Fashion in the Eighteenth Century

The eighteenth century was the crowning era for evolution and revolution in fashion, particularly in France, the creative and economic capital of haute couture.  As the modes of eighteenth-century French society changed and modernity ensued, the French people were dressed for it.  “You are what you wear,” as they say, for clothing helps to construct personal and social identity and presents a self to the public.  Issues of gender, class, and political affiliation surround the fashion trends displayed in the figurative art of this exhibition.  

Nicolas De Launey’s Daybreak exposes the process of dressing and adorning the elite female as a social event.  James Gillray’s caricature The Fashionable Mamma -or- The Convenience of Modern Dress targets well-known and controversial fashion trends for women to invoke social commentary.  Fashion proves intrinsic to examining images of women in the age of enlightenment.