The Chemise a la Reine

The history of the world can be charted through the history of fashion. It tells you without words about the economy, politics and society of any given period or area and can provide an insight into the lives of both the rich and the poor. Here, I will focus on one particular dress and its most famous model, and the impact they had on world history.

Everyone’s heard of the mid- 18th century dresses with skirts so wide that they couldn’t fit through door frames.

These shapes were achieved with large, boned side hoops called ‘panniers’, worn underneath the dress and petticoats, but over the chemise and stays. As you can tell, the wealthy women wore several layers of clothing in public, and even the less well-off women still wore at least a chemise and stays. (Stays were similar to a corset, but 18th century stays were not as restricting as later corsets; they were worn as support for the breast and back, and they also provided a flat surface for elaborate dresses to displayed on. They were essential to women in the 18th century, to the extent that they were given out by the church to women who could not otherwise afford them.)

Fashion at the French court in the 18th century was famously particularly ridiculous and extravagant. They often designed clothes based on the philosophy of ‘more is more’, as skirts got wider and wigs got taller. Marie Antoinette, the Austrian wife of the King Louis XVI, is even today known for being the leader of the fashions of the age, and therefore also came to be criticised for her extravagance and spending. After the outbreak of Revolution in 1789, it became more socially unacceptable, not to mention dangerous, for the wealthy to flaunt their money. The Queen was seen as out of touch for her continued expenditure on expensive clothing.

However, even before the Revolution, she faced these criticisms, and it therefore would have made sense for her to try and dress more simply to appeal to the French public. Prominent portrait painter, Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun (1755-1842), produced the painting below:

If Marie thought the painting would help her cause, it did the exact opposite. Because of the similarity between her dress and the chemise worn under clothes, it was seen as highly indecent and scandalous. It also appeared to many people that the Austrian Queen had scorned French regal traditions; even if they hated her for spending extravagantly on clothing, it was worse for her to dress simply as a member of the third estate would. The dress came to be mockingly nicknamed the ‘chemise a la reine’ as a result.

There were practical consequences of the scandal as well. Despite the critics, Marie was still the European trendsetter of her day, and the popularity of the chemise a la reine soared as a result of the painting as well as after she gifted one to the Duchess of Devonshire, the equivalent influential fashion icon of England. The chemise was made from yards of very fine muslin fabric, imported from England, which was not only seen as unpatriotic but greatly damaged the French lace industry causing further unrest and hatred for the already unpopular Queen.

Marie Antoinette died less than a decade later, becoming one of the most famous victims of the French revolution, and her painter Le Brun fled France to work in Austria, Italy and Russia. It cannot be claimed that the chemise a la reine directly caused her death or the revolution, but it certainly contributed to her unpopularity and made her unredeemable in her critics’ eyes.

This is only one example of the influence of fashion on history and I hope to continue with more posts about other forms of dress. Thank you for reading and please subscribe!

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