove it.
Visite, France, 1870-1880Cachemire, frange de passementerie
Coll. UFAC, don Joseph de Broglie, 1950
Inv. 50-6-5
Callot Soeurs, Evening gown, c. 1928. Silk charmeuse, pearl, metallic thread © Chicago History Museum
Callot Soeurs was a fashion design house opened in 1895 at 24, rue Taitbout in Paris, France. It was operated by the four Callot sisters: Marie Callot Gerber, Marthe Callot Bertrand, Regina Callot Tennyson-Chantrell and Joséphine Callot Crimont. The eldest sister, Marie, was trained in dressmaking and they were all taught by their mother, a lacemaker. The sisters began working with antique laces and ribbons to enhance blouses and lingerie. Their success led to an expansion into other clothing and in 1914 they moved to larger premises on the Avenue Matignon. Marie, the elder sister was in charge of design, having earlier worked for Raudnitz and Co., prominent Parisian dressmakers.
Women of Metz, France, 16th century.
Jean Jacques Boissard. Habitus Variarum Orbis Gentium (1581)
Cloak. 1580-1600, France. Red satin, couched and embroidered with silver, silver-gilt and coloured silk threads, trimmed with silver-gilt and silk thread fringe and tassel, and lined with pink linen. A cloak was the third item of dress in a man’s ensemble at the end of the 16th century. It was worn with a doublet and trunk hose. While most cloaks were used for protection, those made of expensive fabrics such as this silk were primarily symbols of wealth and social status.
Source: V&A Museum.
L’Enseigne de Gersaint, 1720, Watteau
L’Enseigne de Gersaint, or “Gersaint’s Shopsign”, (1720) is a painting by Jean-Antoine Watteau, which is considered to be his last masterpiece. It was painted as a shop sign for the marchand-mercier, or art dealer, Edme François Gersaint. According to Daniel Roche the sign functioned more as an advertisement for the artist than the dealer.
The painting exaggerates the size of Gersaint’s cramped boutique, hardly more than a permanent booth with a little back-shop, on the medieval Pont Notre-Dame, in the heart of Paris, both creating and following fashion as he purveyed works of art and luxurious trifles to an aristocratic clientele.
Ombrelle marquise, Point d’Alençon, Vers 1860, Galliera - musée de la Mode de la Ville de Paris
@credits
Alençon lace or point d’Alençon is a needle lace that originated in Alençon, France.
Boite à mouche en nacre, 18ème siècle
“Mouches” were artificial facial moles worn on the face for fashion around 1800 in Europe - they had a name and a meaning that corresponded to their place on the face. “The Passionnate” was nearby the eye, “the majestuous” in the middle of the forehead, “the kisser” next to the mouth.
