Riding outfits where originally all for men, women expected to not engage in activity requiring riding as it was considered not womanlike.
But during the mid-XVIIth century, we suddenly see a peculiar outfit making it's appearance: a tailored outfit, modeled exactly after menswear, complete with tricorn, gloves and necktie, but with a close-fitting bodice worn with corset and petticoat underneath, exactly like their everyday wear. The first riding outfit was born, mixing both the need for a proper protective apparatus and the excitement of dressing up, slipping into men's accoutrement and for a moment pretending to have the same authority.
But during the mid-XVIIth century, we suddenly see a peculiar outfit making it's appearance: a tailored outfit, modeled exactly after menswear, complete with tricorn, gloves and necktie, but with a close-fitting bodice worn with corset and petticoat underneath, exactly like their everyday wear. The first riding outfit was born, mixing both the need for a proper protective apparatus and the excitement of dressing up, slipping into men's accoutrement and for a moment pretending to have the same authority.
Portrait of Anna-Maria Luisa de Medicis in a hunting dress, by Jan Frans van Douwen
Thoughout the century it will keep following what's in fashion for menswear, from to colors to the type of ornamentation. Reds and gold baroque's bold colors left place to a pastel, more bucolic palette... When we look at Baroness Ulrica Fredrika Cedercreutz, even her hair is made up after a man's wig up-do called catogan and worn with the feathered tricorn.
Baroness Ulrica Fredrika Cedercreutz by Gustaf Lundberg, from TheOrnamentedBeing
Little to no differences appears from Rococo to romantism. We moved from a monarchist, oversaturated costume to a more democratic one as we were entering the Industrial revolution, therefore exchanging silver and silk embrodery for velvet or cotton, and the tricorn for the top-hat, symbol of our newly acquired urban ideas. There is still no mistake to be made here, with the addition of the hat-veil and the excessive length of the skirt: it's still only play, we are still only pretending... No one would be fooled by the message here: the woman still needs a man and can only ride with a side-saddle.
Little to no differences appears from Rococo to romantism. We moved from a monarchist, oversaturated costume to a more democratic one as we were entering the Industrial revolution, therefore exchanging silver and silk embrodery for velvet or cotton, and the tricorn for the top-hat, symbol of our newly acquired urban ideas. There is still no mistake to be made here, with the addition of the hat-veil and the excessive length of the skirt: it's still only play, we are still only pretending... No one would be fooled by the message here: the woman still needs a man and can only ride with a side-saddle.
Fashion plate from Le Journal des Dames et des modes, March 1830. To learn more about fashion plates from the romantic era, click on the plate to read a little snippet...
Nowadays we don't tend to ride that much... Well, at least not horse. Bus, car, bicycles... people? There's Jean-Paul Gaultier's take on it from the mind blowing exhibit at Montreal's Fine Arts Museum that took place last summer (2011). The essentials are still there: top-hat, gigantic neckwear inspired both by feminine rococo period's bows and the gigantic cravat of the romantics, then a twist with the bottom part of the outfit: not a skirt as we can find in the other periods, but pants with side buttons worn with high-knee leather boots. Notice here the uselessness of those buttons, turned into something purely aesthetic and losing their practical aspect, as it's often the case when a piece a clothing transition from a practical usage into fashion.
Is Gaultier, by leaving here the skirt, telling us that the women are not only dressing-up as a game, playing on their masculine side, but actually taking the reins and leading the way? Taking their own path and riding with men as equal? Or is this last picture opening the dialog on an even deeper way?...Nowadays we don't tend to ride that much... Well, at least not horse. Bus, car, bicycles... people? There's Jean-Paul Gaultier's take on it from the mind blowing exhibit at Montreal's Fine Arts Museum that took place last summer (2011). The essentials are still there: top-hat, gigantic neckwear inspired both by feminine rococo period's bows and the gigantic cravat of the romantics, then a twist with the bottom part of the outfit: not a skirt as we can find in the other periods, but pants with side buttons worn with high-knee leather boots. Notice here the uselessness of those buttons, turned into something purely aesthetic and losing their practical aspect, as it's often the case when a piece a clothing transition from a practical usage into fashion.
Last pictures by yours truly, taken at Jean-Paul Gaultier exhibit at Musée d’Art Contemporain de Montréal at Musee Des Beaux-Jean Paul Gaultier Exhibit..
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