Dress Analytics: Madame de Pompadour by Francois Boucher, 1756

Once upon a time, I did dress analytics posts on the American Duchess blog, and now seems like a good time to bring it back, in video form. For this first episode, we'll be looking at the famous Madame de Pompadour's robe a la francaise, gushing with lace bows and ruffles. This is a very well-known, famous portrait of Madame de Pompadour, painted by Francois Boucher in 1756. There's a lot going on here, so let's take a closer look. Madame de Pompadour is wearing a robe a la francaise, also known as a sack. In the 1750s, these gowns were worn over large side hoops called peignets or pocket hoops, which held the skirts out on the side, but allowed the drapery from the back to hang in an elegant cascade. Robe a la francaise gowns often had a matching petticoat, like we see here on Pompadour, and were worn over a separate stomacher that often contrasted. Gowns like this one were open in the front, pinning close to the sides of the stomacher. Madame de Pompadour exhibits a busting breast of bows, known as a shell, on the stomachers in many of her portraits, but a completely different stomacher could be switched out to give the ensemble a different look. You will notice the enormous sleeve flounces Madame P is wearing. There are likely five or six separate ruffles, three of lace and two or three backing them, in the same green silk of her gown. Sleeve ruffles from this time were typically constructed of fine laces and embroidered lawns and walls. Madame de Pompadour is wearing silk in this portrait. There is no pattern or figure in the silk, and it may have been taffeta, a papery sort of tightly woven silk that creates structure and volume. In the 18th century, silks were very tightly woven and very high quality. The sort of pink trim we see on Madame P's gown would only have been done on a tight silk lest it fray. Atop the explosion of pink self-fabric trim adorning the front edges of the gown and petticoat are more frills of gathered lace and roses, most likely also constructed in fabric, though Leonard writes later that artificial flowers didn't come into fashion before the 1780s. Clearly Madame P was ahead of her time, or Leonard, as usual, gets it a bit wrong. Lastly, the bows on Madame Pompadour's stomacher appear to be subtly striped silk ribbon with a picot edge, with matching bows at the sleeve ruffles. Contrasting ribbon, particularly striped, was a popular choice for a shelled stomachers and breastknots. However, bows could also be cut from the contrasting fabric with pinked edges. Madame de Pompadour really knew how to complete her outfits with accessories. She was famous for her hair stylings, designed and executed by Le Gros de Roumeny, but also sported the iconic ribbon choker we so associate with this period in France. In the portrait, she wraps both wrists in bracelets made of four strands of pearls and wears no other jewelry, but instead a rather large bouquet at the shoulder of her dress, potentially real flowers. Flowers also adorn her hair. We also get a peek at Madame's shoes, beautifully laced mules in pink silk with quite high leather-wrapped French heels, and she also wears ivory-colored silk stockings upon her feet. If you are interested in making this costume, and we don't blame you, or any kind of robe a la francaise, luckily there are patterns and resources available. We highly recommend Simplicity 8578 and 8579, which go together for everything you need — shift, stays, peignets, petticoat, gown, and stomacher. The gown pattern definitely works best when paired with the American Duchess Guide to 18th Century Dressmaking, which has instructions for period-correct hand sewing and gobs of other useful bits and patterns, like for the ribbon choker, five-loop bows, sleeve ruffles, and pinked trim. Silk taffeta runs around $20 a yard, but look for bargains at Renaissance Fabrics, Burnley & Trowbridge, Pure Silks, and Silk Baron. We'll put links to each of these in the description below. Part of completing the look is getting the Madame de Pompadour hairstyle right. We've got help for you there, following the 1750s chapter in the American Duchess Guide to 18th Century Beauty, for that heavily-powdered French look. And once you're ready, we've got you covered for 18th century shoes and stockings as well at AmericanDuchess.com. I hope you enjoyed this first episode of Dress Analytics, taking a look at this fabulous Boucher portrait. We'd love you to leave a comment or a question, and if you'd like to see more, go ahead and click that subscribe button.