Robe à Francaise

I’ve been looking at the many different variations and designs of gowns during the later half of the 18th century. There are quite a few, and I enjoy the different names that are given to them. Its like even at their names, there is a sense of occasion or splendor that was Rococo.

During this century, women’s clothing consisted of a petticoat or skirt from today’s standards, a robe, and a stomacher. The garments were worn over a set of stays and panniers or pocket hoops.

The very first gown I made a few years ago was a robe à la Française. This formal gown was worn during most of the 18th century. This gown was also known once as a sacque or sack gown. By the 1770s this gown did make way for other gowns that came out of England in a wave of Anglomania.

During the turn of the 18th century, it was unfitted both at the front and back and was known as robe volante. As the century progressed, the front became more fitted, and was closed at the front with a stomacher. The stomacher sometimes disappeared during the last quarter of the century as less formal clothing as England gained more influence within French fashion.

Robe à l'Anglaise

What gave the dress its unique look were the four main pleats at the back of the dress. It was meant to fall down from the bodice, showing the beautiful pleating. The lining of this same section of the gown, helped create the fitted look that came around the sides into the front, which was fastened to a triangular stomacher.

At the moment I’m working on a dress called robe à l’anglaise. As the name, its influence came from England’s more simplified design, which caused dresses to be less decorated and more practical when it came to dressing.

Sometimes the stomacher was completely removed and the sides of the robe came around, closing the bodice. They were fastened with buttons, hooks and eyes, or ribbons, which cut the time down from attaching the traditional stomacher.

What I enjoy about this dress is it has a feel of simplicity and modernism,

Robe à l'Anglaise (back, en fourreau)

when you compare it with the Robe à Francaise. From what I have seen, these dresses have two main ways of finishing off the back of the bodice. One way is to have a more simple back, by having the skirt sewn into the bodice as two separate main pieces. Another way, which happens to be my favoured design, is two have part of the back bodice flow down the center back. I love this design as the small pleats flow tightly to the bodice and come away, continuing to flow of the length of the robe. This is commonly known as, en fourreau, which came about during the 1770s.