Rose Bertin Minister of Fashion.

Rose Bertin minister des modes.

haute couture

Haute couture emerged in the 18th century with Rose Bertin, the French fashion designer, fashion dealer and milliner to Queen Marie Antoinette, considered one of the first to introduce fashion and haute couture to French culture.

French leadership in European fashion was consolidated at the end of the eighteenth century, when the influence, which came from the art, architecture, music, and fashion of the French court at Versailles, was imitated throughout Europe. Visitors to Paris returned with garments quickly imitated by local seamstresses. Stylish women also ordered dolls dressed in the latest Parisian fashions to use as models.

Rose Bertin minister des modes.

Marie-Jeanne Bertin known as Rose Bertin. He was born in the distantJuly 2, 1747, Abbeville, Picardyand died in Epinay sur Seine, September 22, 1813,

Between her and the hairdresser Leonard Autié, they created a style of her own for the queen that marked those last years of the Ancien Régime in France. They were the authors of impossible hairstyles with recreations and revolutionary dresses that marked the starting point of what is now known as haute couture.

In the years leading up to the French revolution, while the French people plunged into an unprecedented economic crisis, terrible famines and ruthless wars. The French court commanded by its last Queen lived in luxurious expenses at the expense of their people. Marie Antoinette, a lover of luxury and permanent parties, spent all the state money in an uncontrolled way. she ended up with her head cut off by the guillotine.

Why did Marie Antoinette live to party?

Marie Antoinette, the famous and unfortunate last queen of France, was born on November 2, 1755 in Vienna/Austria into the Habsburg family as Maria Antonia Josefa Johanna, Archduchess of Austria.

Party today, party tomorrow, party last

In 1770, at age 15, she married the French Dauphin, later King Louis XVI. Being deprived of all her friends and family, Marie Antoinette (now Marie Antoinette) was thrown into this strange, golden palace of Versailles. Here, the young, naive and good-natured Marie was soon used by interesting people for her plans. It was only when she settled down a bit and she formed her own circle of friends that she disbanded from her former influencers and she became more confident. Perhaps as a result of the family's cruel separation from her when she was just a child and facing this extravagant new world without royal guidance, Marie Antoinette began to enjoy all the pleasures of being rich and noble. She flew from dances to opera performances and was very fond of game nights (she used to lose large sums of money). A great passion of hers in her early years was: Fashion!

Let's go back to the Minister of Fashion: Bertin

Bertin was an apprentice dressmaker at a very young age, at the age of 15 he arrived in Paris. She opened her own clothing store – Le Grand Mogol – in 1770 and quickly found clients among influential noblewomen, including Louise, Duchess of Chartres, who also patronized the painter Élisabeth Vigée-Lebrun at Versailles, who became infatuated with her. his designs as well as attracting the European aristocracy and royalty.

When Marie Antoinette arrives from Austria in France, she embraces Gallic styles and fashions as a way of showing her sincere dedication to her new country. The Duchess of Chartres introduces him to Rose Bertin in 1772. In a special room in the Palace of Versailles, Rose Bertin created numerous new dresses for Queen Marie Antoinette, since Bertin could not be admitted to the apartment where the queen and her family awaited. ladies, for being a commoner.

Twice a week, after Marie Antoinette's coronation, Bertin presents her new proposals to the young queen and they spend hours discussing her creations. The queen adored her wardrobe and was passionate about every detail, so Bertin, her milliner, became her confidante and friend.

Well-to-do French women had begun to make themselves the "pouf"

By the middle of the 18th century, well-to-do French women had begun to put the "pouf" (in French, cushion; literally, the stuffing used) in their hair, lifting it up and powdering it, accompanying the styling of ample and luxurious dresses. Bertin used and exaggerated these prevailing fashions for Marie Antoinette with hairstyles towering over three feet (ninety centimeters). The pouf fashion reached such extremes that it became the hallmark of the period, along with decorating such a capillary structure with ornaments and objects showing recent events. Working with Leonard, the queen's hairdresser, Bertin created hairstyles that became all the rage throughout Europe: the natural hair or the horsehair wig, always powdered with rice powder, stuffed and raised with cushions or wire frames, it could be adorned with various objects, stylized, arranged within definite scenes, ranging from recent birth gossip to husbands' infidelities, from well-imitated snakes to models of French ships like the Belle Poule with all her rigging, to the Pouf " to the insurgents” in honor of the North American war of independence. The queen's most famous hairstyle was "the inoculation," a pouf that she wore to publicize her success in persuading the king to get vaccinated against smallpox.

Fashion continued its progress

Fashion continued its progress; and the towering hats and headdresses, with their superstructures of gossamer, flowers, and feathers, prevented women from finding carriages high enough to enter, and very often they were seen bowing, sitting on the ground, or keeping their adorned heads out of the way. the window.

extravagant feathers

Had the use of these extravagant feathers and headdresses been continued very seriously, say the memoirs of this period, it would have effected a revolution in architecture, for it would have been necessary to enlarge the doors and roofs of the theatres, and particularly the carriage box. .

rob a la polonaise

The queen ordered the latest looks from Rose Bertin, including the provocative “robe a la polonaise”, with the bodice that enhanced her chest, with billowing skirts that revealed her ankles, the ensemble crowned by the appropriate “pouf " her. From the 1780s a certain Anglomania translated into fashion with the adoption of jackets similar to those of men or redingote (in English, riding coat) adapting to women as the "robe" ) redingote». Marie Antoinette adopts her, thereby offending the French patriots.

The imposing robes à paniers covered with rhinestones and ruffles, the diamond-embroidered shoes, and the monumental hairstyles are essentially worn at court, at balls, at parties, or at the theater. In ordinary life, under the influence of the ideas of Jean Jacques Rousseau who preaches the simplicity of customs and a return to nature, fashion tends towards greater sobriety. Simpler dresses were adopted, such as the same “robe a la polonaise”, also called “robe à la reine”, whose overskirt could be raised or lowered at the sides thanks to laces.

In 1783 Élisabeth Vigée-Lebrun portrayed Marie Antoinette wearing the famous "robe chemise" designed by Rose Bertin, which was so scandalous for her time that a second portrait of the queen had to be painted in appropriate court dress.

Marie Antoinette summoned Bertin to dress some dolls in the latest fashion as a gift for her sisters and her mother Empress Maria Theresa I of Austria, these dolls were called "Pandoras", and could be made of wax, wood or porcelain, they had a little less than the size of a common toy doll, or they could be as large as half or equal to a real person. They were in vogue before the appearance of fashion magazines.

Called "Minister of Fashion"

Called "Minister of Fashion", Bertin was the mind behind almost all the new dresses commissioned by the queen. Her dresses and hair became Marie Antoinette's personal vehicle of expression, and Bertin dressed the queen from 1770 until her dethronement in 1792.

Bertin became the most powerful figure at court, witnessing and sometimes effecting profound changes in French society.

Her large and ostentatious outfits ensured that the wearer would take up at least three times as much space as her male counterpart, in this sense giving the female figure an imposing, not passive, presence.

Her creations also established France as the center of fashion, and from then on dresses made in Paris were shipped to London, Venice, Vienna, St. Petersburg, and Constantinople.

The imitated Parisian elegance established the worldwide reputation of French couture. Bertin will come to dress Queen Sofia Magdalena of Sweden, Queen Maria Luisa of Spain, the Queen of Bohemia, the Queen of Switzerland, the Duchess of Devonshire and Tsarina Maria Feodorovna of Russia, and other personalities from the era, creating an authentic costume empire from his store on Saint Honoré street.

Under the queen's generous patronage, the Bertin name became synonymous with elegance and the excesses of Versailles. Bertin's close relationship with the queen provided her with valuable experience regarding the social and political significance of fashion at the French court.

Mademoiselle Bertin

While blaming the queen for all her waste and excesses, the French ladies followed suit. There was not a single woman who did not have the same dress, the same cape and the same feathers that the queen had been seen wearing. The ladies crowded around Mademoiselle Bertin, her milliner and her dressmaker: there was an absolute devotion to dress among the ladies, who attached great importance to that woman. Mothers and husbands murmured, giving rise to scenes of domestic arguments with the complaint that "that queen will be the ruin of all French ladies."

Rose Bertin's prices were exorbitant, as documented by the annual records of Marie Antoinette's clothing expenses in the dressmaker's accounts, since the queen never wore anything twice; Bertin's suits and hats could easily cost 20 times what a skilled seamstress of the day earned per year.

French Revolution

When the French Revolution broke out, Marie Antoinette instinctively abandoned the new trends; nervous, the bourgeois and noble, including the king, adopt the republican tricolor insignia with simpler and more modest tricolor suits. But the queen wears a white Bourbon insignia, her new dress was purple and gold, and she still wears her diamonds. Everyone could see how Marie Antoinette had no political sense, just a blind faith in royal privilege. Her destiny would be firmly marked with the taking of the Bastille.

The demand for dresses

Not even the nascent revolution brought down Bertin's prices, the demand for dresses and the queen's attachment to fashion was perhaps what led to her arrest which will result in her being guillotined.

At the beginning of the month of June 1791, prior to the escape plan of Marie Antoinette and her husband, arranged for the 20th of that month, the queen ordered Rose Bertin a large number of costumes to travel to be made as soon as possible. . The discovery of the warrant, it is believed, confirmed the suspicion of the royal family's escape plan out of France.

French Revolution

During the French Revolution, when many of her noble clients were executed (including the queen) or fled abroad, Bertin moved her business to London.

In the meantime, she was able to serve her old clients among the emigrants, and her fashion expressed in fashion dolls (pouppeè du mode) continued to circulate in European capitals, as far away as St. Petersburg. Bertin eventually returned to France in 1795, where Josephine de Beauharnais (Napoleon's first wife) became her client for a time, but she found that the excesses of fashion had weakened after the end of the French Revolution. At the beginning of the 19th century, Bertin transferred her business to her niece and retired from her. She died in 1813 at her home in Epinay sur Seine.

1774

In 1774, her husband and Marie Antoinette were crowned king and queen after the death of Louis XV. As queen of France, she not only had the possibility, but also (to a certain extent) the duty to flatter everyone with her luxurious appearance. Always wearing the best of the best, the latest, the most fashionable, she was the trendsetter, the fashion icon.

A la Belle Poule

This was made possible with the help of his ingenious hairdresser Léonard Autié, who created for and with his eccentric hairstyles such as "à la Belle Poule", a high hairstyle that included the model of the battleship "La Belle Poule" ("the beautiful hen” – yes, indeed) in full sail. Of course she surprised everyone. Very early on, Marie-Jeanne "Rose" Bertin (born July 2, 1747 into a fairly poor family) had shown great talent for millinery, sewing, handicrafts, and pattern design. fashion. At the age of 16, she moved to Paris to learn in a millinery workshop. Her talent allowed her to open a shop herself – “Le Grand Mogol” – (“the great magnate”), in 1770. There she sold everything to make or decorate dresses and hats, gloves, accessories and much more. Very popular were her dolls, dressed in the latest fashions, which were sent throughout Europe to keep other courts in touch with the new French style. Among her avid clients were the Princesse de Lamballe and the Duchesse de Chartres.

The name Rose Bertin was the fashionable name throughout Europe

One day, she met Marie Antoinette herself, who made her her personal stylist. What a promotion for Marie-Jeanne. Court purveyor and personal stylist to the queen. The name Rose Bertin was the fashionable name throughout Europe, it represented taste and extravagance and significantly helped to make France the center of fashion. The creative and elegant "Mademoiselle" or "Minister of fashion" was the inventor of almost all the new dresses, hats or hairstyles of the queen. Twice a week, Marie Antoinette and Mademoiselle Bertin met in closed sessions (even without their bridesmaids!) to discuss new creations for hours. Laces, ribbons, feathers, braids, jewels, fake flowers, tassels: nothing was too exquisite, nothing too extravagant. The long private meetings and friendly terms between the queen and her stylist caused much jealousy and envy. This taste for luxurious clothes soon earned Marie Antoinette the name "Madame Deficit."

Petit Trianon

When her 'excessive' years were over and she began to retire from court to her own Petit Trianon palace, where she and her friends imitated country life, Marie Antoinette desired simpler clothes, more comfortable and lighter. This was the birth of Chemise à la Reine, naturally the brainchild of Mlle Bertin. The Chemise à la Reine was a simple white dress, made of several layers of mussel with a colorful sash around the waist. It was paired with a simple curly hairstyle and a large straw hat. The new color palette was full of pale pastels. Before, Marie Antoinette's rich dresses evoked screams, now it was her simplicity: she was accused of wearing her negligee and of being the cause if silk production workers were to starve.

Simple à la greece-fashion

Rose Bertin even supplied the queen with clothes when the royal family was already imprisoned, following the outbreak of the French Revolution. She made Marie Antoinette's mourning dress after the execution of Louis XVI. In 1793 she went into exile. After her return to France, she could not take hold as her new style, the simple à la gréce-fashion (even without corsets!) was nothing to her extravagant taste for the Ancien Régime.

GUILLOTINE

On October 14, 1793, the dethroned queen, Marie Antoinette, left her cell and appeared, pale and weary, before the Revolutionary Tribunal at La Conciergerie in Paris.

Already on the platform and before being beheaded, she addressed her last words to the executioner: “I ask you to excuse me, sir. I didn't do it on purpose." And almost nine months after the execution of her husband, King Louis XVI.

After the execution, the executioner showed his head to the impatient crowd, which packed the Plaza de la Revolución, and shouted furiously: "Long live the Republic."

paris haute couture

Today you can visit the Gallery of the Prisoners, where you can see the cells as they were at that time. The windows of this gallery open onto the Plaza de las Mujeres, intended for the walks of the imprisoned.

The differences between the different social classes of the prisoners can be appreciated, since the cells intended for the poorest did not have a bed, while the rich enjoyed furniture and even servants.

Marie Antoinette's dungeon has been rebuilt and her original cell is now a chapel, at the express wish of Louis XVIII.

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