18th century blog

Modemakt - 300 år av kläder is a new exhibition opening at Nordiska museet in Stockholm on February 26. It will show clothing from the 1780s, 1860s and 1960s, “times when economy, new ideas and new technology strongly influenced fashion”.

I just returned from a short trip to Paris where I visited the Fastes de cour exhibition at Versailles. It was an amazing exhibition and I was particularly happy to see a Russian court dress and the most beautiful yellow redingote.

Click the photo above to go to a Flickr set containing my photos from the exhibition, plus some more from Versailles and the Petit Trianon.

Edit: The exhibition ended a couple of days ago.

Via Costumes, Cats and the 18th Century, a great online shoe museum called Shoe Icons. Go directly to the 18th century section here.

Here’s another great database to check out. Joconde is a catalogue of French museum collections. Go to the advanced search and write 18e siècle in the “Période/Datation” box and you’ll get all the 18th century stuff. I found lots of great paintings, objects and clothes.

I posted earlier about the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s 18th century European dress page, but you should check out their costume database as well. Click the picture above to go there and see tons of photos of 18th century clothes!

Click the picture above to watch a podcast about this dress, created by Rose Bertin and probably worn by Marie Antoinette. The dress belongs to the Royal Ontario Museum but will apparently be exhibited at Versailles next year March 16 to June 14, as part of an exhibition about 17th and 18th century court dress. I’ll hopefully visit!

Sofia Magdalenas brudklänning i tidens smak by AnneMarie Dahlberg
This is a tiny little book sold at the Swedish museum Livrustkammaren. It’s about the wedding dress of Sofia Magdalena who later became queen of Sweden. It tells of the wedding and of the construction of the dress, and contains x-rays of the dress bodice. A few other dresses and objects are also shown. There are no actual descriptions on how to go about making the dress, but it’s still useful if you’re interested in making 18th century clothes. It’s an interesting little book with many pictures, and it’s very cheap. if you’re ever at Livrustkammaren I recommend picking it up.

Another Livrustkammaren tip is the pattern of Gustav III:s wedding suit also sold in the museum shop.

I went to Livrustkammaren a couple of days ago, and took photos of some 18th century things I haven’t photographed earlier. Click the picture above to go to my Livrustkammaren flickr set.

The 28th and 29th June there will be an 18th century market at the Danish manor museum Gammel Estrup.

Come and visit the 1700s weekend here at Gammel Estrup, where the courtyard will be bursting with life and sound. The jugglers and fire-eaters will show what they can do, musicians will play lively old folk tunes and there are rumours that two headstrong noblemen will repeatedly get into argument and duel violently with each other. Dressed in clothes from the 1700s, the staff of the museum and a group of volunteer helpers will sell things at market stalls, serve food and drink in the coffee house and the secret bar, and ensure that there is music and entertainment.

Read more at the Gammel Estrup website.

I visited the exhibition I wrote about earlier and took some photos. Click the picture to go to a flickr set.

Another 18th century related exhibition in Stockholm! This time it’s at Stockholms stadsmuseum and the exhibition is called Bellman, Sevenbom och Prinsessan. The description at the website says it’s about “filth, luxury and everyday life in 18th century Stockholm”. I have no idea what’s going to be shown, but it sounds great.

The Swedish national museum will exhibit over 100 paintings by Alexander Roslin from September 27 2007 to January 13 2008. There will also be two lectures. Click the portrait to go to the exhibition website.

Tidens Tøj

This an “Internet exhibition” of clothes ranging from the 1700s to the 1980s, and they have quite a lot of stuff in the 1700s section. The photos are great and there are even patterns for some of the clothes! The site is in Danish but I think you can figure out the navigation even if you don’t know the language. There are also long descriptions of every garment, but they’re in Danish too of course. You can see the clothes in real life at the Danish national museum.

Yesterday I went to “open house” at the royal opera in Stockholm. They had a tour showing the making of costumes, props and such, and there was also an exhibition of antique costumes, Detaljer, including some 18th century things. Click the picture above to go to a flickr set with my photos from the tour and exhibition.