Fashion and Fantasy in 18th-Century France and Spain

Kimberly Chrisman-Campbell, fashion historian, curator, and journalist

During Spain’s Golden Age, its fashions were admired and imitated across Europe. But the decline of Spanish power and the ascendancy of France under Louis XIV shifted the axis of fashion, art, and culture to Paris. Eighteenth-century travelers remarked that Spanish women dressed in “modern French fashion.” But their French counterparts increasingly looked to Spain’s past glories for inspiration. Neither antique nor modern, traditional Spanish costume was a picturesque and timeless alternative to the increasingly fickle fashions of the era, inspiring masquerade, theater, and court costumes as well as genre scenes and portraits à l’espagnole. Once easily distinguishable from French fashion, Spanish style began to permeate everyday dress and by the reign of Louis XVI, even the royal family embraced the new Spanish-accented rustic elegance. This lecture will explore the relationship between French and Spanish fashion during the 18th century.

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