c. 1913

Woman's Day Ensemble: Dress and Jacket

The influence of Marie-Antoinette-era attire and the neoclassical look of the Directoire style was evident in women's fashions immediately prior to the outbreak of World War I in 1914. This interest in the late eighteenth century was, in part, a response to recently republished memoirs of Marie-Antoinette's milliner, Rose Bertin. The fashions for spring 1913 also borrowed features from Directoire menswear such as this cutaway jacket that reveals a waistcoat-the fronts of which attach to the jacket itself-with simulated embroidery. The coat's pattern recalls elaborately patterned eighteenth-century quilted petticoats. The draped skirt narrowing toward the ankle represents a modification of the hobble skirt introduced in 1910. The prominent dressmaking house Rondeau Legrand was known for being both stylish and reasonably priced.