Romantic pelisse-robes
Aug. 26th, 2016 02:18 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mandie_rwPosted at whatever ungodly hour of the morning, since there's a snuffly rhinoceros sleeping next door, and I might as well do something useful?
(One of those collecting-my-thoughts posts, feel free to skip!)
I think I want to make one of these for our New Castle Christmas, so I'm hashing it all out with myself!
from rijksmuseum
First off, I don't know if they were called pelisse-robes in period, or if that's a modern term. It's in Arnold, and it's in Englishwomen's Clothing in the Nineteenth Century, and that's all I've found so far, in my not-very-extensive research. It seems to have come about in the 1820s, and is different from a pelisse insofar as while a pelisse is a coat worn over a dress, a pelisse-robe is a dress that looks like a coat (and fastens in front like a coat). Seems like a natural evolution: makes sense so far. (Again, I don't know if it's a period term but til somebody disproves it to me, I'm going to stick with it!)
Ackermann's, 1825
Earlier ones look like they still were sometimes open all the way to the hem, but past the mid-20s, seem to only actually open halfway down the front or so, enough to put the dress on. There's one in Costume In Detail that Bradfield refers to as a coat or pelisse, but since it only opens to about mid-thigh, I'm putting it in my mental collection of pelisse-robes.
American pelisse, 1820-30
In the early 20s there are quite a few pelisses that could go either way, but once you get to the fairly big gigot sleeves of the late 20s, I think they're mostly, if not all, pelisse-robes rather than coats. Why? Simple practical fact: have you ever tried to put a coat on over your giant Romantic sleeve-puffed sleeve? You literally can't do it by yourself! Sure, I guess someone's handy maid could help out there, but having to stuff gown sleeves through small, low armscyes going both ways would crumple them up something terrible! Or try wearing a big gigot sleeve under another gigot sleeve - sounds like Fun Sausage-Arm Time to me (which actually sounds like no fun at all).
The Met, c1825
There don't seem to be any easily findable extants by the time you get to the early 1830s (at least, in twenty minutes of trawling Pinterest), but I still see what I suspect are front-fastening coat-dresses in fashion plates.
La Mode, 1832
I don't have any wildly brilliant conclusions from all this (although I do have a Pinterest board), just an "I think it's interesting" and an "oh look, a way to have a front fastening dress and still be fashionable"! Quite a few of them seem to be silk, but I'm still eyeballing this wool-and-cashmere fabric on ebay...
The only downside I can see to a pelisse-robe, modernly speaking, is that you can't take your coat off if you get hot indoors. Probably not a concern before central heating, but nowadays...! Course, I could make some kind of corset-cover/bodiced petticoat so I could decently unfasten it to the waist, anyway. Hmmmmm.
(One of those collecting-my-thoughts posts, feel free to skip!)
I think I want to make one of these for our New Castle Christmas, so I'm hashing it all out with myself!
from rijksmuseum
First off, I don't know if they were called pelisse-robes in period, or if that's a modern term. It's in Arnold, and it's in Englishwomen's Clothing in the Nineteenth Century, and that's all I've found so far, in my not-very-extensive research. It seems to have come about in the 1820s, and is different from a pelisse insofar as while a pelisse is a coat worn over a dress, a pelisse-robe is a dress that looks like a coat (and fastens in front like a coat). Seems like a natural evolution: makes sense so far. (Again, I don't know if it's a period term but til somebody disproves it to me, I'm going to stick with it!)
Ackermann's, 1825
Earlier ones look like they still were sometimes open all the way to the hem, but past the mid-20s, seem to only actually open halfway down the front or so, enough to put the dress on. There's one in Costume In Detail that Bradfield refers to as a coat or pelisse, but since it only opens to about mid-thigh, I'm putting it in my mental collection of pelisse-robes.
American pelisse, 1820-30
In the early 20s there are quite a few pelisses that could go either way, but once you get to the fairly big gigot sleeves of the late 20s, I think they're mostly, if not all, pelisse-robes rather than coats. Why? Simple practical fact: have you ever tried to put a coat on over your giant Romantic sleeve-puffed sleeve? You literally can't do it by yourself! Sure, I guess someone's handy maid could help out there, but having to stuff gown sleeves through small, low armscyes going both ways would crumple them up something terrible! Or try wearing a big gigot sleeve under another gigot sleeve - sounds like Fun Sausage-Arm Time to me (which actually sounds like no fun at all).
The Met, c1825
There don't seem to be any easily findable extants by the time you get to the early 1830s (at least, in twenty minutes of trawling Pinterest), but I still see what I suspect are front-fastening coat-dresses in fashion plates.
La Mode, 1832
I don't have any wildly brilliant conclusions from all this (although I do have a Pinterest board), just an "I think it's interesting" and an "oh look, a way to have a front fastening dress and still be fashionable"! Quite a few of them seem to be silk, but I'm still eyeballing this wool-and-cashmere fabric on ebay...
The only downside I can see to a pelisse-robe, modernly speaking, is that you can't take your coat off if you get hot indoors. Probably not a concern before central heating, but nowadays...! Course, I could make some kind of corset-cover/bodiced petticoat so I could decently unfasten it to the waist, anyway. Hmmmmm.
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