Baroque and Rococo (1625-1789)

Opulence, grandeur, heavy ornamentation, and rich colors were the defining characteristics of fashion throughout Europe in the 17th century. No one demonstrated this baroque style to greater effect than King Carl Gustav of Sweden, who wore such a richly decorated doublet at his coronation in 1654 that the fabric beneath the embroidery was completely invisible. The baroque style was set at the royal court in France, where the stiff-bodiced, heavy-skirted court dress known as the grand habit was established in the splendor of Louis XIV’s Versailles. The fabrics for these stately clothes were produced across Europe, but the French silk industry, centered in Lyon, dominated. Farther afield, the influx of goods from Asia via trading organizations such as the Dutch East India Company, founded in 1602, meant that printed cottons and painted silks from India and China flooded the European fashion market.

Henrietta Maria (1609-69)

Rococo Lightness
By the 18th century there was a move in the decorative arts toward a lighter, more flowing aesthetic known as the rococo, which was reflected in fashion. This could be seen in the curving lines of the silk designs produced by such craftspeople as Anna Maria Garthwaite and the Spitalfields silk weavers in London, many of them Protestant Huguenots who had fled religious persecution in France. Gone was the boned bodice and skirt, to be replaced first by a loose, full-skirted gown known as a mantua, and then by an open robe and petticoat. Men’s doublet and hose had disappeared too, giving way to coat and breeches. >>18th century clothing

Rococo Dress in the Movie Marie Antoinette