While the French Revolution (1789) cuts the history of costume like a knife, the initial effect on women's clothing is merely a deflating of silhouette. The line and construction of this 1790 walking dress closely resembles that of any other late 18th Century dress. It especially reflects the fad for "country" attire that swept women's fashion during the late Rococo/Georgian period (click here to view styles of dresses from the previous period. Click the "back" button on your browser to return).
Nonetheless, never before has fashion changed as radically or as quickly as it did between the years of 1789 and 1800.
This is mostly due to the new French Empire led by Napoleon Bonaparte. Due to Napoleon's multitude of military campaigns into Italy many statues and artifacts from Greco-Roman ruins found their way back to France. Historians believe this to be the main fuel for a revival of all things "classical" (meaning Greek & Roman) at the tail-end of the 18th Century. These classical ideas affected everying--literature, governments, and most importantly to us...fashion