DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.22262#0087
The First Empire wedding dress. A study of rwo gowns from the collections of the National Museums
The Warsaw gown was sewed of light, semi-transparent, cotton muślin. The type
of fabric used to make the Cracow gown was described by Maria Gutkowska-
Rychlewska and Maria Taszycka as batiste.
Both muślin and batiste as well as some other white, fme fabrics - notably cotton,
occasionally silken or flax, like gauze, tulle or crepe - were extremely popular and
prevailed in women's fashion at the turn of the eighteenth century, explicitly evok-
ing ancient times. This type of shirt-dress was made primarily of cotton and worn
by women of all classes, from aristocrats and noblewomen to middle-class, maidens
or wives, for any occasion: a grand bali, formal visit or summer stroił. The mecha-
nization of the textile industry made fashionable clothes fairly cheap and affordable
for ordinary people. The process started in England in the eighteenth century and
improved most of the cotton production. As a result, cotton was a dominating fab-
ric in fashion in the early nineteenth century23. In the eighteenth century, cotton be-
gan to vie with silk, especially in the post-Revolution and post-Napoleonic dol-
drums, when the French silk industry was in a slump until it rebounded under the
Napoleon Empire.
Therefore, the use of cotton in the wedding dresses under discussion should be seen
as neither peculiarly outstanding nor indicative of any special purpose. According
to contemporary diarists, cotton was used by Polish noble and middle class for bridal
attire on principle. In his account of Agnieszka Dobrzyniecka's wedding in 1809
Zygmunt Gloger wrote that on the day following her wedding, the just married
woman wore a dress showing her new status:'... A grey gown without a taił, the first
silk dress in her life, as Polish noble girls never wore silk'24. This must be the rea-
son why her wedding dress was made of fine cotton.
The bridal gown of a middle-class woman was expected to be modest above all, we
read in the memoirs of Aleksandra Tarczewska nee Tańsky, a lady living Warsaw,
married in 181425. Cotton simply seemed more appropriate than silk.
It is hard to say whether the choice of muślin and batiste for the two dresses was
driven by this aspiration to modesty or, rather, by current fashion, especially that
silk bridal gowns were ąuite freąuent, possibly because a woman preferred to wear
her first silk garment for the wedding rather than the day after. Satin was more
popular than silk during the Directorate and Consulate periods, and was used as an
underlay for transparent crepe or embroidered tulle. In the Empire period, when
23 Turnau, I., Moda i technika włókiennicza w Europie od XVI do XVIII wieku, Wrocław
1984, pp. 177-200.
24 Gloger, Z., op. cit., p. 28.
25 Tarczewska z Tańskich, A., Historia mego życia. Wspomnienia warszawianki. Wrocław
1967, pp. 195-198.
The Warsaw gown was sewed of light, semi-transparent, cotton muślin. The type
of fabric used to make the Cracow gown was described by Maria Gutkowska-
Rychlewska and Maria Taszycka as batiste.
Both muślin and batiste as well as some other white, fme fabrics - notably cotton,
occasionally silken or flax, like gauze, tulle or crepe - were extremely popular and
prevailed in women's fashion at the turn of the eighteenth century, explicitly evok-
ing ancient times. This type of shirt-dress was made primarily of cotton and worn
by women of all classes, from aristocrats and noblewomen to middle-class, maidens
or wives, for any occasion: a grand bali, formal visit or summer stroił. The mecha-
nization of the textile industry made fashionable clothes fairly cheap and affordable
for ordinary people. The process started in England in the eighteenth century and
improved most of the cotton production. As a result, cotton was a dominating fab-
ric in fashion in the early nineteenth century23. In the eighteenth century, cotton be-
gan to vie with silk, especially in the post-Revolution and post-Napoleonic dol-
drums, when the French silk industry was in a slump until it rebounded under the
Napoleon Empire.
Therefore, the use of cotton in the wedding dresses under discussion should be seen
as neither peculiarly outstanding nor indicative of any special purpose. According
to contemporary diarists, cotton was used by Polish noble and middle class for bridal
attire on principle. In his account of Agnieszka Dobrzyniecka's wedding in 1809
Zygmunt Gloger wrote that on the day following her wedding, the just married
woman wore a dress showing her new status:'... A grey gown without a taił, the first
silk dress in her life, as Polish noble girls never wore silk'24. This must be the rea-
son why her wedding dress was made of fine cotton.
The bridal gown of a middle-class woman was expected to be modest above all, we
read in the memoirs of Aleksandra Tarczewska nee Tańsky, a lady living Warsaw,
married in 181425. Cotton simply seemed more appropriate than silk.
It is hard to say whether the choice of muślin and batiste for the two dresses was
driven by this aspiration to modesty or, rather, by current fashion, especially that
silk bridal gowns were ąuite freąuent, possibly because a woman preferred to wear
her first silk garment for the wedding rather than the day after. Satin was more
popular than silk during the Directorate and Consulate periods, and was used as an
underlay for transparent crepe or embroidered tulle. In the Empire period, when
23 Turnau, I., Moda i technika włókiennicza w Europie od XVI do XVIII wieku, Wrocław
1984, pp. 177-200.
24 Gloger, Z., op. cit., p. 28.
25 Tarczewska z Tańskich, A., Historia mego życia. Wspomnienia warszawianki. Wrocław
1967, pp. 195-198.