Baudelaire biography petite clothes
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The Fashion Historian
Today's post is on the chemise a la reine, which I talked about in the BBC article about shocking trends in fashion history here.
Baudelaire biography petite clothes
I wanted to put this up now, because it's important background information for the next part of my post on Self Portrait with a Harp.
La reine en gaulle, by Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun, 1783. At the National Gallery in Washington DC.
The gaulle, or chemise a la reine, was made infamous by Marie Antoinette in the early 1780s.
In contrast to the highly structured garments worn by the French court and society at large, the gaulle was incredibly light and simple. The gaulle consists of layers of thin muslin, loosely draped around the body and belted around the waist with a sash.
It was the perfect garment for lounging in the country in the spring, and the fashionable ladies of France and England quickly took up the trend. However, when Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun painted Marie Antoinette in her new clothes, the portrait launched a sca