__NOTOC__ The sack-back gown or ''robe à la française'' was a women's fashion of 18th century Europe. At the beginning of the century, the sack-back gown was a very informal style of dress. At its most informal, it was unfitted both front and back and called a sacque, contouche, or ''robe battante''. By the 1770s the sack-back gown was second only to court dress in its formality. This style of gown had fabric at the back arranged in box

pleat A pleat (plait in older English) is a type of fold formed by doubling textile, fabric back upon itself and securing it in place. It is commonly used in clothing and upholstery to gather a wide piece of fabric to a narrower circumference. Pleat ...

s which fell loose from the shoulder to the floor with a slight

train A train (from Old French , from Latin">-4; we might wonder whether there's a point at which it's appropriate to talk of the beginnings of French, that is, when it wa ... , from Latin , "to pull, to draw") is a series of connected vehicles th ...

. In front, the gown was open, showing off a decorative stomacher and petticoat. It would have been worn with a wide square hoop or panniers under the

petticoat A petticoat or underskirt is an article of clothing, a type of undergarment worn under a skirt or a dress. Its precise meaning varies over centuries and between countries. According to the ''Oxford English Dictionary'', in current British E ...

. Scalloped ruffles often trimmed elbow-length sleeves, which were worn with separate frills called engageantes. The casaquin (popularly known from the 1740s onwards as a pet-en-l'air) was an abbreviated version of the robe à la française worn as a jacket for informal wear with a matching or contrasting petticoat. The skirt of the casaquin was knee-length but gradually shortened until by the 1780s it resembled a peplum. The loose box pleats which are a feature of this style are sometimes called Watteau pleats from their appearance in the paintings of

Antoine Watteau Jean-Antoine Watteau (, , ; baptised 10 October 1684died 18 July 1721) Alsavailablevia Oxford Art Online (subscription needed). was a French Painting, painter and Drawing, draughtsman whose brief career spurred the revival of interest in colour ...

. The various Watteau terms, such as ''Watteau pleat'', ''Watteau back'', ''Watteau gown'' etc., date from the mid-19th century rather than reflecting authentic 18th century terminology, and normally describe 19th and 20th century revivals of the sack-back.

Notable wearers

A popular story, traced back to the correspondence of Élisabeth Charlotte d'Orléans, Duchess d'Orléans, is that the earliest form of the sack-back gown, the ''robe battante'', was invented as maternity clothing in the 1670s by

Louis XIV LouisXIV (Louis-Dieudonné; 5 September 16381 September 1715), also known as Louis the Great () or the Sun King (), was King of France from 1643 until his death in 1715. His verified reign of 72 years and 110 days is the List of longest-reign ...

's mistress to conceal her clandestine pregnancies. However, people would comment: " Madame de Montespan has put on her ''robe battante'', therefore she must be pregnant." A similar story is associated with Marie Louise Élisabeth d'Orléans, Duchess of Berry, who during the French Regency of 1715-1723 was known for wearing this style of gown which showcased her bosom and face whilst, as with Madame de Montespan, disguising illicit pregnancies.Philippe Erlanger, ''Le Régent'', Paris, Gallimard, 1966 (1st ed. 1938), pp. 227-228

Galleries

18th century

File:Gersaint-detail.jpg, ''L'Enseigne de Gersaint'' (detail), 1720, by

. Early example of a sack-back gown. File:Declarationoflove.jpg, ''La Déclaration d'amour'', 1731, by Jean François de Troy. Front and back views of women in sack-back gowns. File:Woman’s Robe à la Française, Amsterdam, 1740-1760.jpg, ''Robe à la française'', Netherlands, silk satin brocaded with silk and metallic threads, 1740-60. LACMA M.2007.211.928 File:Eleanor Frances Dixie by Henry Pickering.jpg, Eleanor Frances Dixie, c. 1753, by Henry Pickering. The sitter is wearing a bergère hat and a brocaded silk sack-back gown. File:Robe à la Française block-printed cotton c. 1770.jpg, ''Robe à la française'', France, block-printed cotton, c. 1770. LACMA M.2007.211.718

Post-18th century revival styles

File:Wiktor Elpidiforowitsch Borissow-Mussatow 002.jpg, Two women in Watteau back gowns, painted by Victor Borisov-Musatov, Russia, 1899. File:Tea gown 1899.jpg, Tea gown with a Watteau back, December 1899. Published in ''La Mode illustré''.

References

Bibliography

*Arnold, Janet. ''Patterns of Fashion 1: Englishwomen's dresses & their construction c. 1660–1860.'' Drama Publishers, 1977. *Burnston, Sharon Ann. ''Fitting and Proper: 18th Century Clothing from the Collection of the Chester County Historical Society.'' Scurlock Pub Co, 2000. *Hart, Avril, and Susan North. ''Seventeenth and Eighteenth-Century Fashion in Detail.'' V&A Publishing, 2009. * * Ribeiro, Aileen: ''The Art of Dress: Fashion in England and France 1750–1820'', Yale University Press, 1995, *Ribeiro, Aileen: ''Dress in Eighteenth Century Europe 1715–1789'', Yale University Press, 2002,

External links

18th Century Robes à la Française

How to Make a Contouche, also known as sack back dress, saque, or robe à la française
{{Historical clothing, state=expanded Gowns

Fashion Fashion is a term used interchangeably to describe the creation of clothing, footwear, Fashion accessory, accessories, cosmetics, and jewellery of different cultural aesthetics and their mix and match into Clothing, outfits that depict distinct ...