Fashion Plate, June 1799
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Description
This fashion plate for the June 1799 issue of The Lady’s Monthly Museum is labeled “full dress”. It shows two dresses in the Neoclassical style. The 1790s was a transitional period for fashion. The chemise a la reine, first worn in the 1780s by the French queen Marie Antoinette, quickly became a style worn by non-elite women. It was a white muslin gown resembling the chemise usually worn as an underlayer. The round gown, with its elevated waistline, dominated the 1790s. By the end of the decade, dresses had “empire” waistlines, fitted backs, and tubular silhouettes. The figure on the right is wearing a turban-like bonnet with a large feather. This time period took inspiration not only from the Greeks and Romans, but also from “exotic” places like Egypt and Ottoman Turkey.
The original description of these fashions is found on page 480 of the Lady’s Monthly Museum, labeled “Cabinet of Fashion, with Elegant Coloured Engravings.”
Full Dress.
First Figure. Turban robe; a round dress of fine muslin; body and sleeves striped, in small turban folds, crossed with gold or silk cord; the same round the neck, tying half way up to the throat. Head-dress, plain full bandeau of hair, crossed variously, with fancy combs set in gold or silver crescents.
Second Figure. Corset robe of cambric muslin, with gold trimming; sleeves and back laced with gold cord; a scarf of fine muslin, edged with gold, over the shoulders, buttoning back of each side to the shape, falls over the train, and forms altogether an elegant full dress. Head-dress, fancy cap with feathers. White shoes laced, with gold rosets.
References“Round Gown ca.1798.” metmuseum.org. Available at: https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/80580
A number of the Lady's Monthly Museum periodicals have been digitised by The New York Public Library and are available through The HathiTrust, a partnership of academic and research institutions offering access to millions of documents from collections around the world.
Source
Identifier
Contributor
Creator
The Lady’s Monthly Museum, or Polite Repository of Amusement and Instruction: Being an assemblage of whatever can tend to please the Fancy, interest the Mind, or exalt the Character of The British Fair.
By A Society of Ladies. Vol. II
New Series
London
Published by Verner & Hood,
31, Poultry,
1799
Publisher
The Lady’s Monthly Museum, or Polite Repository of Amusement and Instruction: Being an assemblage of whatever can tend to please the Fancy, interest the Mind, or exalt the Character of The British Fair.
By A Society of Ladies. Vol. II
New Series
London
Published by Verner & Hood,
31, Poultry,
1799