#menswear was PRETTY back then and they had fancy hairstyles and sometimes wore makeup and that's NICE!

[vinceaddams]

not sure if you've been asked this before, buuuut: why 18th century menswear? i'm very curious how you got this interest!

I answered a question about how I first got interested in it here, but as for why I like it best? I dunno, it just makes me happy, more so than other art things.

I find it fascinating how the silhouette changes over the century.

(Philip V, King of Spain by Miguel Jacinto Melendez, 1708. Gerard Cornelis van Riebeeck by Mattheus Verheyden, 1755. Nicolas Châtelain by Johann Friedrich August Tischbein, 1791.)

And I love the embroidery and all the different embellishments, the fabrics, and the many many colours. There was such a huge variety of embroidery in the 18th century! Wool, silk, metal threads, sequins, sparkly little stones, etc. And metallic braid, frogging, fur trim, fringe, lace, ribbons, and so many other things!

Did you know some waistcoats had designs woven to shape? 

Waistcoat c. 1750, LACMA. That velvet pattern is woven and was made to be the same general shape as the front edges of a waistcoat, with a smaller repeating pattern everywhere else, so that it could be taken to a tailor and cut out to fit the client. Isn’t that cool?!!

(Embroidered goods were usually done up and sold the same way. When the design is only on the front edges, pocket flaps, and coat cuffs it’s a lot easier to make things up in standard sizes and cut the side and back pieces however big then need to be.)

And I love how fun the outfits in late 18th century fashion plates are. So many stripes and geometric patterns and waistcoats with lots of interesting things on them! 

And I find it fascinating how different the tailoring techniques are from modern ones, and how much better suited they are to hand sewing, and also the way they valued fabric. Altering and re-making things and saving and using all the little scraps, because when everything is farmed/cleaned/dyed/spun/woven by hand it adds up to make fabric very expensive.

And it is a very satisfying thing to have a photo of you mistaken for an oil painting.