18th century blog

I just returned from a short trip to Paris where I visited the Fastes de cour exhibition at Versailles. It was an amazing exhibition and I was particularly happy to see a Russian court dress and the most beautiful yellow redingote.

Edit: The exhibition ended a couple of days ago.

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Yet another great museum database, IMATEX is the database of the Textile Museum and Documentation Centre in Terrassa. Lots of amazing 18th century clothes, especially jackets.

The Duchess

When I first heard they were making a movie about Georgiana I was so exited, but when I heard Keira Knightly was playing her I was very disappointed. Not that I have anything against Keira Knightly but I couldn’t think of anyone who looks less like Georgiana and I just couldn’t see her in the role. I was happily surprised when seeing the movie though. Even though it’s not the amazing movie I expected when I first heard of the plans, Keira did a great job playing Georgiana, and even though she didn’t really look the part she looked beautiful in her own right and was very charming.

The movie was more serious and somber than I expected. I was hoping for more frivolity, society life, parties and gambling, but the focus is all on the unhappy marriage. It’s not the kind of movie I’d want to watch over and over again, but it was definitely entertaining the first time. There are little inaccuracies and things left out and switched around in Georgiana’s life, but it’s all understandable for the purpose of the movie. Since it’s just about a part of her life, it has a bit of a non-ending, just like Sofia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette.

The costumes were overall amazing, lots of beautiful redingotes and jackets. There were some hairstyles I didn’t like but for the most part the hair was great too. I loved the scenes with many extras, there are lots of amazing outfits if you look in the background. At times the fashions tended to be a bit earlier than the time depicted, at least for a fashionable person like Georgiana, but that’s nitpicking. One thing that bothered me though was the scene where Georgiana’s hair caught on fire, and it’s revealed that it’s just a wig. I’m pretty sure Georgiana didn’t wear wigs, probably plenty of hairpieces, but actual wigs were not common for late 18th century girls.

More publicity stills and 164 high resolution screencaps after the cut!

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I came across the Spanish museum Museo del traje’s website and figured out how to search their collection. They have lots of beautiful 18th century clothes. Click the picture above to go directly to the search engine.

If you know Spanish you won’t need any help, but if not, I wrote “indumentaria historica” (a term I found elsewhere on the site and seemed to mean something like historical clothing) in the “Búsqueda General” search field and 1700-1799 in “Datación”. You can’t write directly in the “Datación” field, you click the “Fechas/Periodos” button and write the first and last date you want in the two “Año” fields and then press “Aceptar”. Finally press the “Buscar” button.

That seemed to get all the 18th century clothes, but if you know Spanish and a better way to search let me know in the comments.

I posted earlier about the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s 18th century European dress page, but you should check out their costume database as well.

Click the picture above to watch a podcast about this dress, created by Rose Bertin and probably worn by Marie Antoinette. The dress belongs to the Royal Ontario Museum but will apparently be exhibited at Versailles next year March 16 to June 14, as part of an exhibition about 17th and 18th century court dress. I’ll hopefully visit!

The website of the upcoming movie The Duchess is up with lots of photos and information. My favourite thing about it is that many of the costumes are presented with detailed photos and information, I also liked the “discover” section. I have mixed feelings about this movie but mostly I can’t wait to see it! Click the picture to go to the website.

I found a Journée Grand Siècle flickr group. Click the picture to go there.

Click the picture to see photos taken by Lisotchka at the 2008 Vaux le Vicomte event.

Au Cour des Roses
I don’t know the language on this site (german?) so I’m not sure if this is a society or if they hold events or you can rent them for events or something else. It’s a gorgeous site anyway with tons of beautiful photos!

Edit: They both arrange events and you can hire them for events!

Dangerous Liaisons
I love this movie. It’s based on a book published in 1782 and set about the same time, but (based on the fashions) the movie is set several decades earlier in the mid 1700s. I haven’t read the book, yet, but I’m planning to read it in the future and I’m guessing it’s good since it has inspired such a great movie. I’m also a fan of another film adaptation of the same book, Cruel Intentions.

The movie is set before my very favourite period fashion and style wise, but the costumes are absolutely amazing and the environments are incredibly lavish. The sets are very detailed, and we get to see many typical 18th century situations. The beginning where the main characters wake up and get ready is probably my favourite part of the entire movie. There are also some beautiful opera scenes that I wish they would have shown more of.

I noticed a few small anachronisms, like a portrait on the wall sporting a 1780s hairdo, and one of the operas appears to me to be set in the 1780s as well, but I certainly don’t mind since I love the 1780s :) All in all a great movie!

Lots of screenshots and some publicity stills after the cut.

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Slottsfrun
A Swedish website that makes and sells 18th century basic garments and accessories like shirts, corsets and pockets. They also sell used clothes from Durán textiles, although they don’t seem to have any on the site at the moment (I couldn’t find any anyway).

There is also some general 18th century information and trivia on the site, as well as photos.

Amazing Grace
I thought this movie was very boring and it was much too sentimental for my taste, so I don’t have much to say about it. There were a few nice outfits but most of the movie was about men dressed in simple dark suits.

One more picture after the cut.

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Blackadder is a great British comedy series, or actually a series of series. The third series, Blackadder the Third, is set in the late 18th century, and the costumes are of a much higher quality than what you might expect. Some attributes are obviously exaggerated for comic effect, and the costumes are not always chronologically correct, but there are some really wonderful outfits in there. The picture above is Hugh Laurie as the prince regent, in my opinion the funniest character on the show, and after the cut are some blurry screenshots of lovely costumes.

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