

Enter dress research! As mentioned before, the 1790s were an interesting, confused time in terms of waistlines, cut of dress, bulk of dress, etc.. Moving from the intense gowns of the late 18th c. to the simple, sleek, and vastly different gowns of the early 1800s provided a strange amalgamation that I'm not totally sure I'm fond of. I DO get to have my robe and wear it too, though. And so I found these images:


This 1790s dress is a bit odd - it appears to be somewhere between the natural waist and the empire waist in the front, and then
curve up sharply to be above the natural waist in the back, with excessive pleating all around. I do not like this dress, but it perfectly illustrates this odd conglomoration of waistline common to this decade.
After looking a bit more, I came up with some example of the robe being wor at the waist. It's not visible behind the fan, but it looks about right in this image with the pink dress and the ginormous muff.

Another mystery image - this photo of the back of an open robe, which again appears to be high in back and lower than an empire waist in front.


And finally I found this next image, an open robe worn at the natural waist, over a gown also with a natural waist. This is the closest image I have found for what I think I want, with a couple changes to the sleeves, and the neckline.

Those mystery images come from the victoria and albert museum in London. You can browse their archive and order for free home use high resolution copies of them. There's also a book "400 years of fashion" which shows most of their collection.
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