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Leopard in the 18th Century

Yes, not only The Nanny wears leopard print, back in the 18th Century it was quite a fashion forward and exotic print to wear, especially for men. Breeches, waitcoats, frock coats, dresses, cuffs and lapels were seen in this pattern that feels so modern to us, but that may be not be so.

Apparently the print became popular first with Italian men and then it traveled via the young English men who traveled the Grand Tour to Europe back to England.

It is really funny the way all trends have traveled and still do: the trendy ones were the Italian men, then the early adopters were the macaroni, it moved to the aristocracy and then to the “mainstream”. Just like anything now that begins in the catwalk and it ends in Forever 21. But in a more elegant version XD

Photos from top:

“An Interior with Elegant Company”, Venceslao Verlin.

Dress fabric, silk brocade, made in France, 1760s, V&A Museum.

Dress fabric, silk brocade with satin stripes, made in Spitafields, England, 1768-1770, V&A Museum.

“Portrait of Jean-Georges Noverre”, Jean-Baptiste Perroneau, ca. 1780. Louvre Museum.

“Portrait of John Campbell, 1st Baron Cawdor”, Sir Joshua Reynolds, 1778.

“Portrait of Jean Victor de Rochechouart, Duc de Mortemart”, Jean-Marc Nattier, 1756.

“Madame de Moracin”, Louis Carrogi Carmontelle, ca. 1780.

Robe à la Française, silk, French, ca. 1770, MET Museum.

Frock coat, turquoise velvet with leopard pattern, French, 1785-90, V&A Museum.

Robe à la Française, silk brocade, French, 1755-60, Fashion Institute of Technology.

my18thcenturysource

Do you remember this post? Are you still in love with leopard print?

Well, if you also happen to be in London this Friday, you can go to the Victoria & Albert Museum and attend a talk about this print with legendary designer Henry Holland and journalist Hilary Alexander, as post of the activities about their current exhibition “Fashioned from Nature”.

You can book your place HERE, cost £12.00 - £15.00, Friday 9 November, 7pm, The Lydia & Manfred Gorvy Lecture Theatre.

pleasuresoftheduke

silverlight05

Does anyone know what time these are from? Cause I have a character that wears stuff like this and I like to keep the info I have correct. I wanna guess 16th century like back during colonial days?

my18thcenturysource

These are illustrations of the costume design by George Barbier for the play “La Vie Amourouse de Casanova” from 1918.

Casanova plays and films are usually set in the mid 18th century (you know, Casanova was a real person born in 1725 and died in 1798), therefore the big cuffs and volume of the frock coats, along with the bag wigs, set these outfits in the middle of the century.

16th century is the 1500s, so unless you’re thinking about the Spanish colonial days, you might be refering to the 17th century. The fashions from the end of the 17th century are very similar to the ones from the early 18th century, especially menswear, with the long wigs, coats and sleeved waistcoats.

You can search on this blog for posts about late 17th century, early 18th century, and baroque, if you want to take a look into references that might work for you ❤️

amoris

The wide, outstanding coat skirts are a feature of 17th and 18th C theater costumes specifically, I believe! They weren’t that exaggerated in daily fashion.

my18thcenturysource

Oh yes! Let’s remember this AWESOME portrait of Signor Scalzi by Charles Joseph Flipart, c 1730–40:

Scalzi was castrato and this is how he would appear on stage, on costume.

Now, Barbier did not mean this at all for his stage costumes for Casanova, since he designed them about 170 years after, and well, if we all should know only three things about George Barbier those should be: he really like ballet and Nijisky, he did his research, and he LOVED the 18th century. I think that the appearance of wider-than-usual skirts in those frock coats, is a style choice, that we can see on his design work, where he made everything kind of flat so you could see the design details, as opposed to his full editorial illustrations (like the ones he made for Les Liaisons Dangereuses, published in 1934), where all kinds of fabric weights can be seen.

Also, what I meant with “the volume of the frock coats” is exactly that especial garment: the frock coat. The coat got that name thanks to the volume of the skirt achieved by an almost circular cut pleated in the back, that resembled a woman’s frock (therefore the name), and reached its volume peak in the 1740s, like this example:

In the late 17th and early 18th centuries, the justaucorps did not have actual volume, but width, which got full while being worn thanks to the very real volume of the breeches, like in this example of the Wedding suit of James, Duke of York, 1673:

Oh, isn’t menswear super interesting?

And I almost forgot! I could not find much about the costume design for this play but here’s a quote and some photos from a Barbier book I have:

“Illustration: George Barbier, editor: Lucien Vogelbari / 1919

The memoirs of the freeman Casanova of the 18th century were partially published in 1821 and read at the end of the 19th century. Negotiations with many women were noted, and it was not until 1960 that a complete version became known.

Barbier, who liked the 18th-century customs, is of course interested in Casanova twice, and had been working on the stage costume design and putting it into a book. The first time was in 1919, when Edmond Rostan’s son Maurice Rostan opened Buffet Parisian, staged "Casanova”, and Barbier took charge of the stage art. It was “Casanova panorama dramatic” (1921) that summarized those designs. In 1923, “Casanova” written by Roland Orbok (De Azertis) was performed at the Empire Theater in New York, and Barbier designed the costume. The collection was published in Paris as “The Best Time of Casanova Love” (1923).“

If anyone is interested, it is from this Japanese book : "Fashion, illustration and graphic design, George Barbier Master of Art Deco”, text by Hiroshi Unno, PIE International Inc., 2011.

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the day i learned that idia's hair turns pink when he's flustered is the day my life changed forever

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Friendly reminder that today, 10/31, is the 10th anniversary of this video

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K

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Zillenial things

Being young enough for Minecraft but too old for Fortnite

Being alive for 9/11 but not remembering it at all cuz you were like 2

Seeing reruns of 90s shows when you were really little but being to young to really remember them

Feeling betrayed by Butch Hartman

Listening to the bops of ~2009-2012 in middle school gym class

Growing up through the transition from clunky PCs for nerds and flip phones to smartphones and sleek and easy laptops

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Being called a millenial by baby boomers and Gen Z by millenials

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others: “so, how ~southern~ are you?”

me: “The entrance of my hometown has a shrimp boat sitting in the main street. At Christmas theres a shrimper Santa and alligators pulling him instead of reindeer.”

others: “what?!”

me: