Extreme Fashions

Caption: Portrait of Marie Antoinette by Elisabeth Vigée Le Brun, 1779, in a court dress à la Polonaise worn over extremely wide panniers.


"Why do these young people wear such extreme fashions? What bright colors! What strange shapes!"


"Some of their clothing is so tight that it is a wonder they can breathe!"


"I saw a young lady the other day - she couldn't fit through the doorway in her outfit! She had to turn sideways to pass through!"


These are just some of the things that people were saying about the latest fashions - back in the 1700s. Eighteenth century styles were extreme - extreme in a different way from today - but just as extreme.


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