For reasons I will be sharing soon, my 1784 story is back on my mind. And as I lay in bed last night unable to get back to sleep, I remembered a fun little factoid I’d yet to share with y’all. =)
Ever wonder how people kept up on fashion back in the day? I mean, in the 18th century fashion was EVERYTHING. Even here in the colonies–in fact, a London man described our balls and gowns as far more fashion-forward than anything to be seen in London. (Not his exact words, but that’s the gist, LOL.) But it wasn’t exactly the age of full-color magazines . . . nor of Fashion Weeks. They didn’t have Style or E! and certainly couldn’t browse Ideeli daily for awesome bargains on designers.
So they looked at dolls. Yep, that’s right. Marie Antoinette was more than a leader of France in the late 18th century, she was the unanimously agreed upon leader of fashion the world over. And whenever Marie Antoinette appeared in a new style, her peeps would make miniature versions of it for dolls and send those dolls to every major port.
It may have taken two months, but those “fashion babies” arrived on our doorsteps and brought detailed examples from the Queen of Fashion into our lives. And so, though it moved at a snail’s pace compared to our changes from season to season now, styles changed far more quickly than they had in centuries prior.
All thanks to prettily made up baby dolls. =)
Happy Wednesday, everybody! I know mine will be!
Roseanna M. White is a bestselling, Christy Award winning author who has long claimed that words are the air she breathes. When not writing fiction, she’s homeschooling her two kids, editing, designing book covers, and pretending her house will clean itself. Roseanna is the author of a slew of historical novels that span several continents and thousands of years. Spies and war and mayhem always seem to find their way into her books…to offset her real life, which is blessedly ordinary.
You have really great work on fashion, I have also some Fashion weeks on my blog, Thanks