The Dreamstress

Reminder: the Marie, Charlotte, and Sophia patterns, and the combined pack with all three, are on sale until Tue 13 December – don’t miss out!

Continuing on with my series of posts on the inspiration behind the Marie, Charlotte and Sophie patterns.  What did we base the Charlotte Mantle on?

 

The Marie hugely inspired by extant mantles, but for the Charlotte we looked at another primary 18th c resource: the two mantle diagrams illustrated in Diderot’s Encyclopédie.

Diderot’s Encyclopédie, ou dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers (Encyclopedia, or a Systematic Dictionary of the Sciences, Arts, and Crafts) was a wildly ambitious general encyclopedia published between 1751 and 1772, with numerous later additions.  It aimed not just to cover all the worlds knowledge, but to make it accessible to the masses.

One of the things the Encyclopédie covers is the manufacturing of garments.  There are illustrations of different garment makers workshops, and diagrams of a number of types of dress, from stays to mantles.

The Patterns:

While the Encyclopédie is slightly earlier, the mantle patterns, made up, have exactly the shape of fashionable mantles from the 1770s onwards.

One of the patterns has the wide shape with small points shown here:

And here:

And the other the long, narrow lappets shown here:

And here:

These became the basis for View A and B of the Charlotte, respectively.

The Encyclopédie is a fantastic source for information, but its pattern diagrams are not actually patterns.  They are not drawn to any scale, and were not edited or engraved by someone with garment construction knowledge.

So they are an amazing starting point, but we still had to do extensive checking of the pattern against extant garments and visual sources to create a pattern that fits correctly on a human, and really looks like a period garment.

The Construction:

We also had to figure out all the construction, and decide what techniques to include in the pattern.

The Marie Mantle is unlined, because our primary inspiration pieces were unlined (and because by the time we’d included instructions for unlined silk, wool, and lace mantles, all of which take different techniques, we were up to 26 pages!).

The Charlotte Mantle pattern includes both instructions for unlined mantles, so you can make sheer wraps like this gauzy white number:

And for lined mantles, like this charming pink and black number:

And this subtle version with white hood:

The lining techniques given in the Charlotte are specifically designed so that if you have both the Marie and Charlotte, you can line the Marie using the instructions given in the Charlotte.

The Trim:

For Charlotte’s trim we took inspiration from the narrower trim with centred application shown on 1780s mantles:

The 1780s fashion for trims is quite different to the wider, looser ruffles and rococo swirls of the earlier mantles that inspired the Marie.

Based on this, we settled in a narrow box pleat based primarily on the Galerie des Modes plate above.

It’s a specifically 1780s touch that perfectly captures the aesthetic of that decade.

But, of course, you can also mix and match the Marie and Charlotte trims to give either mantle pattern a different look!

The Hood:

Finally we gave the Charlotte’s hood a point of difference to the Marie’s (other than its increased size), with a fan-pleated gather, instead of a star gather.

 

Reminder: the Marie, Charlotte, and Sophia patterns, and the combined pack with all three, are on sale until Tue 13 December – don’t miss out!

The Scroop + Virgil’s Fine Goods mantle patterns actually started more than three years ago…

In addition to running Scroop Patterns, I teach Costume Construction at Toi Whakaari, the New Zealand Drama School.  Toi Whakaari has an amazing graduation tradition.  Rather than wearing standard gowns and hoods, the continuing students make the graduates personalised ‘cloaks’.

The cloaks can be anything.  There have been classic capes, knitted shawls, hats, veils, wooden shields, jackets, kimono, and even a perfectly realised, exquisitely made, cardboard guitar.  Anything that speaks to who the graduate is as a person, and reflects their journey at the school.

You can get a glimpse of this year’s cloaks (including the guitar!) here:

The ‘cloaks’ are made in secret, and given to the graduates by the makers as part of the graduation ceremony.  It’s touching, and beautiful, sometimes hilarious, and yes, makes me cry.

Three years ago there was a costuming graduate who had a strong interest in historical costume.  The students making her cloak came to me with a request.  Would I help them pattern an 18th century mantle for her cloak?

A couple days of research and some quick patternmaking later, and I had the very first draft of what would become View A of the Marie.

Made up by the students in black gauze trimmed with black lace, it made an adorable ‘cloak’ that the graduate loved.

Last year there was another costume graduate with a love of historical costuming.  It was also well known that she really wanted a cloak that she’d be able to use over and over: not one that was just an art piece for graduation.  I did more research and patternmaking and she got a cloak made from an updated version of the mantle pattern: and she loves it.

I had so much fun researching and patternmaking the mantles, and everyone loved the graduate’s versions: obviously this needed to be a pattern.

I also knew that Amber had been working on and off on a mantle pattern for a few years.  Could we combine ours?

We tried, but realised that with the amount of research I’d done, and the amount of research she’d done, and the number of techniques we had covered, and all the different views we had, it was WAY too much for one pattern.

So we split it into three patterns – and each of them is still extremely extensive and detailed!

Here are the primary inspirations we look at for the Marie Mantle.

Marie View A: The Inspiration

The primary inspiration for View A of the Marie was this utterly darling mantle from the V&A.

That shape!  Those double ruffles!  The interior ruffle!  It’s all too perfect!

There are portraits showing similar ruffle-trimmed mantles, like this one of Maria Anna Sophia of Saxony:

For further material and construction information, we also looked at the two figured gauze cloaks in Colonial Williamsburg’s collection.  The black one is included in Costume Close Up, which was a helpful resource.

And this lace mantle at the Met:

Because this is such a classic 18th century shape, I photographed the sample both over a 1760s robe à la française:

And the 1775-1790 Angelica Gown, to really show how versatile it is:

Marie View B, the inspiration:

While we loved the curved front points of View A, there are also a number of extant mantles, and portraits of mantles, showing a much more triangular front shape, with straighter edges.

This shape shows up in the 1740s:

And there are examples of this shape all the way up to the early 19th century.  Almost all of them are in figured silk with simple lace trim.  Obviously lace trim is a technique we needed to include!

However, the similarity between mantles dated to the mid-18th century, and ones dated to the early 19th makes us cautious.  There are certainly more depictions of this cloak shape in the mid-18th century than later.  As a result, we’ve given our pattern an extremely conservative end-date of 1779.

There are depictions of mantles in this general style in a variety of materials, from satin to wool to velvet, to lace:

In lace and silk it’s a decadent accessory for a lady of leisure.  In wool (shown here in the hoodless version), it’s a practical but chic wrap for a working woman:

Lace Mantle Inspiration:

In addition to all the gorgeous ruffled silk, figured gauze mantles, figured silk, and practical wool mantles, there are SO MANY portraits of lace mantles in both View A and View B’s shape:

I adore lace.  I’ve even gotten to work with 18th century lace and lace mantles in museum collections.  Lace mantles are so gorgeous, and such an iconic 18th century accessory that’s so often overlooked, because it’s difficult to replicate.

While it’s impossible to replicate actual handmade lace mantles without actually making lace by hand, there are ways to fake it.  So I was determined to include instructions on making lace mantles in the Marie pattern.

I made a very simple lace mantle as a sample, to really show off the pattern shape, but I’ll be doing a photo essay on making a much more elaborate one:

So the Marie has two shapes (both of which are easily adaptable for even more mantle shape fabulosity).  It’s unlined, and can be made in wool, silk, gauze, or lace, and trimmed with hemmed or pinked ruffles, or lace.  And all of that takes 26 pages of detailed instructions…

No wonder we had to break the pattern up!

More about the mantles:

• Read about the inspiration behind the Marie Mantle here.
• Read about the inspiration behind the Charlotte Mantle here.
• See the Charlotte Mantle tester makes here.
• Read about the inspiration behind the Sophia Mantle here.

More inspiration:

I have an entire pinterest board of inspiration for the mantle patterns, sorted into sections for Marie, Charlotte and Sophia, with an extra section just for lace mantles.

Keep in mind that some of the images are not extremely clear, and may actually depict fichu or cloaks.  They are on the board for fabric, colour, or lace type inspiration.  Be sure to do your own research if you need to be extremely historically accurate.

Further reading:

• Baumgarten, Linda & Watson, John with Florine Carr.  Costume Close Up: Clothing Construction and Pattern, 1750-1790.  The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, Williamsburg, Virginia: 1999
• Bradfield, Nancy.  Costume in Detail, 1730-1930.  Harrap Limited, London: 1981
• Hunnisett, Jean. Period Costume for Stage & Screen. Patterns for Outer Garments, Book I: Cloaks, Capes, Stoles, and Wadded Mantles.  Studio City, CA Players Press, Inc. 2000
• Waugh, Norah.  The Cut of Women’s Clothes: 1600-1930.  Faber & Faber Limited, London: 1968

Tomorrow: the Marie tester makes!