Rose Bertin, the story of the first designer of the story that “dressed” Maria Antonietta “

Three centuries before the designers became real celebrities to the creative direction of big maison, Rose Bertin (1747-1813) He went up to the creative direction of Versailles. Known for being the “seamstress of Marie Antoinette”, alias the queen more Fashion Victim Of the story, on closer inspection, Costei was already a step in addition to the packaging of clothes: creative flicker, well-defined aesthetic, seasonality, proto-color, an unprecedented fame. But how and why this Marchande de modes It was a designer before the timepioneer ofHaute Couture to the sound of bows e Cotillons?

Rose Bertin.

Heritage Images/Getty Images

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Against any social statistics of the Ancien Régime, Bertin comes from a very modest family, originally from Abbeville, in the upper France. He makes his apprenticeship as a ridge in Amis, and then moved to Paris where He works as a model in the atelier Più cool of the time, Le trait galant Of Mademoiselle Report cards, where all the “IT-Aristocrats” bud. In 1770, he opens Le Grand Mogol In Rue Saint-Honoré, winking at the obsession with exoticism that he previded to court. Which works: in a couple of years its boutique becomes the Place to be of the Parisian noblewoman. Among which the Duchess of Chartres and the Lamballe princess who speak of them to their intimate friend Maria Antonietta.

Maria Antonietta Painting by Elisabethlouise Vigeele BRUN 1778.

Maria Antonietta, painting by Elisabeth-Louise Vigee-le Bun, about 1778.

Brandstaetter Images/Getty Images

Since their first meeting (it seems in the summer of 1774), it was a Coup de Foudre. Bored and abandoned to itself, Marie Antoinette made the art of dressing her favorite hobby, ça va sans sayby purchasing 300 clothes per year without ever wearing anything twice, it is said. It habit of receiving Rose Bertin at least two days a week, in spite of the hearings of routine And to the absence of the noble title, giving them in his hand his wardrobe. For each season, roughly, they are planned Twelve gala clothes, twelve imagination, twelve ceremony. More underestimates, shawls, fichus, socks, headphones, belts, gloves. Up to the bath bathrobes!

Marieantainette film.

Movie Marie-Antoinete (2006).

Is to be wondered, For what reason do you leave complete white card in Bertin? THE’Hyper-Customizationwe would say today, details. In fact, in an era in which all the clothes had the same structure – skirt volumized by panier and corset close to life – his creations support the silhouette traditional, but they tell something of the wearer, a character, an inclination, through decorations, finishes, laces, applied au sentimentfollowing the inspiration of the moment. Introduces the excessive use of fans and umbrellas, launches the Redingote For women inspired by English fashion, he does the Polonaise The dress for occasions «casual “ and inaugurates the color “Pulce”.

Christian Dior Haute Couture Autumnainverno 20002001.

Christian Dior, Haute Couture autumn-winter 2000/2001.

Jean-Pierre Muller/Getty Images

But above all, in about 1782, Create the chemise à la reine: a destructured dress in white muscles, linked to life with a simple tape and designed for the days spent at the Petit Trianonwhen Maria Antonietta decides to give itself to bucolic life. On the one hand, this apparently harmless Robe en Gaulle It is rampant across the country and beyond, welcomed as a stylistic revolution -despite being deemed indecent by some, for its similarity to the underwear of the time -which precedes the candid clothes of the Regency era. On the other, the uproar breaks out. In seeing the queen portrayed in these clothes in a painting by Vigée Le Bru al Salon of 1783 (then withdrawn and replaced) the public feels insulted. Both for the imported tissue considered an antipropicactic, and because the queen pretends to be a popular for fun, while the real people dies of hunger.

Marie Antoinette with the Chemise dress Elisabethlouise Vigele Brun 1783.

Marie Antoinette with the Chemise dress, Elisabeth-Louise Vigée-le Bun, 1783.

Heritage Images/Getty Images

Marie Antoinette with Rosa Vigele Brun 1783.

Marie Antoinette with Rosa, Vigée-le Bun, 1783.

Universal History Archive/Getty Images

In short, With Marie Antoinette, fashion in France becomes a matter of state and Rose Bertin its powerful “minister”of appointment and in fact. Of course, it is his majesty that dictates the tendencies between the ladies that try to emulate it up to the exhaustion, ready to calm, corruption, astronomical figures, in order to shine on the very commented red carpet of the Royal Palace. Still, too the status and salary of Mademoiselle Bertin are well known in the eyes of the worldreceiving gifts and commissions from everywhere. So much so that the German novelist Sophie von La Roche in his Travel diary through France (1785) It describes it as “the person who imposed on all European courts what had to be considered beautiful and tastefully”.

Maria Antonietta in its rooms in Versailles Jacquesfabien Gautier d'Agoty 1777.

Marie Antoinette in its rooms in Versailles, Jacques-Fabien Gautier d’Agoty, 1777.

Leemage/Getty Images

Although the term “designer” was born with Charles Frederick Worth In the middle of the 19th century, it is undeniable that Rose Bertin has in a certain sense anticipated its connotations. Like him, not only did he draw clothes, but created whole narrating looks. Like him, introduces seasonal collections and becomes a fully celebrity. The fundamental difference can be portrayed in the signature That Worth will bring about his clothes, as much as in his cumbersome power of His Majesty, that Bertin will serve until his beheading. And it is precisely here, perhaps, its revolutionary scope, or being managed to impose his fashion vision within an absolutist regime, staging the first, legendary, folie à deux ofhaute couture.

Source: Vanity Fair

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