When we speak today of Baroque fashion and Rococo fashion, it's easy to get the impression that one era ended and the next began the very next day.
However, fashion did not work that way.
There was no moment when people shed their Baroque clothes and suddenly wore Rococo.
Instead, silhouettes, cuts, fabrics, and decorations changed over decades. Some forms disappeared, others were developed further, and still others formed the basis for garments that later became characteristic of the 18th century.
Precisely the period from 1700 to about 1750 therefore shows particularly clearly:
Fashion eras have no sharp boundaries. They transform.
And it is precisely this transformation that concludes our journey through the world of Baroque fashion.
Around 1700 – Grand Courtly Fashion Lives On
Around 1700, the courtly culture, which had been particularly shaped under Louis XIV, had by no means disappeared.
At the French court and numerous European courts, clothing remained an important means of social representation. Precious silk fabrics, embroideries, lace, and elaborate accessories made rank and wealth visible.
The basic forms of clothing that had developed in the late 17th century also initially persisted.
For men, the combination of a long coat or justaucorps, waistcoat, and breeches had established itself. This tripartite division would continue to define men's fashion far into the 18th century. French court fashion continued to exert significant influence on the elites of Europe.
Women's fashion also carried many elements of the late 17th century into the new century.
But it was precisely here that a change had already begun.
The Mantua – A Gown Between Two Fashion Worlds
One of the most important forms of dress during this transition was the mantua.
The mantua emerged in the late 17th century, around the 1670s. Unlike many older forms of dress, it did not consist of a separately cut, close-fitting bodice with an independent skirt. Instead, it was made from long lengths of fabric that extended from the shoulders to the floor.
Originally, the mantua fell relatively loosely from the torso. It was worn over a stays or a shaping understructure and a petticoat. The front remained open, allowing the stays and petticoat underneath to be visible.
Particularly characteristic was the way the dress's voluminous fabric was handled. The long lengths of fabric were not simply cut close to the body. Instead, they could be folded, draped, and gathered. Parts of the skirt were pulled up and fastened at the back or sides, causing the fullness of the fabric to gather at the back, often creating a train.
This was a particular feature of the mantua: the precious fabric remained in large, continuous sections. Its patterning and quality could thus be particularly showcased.
Over time, however, the mantua changed significantly. From a initially relatively loose-fitting gown, it evolved around 1700 into an increasingly formal and representative form of dress. The cut, draping, and skirt shape became more structured, and the mantua also became part of courtly and ceremonial attire.
An extant British example from around 1708 beautifully illustrates how this form of dress truly connects two centuries. The Metropolitan Museum dates the origin of the mantua as early as the late 1670s and describes its far-reaching significance for the fashion of the following century.
This is particularly interesting.
For the mantua originated in the fashion world of the 17th century – yet the principle of a gown constructed from long lengths of fabric, starting from the shoulders, was further developed in the early 18th century.
These developments eventually led to new forms of gowns.
New fashion arose from the old.
A New Silhouette Emerges
In the early 18th century, the silhouette of women's clothing began to change increasingly.
A particularly striking development was the robe volante, also known by related contemporary terms.
Unlike a close-fitting bodice, this style of dress could fall wide and loosely from the shoulders. Large swathes of fabric and pleats created a flowing silhouette.
By 1730, the robe volante was already a significant fashion statement. An extant French example in the Metropolitan Museum is explicitly described as a transitional form between the mantua of the late 17th and early 18th centuries and the later highly influential robe à la française.
Thus, the development can almost be traced like a fashionable lineage:
Mantua → Robe volante → Robe à la française
Of course, fashion was in reality more complex than such a linear progression. Different forms of dress coexisted, and regional and social differences played a role.
But this development makes visible how, step by step, forms of clothing emerged from late Baroque styles that we now strongly associate with the 18th century.
The Robe Volante – Fabric Becomes Silhouette
The robe volante is also fascinating for another reason.
With it, the fabric itself became a crucial design element.
Large, sometimes almost uninterrupted fabric surfaces offered ample space for the effect of precious silk patterns. The Metropolitan Museum particularly emphasizes these large fabric areas as a characteristic feature of the extant robe volante from around 1730.
Shaping understructures were worn beneath the dress.
Hoop-like constructions, or paniers, increasingly expanded the volume of the skirt. From initially rounder forms, the characteristic laterally widened silhouettes developed over the course of the century.
This shifted the impact of the clothing.
The silhouette was not simply smaller or less elaborate than in the Baroque period.
It was constructed differently.
From Robe Volante to Robe à la Française
From the initially loose robe volante, one of the most famous forms of clothing of the 18th century developed:
the robe à la française.
Characteristic were the pleats falling from the back, while the dress, in the course of its development, clung more closely to the upper body.
The front of the skirt could be open, revealing a decorative petticoat. Underneath the clothing, paniers provided the characteristic width at the hips.
The Metropolitan Museum describes the robe à la française as an almost typical form of dress of the 18th century. Its origin, however, lies in the looser sack or robe forms of the early century.
And that is precisely where it becomes clear again:
What we later recognize as Rococo fashion did not appear out of nowhere.
Many of its constructive foundations reach back into the fashion of the late 17th and early 18th centuries.
From Baroque to Rococo
The aesthetic effect of clothing also changed.
Today, we often associate mid-18th century fashion with:
lighter and brighter colors,
floral silk patterns,
finer decorations,
lace,
bows,
flowers,
curving ornaments,
and an overall more playful effect.
Particularly in the 1740s and 1750s, the influence of what is art-historically referred to as Rococo becomes clear. Floral silks, wide paniers, and elaborately arranged trimmings characterize many surviving garments from this period.
But here, too, caution is needed.
Not every dress from 1720 is automatically "Rococo," just as not every garment around 1700 can be unequivocally assigned to a single stylistic designation.
Terms like Baroque and Rococo are retrospective systems of order.
People themselves did not experience their clothing as neatly separated museum eras.
They experienced fashion.
And fashion changes gradually.
Men's Fashion Also Changes Its Proportions
For men, the transition is less spectacular, but equally interesting.
The basic combination of coat, waistcoat, and breeches remained.
What changed were primarily the cut, length, volume, and decoration.
Earlier coats could have much more voluminous skirts. Over the course of the 18th century, the silhouette became increasingly narrower and closer to the body.
An extant Italian ensemble from the period 1740–1760, for example, shows a curved front coat hem, narrow sleeves, close-fitting breeches, and a waistcoat reaching approximately to the middle of the thigh.
So, men's fashion was not completely reinvented.
It was further developed.
The principle of clothing that originated in the late 17th century persisted, while its proportions repeatedly changed.
France Remains Important – But Europe Does Not Dress Identically Everywhere
In the 18th century, France remained an important center of fashion orientation.
However, this should not lead to the conclusion that all of Europe dressed identically.
England developed its own preferences. Italy, Spain, the German territories, and other regions also had their own traditions and variations.
The Metropolitan Museum explicitly points out that 18th-century fashion should not be understood solely from the perspective of Paris and the French court. At the same time, French taste had already acquired an exceptionally strong international influence.
Furthermore, the world was becoming increasingly interconnected.
European clothing was influenced by international trade relations. Silks and other goods traveled long distances to Europe, and motifs and materials from various cultures increasingly met.
An example of this is Chinese export silks, which were produced specifically for the European market and used in European garments.
Fashion was thus already an international phenomenon.
What Remained of the Baroque
Looking at the development up to the middle of the 18th century, one might initially believe that Baroque fashion had disappeared.
Yet much remained.
The great importance of precious textiles remained.
The art of embroidery remained.
Lace remained.
The interplay of understructure and outer garment remained.
The tailor's craftsmanship remained.
The basic structure of male court attire was also continued.
And even new forms of clothing often developed from existing cuts and construction principles.
The Rococo therefore did not erase Baroque fashion.
It emerged from it.
Fashion Never Disappears in a Single Day
Perhaps that is the most important insight at the end of our journey.
We like to categorize historical fashion into neat boxes:
Renaissance.
Baroque.
Rococo.
Classicism.
But a person who put on their clothes in 1715 in the morning did not think:
A new fashion era begins today.
They wore clothes that were familiar to them.
A few years later, perhaps the sleeves changed.
The skirt got a different shape.
The waistcoat became shorter.
A new hairstyle became fashionable.
A fabric pattern suddenly seemed old-fashioned.
A new form of dress appeared.
And eventually, the world of fashion had changed.
Not through a single break.
But through countless small changes.
From 1600 to 1750 – 150 Years of Fashion in Flux
If we now return to the beginning of our series, an astonishing development lies before us.
Around 1600, we encounter forms clearly influenced by Renaissance fashion.
In the early 17th century, silhouettes and proportions changed.
In the second half of the century, French court fashion gained increasing international significance.
Under Louis XIV, clothing became a particularly impressive means of courtly representation.
Towards the end of the century, forms of clothing like the mantua emerged, already pointing far into the next century.
After 1700, new silhouettes developed.
The robe volante appeared.
Paniers changed the body shape.
From these developments finally emerged the robe à la française.
And by the mid-18th century at the latest, we find ourselves in that fashion world which is today most strongly associated with the Rococo.
Thus, 150 years of fashion history become not a mere succession of individual dresses.
It becomes a development.
The World of Baroque Fashion
In the nine parts of this series, we have seen how closely clothing was connected to its time.
With politics and courtly society.
With trade and precious raw materials.
With silk weaving and dyeing.
With embroidery and lace.
With wigs, shoes, jewelry, and accessories.
With pattern cutting and tailoring.
And finally, with constant change from which new fashion emerged.
Behind a Baroque gown lies far more than an extraordinary silhouette.
An entire world is contained within it.
The people who made the silk.
Those who dyed it.
The embroiderers, lacemakers, and passementerie makers.
The tailors who shaped a garment from flat fabric.
The merchants who transported materials over great distances.
And finally, the people who wore these clothes.
Perhaps that is precisely why historical fashion remains so fascinating today.
A garment does not just tell us what people wore.
It tells us how they lived.
And with that, our journey through The World of Baroque Fashion concludes.
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