Tag: rococo

Isabelle de Borchagrave and Paper Dress

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Do you remember how you dressed your paper doll with paper dress when you was a child?

When I was a child I loved it. I drew princess dress, evening garments and many other clothes. And then I dress my paper doll. In some way, it looked like this :-)…:

There is someone who remake this children’s entertainment put it on higher level…

Isabelle de Borchgrave was born in 1946 in Etterbeek. She is a prominent Belgian artist and sculptor, She does colorful paintings and intricately painted paper sculptures. She graduated the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Brussels.

After graduating, Isabelle set up her own studio focusing on fashion and interior design. In 1994 began to design paper costumes. The first collection named ‘Papiers à la Mode’ (Fashion Art from Paper), was a collaboration between the artist and Canadian costume designer Rita Brown, covered fashion from Elizabeth I to Coco Chanel.

The collection traveled across the world from 1998 to 2008. And now in 2021, you can admire the Isabelle`s work with me.

It is absolutely unbelievable we are looking at dress made of paper. To make origami is very difficult for me even it is done in small size. Making historical garments … is a little bit larger project …To do such amazing art you need to be very good friend of paper and to know it `s features and quality. A dress, jewellery, headdress, shoes … everything you see is made of paper.

When I look at the dress I can see perfect replicas of historical dress. So the question is: “How the garments are done?”. Isabelle studied painting and drawing so she has very good starting point to paint all the fabric patterns by hand. For painting, an ink is used. After the painting the paper is ironed to archive the texture.

I would like to tou…..

Hey! Do not touch! You may tear the paper! 🙂

Would you like to see more and flip through the nice colorful books? You may obtain one of these three books: Isabelle de Borchgrave: Fashioning Art from Paper, Pulp Fashion: The Art of Isabelle De Borchgrave or very fun and interactive one: Fashion a la Mode: The Pop-Up History of Costumes and Dresses.

For more info click here.

Dolls and Historical Costumes

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Childhood linked with my adult obsession.

The most significant doll in history is “Lady Barbie” which is with us over 60 years. As a “doll fashion icon“, she has extensive wardrobe. It contains ready to wear, sport wear, movie costumes, evening gowns… and… my favorite ones… historical costumes. There are also other “Lady Dolls” which have historical wardrobe also.

It is marvelous how detailed these small garments are done. Barbie doll is approximately 30 cm tall (11 inches) what can make sewing very small sizes quite challenging :-). Most of the sewing needs to be done by hand and using a glue is also required. You will be in need of enough time, a lot of patience, good eyes and gently hands.

Do you have any cloth left-overs to make a smaller version of your favorite historical dress?

The Duchess of Devonshire – Georgiana Cavendish

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A political activist and style icon too.

Georgiana was born 7 June 1757 into the Spencer family and died 30 March 1806 as spouse of William Cavendish. She grew up in Althorp with her two younger siblings Henrietta and George.

Georgiana was born into noble family and by her marriage with the Duke of Devonshire got higher social status. She was very famous for her beauty, fashion style, political influence, love affair Charles Grey and friendship with Elizabeth Foster, which turned into unusual marriage agreement.

We love historical dress, so let`s talk about the fashion style. Georgiana was a fashion icon of the Rococo era and was copied by the women. She wore large hats and mass curly hair. The high headdress was decorated with three-foot ostrich feather which she imported to Britain from Paris. For better imagination, here is the reconstructed headdress in the movie “The Duchess“:

In 1783 she presented the free-flowing muslin dress that was simply tied by a ribbon around the waist.

It is very good opportunity to continue showing the costumes from the movie about Georgiana – The Duchess staring Keira Knightley.

The costumes were designed by Michael O’Connor, who also cooperated on films Jane Eyre and Tulip Fever.

The costumes for Georgiana character nicely capture the second half of the 18th century fashion, such as Robe à la Française, Robe à l’Anglaise, Robe à la Polonaise, women`s redingote and parts of the dress – a pannier, a fichu, a stomacher, ribbons, bows and stripes.

As has been already mentioned, Georgiana was political activist. And how better would you express your support for Charles James Fox from Wig party? The solution is to wear a fox fur muff 🙂 (up right picture).

The costumes made a good impression on me. And what impression do you have?

White dress

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What does it represent? …

… an innocence at first … like a white Lilly …

The white cloth was used thousands years ago, for a bedding, for an underwear, for a table cloth. The advantage of white cloths is that you do not need any natural or artificial fabric colors. Regarding wearing white dress, first what come to my mind is Antique fashion – in Egypt and Greece.

Medieval age does not bring any white outer dress. You may find many “white medieval dress” on the internet however these are much more fantasy “reproductions”. When you look at the Medieval paintings you do not see much white dress if any. You may find light colors or silver – brocade fabric…

We may find more white dress from Renaissance era up to the present days:

There was not common thing to dress white dress on your wedding day. It’s generally known that Queen Victoria was the first bride who worn white dress.

There is also well known painting of Sissi (Elizabeth of Bavaria) wearing white dress with white jewellery flowers in her hair.

My favorite white dress are made of Madeira fabric like this one. There are lovely, are not they?

Do you like to wear a white dress?

Too much and too little

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An exaggerated and a simple dress

Fashion still brings new forms of dressing up and new tailoring challenges. The fashion is of course influenced by the social, economical and technological environment.

We will set a time frame we will focus on. Let`s set it to Europe from Medieval Age to the end of 19th century. The clothing during 20th century has changed so much and will not talk about it in this post 🙂 (it is another story).

What is too much?…. In my point of view it can be heavy embroidery, many pieces of jewellery, wide skirt, meters of lace, brocade …

What is too little?… For sure it is simple straight silhouette, one color fabric, not much layering …

What about to wear a white T-shirt and a blue jeans now? … :-))

Robe à l’Anglaise vs. Robe à la Française

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What is the difference?…

… I would say, in the name itself, of course 🙂 … yes that is basically correct …

Both robes were worn throughout the period between 1720 and 1780. The silhouette of the bodice and the skirt is alike however there was a small pattern variance.

The robe à l’anglaise has a fitted back after the style of dress worn in England.

Robe à l’Anglaise was worn also in France, for example as this one:

Robe à la Française has pleats from the neckline at back which make a “waterfall” to the bottom of the skirt and of course worn in France :-).

Robe à la Française worn in Britain:

I dare say my favorite is Robe à la Française. Which one you would choose?

The American Duchess

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Do you like 18th century more than other eras?

The American Duchess blog was founded by Lauren Stowell in 2009. Her intention is “to educate and entertain those interested in learning more about the fashions of the 18th century and other periods of dress“.

Lauren`s content is related to 18th century dress. She shows and describes the sewing techniques and also she analyzes the dress from the paintings of that time period. With no doubt you will get inspiration and useful information to make your own beautiful historical gown.

The web site is not just a blog with blog posts, it also provides you useful list of projects, tutorials, books and resources you may use to proceed also with for your projects.

Have you ever looked for historical footwear of good quality and authentic look? With Lauren`s frustration not finding 18th century shoes she started to manufacture her own foot line. You may find the shoes on E-shop.

The E-shop offers shoes for women as well as for men, from 18th century till 20th century and at last theatrical shoes also.

There are not just shoes you may buy. The footwear accessories are also available such as buckles and stockings.

Lauren has another credit to be mentioned. She has written 2 books about hand sewing and wearing dress of 18th century, also hairstyle, make-up and accessories. Books are available, for example on Book Depository.

Both these books contains picture guides how to measure yourself, to sew, to dress and to style yourself in manners of 18th century.

Follow the American Duchess on

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Would you like to meet the American Duchess?

Madam Rose Bertin

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Dressmaker to Marie Antoinette

Marie Jeanne Bertin, known as Rose Bertin, lived between 1747 and 1813. She was born in Abbeville, a textile town in the Picardy region of France, which could affected her life purpose. According what she achieved, everybody would say that she came from wealthy and high status family. Unfortunately she did not. She came from family with low income and low society status. So the question is … how did she get so close to Marie Antoinette?…

At her 16 she moved to Paris and she became a scholar of milliner, Mademoiselle Pagelle, with aristocracy clients. Her relationship with Princesses and Duchess brought her closer to Marie-Antoinette. In 1770 she opened her own shop and she again got much closer to French court. Two years later these two ladies were introduced to each other.

She was made “Minister of Fashion” and during service for the Queen she had a significant impact on the fashion and laid the foundations of Parisian haute couture.

What was the design style of madam Bertin? We can have a look on fashion plates. And how to describe this? All the designs are very opulent and ornate. Looking on the fashion plates, I have one question … how long did it take to sew the dress?…

As we know, during this era “poufs” were in fashion. Rose also made several designs.

I love watching historical movies, so, I was looking for movie about the life of Rose and there non so far :-(. However madam Bertin was shown in small role in the movie Farewell, My Queen (original title – Les Adieux à la Reine). I dare say that I like it and I recommend it to you to watch :-))…. (very nice costume design).

As I did not found any movie about Rose, so I was searching for a book about her. And I found something… “Memoires De Mademoiselle Bertin Sur La Reine Marie-Antoinette (1824)” and “Rose Bertin: The Creator of Fashion at the Court of Marie Antoinette“. I think I will add these books to my shopping list :-).

Do you think that there can be fashion more crazy as this one? Because fantasy and creativity do not have limits.

Wigs with Ships in Rococo

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Ridiculous fashion series

As we know the fashion of Marie Antoinette was ornate, decorative and absurd too. This period also brought remarkable hairstyle. Normally I would say that the wigs were decorated with flowers and ribbons. However the wig decoration went further. For example … bird cages and ships were used.

The wig has been already known in Egypt, Persia or Assyria. The greatest popularity has achieved in 17th century during the reign of Louis XIV.

The wigs were powdered to get white color. However, there were not just the white wigs. Favorite colors were also pink and blue-ish grey.

Do you know why the ships were used to decorate the wigs? … If not, I will tell you … A French frigate won over an British one in 1778 and this hairstyle commemorated the victory. This hairstyle was named “À la Belle Poule” after the winning ship Belle Poule.

The battle as painted by August-Louis de Rossel de Cercy. Belle Poule is on the right.

Nowadays, there are many designers inspired by history. Their creations are also stunning.

Source: https://fstoppers.com/video/interview-australian-fine-art-photographer-and-digital-artist-alexia-sinclair-7961

… a paper is also good material to make a wig :-)) … The fantasy is not bounded.

Source: https://womenyoushouldknow.net/wearable-art-intricate-wigs-hand-cut-from-paper/

Would you put a ship on your head? Or do you prefer to sail on it?

My Rococo project

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…flowers, ribbons, ruffles and laces…

I have to confess I love Marie Antoinette fashion style. I had a plan for many months to sew Rococo dress. During the summer holidays I attended historical dance course focusing on Baroque/Rococo era. This made my plan to become true.

I got inspiration from these two pictures of sitting ladies in floral dress :-):

And I was also inspired by Marie Antoinette movie with Kirsten Dunst:

My plan was to sew light morning dress so I picked up white cotton fabric with floral pattern, white lace and light green ribbon. I used sewing pattern by Simplicity # 4092.

To be honest, I had small struggles with sewing … however … I finished the dress and here the result:

After a long morning walk and dancing you need to have a rest, sit down on a park bench for a while and enjoy the sun.

At the end of beautiful day you need to have a cup of good hot chocolate in (of course) floral china :-).

Anyway … do you like my white wig?