Getting Dressed in 1770

An 18th century gown can be a beautiful object, but what if we saw it as a map? This single outfit is a testament to a complex global ecosystem of trade, technology and craft. So let's get dressed and trace the journey of each layer from around the world to this very room. It starts with the foundation, a linen shift and over it the stays. The fine linen for the shift was a cornerstone of the European textile trade, lightly woven from flax grown in the fields of Ireland or Flanders. The stays themselves are a marvel of different materials. The outer fabric might be English wool, but the crucial stiffening agent, whalebone, isn't bone at all. It's baleen, harvested by whaling ships in the icy waters of the North Atlantic. Next we build the architecture that will shape the silhouette. By the 1770s this was a hooped petticoat which provides the main structure, creating the elegant wide shape that was the height of fashion. Earlier in the century this had been a round dome shape before shrinking at the front and back into an oblong and by the 1790s it will have shrunk into a tiny pad. The hoops are supported with cane, likely harvested locally in England. With the foundations and architecture in place we can finally add the decorative and luxurious outer layers. First the main petticoat made of this beautiful gold silk brocade and it's here with the introduction of silk that we need to zoom out from Europe and look at a map of the world. Silk was the ultimate status symbol and for most of history it was an imported luxury into Britain. Indeed attempts to cultivate it in Britain were very unsuccessful. The raw silk may have been cultivated in Italy or transported thousands of miles along the Silk Road from Asia before finally arriving at the famous looms of Spitalfields in London or Lyon in France to be woven. But silk wasn't the only fabric transforming the British wardrobe. The other great story is cotton. Due to the growing dominance of the East India Company and Britain's expanding empire vast quantities of beautiful brightly printed cottons known as calicos were being imported from India. This created a craze for foreign luxuries that competed directly with Britain's own wool and silk industries. This global trade was built on colonial expansion and the labour of people across the world. To wear these fabrics whether silk or the finest cotton was to wear a symbol of Britain's growing imperial and commercial power. So when a woman chose her gown she wasn't just choosing a colour or style she was making a statement about her place in the world, her access to global trade, her sophistication and her connection to the nation's commercial and imperial ambitions. This single garment is a nexus of global stories. So now the gown itself a sack gown named for the beautiful pleats that flow from the shoulders and how is it all held together? With pins. Forget zips or buttons, pins were the ingenious high-tech fastening of the 18th century. The front of the gown is pinned shut over a decorative stomacher. This process allowed for a perfect custom fit every time a woman got dressed creating a flawless seamless line that modern fastenings struggle to replicate. This is an art of precision. The final touches take us even further afield. Pearls from the Persian Gulf and lace from Brussels, even shoes adorned with paste or if you're wealthy enough diamonds from India or Brazil. So what looks like a very British outfit actually reflects a complex global ecosystem of international trade. It is a map of the 18th century world, its industries, its ambitions and its reach all worn on the body. Fashion has never been just local, it has always been global.