Why Marie Antoinette’s 'Simple Dress' is The Perfect Easy Project | Chemise à la Reine

Hello everyone and welcome to a new video!

I had 7 yards of cotton voile, about 10 meters of cotton tape and thin ribbon, a sewing machine ready to work, and a dream. So, join me in this vlog while I
a) share a short history of the dress and its controversial reputation
b) walk you through scaling historical patterns from books (without losing your sanity)
c) sew a modernised, wearable chemise à la reine inspired by historical examples

The controversy of this dress has a long history - summarised here in under 5 minutes for your convenience! It wasn't just about the dress and it wasn't just about Marie Antoinette, but what is certain is that the chemise à la reine/robe en chemise/robe de gaulle/chemise dress became incredibly popular in the late 18th century. It was painted across portraits, and several survive in museums. They were typically made of lightweight dresses, meant to denote a simple style returning to the pastoral. And so, when I was offered some fabric by Longan Craft and saw this beautiful cotton voile with a jacquard detail and these little sprigs, I knew it was time to tackle this project.

(Also I had just been to the Marie Antoinette exhibition at the Victoria & Albert Museum and couldn't really think about anything else...)

I used this cotton voile from Longan Craft: https://www.longancraft.com/products/... This video is NOT sponsored, the fabric was a gift (I did like it!)

If you'd like to find out more about the chemise à la reine, here's some resources:
1. Élisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun, Marie Antoinette in a Chemise Dress (1783), discussed in Daniel Englander, “1783 – Élisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun, Marie Antoinette in a Chemise Dress,” Fashion History Timeline, Fashion Institute of Technology, accessed January 2026, https://fashionhistory.fitnyc.edu/178...
2. National Trust Collections, “Chemise Dress,” accessed January 2026, https://www.nationaltrustcollections....
3. Aileen Ribeiro, The Art of Dress: Fashion in England and France 1780–1820 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1995).
4. Caroline London, “The Marie Antoinette Dress That Ignited the Slave Trade,” Racked, January 10, 2018, archived April 5, 2019, https://web.archive.org/web/201904050...
5. Jane Ashelford, “‘Colonial Livery’ and the Chemise à la Reine, 1779–1784,” Costume 52, no. 2 (2018): 148–164, https://www.euppublishing.com/doi/ful...
6. Demode Couture, “On the Origins of the Chemise à la Reine,” 2021, https://demodecouture.com/on-the-orig...
7. Carolyn Dowdell, Stitching La Mode, https://amzn.to/4qUt6AG
8. Norah Waugh, The Cut of Women’s Clothes, https://amzn.to/45hkifX and https://amzn.to/4pKVyUA

Images:
Norah Waugh pattern for dress, Manchester Art Gallery Collection, accessed January 2026, https://collections.manchesterartgall...
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, “Dress,” accession no. 84369, accessed January 2026, https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collect...
MET, “Dress,” accession no. 126841, accessed January 2026, https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collect...
Élisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun (French, 1752–1842), Marie Antoinette in a Chemise Dress, 1783, oil on canvas, 35 3/8 × 28 3/8 in. (89.8 × 72 cm), Hessische Hausstiftung, Kronberg; source: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collect...
Comtesse de la Châtre (Marie Charlotte Louise Perrette Aglaé Bontemps, 1762–1848), portrait, 1789, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collect...
MET, “Dress,” accession no. 436586, accessed January 2026, https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collect...
MET, “Dress,” accession no. 436106, accessed January 2026, https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collect...
MET, “Dress,” accession no. 436875, accessed January 2026, https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collect...
“Dress (Chemise à la Reine),” Manchester Art Gallery Collection, accessed January 2026, https://collections.manchesterartgall...

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