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c.1750s Trimm’d Sack

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yellow c.1750s sack back gown - font view
  • yellow c.1750s sack back gown - font view
  • bespoke accurate 18th century costume - HandBound
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c.1750s Trimm’d Sack

£4,750.00

Details:

  • Yellow Robe à la Français
  • Date c.1750s – 1770s
  • Made to Measure
  • 100% Hand sewn
  • Historically Accurate
  • Based on Original Garments
Category:

Product Description

c.1750s Yellow Sack Back Gown

The original to this gown is insane and amazing all in the same breath!

(see the history tab for a photo!)

It’s massive, yellow and with a crazy amount of trim, and our version of this gown has been designed to tame it down just a wee tad and has turned it into a sack back gown.

This gown features:

  • Sack Back pleats – deep and properly done
  • Trim covers the robing, the stomacher, the front edges of the skirts and the central panel of the petticoat
  • The whole ensemble is made up of 3 parts – the main outer gown, the stomacher and the petticoat
  • Three tiered ruffles at the sleeves
  • The bodice is lined – and this gown features a lace up centre back lining.
  • The gown pictured doesn’t feature lead weights in the sleeve but these can be added at request.
So, how does this work?

This gown picture here, has been made up as a sample for you to see the trimming styles, the ruffles and all its design features in 3D form. Everything down from the pleat arrangements, the robings etc has been based on originals and this gown confirms what you will be receiving in a visual manner – though obviously yours will be made up in a different size, to fit you.

When you order, we start the discussion about your undergarments, your measurements, we’ll chat fabric,  finishing dates, and any other detail that comes up.

We then require a 25% deposit up front and we’re all ago to start your garment.

(Please note that the gown does not come with any undergarments provided)

Our Research

So as already mentioned in the many pages of this site, the gowns are completely constructed using original techniques. There have been many years of research and study sessions attended in our quest to truly understand 18th century sewing, and if you order a garment from us, you will get all that knowledge and learning bundled up in your gown!

Each gown is 100% hand sewn – and not just hand sewn for the sake of saying it – but hand sewn because we are using the original construction methods as researched on the originals. We want your dress to feel real when you wear it and to look like an original gown from the museums!

The Materials:

So the main fabric of the gown is not included in the price – and is pretty much up to you as to colour, pattern and style. 🙂 The reason why it’s not included in the price is that materials like silk can range from £9 a metre to £900 and many of our clients have a specific design in mind. We help you search for your fabric and can provide websites and suggested looking places as you dig about for your perfect fabric.

Fabric wise, from our side it is MUCH easier to sew natural fibres such as silks and linens – and you, as the customer will get a better looking garment in a better fabric – but it is truly up to you. We will discuss the amount of fabric you may need to purchase in the build up emails to having your gown as depending on size, height, trimming requirements – as this may vary.

We happily provide the linens for the lining and the rest of the haberdashery used on the gown, including lead weights if you wanted to have that option. 🙂

http://https://youtu.be/vnao6ufBhU0

 

The History

yellow court mantua at the edinburgh collections centre NMS
(Image courtesy of the National Museums of Scotland)

This sack has been dated c.1750s and has been based on mantua gown from the National Museums of Scotland from the same rough date. It is massive!

But this date also represents the earliest this gown would be suitable for, in terms of fashion – it’s heavily furbelowed fronts and petticoat are iconic from the 1750s to 1770s and, as the sack gets replaced in daywear by other gowns, so the heavily trimmed splendour becomes more and more linked to high balls and even up into court wear by the 1780s.

This plainer yellow sack though resonates more of daywear and would beautifully represent a well-dressed lady from the 1750s to 1760s, going about her daily life.

The sack appears to have started life in the late 17th century and grows in popularity in France. A few brave souls wear it over here in the UK, and Anne Buck states that sacks were beginning to replace mantuas at balls as early as the 1730s.
But it truly comes into its own, here in Britain, during the 1740s and 1750s and this style here has finally moved away from the cuff style sleeve ending and the plainer look and simply erupted in extravagant furbelows and flounces.

The Undergarments!
blue herringbone stays by handBound costumes
This tabs just gives you a brief over view of what kind of undergarments were worn under these dresses. And also what kind of undergarments are worn beneath the dress pictured!

A shift, a pair of stays, some form of hoop and under petticoats appear to be the bog standard undergarments for almost all of the 18th century. The hoop enters fashion in around 1710 and disappears from main stream fashion during the 1790s.
Stays too were generally always worn, though according to William Creech, writing in 1766, there was appears to have been a strange fashion amongst the bon ton of not wearing stays in the year 1766. He complains how ugly the ladies look – and how strange looking!

The undergarments that have been dressed under the sack featured in the photos, are the following:
– a shift
– a pair of hip pads
– 2 x under petticoats
– and a pair of stays dressed over the petticoats.

A much fuller shape will be achieved with either a small wide hoop or more layers of petticoats.

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