Man dressing gown out of a 1725 boat shipwreck

Hello!

I want to share the story behind the reproduction of a man's banyan I just finished.

That story begins with this document: État des effets et marchandises provenant du naufrage du navire du Roy le Chameau. (Condition of material and merchandises from the shipwreck of the King's ship ''le Chameau'')

This document is available with Archives de la Nouvelle-France. This database is a collaboration between the following organisms: Library and Archives Canada, Archives Nationales d'Outre-Mer (France), Archives Nationales (France) et Bibliothèque et Archives Nationales du Québec.

For a better understanding of this inventory, it is better to talk about the ship ''le Chameau'' and its history. That ship was a flute, a ship made for carrying merchandise. It was built in Brest in 1717-1718  and Rochefort was his designed seaport. During its life ''le Chameau'' was carrying merchandise between Rochefort and Québec. In the night of August 27th to 28th 1725, ''le Chameau'' made a shipwreck not too far from Louisbourg when it was heading to Québec. They had no survivors. The bodies they found on the shore were ''nu en chemise'' (naked in shifts), it was presumed that the wreck was sudden.

Map of  October 10th 1725
 Showing the site of the shipwreck of ''le Chameau''

From Navires venus en Nouvelle-France

Few expeditions to bring back the most material that the disaster put on the shores were set. It is in this occasion the inventory I told you about in the introduction was made. In that list of material, one item was more attracting for my curiosity.

Dernière page de 

État des effets et marchandises provenant du naufrage du navire du Roy le Chameau.

''Une robbe de chambre d'indienne doublée d'un taffetas vert''

''One banyan in indienne lined in green taffeta''

The first thing that caught my interest is the description of the fabric. The way it is written that the banyan is in indienne and the lining is in taffetas means that the printed cotton fabric was more valuable and more fashionable than the taffeta (winch refers to silk as no other fibers were used to made taffetas during this time, like polyester taffeta today) That item supports my idea that indiennes made in printed cotton were probably more expensive than silk taffetas. Today it is quite the opposite, usually printed cotton fabric are way more expensive than silk taffeta. 

After I began to be intrigued by the clothing named ''robe de chambre'' (banyan). The absence of woman indication like '' ''de femme'' or ''de dame'' (of woman or of lady) makes me think that its a gentleman clothing. Most 18th century precise that it is woman clothing with such indicative, in French at least, I do not know for Shakespeare language. In fact, the only woman clothing in ''le Chameau'' inventory is on the same page of the indienne banyan. You can read  : ''un habis de femme ... gris sans doublure''. (a woman outfit ... grey without a lining). The ... indicates that I can not read the word. All others ''habis'' (outfit) just have the fabric/decoration description, so they should be men's garment. 

Documentation about French men banyan in the beginning of the 18th century and late 17th century began. My searches lead me to those paintings. 

Portrait of a young man

No datation

Attributed to a french painter

Form collection: ''Old Master Painting''

Museum of Fine Arts of Budapest, Hungry

''Homme en robe de chambre'', from ''recueil des modes de la cour de France''

Printed in Paris, France, 1676

attributed to Nicolas Bonnart et Jean-Baptiste Bonnart

Collection LACMA (Los Angeles Conty Museum of Art)

Portrait of a wigged man

Painter Jacob Ferdinand Voet during his Paris's stay  de 1686 à 1689

Private collection 

From Sotheby's auction, Paris, 15th June 2017

Tableaux sculpture et dessins anciens et du XIXe siècle, lot 78

Portrait of Samuel Bernard, comte de Coubert (1615-1687)

Painter Louis Ferdinand Elle le jeune (1649-1717)

Collection Château de Versailles, France

Portrait of an unknown man during Louis XV' s reign, formerly designating Jacques Soufflot

(Reign of Louis XV: 1722-1774)

Painter Carle Van Loo (1705-1765)

Collection Château de Versailles, France

Portrait of Marc de Villiers, secrétaire du Roy

Painter Jacques-André-Joseph Aved (1702-1766)

Dated 1747

Collection J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, États-Unis

As you can see, the general look of a man dressing gown did not evolve a lot since 17th century. On the paintings I have shown, the banyans have common points and different points. They are ''one side fits all'' and generally have a loose fit. They do not have belt, on the contrary of their actual descendent. All banyans have a contrasting lining and it look like silk (despite that fiber content is only a guessing).  Only two of the six have a clear seam at the shoulder, the others one do not have a seam or the voluminous wig/hair hide it. Only the banyan painted by Van Loo have some facings.


For my reproduction I choose to follow the things I found in common for all pictured banyan I have found. Not have a shoulder seam and have a loose fit. For the textiles, the description on the document I have shown upper is pretty clear.

For the '''indienne'', I choose a reproduction of an indienne for the dutch market dated around 1725 (The year ''le Chameau'' sank).

Indienne from

Dutch Fabric

For the lining, silk taffeta was required, indeed.

Silk taffeta from

Renaissance Fabric

The neckline is what caused me many headaches. I did buy the banyan pattern from ''Reconstructing History'' because I wanted to be guided in the cut. Unfortunately, I realised too late that the neckline on the paintings (close to the neck) are different than the one proposed by the pattern I bought (with lining appear into triangles). 

 In fact, I made that notice too late: my fabric was already cut, when I asked my boyfriend to do a pose for me when taking that picture. 

It stylish those lapels in lining but they never appear on painting.

I needed a solution. The one I found is to add a band of fabric on the pack of the neck like I did when I made a bedgown years ago. To avoid cutting more fabric, I pleated the side. If not I would have loss the loose fit into a fitted cut. And I really wanted to keep a loose fit banyan.

Neckline detail of my bedgown 

Wear and picture by Cathrine Davis

So here is the final result! My re-creation of an indienne banyan found on the shores not far from Louisbourg at the end or August 1725.

Full size view

Detail of the back and the neckline inspired by woman bedgown

Side view of the neckline and the pleats I made to keep all the width

Detail of the front neckline

Detail of the finition  of the sleeve, sewn by hand 

Master Historian is beginning to enter in his role ...

Between the idea of creating a banyan inspired by the document my friend Cathrine Davis showed me (the one in the beginning of this article and its realisation, there has been a long time. I am really satisfied by the way it looks. 

I hope you enjoyed the process as well as the final result of this indienne banyan.

To all adventurous people who had read the whole article, I hope you have a great day. 

Mlle Canadienne