Modern clothes need a certain romantic feel. – Jeanne Lanvin
18th CENTURY MEETS 1920s
Designed by Jeanne Lanvin in the 1920s, her lovely gowns contrasted to the boyish, tubular flapper dresses.
Flapper dresses were worn by the few, the daring, and the young for a boyish look.
Designed to be stunning on all body shapes and ages, the Robe de Style provided fashionable feminine alternative to the boyish cut of the flapper dresses.
As with the flapper dress, gone are the corsets and numerous layers of underpinnings.
The bodice retained the simple straightish, unfitted lines, like the flapper dress.
However, the Robe de Style distinguished itself with a dropped waist, near the hipline, which is the first in history.
Also, the skirts are quite full and gathered to resemble 18th century court gowns, quite the opposite of the tubular flapper dress.
To play up the shape of the skirts, Lanvin reached back to the 18th century panniers which shaped the court gowns, slightly minimizing them, to pouf out the skirts.
Lanvin often had the panniers sewn into the waistline, on each side of the hips.
Only the hips were widened, whereas the lines in front and back remained flat.
DRAPING THE GOWN
After much pattern research I settled on draping and drafting directions from “Draping a Magic Dancing Frock” from the September 1928 issue of Fashion Service Magazine, which was published by the Women’s Institute of Domestic Arts and Sciences.
After draping the bodice, I drafted the voluminous skirt.
Although the drafting instructions recommended a lovely turquoise taffeta faced with orchid, all I could find was peach for the fashion fabric and lavender for the facing.
DRAFTING THE PANNIERS
The understructure required for the Robe de Style shape is a set of 18th century style panniers on a smaller scale than their predecessors.
A common descriptor in my research was the word, “basket-like.”
After discovering great photos of Robe de Style panniers, I created my panniers.
While wearing my gown, I measured from the top of the dropped waistline to the top of my knee for the length.
For the width, I measured how much length it would take to do a semi-circle next to my hips, to create the proper silhouette.
All I want to ultimately do is extend my hip line.
From these measurements I cut out some fabric, so that when folded over they would be these dimensions.
Into each of the channels I created, I inserted leftover reed from my 18th century stays project.
To maintain the semi-circle shape, I added fabric to the hoops, that forced it into a semi-circle.
With the weight of the skirts surrounding them and the panniers pressing against my hips and legs, they stay in place quite well.
FABRIC FLOWER
I added a pink fabric flower to my peach and lavender to dress it up a bit more, since many Robe de Styles I studied did the same with artificial flowers.
MARCEL WAVE
A bit of marcel wave in my hair, which is actually my hair’s natural state.
For more photos, check my Flickr set.
RESOURCES
Fountainhead Antique Auto Museum
COMMENTS FROM MY OLD BLOG
Jessica Greyson-February 3, 2014 at 11:10 AM -What a charming pretty dress.
MrsSM-February 28, 2014 at 11:55 PM-Good work figuring all of that out! We worked on a similar project using PVC tubing for the channels–not authentic, but effective (and awkward to work with).
Marietta Greene – January 9, 2017 at 2:10 PM – Thank you for this blogpost and all the great links! Very helpful in getting ready for making my own robe de style.
