From Filles du Roy to the French and Indian War, Chapter 3: the mantua 1670-1710

Hello,

Welcome to this third chapter of my overview of the evolution of women's clothing in New France. Around 1670, the last contingents of Filles du Roy crossing the Atlantic were increasingly reduced. In 1673, the last year of this settlement policy, only about sixty women made the crossing.

I left you in chapter 2 with this painting representing both a ''Grand Habit'' (Court gown) in pink on the right and a back coat in black and yellow:

Louis XIV devant la grotte de Téthys
Artist Anonymous
After 1670
Collection du Château de Versailles

The fashion of the mantua in English and Spanish, is called ''manteau'' in French and is the new fashion emerges during the decade 1670 in the metropole. In my opinion, this fashion is a first step towards the frequent and continuous renewal of fashions that France has known since that time. This helped Louis XIV to establish his kingdom as a model in terms of dress fashion.

La jeune fille de l'artiste qui s'occupe de son frère;
 Artist: Claude Lefebvre, 
between 1670 and 1675, 
Collection du Musée National Magnin, Dijon

This painting is the most realistic I have found to illustrate this particular fashion. I love the ribbon details that are reminiscent of the mid-17th century male rhingraves' fashion.

The ''manteau'', a consequence of the recognition of seamstresses by the royal power

A little historical reminder of the making of clothes: Since the Middle Ages, the corporation of tailors (tailleurs) has had the exclusive right to make clothes in France. Article 4 of their statutes of 1660 confirms this state of affairs:«Il n'appartiendra qu'aux Maitres Marchands Tailleurs d'habit de faire et vendre toutes sortes d'habit et d'accoutrements généralement quelconques à l'usage d'hommes de femmes et d'enfants. » “It will be up to the Master Merchant Tailors of clothing to make and sell all kinds of clothing and accoutrements generally of any kind for the use of men, women and children.'' By playing on this privilege, the corporation filed complaints after complaints to the general police lieutenant against the seamstresses who were beginning to eat away at a market share, that is, the making of clothing for women and children. Despite these repeated attacks on the woman merchants, they continued to make clothes.

It is in the context of the Dutch War that the community of seamstresses would soon be granted the status of corporation. Louis XIV began this war in 1672 with the aim of expanding his territory northwards and reducing competition from Dutch goods.

La couturier
Engraving of late 17th century, édited 1750
Source: Gallica

The edict of March 1673 prescribes the constitution of a community for all trades in towns and villages. So to have the right to practice your profession, you must pay your practice fee, called patent, to your corporation and be recognized as a master by your peers. Beware of those who practice without a patent ... The edict of March 1673 was first intended to increase the number of regulated trades and thus increase the income linked to their rights to practice.

Blason des couturières de Paris
Source: Catawiki

The seamstresses were included in the list of trades of the city of Paris to be set up as a corporation. Their number is estimated at 3000 in the city of Paris only in this edict of March of 1673. This corporation was legally established in 1675 with its articles, its rights of practice and its regulations and even its blazon'' d'azur à la paire de ciseaux d'argent, ouverts en sautoir'' (I am not a heraldic specialist so my translation is a silver pair of scissors, open in an X way on a blue background). Thus a seamstress must have five years of training (three years of apprenticeship followed by two years of service with a master seamstress) before having the right to become a master seamstress herself. Dressmakers have the right to dress women and children up to the age of eight. The making of women's clothing was a right of practice shared between seamstresses and tailors, however the making of whalebone bodies, and by extension of Ladies' Grands Habits, remained the preserve of the corporation of tailors, just like that of men's clothing. and boys over eight years old. Almost a century later, in 1782, the corporation of seamstresses obtained the right to manufacture corsets and whalebone ''paniers'', men's dressing gowns as well as dominoes for the ball (a kind of cloak to cover ball gown). Information taken from the article '' Couturière'' (dressmaker) '' of the Dictionnaire historique des arts, métiers et professions exercés dans Paris depuis le treizième siècle par Alfred Franklin de 1906. (Historical Dictionary of Arts, Crafts and Professions in Paris since the Thirteenth Century by Alfred Franklin from 1906.)

Pour faire valoriser sa manchandise on méprise celle d'autrui
Gravure de 1695, édité en 1750
Source: Gallica

The fashion of the ''manteau'', which interests me in this article, is possibly a direct repercussion of the edict of March 1673, and of the officialization of the trade of seamstresses. The legalization of the profession of master seamstress does not prevent the continuation of the legendary disagreement with the tailors. So much so that in their corporate articles, it is forbidden for master seamstresses to marry a tailor. Contrary to the ''Grand habit'' (court gown) which remain the preserve of the tailors by their adjustment of baleens on the well fitted bodices, it is allowed for the seamstresses to manufacture the new fashion of the ''manteau'' (mantua).

Madame la duchesse du Maine,
Artiste Henri Bonnart, 
End of 17th century, 
Collection of Château de Versailles.

Dame en habit garni d'agréement
Artiste anonymous
around 1685-1690
Collection du Rijksmuseum

The fashion of the coat varies the textures and colors between the skirt, the coat and its lining.

esquisse d'une femme agenouillée
Artiste Antoine Watteau
No datation
Source: Artnet

Under the article ''manteau'' in the Dictionary of the French Academy of 1694, we can read «les femmes appellent aussi manteau, une espèce de robe plissée qu'elles portent avec une ceinture » (women also call manteau, a kind of pleated dress that they wear with a belt). With the mantua, the supportive garment of the time, which was then called stays or boned bodies (today often confused with the corset), becomes an undergarment and this definitively in the daily wardrobe of the well-to-do . Equipping a robe with baleen is a long and costly process that will continues for the Court Gown. The mantua, unlike the latter, makes it easier to vary the exterior outfit. The stays an essential accessory but independent of the ''manteau'' and covered by it.

Définition du mot manteau
Dictionnaire de l'Académie Française, dédiée au Roy
1694
Tome 2, M-Z
Page 21
Source: Gallica

Where does this term come from, ''manteau''?

Today, the term manteau is generally translated with the word coat in English.The term ''manteau'' first appeared in French vocabulary, or should I say Proto-French, as early as the 12th century and referred to the idea of ​​covering. Initially, the ''manteau'' was synonymous with the cape, from 1670 it was also the last piece of clothing that ladies put over their bodies. The ''manteau'' or mantua of women at the end of the reign of Louis XIV is, most of the time, open in front, revealing either the stays or a stomacher, which gallantly covers the opening left by the mantua. The Mercure Galant, the first fashion magazine and official show review, noted in 1678 that:

« on n'y met presque plus que ce qui s'appelle des manteaux. Les robes ne sont que pour les visites de cérémonies ou pour celles qu'on rend aux gens d'un rang plus élevé que celui que l'on tient, & on ne s'en sert ni pour voir familièrement ses amies, ni pour les parties de promenade.»

“We hardly put any more in them than what are called ''manteaux''. The dresses are only for ceremonial visits or for those which one returns to people of a higher rank than that which one holds, and one does not use them neither to see familiarly one's friends, nor for walks. "

Pages 380 et 381 
Mercure Galant, 
Quartier de Janvier 1678
Tome 1
Source: Google Books

It is interesting that for the authors of Mercure Galant, the ''manteau'' is not a ''robe'' (gown) and that the term seems exclusive to the Grand Habit, which is the only time the ladies are "dressed". Doesn't the page on the left suggest that the designation dress is only suitable for court dresses? I note the particular spelling of the  ''déshabillé'' (negligee) in "Des habillé d'Hyver" with the right page. This perhaps indicates the origin of the 18th century expression of "negligee" as a synonym for everyday clothing. If the vein looks good, it would be just as good to dig it out before you say anything about it.

Femme de qualité en déshabillé d'été
Artiste Jean Dieu de St-Jean
1683
Source: Gallica

Femme de Qualité en déshabillé d'étoffe siamoise
Jean Dieu de St-Jean
1687
Source: Gallica

Femme de Qualité en déshabillé
Auteur Jean Dieu de St-Jean
1690
Source: Gallica

The cut of the ''manteau'' is complex, as is the way of wearing it. It is formed of wide pleats at the back (sometimes sewn, sometimes only placed) as well as a clever roll-up of this abundance of fabric under the belt which allows you to see the lining of the mantua. If the ''Grand Habit'' is characterized by the uniformity of the fabrics of the visible skirt and the bodice, the coat varies the patterns and colors of the fabrics between the coat, its lapel, the skirt and the stomach piece. It was in the decade of 1680 that the term ''falbala'' appeared, originally designating a pleated band regularly arranged on the skirt that decorates it.

Femme de qualité en Stenkerke et falbala
Artiste Jean Dieu de St-Jean
1693
Source: Gallica

Louise Benedicte de Bourbon, Duchesse du Maine
Artiste Jean Mariette
XVIIe-XVIIIe siècle
Collection du Château de Versailles

Études de coiffure à la Fontange
Artiste Bernard Picart
1703
Collection du Rijksmuseum

This high hairstyle with lace, visible on several of the portraits presented so far, is characteristic of the last decades of the reign of Louis XIV and is called the Fontange. According to legend, Mlle de Fontange would have improvised this arrangement of hair during a royal hunting party in 1679. After a fall or simply a panting ride, she finds herself disheveled. She would have raised her hair on the top of her head with a simple ribbon in order to continue the equestrian activity. The Sun King would have liked it so much that he would have asked her to spend the evening wearing her hair like this. The next day all the ladies of the Court already wore this hairstyle in height, wanting to please His Majesty Louis XIV. Information taken from the book «Histoire des modes et du vêtement, du Moyen-Âge au XXIe siècle» (History of fashions and clothing, from the Middle Ages to the 21st century).

I haven't found any primary sources for this legend, which has multiple versions. In some, it is a garter that acts as a ribbon. In others, a twig has become entangled in the hair, allowing the hairstyle to gain height. This legend shows how easily a new fashion could be created at the court of Versailles.

Mlle de Fontange's stay at court was very brief, from 1679 to 1680 before dying in June 1681. She was the last mistress of the Sun King before he married Mme de Maintenon. The indications that I have found so far do not allow us to know whether Mlle de Fontange herself knew that she had created a fashion hairstyle.

The Fontange and the mantua are possibly the fashion items for which we have the most documentation in New France. In addition to appearing in painting in two ex-votos painted in New France, that of Mme Riverin and that of the sick child of the Vaudreuil-Soulanges museum, the hairdressing named Fontange is also named in the  nouveaux voyages de M. Baron de Lahontan dans Amérique Septentrionale (new voyages of M. Baron de Lahontan in North America) published in 1703. The latter describes the zeal of the priests of New France who refuse communion to the women of the nobles for a simple Fontange of color.

Detail of ex-voto of Madame Riverin
Date 1703
Auteur Anonymous
Collection of Musée National des Beaux-Arts du Québec
Crédit photo: Joseph Gagné

Ex-voto of the Sick Child
Date 1697
Artiste Anonyme
Collection of Musée régional Vaudreuil-Soulanges

 

Moreover, the writings of this period in New France which speak of women's clothing at the end of the 17th century come mainly from clergymen who complain about female indecency in dress.

 

Monsignor de Laval used his pen to express his irritation towards the women of his parish who appeared in the church grounds too naked for his liking. I quote from an extract from his Mandement contre le luxe et vanité des femmes et filles dans l'Église (Mandement against the luxury and vanity of women and girls in the Church) of 1682:

 

«De quels crimes ne sont pas punissables et de quels punitions ne doive pas attendre celles qui portent cet appareil fastueux jusque dans nos églises, paraissant dans ces lieux consacrés à la prière et à la pénitence avec des habits indécents, faisant voir des nudités scandaleuses de bras, d'épaules et de gorges, se contentant de les couvrir de toile transparente,  ce qui sert bien souvent à donner plus de lustre à ces nudités honteuses »

"For what crimes are not punishable and what punishments should not expect those who wear this sumptuous apparatus into our churches, appearing in these places devoted to prayer and penance with indecent clothes, showing scandalous nudities of arms, shoulders and throats, contenting himself with covering them with transparent cloth, which often serves to give more luster to these shameful nudities ”

Portrait de Madame Helyot
Artistes: Gérard Edelinck, Claude François et Jacques Galliot
 1685
Source Gallica

Monseigneur de Laval, the first bishop of Quebec, probably dreamed of making all the women of the colony as pious and devout women as Madame Heylot. Unfortunately for him, coquetry and vanity did not stay in France and spread throughout the colony. 

Dame se promenant à la Campagne
Artiste Jean Dieu de St-Jean
Vers 1675- 1683
Source: Gallica

 

The neckline of the ''manteau'', about which Bishop Monsignor de Laval probably complains, varies from one engraving to another. Some, like these, show a low neckline that undoubtedly made several clergymen like Monseigneur de Laval tick.

Dame en habit de ville
Artist: Jean Dieu de St-Jean
End of 17th century
Collection of Musée Carnavalet

 

There are a few rare copies of mantuas in museums, however they are of other nationalities than French for those I know and relatively late in the period.

Mantua
 British
Artist Anonymous
End 17th century
Collection MET, metropolitan museum of art

Mantua 
Italian
Artist Anonymous
Around 1700
Collection LACMA, Los Angeles County Museum of Art

Mantua
origine britannique
Artiste inconnu
vers 1708
Collection MET, metropolitan museum of art

For this fashion, I found many more portraits and engravings of crowds with ladies wearing mantua than the previous one, the court dress or ''Grand Habit''.

First, a little reminder of the divine healing capacities of the Kings of France with this portrait of Louis XIV healing the sick.

Louis XIV touchant les malades des écrouelles
Artist Jean Jouvenet
No datation
Collection de l'Abbatiale de Saint-Riquier
Source: Wikimedia Commons

We can clearly see that the young girl in yellow and red in the center wears stays because of the angle of her trunk as well as the straightness of her back. Also this is a rare painting showing a Fontange hairstyle from the back with details.

Then, here is a perspective view of the gardens of Versailles:

Vue perspective du Bosquet de la Galerie des Antiques
Artist Jean-Baptiste l'Ainé Martin
1688
Collection of Château de Versailles

I love these perspective views with lots of little details that I am happy to share with you.

Detail of
Vue perspective du Bosquet de la Galerie des Antiques
Artist Jean-Baptiste l'Ainé Martin
1688
Collection of Château de Versailles

Detail of
Vue perspective du Bosquet de la Galerie des Antiques
Artist Jean-Baptiste l'Ainé Martin
1688
Collection of Château de Versailles

Some ladies, like this one in blue and purple, prefer to keep the ''Grand Habit'' or court gown on as they stroll through the gardens around Versailles.

Detail of
Vue perspective du Bosquet de la Galerie des Antiques
Artist Jean-Baptiste l'Ainé Martin
1688
Collection of Château de Versailles

The attention to detail of the costumes fascinates me, especially for a landscape work. The black lining of this red mantua creates a dramatic effect in my opinion.

Detail of
Vue perspective du Bosquet de la Galerie des Antiques
Artist Jean-Baptiste l'Ainé Martin
1688
Collection of Château de Versailles

The ''manteau'' also appears in paintings of outdoor events such as this visit to Marseilles:

Le marquis de Seignelay et le duc de Vivonne visitent la galère Réale dans l'Arsenal de Marseille
Artist Anonymous
Around 1677
Collection of Château de Versailles

A few ladies joined to visit the galley:

Detail of
Le marquis de Seignelay et le duc de Vivonne visitent la galère Réale dans l'Arsenal de Marseille
Artiste Anonymous
Around 1677
Collection of Château de Versailles

Other perspective prints show female walkers dressed in mantuas.

''Vue de la fontaine du point du jour (cabinet des combats d'animaux sud) dans les jardins de Versailles''
Artists: Dominique Girard and Jean Raymond
1714-1715
Collection of Château de Versailles

Detail of
''Vue de la fontaine du point du jour (cabinet des combats d'animaux sud) dans les jardins de Versailles''
Artists: Dominique Girard et Jean Raymond
1714-1715
Collection of Château de Versailles

The next engravings taken from the work of Nicolas Guérard show people of Paris in their daily life and the slow adoption of the fashion of ''manteau'' for less well-off social classes, except for the first which shows a lady renting services for a chair bearer.

''Vive Paris on a tout a souhait''
Engraving of Nicolas Guérard
17th century
Collection of Musée Carnavalet

''Parguyé je suis François et non pas Turcque..''
Engraving of Nicolas Guérard
17th century
Collection du Musée Carnavalet

The roll-up of the bottom of the mantua is more messy for ordinary women than those of ''dames de qualité'' but the imitation is visible.

''Tu as menti vilain hatabas''
Engraving of Nicolas Guérard
17th century
Collection du Musée Carnavalet

''Diverses petitte Figure des Cris de Paris''
Engraving of Nicolas Guérard
17th century
Collection du Musée Carnavalet

Some hairstyles are more like Fontange than others.

''L'embaras de Paris''
Engraving of Nicolas Guérard
First quarter of 18th century
Collection du Musée Carnavalet

Now it's your turn to find women's coats on this engraving showing the traffic jams in Paris on the Pont-Neuf at the start of the 18th century!

Let's finish this overview of mantua fashion with a portrait of the end of this period.

Portrait of Mme Monginot and her husband
Artist Jean-François Troy
Around 1710-1713
Collection of Musée d'Art de Nantes

This mantua is sober, made of brown velvet with black velvet lapels also visible at the neckline and sleeves.

 

We can say that the fashion of the ''manteau will last for forty years, until around the 1710s.

As we will see in the next article, the coat will evolve into the next fashion: the ''robe volante'', in its beginnings called the ''manteau volant''.

Amour paisible
Artist Antoine Watteau
1718-1719
Collection of Musée du Château de Charlottenburg
Source: Universalis.fr

While I present fashions chronologically, it must be remembered that the emergence of a new fashion at the expense of another is a slow process that causes periods of overlap as in this portrait of Antoine Watteau where the mantua is alongside the next fashion, the ''robe volante'.

Mlle Canadienne