After my little travelling stint over the last month, I'm getting time again to write on here. My first holiday was to Tenerife, for one week of pure relaxation. I took my notebook with the plan to draft out a quick blog post while I was away. I soon realised there would be no time to do so. The second trip I completed was a concert band tour to Tuscany, Italy, but I doubted that the little hill-side hotel would have any internet access, and I was right.
This post will be a short costume write-up of the peach coloured dress worn by Kristin Dunst, in the 2006 version of Marie Antoinette. The dress is used in some of the promotional material for the film. The dress has a peachy jacket-styled top half and a matching skirt, all of which is made of satin silk. For me, what makes this a quick post is that all the research was done last winter when I started my A2 textiles research.
The jacket is a pet-en-l'air which is a shortened version of one of the most flattering gowns in the 18th Century, the Robe à la Fraçais. This was because of the close fit around the torso and the loose elegant fit around the back. Also the garment has full length pleats that run from shoulder to hem line aesthetically enhancing it, therefore making the dress very graceful. The pet-en-l'air is worn over a petticoat skirt. It was an informal piece of clothing which could have been worn for entertaining in one's own home but not worn for going out in as it was not smart enough.
Marie Antoinette herself was a very influential character in terms of the Parisian fashion scene. She arrived in Paris from Austria, in 1770, aged 15 and was to marry Louis XVI. Upon arriving she started to change the Parisian dress, she refused to the wide paniers and the figure altering whalebone corsets.
As with every historical film, the designers have artistic license and will make some changes. And in this case it's no different. The pet-en-l'air was at the height of fashion between 1750 and faded out gradually until 1770. This makes it unlikely that Marie Antoinette herself would have worn the item as the scene in the film is some years after she arrived in the country.
Thank you for taking a moment to read this and I hope that it mentions anything that you need to know. If not leave a comment or ask me over on twitter. Similarly stick a comment down below if you have anything to add.
I OWN NONE OF THESE PHOTOS
