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Ariel's Corner
British visual arts

Style and Society: Dressing the Georgians”

Exhibition review. 21 April – 8 October 2023, The Queen’s Gallery, Buckingham Palace, London.
Alice Leroy

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1The latest exhibition of the Royal Collection Trust, curated by Deputy Surveyor of the King’s Pictures Anna Reynolds, set itself the ambitious task to guide its visitors through over a century of history. Indeed, Style and Society: Dressing the Georgians catalogues the evolution of fashion during the Long-Eighteenth Century as a means to reveal the changes the society went through during that period. As is characteristic of the exhibitions held by the Royal Collection Trust, Style and Society tried to recreate the period as accurately as possible by selecting paintings as well as a series of objects – dresses, wigs, jewels, or tobacco boxes, to name but a few. It includes portraits produced by masters such as William Hogarth, Thomas Gainsborough, or Johan Joseph Zoffany, but also works by lesser-known painters, and even by caricaturists. If the talent of these artists renders the beauty and intricate details of some of the outfits worn by members of the British society, the variety of gowns, accessories, or even weapons on display help transport the visitors back in time.

2Historians have increasingly looked at clothes and fashion in recent years as a way to understand societies and patterns of behaviour. The reason for this shift in focus has been stressed by Aileen Ribeiro: “Clothing is more than just a thing in itself; it also reflects national tradition and social customs. It is evidence of how a society regards itself and the importance it attaches to status and ceremony, which themselves underline political and social systems.1” Clothes need to be understood as identifiable markers of class, political affiliation, or taste. In that sense, the first room of the exhibition, organised chronologically, provides an overview of some of the changes that took place between the accession of George I to the throne in 1714, and the death of George IV in 1830. The portraits and items selected for this exhibition reveal two coexistent trends during the Long Eighteenth Century. On the one hand, court fashion, while it evolved, offered a sense continuity with that of the previous century. The most evident evolution concerned women’s gowns that were increasingly adorned with floral patterns, lace, or embroidered with metal thread, as seen on Antoine Pesne’s portrait of Fredericka, Duchess of Saxe-Weissenfels (1740-1746)2 or Francis Cotes’s double portrait of Princess Louisa and Princess Caroline (1767)3. On the other hand, the period also witnessed a simplification of dress towards a more natural style. The more informal and functional types of clothes worn by the lower classes started to influence the upper strata, and even the royal family4. Represented in domestic interiors or in a natural, exterior settings, the sitters were dressed in clothes they would wear on a daily basis rather than elegant but impractical ceremonial outfits. Men could be seen holding canes in place of swords and looked like gentlemen, as is the case of the queen’s brothers in Zoffany’s Queen Charlotte with Members of her Family (1771-1772)5. This type of conversation piece became very popular and contributed to the emergence of a national style. This taste for simplicity continued past the turn of the century, with the chemise gown that evolved into the neo-classical gowns such as that worn by Princess Sophia in a portrait painted by Sir William Beechey around 1797, indicating a preference for light muslins.

3This evolution in fashion was not just due to a change in taste but tells the more complicated story of Britain’s transformation, both at home and on the international stage, as highlighted in the following rooms of the exhibition. The development of trade with foreign nations, especially through the East India Company, altered the British market – most of all in London. Mantua dresses, such as the one on loan from the Fashion Museum of Bath, was made with Chinese silk and represents well what fashionable women wore in the mid-century. Dyes were imported as well, as was the case of indigo used to create a broad range of blue – the most famous example of which probably being Zoffany’s Queen Charlotte, dated from 17716. The portrait of David Garrick and his wife, painted by William Hogarth at the end of his career (1757-1764), also exemplifies the taste for the exotic that developed in the nation. Although the painting is meant to document a private exchange between the couple, the ‘egg yolk’ shade of yellow worn by Eva-Maria Veigel underscores the popularity of chinoiserie, as this was a colour revered in China and associated with the emperor7. The magnificence of such pieces underlines the influence of international trade played on British society, yet the exhibition also cares to show its limits. The craze for imported sugar rotted the teeth of many who resorted to the fashionable method of transplanting teeth – denounced in caricatures produced by Thomas Rowlandson.

  • 8 Reynolds 277.

4Fashion in the Long Eighteenth century did not just reflect the taste of a society opening to the world, it held political meaning as the last room of the exhibition reveals. Although the kingdom seemed settled following the troubles and revolutions of the 17th century, it was still defined by partisanship at home, and war abroad. One of the earliest challenges faced by the Hanover kings came from the Old, and then the Young Pretender, heirs to James II, in a bid to restore the Stuart dynasty to the throne. Support for the Jacobite cause came to be symbolised by the wearing of tartan. The traditional Highland dress made the supporters of the Stuarts easily identifiable, and its use was sometimes exaggerated, as in David Morier’s An Incident at the Rebellion (1753). Further visual demonstration of political affiliation happened during the American Revolution, when the navy blue of the American soldiers was taken up by those who opposed George III’s policies. And while colours or patterns could mark diverging allegiances, it could also promote unity. It was under the reign of George II that official patterns of uniforms were introduced for the first time, codifying clothes for the various regiments of the British military8. The King’s efforts in reforming military dress were continued a few decades later by George IV, whose enthusiasm for fashion is recorded in the first room of the exhibition through a series of portraits as well bills and receipts for purchases he made when Prince of Wales. This drove him to take an interest in uniforms and he eventually introduced the blue coat in an attempt to make them more stylish.

  • 9 Quoted in Reynolds 45.

5More than just cataloguing the evolution of fashion throughout the Long Eighteenth Century, the exhibition Style and Society bears witness to the transformations that forged a new society and a sense of Britishness. The technological, social, and political revolutions that took place all impacted the way the different classes of the British societies looked and chose to present themselves in the new places of sociability that emerged. Visual identity played a part in forging a distinctive sense of Britishness that was carefully cultivated. Even foreign visitors remarked on the importance of fashion for this society: “It is almost impossible to express how well everything is organised in London. Every article is made more attractive to the eye than in Paris or any other town.9” The exhibition curated by the Royal Collection Trust showcases the way in which fashion was closely intertwined with Britain’s development as a civilised, and polite society, right until the point when industrialisation and mechanisation would further alter dressing habits.

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Notes

1 Aileen Ribeiro, “Being at Court,” in Enlightened Princesses: Caroline, Augusta, Charlotte, and the Shaping of the Modern World, ed. Joanna Marschner (New Haven: Yale UP, 2017) 171.

2 https://www.rct.uk/collection/405657/fredericka-duchess-of-saxe-weissenfels-1715-1775

3 https://www.rct.uk/collection/404334/princess-louisa-and-princess-caroline

4 Anna Reynolds, Style and Society: Dressing the Georgians (London: Royal Collection Trust, 2023) 44.

5 https://www.rct.uk/collection/401004/queen-charlotte-1744-1818-with-members-of-her-family

6 https://www.rct.uk/collection/405071/queen-charlotte-1744-1818

7 Reynolds 28-33.

8 Reynolds 277.

9 Quoted in Reynolds 45.

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References

Electronic reference

Alice Leroy, Style and Society: Dressing the Georgians”Miranda [Online], 28 | 2023, Online since 13 October 2023, connection on 19 January 2026. URL: http://journals.openedition.org/miranda/57349; DOI: https://doi.org/10.4000/miranda.57349

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About the author

Alice Leroy

Docteure en civilisation britannique et chercheuse associée, CECILLE - ULR 4074


Université de Lille
alice.leroy@univ-lille.fr

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