In 18th century Europe, the main undergarment for women was a knee-length linen chemise.
Sometimes a short dicky petticoat was added.
This petticoat had become popular when panniers held the skirts away from the body and the
extra layer was required for comfort.
Women wore knitted stockings, sometimes made from silk, that drew up over the knee.
They were often embellished with a design called ‘clocks’ which concealed the seam
at the ankle.
A simple silk ribbon garter was tied beneath the knee to hold them in place.
The purpose of stays in the 18th century was to support the bust, rather than to restrict
the waist, and to create a fashionable outline.
Stays evolved over the century and by the 1780s they were softer in line and sometimes
had a front opening to enhance the fit.
A hip pad of some form was worn to lift the skirts and accentuate the waist.
Portraits of the chemise gown suggest plenty of linen petticoats were worn underneath.
For simplicity of line, the petticoats could be back fastening.
Sometimes with a couple of inches of gather either side of the centre back opening for
adjustability.
Pockets were not always worn with this gown, suggesting it was, at least to begin with,
a very informal garment.
The chemise gown was a radical departure from the structured gowns of the Georgian era,
not just in its fabric, but in its cut too.
Made in one piece, the gown dropped over the head and was fastened at the front, or back,
with drawstrings which pulled it into shape.
This gown prefigured the Neoclassical dress to come.
It was made from a costly, delicate, Dhaka Muslin; a textile made from a rare cotton
grown only on the banks of the Meghna River in India.
The muslin industry was thousands of years old and involved an extremely skilled sixteen-step
process with the specialisations being passed down through families, and entire villages
involved in its production.
The thread count was up to an extraordinary 1,200, but it was as light as air and soft
as the wind.
This fabulously gauzy fabric was substantially more valuable than silk.
In 1783 Marie-Antoinette was portrayed wearing the gown by artist Elizabeth Vegee Le Brun.
The portrait caused something of a scandal due to the informal nature of the dress and
its perceived similarity to an undergarment, but its popularity increased, and it became
known as a chemise gown, or Chemise a la reine.
A wide silk sash was worn about the waist, and sometimes matching silk ribbons about
the sleeves and in the hair.
Big hair was still the fashion, but now the emphasis was on width as well as height, and
it was a generally softer and more romantic look than the previous decades.
Powdering remained popular though.
Leather shoes with paste-decorated buckles, and low curved Louis heels, were still in
vogue.
The addition of a gorgeous wide-brimmed hat, decorated with ribbons and feathers, balanced
the silhouette.
Dhaka muslin was considered one of the treasures of the age, but it cannot be found today except
in museums.
Exploitation by the British East India Company meant that by the early 20th century, the
techniques for making Dhaka Muslin had been forgotten, and the plant, Phuti karpas, was
extinct.