Robe à l'Anglaise

This robe à l’anglaise is a superb expression of the English taste in dress—skillful cut and construction, and free from elaborate trimmings—a sensibility that increasingly influenced European modes of dress in the late eighteenth century. The refined simplicity and neat tailoring associated with English dress grew increasingly influential in France during the latter half of the eighteenth century. By the 1770s, French fashion magazines regularly featured the robe à l’anglaise, praising its elegance and modest charm. This example is impeccably made and discreetly adorned, its sole ornamentation being bands of pinked, self-fabric trim. The choice of textile, a delicately patterned silk damask dating to the 1730s, is evidence of the common eighteenth-century practice of repurposing finely woven fabrics.