Ewa Orlińska-Mianowska,
Head of the Textile Division Warsaw National Museum

The exposition presenting the attire worn in 18th-century Europe seems to carry the viewer away into the milieu which can be best represented by François Boucher’s portrait of Marchioness Pompadour, the most notable Dame in France of the period. In the painting her stiff graceful pose reminds of a porcelain figurine. Her silk, very elegant dress is adorned with rose garlands. It is a genuine French-style example of the attire for domestic surroundings.
The best way to familiarize oneself with the design of such attire and the fabrics it is made of is a visit to the exhibition, where the Warsaw National Museum demonstrates a collection featuring over two hundred garments. It includes the 18th-early-19th century men’s garments - szustokor, habit à la française, veste, culotte, kontusz, żupan and those of women - robe à la française, à la polonaise and the light muslin dresses of the French Revolution and the first Empire period.
The exposition of garments is complemented with the fragments of patterned fabrics. Since they leave the depositories and are demonstrated at exhibitions on rare occasions, they echo the connections of the Baroque weaving craft and high art. Of great interest are the tinted copper carvings printed in the 18th-century fashion plates. They inspired new trends in the fashion and formed its policy. The displayed drawings familiarize the visitor with the history of the museum collection, its initial shape and its oldest part.
As many as 60 mannequins are dressed in historical clothing. The Rococo style is illustrated by footwear and the accessories of garments - shawls, fans, gloves, purses and shoes. Walking among the figures, which seem to have emerged on podiums from the paintings by François Boucher, Bernardo Belotto, Jean-Baptist Chardin or Jean-Marc Nattier, one has a good opportunity to follow the 18th-century evolution of the fashion, changes in style, the modification of the garment design and its parts.
The origin of the Warsaw National Museum’s collection of historical attire goes back to the years of World War I. The first donations laid the foundations for the completion of the collection. They were the fragments of private collections, the relics of families. A wealth of interesting old Polish garments were received from the Antoni and Zygmunt Strzełecki collection, Wojciech Kolasiński, Franciszek Eysmond, Zofia Lutosławska, Mari Gerson-Dąmbrowska, Gustaw Soubise-Bisier and Marian Januszewski, a well-known collector and connoisseur of old Polish attire, some interesting examples of townswomen’s garments - from the workshop of the artist Józef Brandt. The first exhibits were entered in the museum’s inventory books in 1916, the last, donated by London-based Polish artist Maria Garszyńska-Jarosz, in 1999. In 1924, the Directorate of the State Art Collections transferred to the museum some theatre costumes. This collection presents great value for one more reason - it gives the possibility of recreating its history through the survived stamps, dates, numbers on the linings of the costumes.
In 1946 some interesting examples of 18th-century Silesia reached the museum. Among the most impressive rank Frederick the Great’s vest embroidered in white thread (its lining bears the inscription made by the hand of Wilhelmina von Bayreuth, the sister of the King of Prussia) and the dress à l’ antique of Louisa of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, Queen of Prussia. It is made of white semi-transparent Indian gossamer, artistically embroidered in thick cotton thread.
Court attire was very sumptuous. The dress made of dark reddish silk adorned with the rhythmically waving ornamentation of twisted rose sprays and gold lace once was worn by Anna Karwowska, a general’s wife. This type of a Sunday dress was called “elbowshaped” as it was worn on a very wide crinoline - a metal construction fastened to the hips, where women used to keep their arms.
Apart from the garments worn at feasts, banquets, the exposition also presents some more modest - for everyday wear. Here the simplicity, however, is merely seeming, because a variety of fabric ornamentation and the embroidery mastership is simply amazing. The white linen skirts and shirts are adorned with fine embroidery stitches and Saxon lace, adding a touch of elegance and refinement to the garments.
The exposition displays the garments worn in 18th-century Poland - a men’s three-piece suit consisting of a coat, vest and trousers (it has survived up to now) the origin of which goes back to the time of Louis XIV. Its main piece - justaucorps (Fr.) - the prototype of the present-day jacket was called szustokor in Poland. It is an outer knees-covering garment, widening from the hips with hardened folds at the back, buttoned up at the front, close-fitting below the waist. The pretty long sleeves were completed with big stylish cuffs.
In the second half of the 18th-century Poles began to wear habit à la française (French style attire). It was a new type of garment, slightly shorter than szustokor with narrower sleeves, tight-fitting cuffs and a stand-up collar. Habit was made of plain taffeta patterned silk, plain and finely patterned velvet. The rounded off edges of the laps at the front, the trapezium-form pocket lapels, the cuffs, collars, folds and even the buttons covered with fabric - everything was finely embroidered. A stable form of cutting made possible to embroider the fabric in advance. Each of the laps had ten or more buttons on their edges three on each cuff, the same number under pocket lapels and two above the folds at the back. The embroidery was in silk, gold thread, zecchin (It. small round metal plates with a tiny hole in the middle) inlaid with small glass beads. Habit was more often worn unbuttoned - to show the smart vest.
A vest was a second piece of the earlier mentioned men’s three-piece suit. It was the most elaborated element, fascinating one with its splendidly embroidered birds, butterflies, flowers. The embroidery skills achieved in the late 18th century are demonstrated by the vest with monkeys (the identical one is kept in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London). Artistic vest embroidery boasts hunting scenes, even mise-en-scènes of the plays performed at Paris theatres. Those small needlework’s alike the illustrations of fashionable books or magazines evidenced the shift of fashion, the taste of the people following its whims.
A third part - trousers (Fr. culotte). They were below the knee, close-fitting at the thigh. Long trousers appeared later, in the days of the French Revolution. White stockings completed a general ensemble of the outfit.
The exhibition also presents quite a number of lightweight coats (Pol. żupan) and kontucz (Pol.) made of thicker material. They are the examples of the national fashion with a touch of Oriental elaboration. The style of their cut is simple straight. A żupan used to be often made of light fabric and buttoned up under the neck. Rich people wore silk kontusz, because Poland boasted good local silk. The silk interwoven with gold at the manufactures in Hrodna and Sluck was marked by a fine stylized plant ornamentation between oblong stripes. A żupan was long-sleeved with turned up cuffs, and a stand-up collar.
Men used to put on a kontusz over a żupan. The garment was buttoned up at the front and had an upright folded back collar and long sleeves with a cut. A kontusz distinguished itself among other outfits worn in Europe by its original cut. Its most original elements were the seamless sleeves from armpit to elbow or even wrist, loosely hanging or thrown over shoulder and an intricate cut of the back with the puckered, downwards widening folds sewn at the sides of the waist. The żupan and kontusz intrigued Europe reminding of the clothing worn in Oriental countries. They enriched fashion designers with new ideas, influenced the trends of the official fashion. The dress à la polonaise also reminded West Europe of a Polish wear.
A several-layer garment robe à la française (Fr. robe - a dress) consisting of a petticoat, a thrown open dress at the front and a train of wide folds falling from the shoulders at the back dominated the women’s fashion in the mid-18th century. In the women’s French classical-style attire, the front of the petticoat was visible, therefore, very sumptuous - pleated, embroidered, appliquéd. The construction of the dress waist was formed by a laced bodice - a linen corset made of triangles with some fixed rods for the sake of stiffness. At the front the waist was laced or buttoned and covered with an adorned breast-plate (Fr. bavette). This intricate model during the process of its evolution survived throughout the entire 18th century.
In the last decade of the 18th century, Middle Europe in respect of its attire became similar to old Greece. The fascination with ancient examples linked with the discoveries by archaeologists opened the doors of salons to elegant women wearing light muslin dresses cut from a piece of single cloth.
Women would to tie a wide ribbon or a band under the raised line of the waist below the breast. At the end of the century all the ladies wore such splendidly cut, lightly draped dresses with trains. They graced their heads with wreaths and diadems. Their hairdo echoed the hairstyles of ancient leaders.
The garments were expensive, therefore, they were carefully handed over from generation to generation. They used to be sometimes altered due to an enduring beauty of the fabric. They were also preserved because of the sentiments for a person who had worn them or some memorable event - christening, wedding, the first banquet.
Thus, this exhibition is both a reminder of the 18th century distancing itself from us and the evidence of the skills and mastery displayed by weavers, dress-makers, tailors, embroiderers. The Warsaw National Museum presented this collection of historical attire for the first time in its history in Warsaw last year.
The restoration of the exhibits included in the collection took long years to complete. It required knowledge, experience in sewing and the deftness of fingers demonstrated by old needle-masters. The garments were restored by Wanda Antos, Barbara Kowalska, Mirosława Machulak, Anna Makulec, Marzena Michałowska, Jolanta Latkowska-Romaniuk, Ewa Soszko, Anna Szczypka, Aleksandra Wróbel. Wojciech Zasadni designed mannequins, Lidija Oleczek - old hairstyles. Halina Andrzejak sponsored sewing work of the team.