Mantua clothing

Global Arts, Cultures and Design 7 min read.

This gown was worn over a pair of stays corset and an often contrasting petticoat. The draping and folding of fabric created a front-opening gown. After its invention in the s, the new gown became immediately popular among fashionable Parisian women. Although strict dress codes at the Versailles court of French King Louis XIV prohibited the wearing of mantuas, women at the English court helped popularise it in England. By the s, the mantua was widely worn in Western and Central Europe, as well as in European colonies around the world. Before the 17th century, outer garments were usually made by male tailors.

Mantua clothing

Mantua of damask silk with woven garlands and floral motifs. Courtesy GemeenteMuseum Den Haag. Introduced in Europe in the s, the mantua was in origin a loose coat for women, with a kimono-like cut. It was inspired by the clothes and robes recently imported from India, that were worn by Western men as dressing gowns. Court dress consisting of an embroidered silk mantua robe and petticoat, probably made in England, Courtesy Victoria and Albert Museum, all rights reserved. Cream silk sack-back and petticoat made from a mantua from the late s. Initially considered too informal to be worn outside private spaces by Louis XIV, by the end of the 17th century the mantua became the formal dress worn in the courts of Europe and continued to be worn in England until , when George IV suggested it should be abandoned. In the early eighteenth century elliptical side hoops came to fashion, the shapes of the mantua changed to accommodate them. Following the crazes of the court, its width even reached, in the most extreme cases, two meters. Signs of exaggeration: The Mantua A widely fascinating story.

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Not on view. The late s saw a new development in the style of women's dress that would have a far-reaching effect throughout the following century. The stiff constricting boned bodice-and-skirt style previously worn by women was now replaced with the mantua, a more loosely draped style of gown. The mantua was thought to display silk designs to their best advantage, as they were draped rather than cut; as such, it is believed the garment was named after Mantua in Italy, where expensive silks were produced. However, it has also been suggested that the name derives from manteau , the French term for a coat. The mantua was a coatlike construction, with sleeves cut in one piece with the back and front. It was pleated at the shoulders and fell to the waist, where it was held in place by a sash.

Quilting for comfort, hemmed in bondage, seaming for profit or embroidered for enjoyment; hand sewing has stitched together humanity. Rooted in an 18th-century English and American hand-sewing practice - Sewn Company inspire people to reconnect to the past with a needle and thread. In Sarah Woodyard's upcoming Hand-Sewn 18th-century Seaming Techniques workshop, she draws on the skills of anonymous mantua-makers and seamstresses and celebrates their labour through the preservation of their skills. A seamstress was a woman who cut and stitched linens like shirts and shifts. It also could mean a skilled stitcher to assist in the remaking of secondhand clothing or a woman brought in by mantua-makers and milliners to stitch garments together. In the 18th and 19th-century Atlantic world, a mantua-maker was often a woman who cut and fit outer garments for women, but not exclusively. Think of her like a modern dressmaker. A mantua-maker fit these garments around their customers' figure, relying on the silhouette created by stays, jumps and other support garments like hoops and bums. Sometimes the shapes of the garments were cut directly around the customer and sometimes the shapes were drafted on the worktable and then fitted on the body. This technique depended on location, training and the types of garments made by the mantua-maker.

Mantua clothing

There is something deeply intriguing about mantuas. To date, the Mantua Project has studied over fifteen mantuas, recording stitching, construction and pattern development from each gown. A replica is then created to fully understand and experience the sewing methods. To build a picture of how the project works, this blog is going to follow the study and replication of a mantua gown. The gown chosen for this is the beautiful T. It has been altered since its original construction, but the essential techniques are still intact and it has proved a stunning gown for the study. The following narrative will refer to various areas of the mantua with distinct terms, so a diagram has been included to clarify these terms. Please see image 2.

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Perhaps the only known extant adult-size example is an embroidered wool mantua and petticoat [12] in the Metropolitan Museum of Art 's Costume Institute. New York. The Georgian Costume Company. It started as the female version of the men's banyan , worn for "undress" wear. This in turn is supported by an acrylic structure made for us by The Museum Workshop at the same time as the bespoke acrylic mannequin. Most mantuas preserved in museum collections are formal versions from the midth century, intended for court dress. Its popularity was such that dressmakers were referred to as mantua-makers. Victoria and Albert museum. The fashionable shape of the torso at this time was much more conical with a flatter, smoother bust line, fashioned by the rigid stays worn by ladies in the 18th century. Apprenticeships and membership of guilds — the organisations that controlled most craft trades — were restricted to boys and men. The construction of the mantua was altered so that once the train was pinned up, the exposed reverse of the train showed the proper face of the fabric or embroidery. Trimming 18th century.

This gown was worn over a pair of stays corset and an often contrasting petticoat. The draping and folding of fabric created a front-opening gown. After its invention in the s, the new gown became immediately popular among fashionable Parisian women.

Mantua making was also a significant business opportunity for women in Australia. Open Access. London: Faber, The skills and techniques of each profession remained quite different. ISSN It is backed with linen and embroidered with naturalistic floral design in coloured silks and silver-gilt thread. Fashion Women's history 17th century Women's economic participation Fashion history Dresses women's fashion women's work tailors s Women's economic security Women's workforce participation Luxury fashion. Retrieved Following the crazes of the court, its width even reached, in the most extreme cases, two meters. Lengths of cane have been sewn into the interior with rows of vertical stitches. Above: The court mantua before it was mounted for display. Due to the considerable influence of France on western fashions, women in London began to train under French dressmakers , giving rise to what were known in English as mantua makers.