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© 2013 Museum Associates/LACMA and tricorne, Europe or United States, c.1870, beaver, bequeathed by Mrs Alice F. Schott M. 67.8. 204
THE MAGAZINE EXHIBITIONS
Suit, Spain, c. 1785, wool cloth, figured silk velvet,
cotton serge background.
100 GAZETTE DROUOT INTERNATIONAL I N° 23
sensitive and eloquent touches. It also emphasises,
notably in the 19th century, the incursion of a less
cumbersome, more practical English fashion suited to
an increasingly faster pace of life and the activities of a
well-to-do population. In France, England, the
Netherlands and the Iberian peninsula, the West
recounts its conquests, divisions, advances and
upheavals through its clothes. A cotton muslin dress
from 1855 with airy flounces evokes the contribution of
the Old World colonies. Colbert, as far back as the 17th
century, analysed it all in visionary terms: "Fashions are
to France what the mines of Peru are to Spain". As a
melting pot of inventions and as a meeting point of
influences, fashion also became the expression of
Europe's fascination with an idealised East, as witness
the chinoiseries of a full sack-back gown embroidered
with pagodas and imaginary figures, and a close-fitting
Banyan (man's dressing gown) in damasked silk – all
imbuing the 18th century with a highly exotic freshness.
Clothing time
Clothing is a summary of custom and history that
expresses the aspirations and innovations of a period in
its own particular way. For example, during the slow
wind-down of Louis XIV's reign, imagery reflecting the
glory of the Sun King disappeared, giving way to a new
taste and ornamental style that permeated the
following century. The waistcoats of the aristocracy
blossomed with colours; outfits sprouted rich decoration.
An aesthetic based on the mix, drawing on both
fantasy and reality, impregnated the structure, materials
and patterns of silhouettes. Their narrative power
became the spokesman and emblem of a changing
society. To quote fashion historian Kimberly Chrisman-
Campbell: "Fashions reflected the social history of a
world transformed by revolution and industrialisation: a
world clinging to an idealised past while opening out to
modern technology." Because, marked by so many
influences, clothing tells us a great deal. When a
"polonaise" dress was delineated in three parts with its
mantle, it was in fact referring to the first partition of
Poland into three states, Austria, Prussia and Russia, in
1722. Later, during the Revolution, the waistcoat was
just as expressive. Like a gauge of opinion, it might refer