Fashion Victims: Dress at the Court of Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette, by Kimberly Chrisman-Campbell

“Fashion Victims: Dress at the Court of Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette” by Kimberly Chrisman-Campbell has been getting a lot of press recently in anticipation of the book’s release this coming new year. Most recently “Mourning Attire: when black became the new black”, a review by Matt Stevens, discusses the trend in 1774 following the death of Louis XV to wear black mourning attire, but at a new level of fashion sense. This trend brought about black being worn by the high fashion society, thus introducing it into popular culture.

French: 1785-90, striped silk dress with English fichu of cotton: collection of LACMA

Ms. Chrisman-Campbell will be speaking on the topic of her new book December 6, 2014, at the Bowers Museum in Orange County, California. This is an opportunity to hear the author share her thoughts on this new book.

Europe: Redingote dress, c. 1790, of silk, with English fichu of cotton: collection of LACMA

If you love this era, you'll want to take a peak at Chrisman-Campbell’s Pinterest page on this topic, which collects images on the book’s subjects from various museums and other resources. Both gowns shown here are included in this Pinterest collection.

The Book:
Kimberly Chrisman-Campbell “Fashion Victims: Dress at the Court of Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette, Yale University Press, April 2015

The Article: page 30.
"Mourning Attire: when black became the new black", by Matt Stevens, Huntington Frontiers: Fall / Winter 2014, The Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens

Artwork shown in article: Black Gown: French engraving dated 1781

The Bowers Museum: lecture and museum information


My photos were taken at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) at the exhibition: Fashioning Fashion: European Dress in Detail: 1700 - 1915. Some of the men's costumes from this exhibit can be found here on Pintucks in an earlier post "Menswear and Dandys: 19th century Tailored Suits as Inspiration" .

18th Century Hair Fashion & A Story of Changing Portraits

The Huntington Library in San Marino, CA, has a wealth of artwork dating from the 1700's. From this collection, a recent article discussed how these paintings depict women's hairstyles from the 1700's, and that these silhouettes are known for becoming more fanciful and extreme as the years progressed. Starting with a close fitting hair silhouette at mid-century, hairstyles gained height over the years, becoming the topic of conversation, jokes and public outrage. Feathers, ornaments and hats topped these towering structures.

A unique viewpoint on this topic is brought up in the recent article "Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow" by Kimberly Chrisman-Campbell, "Huntington Frontiers", Fall/Winter 2013. In this study, the author shows how hairstyles changed during this time, mentioning the influences of both British and French trendsetters of that era. She notes how hair fashion was transforming more quickly than apparel fashion. Of most importance was that the trending hair silhouettes became a problem when it came to portraits. While the artist may have painted the subject in the height of fashion, these portraits were usually out-dated only a few years later by the inclusion of an extreme hair style.

The out-dated paintings were brought up to date with more current hairstyles when possible. Ideally, the original artist painted over the earlier hairstyle, transforming it into a more acceptable silhouette. The range of success in this technique varied. Today these alterations can be seen using modern technology that allows us to rediscover the original layers.

"Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow" is fascinating reading for both the costumer as well as the general fashion buff. It sheds light on past styles and how fashion trends moved quickly, even in the late 1700's.